National road toll rises to 29

The holiday road toll has risen to 29 after the death of a pedestrian hit by two cars in Tasmania. Source: AAP

THE death of a pedestrian killed after being hit by two separate cars in Tasmania has taken the holiday road toll to 29.

The 21-year-old man was standing on the Tasman Highway when he was struck by a ute at Cambridge, east of Hobart, at about 2.40am (AEDT) on Saturday.

The ute did not stop and shortly afterwards a sedan travelling west on the highway ran over the man, who was injured and lying on the road. The man died at the scene.

In Victoria, a man died following a crash involving two cars at Hoddle Street in East Melbourne.

One car ran into the back of the other vehicle just before 5.20am (AEDT), propelling it into a tree on the footpath.

A male passenger in one of the cars died at the scene.

Meanwhile, a NSW motorcyclist died following a collision with a ute in the state's north.

The man in his 60s was riding his motorbike on the Summerland Way, near Whiporie, when it hit a Mazda ute at about 10.45am (AEDT).

The motorcyclist died at the scene while the driver of the ute was not hurt, police said.

On Friday night, a 38-year-old woman died after a head-on collision near Bundaberg in central Queensland.

Four other people were taken to hospital as a result of the crash.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Man charged over Christmas Eve stabbing

A man has been charged over a Christmas Eve stabbing outside a Sydney restaurant. Source: AAP

A MAN has been charged over a Christmas Eve stabbing outside a Sydney restaurant.

Police say an argument between two men, aged 29 and 33, in Strathfield's Everton Road, turned violent shortly before midnight (AEDT) on Monday.

The younger man was allegedly stabbed multiple times in the chest and abdomen.

He was taken to Westmead Hospital for surgery and is still recovering in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Police, acting on a tip-off from a member of the public, arrested a 33-year-old at a coffee store in Strathfield on Friday night.

He has been charged with wounding with intent to murder and refused bail to appear before Parramatta Bail Court later on Saturday.

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Central African Republic troops fight back

The Central African Republic troops are battling to re-capture a rebel-held city, officials say. Source: AAP

GOVERNMENT soldiers in the Central African Republic are battling to re-capture a rebel-held city, a military official says, despite regional efforts to seek a peaceful end to the growing crisis.

The military official said the fighting in Bambari, which rebels from the Seleka coalition seized on Sunday, was "especially violent", and a humanitarian source said witnesses some 60 kilometres away could hear detonations and heavy weapons fire for several hours.

The new violence came the same day as the Central African Republic's neighbours took steps to tackle the crisis in the chronically unstable country, where rebels have advanced towards the capital Bangui, stoking local and international alarm.

Foreign ministers in the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) announced late on Friday that more troops of the Central African Multinational Force (FOMAC) would be sent to the country.

"Five hundred and sixty men are already on the ground, and we agreed to a request by the ECCAS general secretariat to increase their numbers and allow them to accomplish their mission as a rapid deployment force", as Seleka rebels threaten the capital, Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat said after a meeting in the Gabonese capital Libreville, which is seen as a potential venue for peace talks.

The international force is "to deploy so Bangui and all cities that have not been captured (by the rebels) so far cannot be targeted by the rebels", added Gabon's Foreign Minister Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet.

ECCAS deputy secretary general Guy-Pierre Garcia said earlier that the rebels and the Central African government had agreed to unconditional talks.

"The goal is to get to negotiations (between the government and the rebels) by January 10," a source in the Central African Multinational Force said.

Central African (CAR) President Francois Bozize's appeals for help from former colonial power France and from the United States have fallen on deaf ears.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday that France had no intention of getting involved in the crisis, and would only intervene to protect its own nationals there.

The French defence ministry said late on Friday that 150 troops had arrived in Bangui from Libreville as a "precautionary measure" to protect French and other European citizens.

Fears about the deteriorating security situation led Washington to evacuate its embassy in Bangui and the United Nations to pull out staff.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday that it too had evacuated some workers, although it stressed it would continue to provide aid to the growing number of displaced people.

A diplomatic team from FOMAC has begun talks with authorities in Bangui and sent a delegation to the rebel-held strategic town of Ndele in the north to meet members of the rebel coalition Seleka, which launched its offensive on December 10.

