Asia shares mostly up on ECB rate comments

ASIAN markets have mostly climbed after the European Central Bank said it would keep interest rates at record lows for "as long as necessary", while concerns over Portugal's political crisis also abated.

The euro remained under pressure in Asia after suffering losses late Thursday in the wake of the ECB announcement, while the dollar extended its gains against the yen after climbing back above 100 yen.

Tokyo rose 2.08 per cent, or 291.04 points, to 14,309.97 and Sydney was 0.98 per cent, or 47.0 points, higher at 4,841.7, while Hong Kong added 1.89 per cent, or 386.00 points, to end at 20,854.67.

Shanghai was flat, edging up 1.10 points, to 2,007.20.

Seoul eased 0.32 per cent, or 5.83 points, to 1,833.31 as market giant Samsung Electronics suffered a sell-off after announcing a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast.

With New York markets closed for Independence Day, traders took their lead from Europe, where markets rallied on comments from the ECB that it would maintain its easy monetary policy.

The bank's policy-setting governing council "expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time", its head, Mario Draghi, said.

"Our exit (from low interest rates) is very distant."

Speaking to a news conference after the ECB's governing council voted to hold its key interest rate at an all-time low of 0.50 per cent for the third month in a row, Draghi vowed that "monetary policy will remain accommodative for as long as necessary".

At the same time the Bank of England said it would keep interest rates low and hinted it would not lift them in the short term.

London's FTSE 100 rose 3.08 per cent, the DAX 30 in Frankfurt added 2.11 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 gained 2.90 per cent. Madrid was up more than 3.0 per cent.

On forex markets the euro tumbled in London trade, with low interest rates meaning the currency would not provide very good returns.

And on Friday it continued to fall, buying $1.2887 and 129.20 yen, off from $1.2922 and 129.62 yen in London.

Worries about Portugal's future were also soothed after the centre-right coalition said it had found a "formula" to avert a break up of the government, after the shock resignation of the foreign and finance ministers.

The pair had stepped down in a dispute over austerity policies put in place as part of a deal to qualify for bailout cash.

The dollar, which has been buoyed by an improved global outlook, rose to 100.21 yen in Tokyo, compared with 99.71 yen in London late Thursday.

Eyes will later Friday turn to Washington, awaiting the release of non-farm payroll data, which will provide an idea of the state of the US economy.

In Seoul, electronics giant Samsung ended 3.80 per cent lower after estimating 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in operating profit for the April-June quarter.

While it said the figure would be a record, analysts had expected a figure of more than 10 trillion won after it released its much-vaunted Galaxy S4 smartphone in April.

"Demand for high-priced, high-end smartphones shows slowing growth, which could hurt Samsung's profit margin," IBK Investment and Securities analyst Lee Seung-Woo told the Yonhap news agency.

Oil prices were mixed after rallying recently on events in Egypt. Dealers are keeping tabs on events in the country after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi, with fears growing that the coup could send shockwaves through the crude-rich Middle East.

In afternoon trade New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in August, was down 24 cents at $101.00 a barrel in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for August rose nine cents to $105.46 63.

Gold was at $1,241.70 per ounce at 0810 GMT, compared with $1,250.80 late Thursday.

In other markets:

- Taipei rose 1.37 per cent, or 108.1 points, to 8,001.82.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 1.87 per cent to Tw$109.0 while smartphone maker HTC was 1.0 per cent higher at Tw$203.0.

- Manila closed 0.56 per cent higher, adding 36.22 points to 6,500.48.

SM Investments rose 1.02 per cent to 890 pesos and Alliance Global Group advanced 1.02 per cent to 24.85 pesos but Bank of the Philippine Islands slipped 0.11 per cent to 92 pesos.

- Wellington rose 0.69 per cent, or 30.91 points, to 4,489.86.

Chorus added 1.9 per cent to NZ$2.63 and Fletcher Building gained 1.5 per cent to NZ$8.62.

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Morsi supporters call for protests

Egypt's army has rounded up the leadership of ousted president Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. Source: AAP

EGYPT'S Muslim Brotherhood have called for a wave of protests furious over the military's ouster of its president and arrest of its revered leader and other top figures, underlining the touchy issue of what role the fundamentalist Islamist movement might play in the new regime.

