UK politician admits obstructing justice

IT started with a traffic penalty. It ended in political exile.

Former British cabinet minister Chris Huhne - once one of the country's leading politicians - has pleaded guilty to the charge of obstruction of justice over a career-wrecking attempt to pin a speeding penalty on his wife.

Prosecutors say Huhne in 2003 persuaded economist Vicky Pryce to say she had been driving the car, so he could avoid a driving ban. Huhne repeatedly denied wrongdoing, but he was forced to step down as a minister after being charged.

His career in shambles, Huhne changed his plea from innocent to guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

He later emerged from court to tell reporters he was resigning from his parliamentary seat as well.

Before the scandal broke, Huhne was seen as one of the nation's top politicians, only narrowly losing to Nick Clegg for the leadership of Britain's third place Liberal Democrats Party in 2007.

The Liberal Democrats went on to form a coalition with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, handing Clegg the position of deputy prime minister. At that point, many still thought of the 58-year-old Huhne as Clegg's likely successor.

Huhne now faces the prospect of a prison term. Obstruction of justice carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, although the penalty generally averages around a year.

Pryce's willingness to take the heat for her husband did not save their marriage. The pair split in 2010 after it was revealed he had an affair with his public relations adviser. She faces a separate trial, due to begin on Tuesday.

In a statement, Clegg said he was "shocked and saddened" by Huhne's guilty plea but said he had "taken the right decision" by resigning.

Cameron's spokesman declined to comment on Huhne's guilty plea or resignation.

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Afghan, Pakistani leaders want peace deal

THE leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan say they will work to reach a peace deal within six months, while throwing their weight behind moves for the Taliban to open an office in Doha.

Following talks hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari also urged the Islamists to join the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

But with no Taliban representative at the tripartite talks and with the militants still refusing to talk to Kabul, analysts said the commitment by the three leaders risked being one-sided.

They had a private dinner on Sunday and then full talks on Monday at Cameron's Chequers country retreat near London, amid growing fears that a civil war could erupt when international troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.

"All sides agreed on the urgency of this work and committed themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a peace settlement over the next six months," they said in a joint statement issued by Cameron's office.

"They supported the opening of an office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations between the Taliban and the High Peace Council of Afghanistan as part of an Afghan-led peace process," the statement said.

Karzai had previously shunned the idea of a Taliban office in Doha because of fears that it would lead to the Kabul government being frozen out of talks between the United States and the Taliban.

The joint statement also said that the Afghan and Pakistani leaders had agreed arrangements to "strengthen coordination" of the release of Taliban detainees from Pakistani custody.

Cameron, whose country is the second biggest contributor of troops to Afghanistan with 9000 troops still in the country, appealed directly to the Taliban to join the reconciliation process.

"Now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful, political process in Afghanistan," he told a news conference after the talks.

Karzai said he hoped in future to have "very close, brotherly and good neighbourly" relations with Pakistan, which has been regularly accused by both Kabul and Washington of helping to destabilise Afghanistan.

Zardari said it was in Islamabad's interests to support the initiative.

"Peace in Afghanistan is peace in Pakistan. We feel that we can only survive together," he said. "We cannot change our neighbourhood or our neighbours."

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New Archbishop of Canterbury takes office

THE new Archbishop of Canterbury has formally taken office at a ceremony in St Paul's Cathedral.

Justin Welby, the former Bishop of Durham, was confirmed as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury at a service under the dome of the cathedral attended by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and seven other senior Church of England bishops.

The ancient ceremony forms part of the legal process for appointing a new Archbishop of Canterbury and will be followed by Welby's enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral next month.

Welby, 57, succeeds Rowan Williams, who left after a decade in office at the end of December to take up a new post as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Sentamu, who preached at the service, said: "Archbishop Justin Welby brings many gifts to the office of Archbishop of Canterbury.

"He has my prayers and my support as he assumes this challenging role in the service of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion worldwide."

During the ceremony, Welby took the oath of allegiance to the Queen and made a formal written declaration of assent to his election as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The service heard prayers for Welby, his wife Caroline and their five children, that they may find "joy" in their new home.

The ceremony was attended by the bishops of Norwich, Leicester, Lincoln, Rochester, Winchester, Salisbury and London.

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Key to raise visa rules for New Zealanders

NEW Zealand Prime Minister John Key will raise the treatment of New Zealanders in Australia when he meets Prime Minister Julia Gillard at annual talks.

The pair will hold annual trans-Tasman prime ministerial talks in Queenstown on Friday and Saturday.

The meeting also marks 30 years of the Closer Economic Relations trade deal, which Mr Key says has made Australia and New Zealand two of the most integrated economies in the world.

Despite such strong ties and paying tax to the Australian government for years, an estimated 280,000 New Zealand residents who have arrived in Australia since 2001 are on temporary or special category visas, meaning they are denied voting rights, access to welfare benefits and student loans.

A joint productivity commission report last year said Australia's selection criteria and quotas for permanent residence may prevent more than 100,000 "temporary resident" New Zealanders ever getting it, recommending the Australian government make changes.

According to internal Australian immigration documents, one potential change is allowing New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for eight years or more to gain permanent residency.

Mr Key says he's raised the issue of Kiwis' rights with Ms Gillard previously, and Australian lawmakers have given it some consideration.

He has no doubt it will be on the agenda again this weekend.

"There are a number of factors they need to consider. One of them is obviously the financial implications but then there is whether they think there is fairness in the system as it currently sits," he said.

"We always encourage a situation where New Zealanders are treated well and fairly, but that can have different definitions in different places."