The UN has demanded rebels halt their offensive, and urged Bozize's government to ensure the safety of civilians amid fears of a breakdown in law and order in the country.

A coalition of three rebel movements known as Seleka - or the "alliance" in the Sango language - has taken a string of towns, including four regional capitals, among them the garrison town and key diamond mining hub of Birao.

The coalition wants the government to fulfil the terms of peace pacts signed in 2007 and 2001, providing for disarmament and social reintegration, including pay.

Bozize took power in a 2003 coup and has twice been elected into office.

In 2006, France, which supported Bozize in his rise to power, had lent logistical help and air support to fight off rebels.

While Seleka says it has no plans to move on the capital, a statement last week announcing it had suspended its advance was followed within a day by news of further rebel victories.

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Paper ordered to hand over Buswell notes

WEST Australian newspaper The Sunday Times has been ordered to hand over documents relating to an article it published containing allegations about the behaviour of state Treasurer Troy Buswell.

Mr Buswell, who is also WA's transport and emergency services minister, has launched a defamation case against his ex-lover, independent MP Adele Carles, after she made a string of accusations about him that were published in the newspaper.

A subpoena was issued seeking the correspondence between Ms Carles and the journalist including handwritten notes, emails, letters and audio recordings.

At a hearing in the WA Supreme Court on Thursday, lawyers for the newspaper argued the subpoena should be set aside because it was an abuse of process, a "fishing exercise" and had no legitimate forensic purpose.

However, Justice John McKechnie dismissed the application from the newspaper on Friday and ordered that The Sunday Times provide the documents by Monday.

Justice McKechnie rejected any argument that the subpoena would cause the newspaper to disclose confidential information.

"No question of journalist's privilege, if such a thing exists, or protection of sources arises," he said.

"The article purports to quote the defendant directly, and of course, names her prominently.

"Confidentiality alone or in combination with other factors is insufficient to set aside the subpoena."

Mr Buswell's lawyer, Martin Bennett, told reporters outside court he wanted to see all relevant notes made by the journalist that would provide some context for the comments extracted for the two stories published on December 9.

"They're all necessary documents to formulate a proper pleading in a defamation matter," he said.

Mr Bennett said there was currently no prospect of the defamation case being settled out of court.

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Indian teen pressed to drop case

A 17-YEAR-OLD Indian girl who was gang-raped has taken her own life after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative say.

Amid the ongoing uproar over the gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi earlier this month, the latest case has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.

One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13 in the Patiala region in the Punjab, according to officials.

The teenager was found dead on Wednesday night after swallowing poison.

Inspector General Paramjit Singh Gill said on Thursday that the teenager had been "running from pillar to post to get her case registered", but officers failed to open a formal inquiry.

"One of the officers tried to convince her to withdraw the case," Gill, the police chief for the area, told AFP.

Before her death, there had been no arrests over her case although three people were detained on Thursday. Two of them were her alleged male attackers and the third was a suspected woman accomplice.

The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept a cash settlement or marry one of her attackers.

"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar.

The woman and her husband later brought the case to the attention of a more senior officer and a hunt has been launched for her attacker, an auto rickshaw driver.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

During an address to the chief ministers of India's states on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

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Japan whaling fleet leaves for Antarctica

JAPANESE whaling vessels have left port bound for the Southern Ocean on their annual hunt of the marine mammals, a media report and Greenpeace say.

Citing the Fisheries Agency, Kyodo News reported on Friday three vessels had departed from the far-western port of Shimonoseki, while environmental group Greenpeace said the mother ship had left another port also in the country's west.

"The mother ship, Nisshin Maru, left Innoshima today," said Greenpeace Japan's executive director Junichi Sato on Friday.

"Today was virtually the last day when they could leave for the Antarctic Sea," he said, adding that the fisheries agency had announced that the departure would take place within this month.

The mother ship would join the three vessels that left Shimonoseki earlier in the day, Kyodo said.

The fleet plans to hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March, the fisheries agency said earlier.

Japanese authorities refused to confirm either departure to AFP.

"We do not disclose when the vessels leave or left for safety reasons," said an agency official said.