There are concerns of Islamist violence in retaliation for Mohammed Morsi's ouster, and some former militant extremists have vowed to fight.

Suspected Islamic militants opened fire at four sites in northern Sinai, targeting two military checkpoints, a police station and el-Arish airport, where military aircraft are stationed, security officials said. The military and security responded to the attacks, and one soldier was killed and three were wounded, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters.

The question of the role of the Brotherhood has long been at the heart of democracy efforts in Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak, ousted in 2011, and previous authoritarian regimes banned the group. After Mubarak's fall, the newly legalised group vaulted to power in elections, and its veteran member Morsi become the country's first freely elected president.

Now the group is reeling under a huge backlash from a public that says the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies abused their electoral mandate. The military forced Morsi out Wednesday after millions of Egyptians turned out in four days of protests.

Adly Mansour, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, with which Morsi had repeated confrontations, was sworn in as interim president.

In his inaugural speech, broadcast nationwide, he said the anti-Morsi protests that began June 30 had "corrected the path of the glorious revolution of January 25," referring to the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak.

The Brotherhood charged the military staged a coup against democracy and said it would not work with the new leadership. It and harder-line Islamist allies called for a wave of protests Friday, naming it the Friday of Rage, vowing to escalate if the military does not back down.

Brotherhood officials urged their followers to keep their protests peaceful. Thousands of Morsi supporters remained massed in front of a Cairo mosque where they have camped for days, with line of military armoured vehicles across the road keeping watch.

The Brotherhood denounced the crackdown, including the shutdown Wednesday night of its television channel, Misr25, its newspaper and three pro-Morsi Islamist TV stations. The military, it said, is returning Egypt to the practices of "the dark, repressive, dictatorial and corrupt ages."

A military statement late Thursday appeared to signal a wider wave of arrests was not in the offing. A spokesman, Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali, said in a Facebook posting that the army and security forces will not take "any exceptional or arbitrary measures" against any political group.

The constitution, which Islamists drafted and Morsi praised as the greatest in the world, has been suspended. Also, Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the Mubarak-era top prosecutor whom Morsi removed to much controversy, was reinstated to his post and immediately announced investigations against Brotherhood officials.

Many of the Brotherhood's opponents want them prosecuted for what they say were crimes committed during Morsi's rule, just as Mubarak was prosecuted for protester deaths during the 2011 uprising. In the past year, dozens were killed in clashes with Brotherhood supporters and with security forces.

The swift moves raise perceptions of a revenge campaign against the Brotherhood.

The National Salvation Front, the top opposition political group during Morsi's presidency and a key member of the coalition that worked with the military in his removal, criticised the moves, saying, "We totally reject excluding any party, particularly political Islamic groups."

The Front has proposed one of its top leaders, Mohammed ElBaradei, to become prime minister of the interim Cabinet, a post that will hold strong powers since Mansour's presidency post is considered symbolic. ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate who once headed the UN nuclear watchdog agency, is considered Egypt's top reform advocate.

"Reconciliation is the name of the game, including the Muslim Brotherhood. We need to be inclusive," Munir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, a leading member of the group, told The Associated Press. "The detentions are a mistake."

Morsi has been under detention in an unknown location since Wednesday night, and at least a dozen of his top aides and advisers have been under what is described as "house arrest," though their locations are also unknown.

Besides the Brotherhood's top leader, General Guide Mohammed Badie, security officials have also arrested his predecessor, Mahdi Akef, and one of his two deputies, Rashad Bayoumi, as well as Saad el-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, and ultraconservative Salafi figure Hazem Abu Ismail, who has a considerable street following.

Authorities have also issued a wanted list for more than 200 Brotherhood members and leaders of other Islamist groups. Among them is Khairat el-Shater, another deputy of the general guide who is widely considered the most powerful figure in the Brotherhood.

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Popes say no to gay marriage

THE Vatican on Friday issued an unprecedented religious text co-written by Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI in which the two popes said faith should serve the "common good" but restated their opposition to gay marriage.