Ultimately, any decision rests with the Australian government, Mr Key said, adding that New Zealanders heading across the Tasman to live need to be aware of their obligations and entitlements.

Mr Key said New Zealand's treatment of Australians living here is clearly different, and his government has no plans to change that.

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Greece meets budget targets in 2012: govt

GREECE narrowed its public deficit to 6.6 per cent of output in 2012, meeting targets pledged to EU-IMF creditors, the finance ministry says.

"General government data confirms that the government has met its fiscal targets for 2012," junior finance minister Christos Staikouras said in a statement on Monday.

The deficit closed at 12.88 billion euros ($A16.98 billion) compared to 19.69 billion euros or 9.4 per cent of output in 2011, the ministry said in an estimate.

But it noted that the Greek state still has debt arrears of over 8.0 billion euros to private creditors such as hospital contractors and ministry suppliers.

A three-party coalition pieced together after elections in June has tried to get a recovery in Greece on track to maintain access to billions of euros in EU-IMF bailout loans.

But according to the IMF, Athens will still need additional help from its European partners as soon as next year to bring its huge debt of over 300 billion euros under control.

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Kerry says he has 'big heels to fill'

JOHN Kerry brandished a copy of his first diplomatic passport, issued at age 11, and joked whether a man could run the State Department, winning a warm welcome on his first day as secretary of state.

Kerry was greeted by hundreds of cheering staff as he took up the reins of US diplomacy from Hillary Clinton, and joked he has "big heels to fill".

And after the recent losses of American diplomats, killed in an assault by militants on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, Kerry promised to make the security of the department's 70,000 staff his top focus.

The "foreign service is my genes and everything that we do here is", said Kerry, the son of a US diplomat and a long-time member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, standing among the State Department's marbled columns.

Kerry said he understood "how critical it is that you have somebody there advocating for you. The dangers could not be more clear."

He vowed that he would honour the deaths of ambassador Chris Stevens and the other Americans who died in the September 11 attack in Benghazi.

"I pledge to you this: I will not let their patriotism and their bravery be obscured by politics, number one," he said.

"Number two, I guarantee you that, beginning this morning, when I report for duty upstairs, everything I do will be focused on the security and safety of our people," he added, winning huge applause.

But he also showed a lighter side, wondering if after Clinton and her predecessors Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, "Can a man actually run the State Department?"

And he literally brandished his credentials for the job, taking from his pocket a battered, green copy of his old diplomatic passport, issued when he was just 11 years old.

"Number 2927 ... There weren't a lot of people then," he joked.

The first stamp dated back to 1954 from the French port of Le Havre, when after six days at sea first class he and his family arrived in Europe on their way to Berlin where Kerry's father was taking up a diplomatic post.

Kerry revealed how he learnt his first lessons about "the virtue of freedom" during bicycle trips around the east, Russian-held sector of the divided German city in the wake of World War II.

"That was a great adventure, and I will tell you, 57 years later, today, this is another great adventure," he added.

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Oracle expands capacity with Acme deal

ORACLE says it is buying Acme Packet for $US2.1 billion ($A2.02 billion) in cash, helping the business tech group expand its capacity to deliver voice, video and data over IP networks.

"The combination of Oracle and Acme Packet is expected to accelerate the migration to all-IP networks by enabling secure and reliable communications from any device, across any network," the companies said in a statement on Monday.

"Users are increasingly connected and expect to communicate anytime and anywhere using their application, device, and network of choice."

Oracle president Mark Hurd said the acquisition "will enable service providers and enterprises to deliver innovative solutions that will change the way we interact, conduct commerce, deliver healthcare, secure our homes, and much more".

Oracle agreed to pay $29.25 per share in cash for the deal, which has been approved by the Acme board but needs shareholder and regulatory approval.

Acme has some 1925 customers in 109 countries including 51 companies in the Fortune 100.

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Spain bank clean-up at 'advanced stage'

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Spain's reforms under its financial sector support program are close to being complete and the clean-up of its weakest banks is well advanced.

"The program remains on track: the clean-up of undercapitalised banks has reached an advanced stage, and key reforms of Spain's financial sector framework have been either adopted or designed," the IMF said on Monday.

In a monitoring mission report, the IMF said most of the measures required of Spain under the European Commission's 100 billion euro ($A132 billion) support program for its devastated banking sector have been completed.

"This clean-up is a major achievement that should strengthen confidence in the system and improve its ability to support the real economy," the Fund said.

But the IMF, which was recruited to monitor progress of the EC program, which was launched last July, warned that remaining elements of the recapitalisation program need to be completed, "and in ways that minimise taxpayer costs".

"Going forward, it will be important to maintain this momentum with strong completion of initiated reforms and continued vigilant oversight."

The Fund warned that the financial system was still exposed to important risks while the economy remains weak and the government undertakes more austerity efforts to close its deficit.

In January the Bank of Spain said the country's banks, ravaged by a collapse of the property sector, held 191.6 billion euros worth of bad or doubtful loans, nearly 11.4 per cent of all credit extended.

The IMF cited also the "important progress" that came with the set-up of SAREB, the recently formed 'bad bank' that will take on the lenders' soured assets.

SAREB has already taken in real estate assets from the weakest Spanish banks, but the IMF said it still needed a comprehensive long-term business plan as well as firm implementation of its standards for servicing the bad loans, so that its own capital remains strong.

The IMF report came as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was under fresh pressure to resign over corruption allegations levelled at his ruling Popular Party.

The scandal has infuriated Spaniards, millions of whom are still struggling to find work in an ongoing recession with the highest jobless rate, at 26 per cent, since the return of democracy in 1975.

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