Coastguard officers will be aboard the ships to cope with possible harassment from anti-whaling activists, the coastguard and fisheries agency officials said earlier this month.

The fleet's departure comes weeks later than expected and days after a US court ordered militant environmental group Sea Shepherd to stay at least 500 yards (metres) from whaling vessels.

The injunction was ordered by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in the latest step in a legal battle between the anti-whaling group and Japanese authorities over vessels in the Southern Ocean.

It said Sea Shepherd and Canadian militant conservationist Paul Watson, who is wanted by Interpol, "are enjoined from physically attacking any vessel engaged by plaintiffs", including Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research.

In addition, they are banned from "navigating in a manner that is likely to endanger the safe navigation of any such vessel", said the order, issued on Monday.

"In no event shall defendants approach plaintiffs any closer than 500 yards (460 metres) when defendants are navigating on the open sea," it added. The joint plaintiffs are Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd., Tomoyuki Ogawa and Toshiyuki Miura.

It follows the issuing in August of an arrest notice by Interpol for Watson, Sea Shepherd's founder, who jumped bail in Germany in July.

He had been arrested there on charges from Costa Rica relating to a high-seas confrontation over shark finning in 2002.

In a statement on its website, Sea Shepherd called the new US court ruling "the first shot of the season" by Japanese whalers.

Confrontations between the whalers and activists have escalated in recent years, and the Japanese cut their hunt short in early 2011 due to Sea Shepherd harassment.

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China's boom damages coral reefs: study

CHINA'S economic boom has seen its coral reefs shrink by at least 80 per cent over the past 30 years, a joint Australian study has found.

Scientists from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology say their survey of mainland China and South China Sea reefs shows alarming degradation.

"We found that coral abundance has declined by at least 80 per cent over the past 30 years on coastal fringing reefs along the Chinese mainland and adjoining Hainan Island," said the study, published in the latest edition of the journal Conservation Biology.

"On offshore atolls and archipelagos claimed by six countries in the South China Sea, coral cover has declined from an average of greater than 60 per cent to around 20 per cent within the past 10-15 years," it added.

Coastal development, pollution and overfishing linked to the Asian giant's aggressive economic expansion were the major drivers, the authors said on Thursday, describing a "grim picture of decline, degradation and destruction".

Coral loss in the South China Sea - where reefs stretch across about 30,000 square kilometres - was compounded by competing territorial claims.

There were some marine parks aimed at conservation but study author Terry Hughes said these were too small and too far apart to arrest the decline in coral cover.

"The window of opportunity to recover the reefs of the South China Sea is closing rapidly," he said.

More than 30 years of unbridled economic growth has left large parts of China environmentally devastated by some of the most severe air, water and land pollution in the world, global studies have shown.

This has sparked protests and some proposed new factories have been scrapped or postponed.

The government also has a plan to transform China's development mode to one that is more environmentally friendly.

However, the South China Sea is strategically significant, home to vital shipping lanes and believed to be rich in resources.

China claims most of the sea including waters near the shores of its neighbours. Rival claimants include Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and tensions have flared in recent years.

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Elderly man drowns off Melbourne beach

A MAN has drowned at a Melbourne beach while swimming with his family.

Police say the 74-year-old from Footscray suffered "some sort of medical condition" while in the water near the pier at Williamstown beach.

Family members and others attempted to revive him but they were unsuccessful.

Police say the death is not suspicious and they will prepare a report for the coroner.

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Cars hit by bullets in Sydney's west

POLICE are asking the public for help after several gunshots hit cars outside a home in Sydney's west early Thursday morning.

Residents of a home in Greenfield Park found cars parked outside their house damaged by projectiles, police said in a statement.

The residents had heard four loud bangs about 2am (AEDT) on Thursday, which they thought were fireworks.

They later discovered bullet casings on the road outside their house.

Police have taken four shell casings from the area for testing.

They are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

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Xmas Day storms blamed for 3 deaths in US

TORNADOES across the US south and brutal winds, have knocked down countless trees, blown the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark.

Holiday travellers in the nation's much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms.

As predicted, conditions were volatile throughout the day and into the night with tornado warnings still out for some parts of Alabama. The storms were blamed for three deaths and several injuries, and left homes from Louisiana to Alabama damaged.