Francis paid tribute to pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the encyclical, saying that the ex-pontiff had "almost completed" the text before stepping down in a historic move this year and that he himself had merely added "further contributions."

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NZ government signs SkyCity deal

THE New Zealand government and SkyCity have signed a deal over the construction of a convention centre in Auckland.

The casino will fully fund the $NZ402 million ($A348 million) centre in exchange for gambling concessions.

The contract was signed on Friday, a spokesman for NZ Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has confirmed to NZ Newswire.

The details of the deal will be released on Saturday morning, he said.

The negotiations were originally supposed to be completed by June 14, but were pushed out to June 30, then July 5 after the sides failed to reach an agreement.

A commitment to complete the deal for the New Zealand International Convention Centre was unveiled on May 13.

It was announced then that the convention centre would cater for up to 3500 international conference delegates at any one time, with construction expected to begin next year and opening for business in 2017.

SkyCity would operate the convention centre for at least 35 years, and fund its construction, fit-out and land costs, in exchange for:

* extending SkyCity's Auckland casino licence, which is due to expire in 2021, out to 2048, and an amendment to cover all of SkyCity's properties in Federal Street

* 230 more pokie machines on the casino floor

* 40 more gaming tables

* a further 12 gaming tables that can be substituted for automated table game player stations, but not pokie machines

* up to 17 per cent of its pokie machines and automatic table games will be able to accept banknotes of greater than $20

* cashless gaming technology on all pokie machines and automatic table games at its Auckland casino.

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Search called off for American schooner

THE search has been called off for the American schooner Nina which went missing with seven people on board in the Tasman Sea.

The 21m sailing vessel was travelling from Opua in the Bay of Islands to Newcastle in Australia on May 29 with six Americans and one British man aboard.

It struck winds up to 110km/h and 8m swells and has not been heard from since June 4.

Extensive searching over the past 11 days of an area more than eight times the size of New Zealand has failed to find any trace of the schooner.

No more searching is planned unless new information comes to light, Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand operations manager John Seward said on Friday.

But radio broadcasts will continue to be made in New Zealand and Australia in the search for new information, he said.

Those on the Nina are David Dyche III, 58, and wife, Rosemary, 60, their son David Dyche IV, 17, friend Evi Nemeth, 73, Kyle Jackson, 27, Danielle Wright, 18, and Briton Matthew Wootton, 35.

The vessel is equipped with a satellite phone, a tracking device and an emergency beacon that has not been activated.

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Rudd reckons Abbott lacks 'ticker'

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd suspects Tony Abbott lacks the "ticker" to debate him on key policy areas.

Mr Abbott has been "lying" to the Australian people about the state of the economy, his ability to turn back asylum seeker boats and the impact of carbon pricing, Mr Rudd says in his first major television interview since retaking the leadership from Julia Gillard.

"So what I would say to Mr Abbott - you've been doing this for a long time, it's time we had a properly moderated debate ... on his chosen subjects," Mr Rudd said on the ABC's 730 program.

"Mr Abbott, I think it is time you demonstrated to the country you have a bit of ticker on this.

"He's the boxing blue. I'm the glasses-wearing kid in the library.

"Come on, let's have the Australian people form a view about whether his policies actually have substance, whether they actually work, or whether they are just slogans."

On his now-broken pledge never to return to the Labor leadership, Mr Rudd said Ms Gillard had vacated the spot and brought on the caucus ballot.

He said a second reason was the prospect of defeat at the 2013 election.

"The Australian Labor Party and the government was on track towards a catastrophic defeat and I wasn't about to stand idly by and see everything we worked for for the last five or six years go down the gurgler as Mr Abbott set about ripping it apart."

He said he was not motivated by revenge, but taking up the fight to Mr Abbott and coming up with a positive plan for the future.

Mr Rudd said he was working through policy changes but it would be an "orderly process".

He said he wanted to take the time to "think and take the best advice".

Asked whether Labor would be punished for its long leadership turmoil, Mr Rudd said he had faced four Liberal leaders over a period of four years after he took on the Labor leadership.