In Mobile, Alabama, a tornado or high winds damaged homes, a high school and a church, and knocked down power lines and large tree limbs in an area just west of downtown around nightfall.

Meanwhile, blizzard conditions hit the nation's midsection.

Earlier in the day, winds toppled a tree on to a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver, and a 53-year-old north Louisiana man was killed when a tree fell on his house.

Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pile-up in Oklahoma, and the Highway Patrol there says a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy highway near Fairview.

The snowstorm that caused numerous accidents moved out of Oklahoma late on Tuesday, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 25 centimetres of snow was forecast. Wind gusts of up to 48km/h also caused about 71,000 customers to lose electricity.

Blizzard conditions were possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky with predictions of 10 to 17.5 centimetres of snow.

An apparent tornado caused damage in the west Alabama town of Grove Hill, located about 130km north of Mobile.

Trees fell on a few houses in central Louisiana's Rapides Parish but there were no injuries reported, said sheriff's Lt Tommy Carnline.

Near McNeill, Mississippi, a likely tornado damaged a dozen homes and sent eight people to the hospital, none with life-threatening injuries, said Pearl River County emergency management agency director Danny Manley.

Mississippi governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in the state, saying eight counties have reported damage and some injuries.

At least three tornadoes were reported in Texas, though only one building was damaged, according to the National Weather Service. Tornado watches were in effect across southern Louisiana and Mississippi.

More than 500 flights nationwide were cancelled by the evening, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. More than half were cancelled into and out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport that got a few centimetres of snow.

Christmas lights also were knocked out with more than 100,000 customers without power in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

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Manila fires spark riots

ANGRY residents beat a man to death and threw rocks at firefighters after a shantytown fire left thousands of people homeless and another Christmas Day blaze in the Philippine capital left seven people dead.

A resident was beaten to death by his neighbours after shouting that he started Tuesday's shantytown fire in suburban San Juan city, a senior fire officer said.

The man was reportedly drunk and was not responsible for the fire, which started in a house where children were playing with lighted candles, the officer said.

About 5000 people were left homeless and 13 people were hurt in the shantytown. The injured included two firefighters and a volunteer hit by rocks thrown by residents who were impatient and tried to grab fire hoses to save their own shanties.

As firefighters struggled to penetrate the narrow alleys, one of them was mauled by a mob and rescued by a police officer. Two fire trucks also were damaged in the violence.

"It's Christmas and many of the men in the neighbourhood were drunk," the officer said, adding that some residents brandished knives.

In Quezon City, another of the 16 cities that make up metropolitan Manila, a pre-dawn fire on Tuesday killed a veterinarian and six household members who were trapped inside a house, an arson investigator said.

The blaze was suspected to be triggered by an overloaded electrical circuit, he said.

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Man held over elderly Vic couple's death

VICTORIAN police have made a breakthrough during the investigation of the deaths of an elderly couple found dead in their burning house at Yarraville last Saturday.

They have arrested a man in relation to the deaths and are now interviewing him.

At this stage they are not releasing any more details about the arrest other than to say the man is assisting police with their inquiries.

The fire that destroyed the house is believed to have been deliberately lit with police treating the circumstance of the deaths as suspicious.

On the day of the fire detective inspector John Potter described the incident as "gruesome".

He said police believed both people, aged in their 70s and 80s, could have been killed before the house was set alight.

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Man critical after boat capsizes off Vic

A MAN has been airlifted to the Alfred Hospital after nearly drowning in a boating accident at Venus Bay in Victoria's southeast.

The 22-year-old man was with three mates in an aluminium craft off Venus Bay when it tipped over, throwing them into the water, police said.

The three others got to shore safely but the young man had to be revived on shore by paramedics before being flown to hospital.

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Myanmar plane crash kills child, rider

A FLIGHT packed with Christmas tourists has crash-landed on a road in central Myanmar (Burma), killing two people and injuring 11.

Four foreigners were among the injured, state television reported on Tuesday. The airline said the injured were American, British and Korean.

The fatalities included an 11-year-old passenger believed to be a Myanmar citizen and a man riding a motorcycle on the road where the plane came down, state TV said.

The Air Bagan flight was carrying 63 passengers, including 51 foreigners, and six crew members.

It was flying from the city of Mandalay to Heho airport in Shan State, the gateway to a popular tourist destination, Inle Lake, Air Bagan said in a brief statement on its Facebook page.

The airline described the incident as an "emergency landing".

Authorities gave a different and more dramatic account, saying the pilot mistook the road for a runway due to bad weather.

"While descending, the plane mistakenly landed ... due to fog beside the runway," state television reported. It said the aircraft made a hard landing on a road and then came to a stop in a nearby rice paddy field.

"The rear end of the plane broke and caught fire," state TV said, carrying a statement posted on Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut's Facebook page.

Rescuers brought the fire under control about 45 minutes later, he said.

Witnesses said smoke filled the plane when it hit the ground and was still rising from the plane's badly charred wreckage hours later.

Airport officials in Heho said that injured passengers were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Taunggyi for treatment.

Air Bagan is one of five private airlines that fly domestic routes in Myanmar. It is a unit of Htoo Trading Company, which is owned by business tycoon Tay Za.

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Rotten egg attack mars Indonesia Christmas

MORE than 200 Indonesian Muslims have thrown rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass near empty land outside Jakarta where they plan to build a church.

Some 100 Christian worshippers intended to hold the mass on the site about 30 kilometres east of the capital, the focus of a project barred by district government and community members in 2009.

Since then, worshippers from the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant group have held Sunday services under scorching sun outside the property.

On Christmas Day, local community members blocked the road near the land, a local police chief on Jakarta's outskirts told AFP.

An AFP photographer witnessed furious locals - men and women wearing Muslim head scarf, with small children in tow - physically blocking the road and throwing rotten eggs at the gathering worshippers.

Police managed to convince the Christians to drop their plan and return home.

"We tried our best to avoid any clash and the Christians agreed to leave," a police spokesman said, adding that 380 officers and military personnel including an anti-riot squad were deployed to the area.

Church leader Palti Panjaitan said the incident came after a Christmas Eve attack on Monday evening when "intolerant people" threw not only rotten eggs but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung at them.

"Everything had happened while police were there, they were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us," Reverend Panjaitan told AFP.

The country's high court last year overruled the district government's 2009 decision, but constant intimidation from Muslims in the area has delayed the church's construction, church officials said.

Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect has escalated since 2008.

Ninety per cent of Indonesia's population of 240 million identify themselves as Muslim but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.

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Mongolia graft probe clears Aussie lawyer

AN Australian lawyer who had been barred from leaving Mongolia has been cleared of involvement in a corruption case and will soon be able to leave the country, her employer says.

SouthGobi Resources, a subsidiary of resources giant Rio Tinto, said Mongolia's Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) had ended its questioning of its chief legal counsel Sarah Armstrong.

SouthGobi has been informed by the IAAC that the 32-year-old "is no longer a suspect in their investigations", the coal firm said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange where it is listed.

"The IAAC has informed the company that she will shortly be able to leave the country," SouthGobi said.

The Australian was barred from boarding a flight from Ulan Bator to Hong Kong in October as Mongolian authorities probed a corruption case, triggering calls from Armstrong's mother to let her daughter return home.

Officials wanted to question Armstrong as a witness to alleged corruption and money-laundering, although details of the case have remained sketchy.

Mongolian officials said Armstrong was wanted over an investigation into the former chief of Mongolia's mining authority, who is suspected of illegally handling mining licences, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

SouthGobi said the IAAC was continuing its probe into "the divestment of certain SouthGobi licences to third parties" and the "involvement and conduct of government officials" linked to the case.

It gave no other details.

Australia is the biggest investor in Mongolia's mining sector.

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Child saved from Gold Coast resort pool

A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl has been saved from drowning at Seaworld Resort on the Gold Coast.

The girl was pulled from a pool at the resort and given oxygen by paramedics before being taken to Gold Coast Hospital, according to the Nine Network.

The report said the girl was semi-conscious when she was attended to.

Police confirmed they had received a notification about the near-drowning and were making initial inquiries into the incident.