"In political parties these things happen from time to time," he said.

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New research boosts search for AIDS cure

FRESH data from several small trials presented at an AIDS conference on Wednesday provides encouraging news in the quest for a cure for HIV, scientists said.

Giving an update in an eagerly-followed trial, researchers said an HIV-positive infant in Mississippi who was put on a course of antiretroviral drugs within a few days of birth had remained free of the AIDS virus 15 months after treatment was stopped.

In Boston, two HIV-positive men who were given bone-marrow transplants for cancer also had no detectable virus 15 weeks and seven weeks respectively after stopping AIDS drugs, a separate team reported.

Both research projects are at an early stage and should not be taken as a sign that a cure for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is around the corner, researchers cautioned at a world forum of AIDS scientists in Kuala Lumpur.

Even so, they said it strengthens the motivation for pursuing the once-unthinkable goal of eradicating HIV or repressing it without daily drugs -- a condition referred to as a "functional cure" or "functional remission".

"I don't actually want to use the cure word in this situation," said Timothy Henrich, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, of the bone-marrow study he is co-leading.

"But what I can say is that if these patients are able to stay without detectable HIV for at least a year, maybe a year and a half, after we stop treatment, then the chances of the virus coming back are very small," he told an AFP correspondent in Paris.

Introduced in 1996, the famous cocktail of antiretroviral drugs is a lifeline to millions with HIV.

But if the drugs are stopped, the virus rebounds from "reservoirs" among old cells in the blood stream and body tissue. It then renews its attack on CD4 cells, part of the immune system's heavy weaponry.

Deborah Persaud, heading the so-called Mississippi Child investigation, said early treatment of newborns appears to offer the best hope of attacking the virus before it gets established in these reservoirs.

"Therapy in the first few days of life really curtailed the reservoir formation to the point that (it) was not established in this child and allowed treatment cessation without having the virus rebound," Persaud, an associate professor of paediatrics at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, Maryland, said by phone.

An estimated 34 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, and about 1.8 million die each year.

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Koala with royal links stolen in SA

A KOALA held by Prince Charles on his Adelaide visit last year has been stolen from the backyard cage of a wildlife carer.

The four-year-old female named Kao was stolen from the Trott Park property from between 7pm (CST) on Tuesday and 9am on Wednesday, police say.

Fauna Rescue SA rescuer Rae Campbell told Nine News that Kao would not survive without constant medical treatment.

She was raised by Ms Campbell after being hit by a car which killed the koala's mother.

Kao has not been released as she is under constant supervision of a vet.

Ms Campbell said she has put out a cage in front of her property so Kao can be returned with no questions asked.

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall each cuddled a koala at a Government House reception last November during part of their diamond jubilee tour of Australia.

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Rudd appoints Treasury man as chief

Treasury official Jim Murphy (pic) has been appointed as PM Kevin Rudd's new chief of staff. Source: AAP

SENIOR Treasury official Jim Murphy has become Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new chief of staff.

Mr Murphy, the former Treasury deputy secretary, was a key backroom figure in dealing with the global financial crisis when Mr Rudd was prime minister between 2007 and 2010.

He was appointed on Wednesday.

Mr Rudd has also appointed experienced media adviser Fiona Sugden as communications director and former News Limited journalist Matthew Franklin as his senior media adviser.

Veteran Labor strategist Bruce Hawker has taken on the role of political adviser.

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Two elderly Vic women indecently assaulted

TWO elderly Victorian women have been the victims of indecent assaults in their own homes.

Sex crime investigators are searching for a man who allegedly assaulted the women in Carrum in Melbourne's southeast last month.

They say the man knocked on the door of the first victim's home about 4.15pm (AEST) on May 26, but was told the door would not be answered.

He gained entry through the back door then sat down next to the 70-year-old woman and indecently assaulted her.

He was told to leave, which he did.

Police say he then approached another house on the same street where he pushed himself inside and exposed himself to the 73-year-old female occupant.

The man is described as being Caucasian, aged in his mid-40s, about 150cm tall with a bald head.

He was wearing pants with white paint flecks on them and carrying a blue backpack at the time of the incident.

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