The Courier-Mail reports the child was attended to at the resort by a nurse and lifeguard before emergency services arrived.

The girl is reportedly in a stable condition.

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Christmas road toll rises to seven

The national holiday road toll has risen to six, with the death of an elderly woman south of Sydney. Source: AAP

A YOUNG Western Australian man and a woman in South Australia have died in car crashes on Christmas Eve, pushing the national holiday road toll to seven.

Their deaths on Monday are the first recorded in WA and SA since the official 12-day holiday road toll period began early on Sunday morning.

Police will investigate the circumstances of the WA crash, which killed a man whose car hit a power pole on Burton Road in Esperance, about 720km southeast of Perth, just after midnight on Sunday.

In SA, a woman died after the car she was travelling in veered off the Riddoch Highway near Naracoorte on Monday afternoon and hit a tree.

Emergency services were called to the crash site shortly after 2pm (CST) on the Riddoch Highway, 5km north of Naracoorte.

They were unable to revive the middle-aged woman.

An elderly woman's death on Sunday was the first recorded in NSW this holiday season, while Tasmania has recorded one death.

Three people have died in Victoria since the toll period began.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012 until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Emperor Akihito in good health on birthday

Japanese Emperor Akihito has addressed thousands of supporters on his 79th birthday. Source: AAP

JAPANESE Emperor Akihito has reassured thousands of well-wishers on his 79th birthday that he has regained his health since heart by-pass surgery.

The softly spoken monarch gave his birthday address on Sunday from a glass-covered balcony at the Imperial Palace as crowds waving small flags braved bitterly cold weather.

"In February, I had heart surgery and worried many people. Please remain assured that I am now living normally like before," he said in a brief speech.

The Japanese throne is held in deep respect by much of the public, despite being stripped of much of its mystique and its quasi-divine status in the aftermath of World War II.

"He represents the people, and it was nice to see him in such good shape," said retiree Takeo Nagahashi, who was among more than 10,000 people who came to the palace to see the emperor's address.

"I was worried and seeing his healthy face made me happy. I hope he will live for a long time."

Another retiree, Yuichiro Sato, said: "It was a beautiful speech that reassured me. He seems healthy."

During his birthday address, Akihito said his thoughts were with those who have been unable to return to their homes since the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan in March 2011.

"I plan to spend my time praying for the happiness of all of the Japanese public, particularly those who were affected by the disaster," Akihito said, describing the year as a "difficult" one.

Before his birthday, Akihito told a ceremonial press conference he had recovered to the point where he could play tennis.

He said he wanted to continue carrying out his public duties at the same level as before, despite calls from his family and court officials to reduce his workload.

Since his heart surgery, Akihito and his wife, Michiko, have travelled around Japan. In May they visited Britain to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, the royal couple's first overseas trip since 2009.

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Driver dies in Tasmanian crash

Tasmania has recorded its first road fatality of the holiday road toll period. Source: AAP

A MAN has died north of Hobart in Tasmania's first road fatality of the holiday season.

The driver was alone in a car when it crashed on East Bagdad Road near Bagdad about 1.45pm (AEDT) on Sunday.

Police said the man was the only occupant, but further information was not immediately available.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012 until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Three die in Vic as road campaign begins

A man has died after his car smashed into a tree and flipped on its side in Melbourne's southeast. Source: AAP

THREE people have died on Victoria's roads in a horror start to the state's annual holiday road safety campaign.

Police say an elderly woman died after a car crashed into a light pole in Bentleigh East, in Melbourne's southeast, on Sunday afternoon.

She had been a passenger in the vehicle. The driver is in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

The crash came only hours after a man died when his car veered off the road in nearby Moorabbin and smashed into a tree, flipping on its side.

He died at the scene.

The third crash came at 4.15pm (AEDT) in Kerang, in the state's far north.

Police say a sedan veered into oncoming traffic on the Murray Valley Highway and collided head-on with a truck.

The sedan driver, a woman and sole occupant of the vehicle, died at the scene while the truck driver was taken to hospital.

The three deaths came on the first day of Victoria's 12-day holiday road toll campaign.

There were nine deaths in Victoria during last year's campaign.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012 until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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