Dell looks to calm buyout concern

DELL is trying to reassure shareholders about its proposed $US24.4 billion ($A23.8 billion) acquisition by a group led by its founder, saying it considered a number of strategic options before agreeing to the deal.

Dell Inc laid out the advantages of the transaction in a regulatory filing on Monday, three days after a major shareholder ridiculed the buyout as a rotten deal that undervalues the business.

On Friday, Southeastern Asset Management Inc sent a letter to Dell's board of directors. Southeastern CEO Mason Hawkins threatened to lead a shareholder mutiny unless Dell came up with an alternative acquisition offer.

Hawkins vowed to wield Southeastern's 8.5 per cent stake to thwart the deal that's on the table. Only Michael Dell, the computer company's founder and CEO, owns more stock with a roughly 14 per cent stake.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said in its filing that it determined with independent advisers that the cash bid by a group led by Michael Dell was in the best interests of stockholders.

Dell also said the deal allows time for alternate bids so that shareholders will be able to see if there are superior options available.

Southeastern and other stockholders will be paid $US13.65 per share to leave the company in the control of Michael Dell, who founded the business in his University of Texas dorm room in 1984.

Michael Dell is contributing about $US4.5 billion in stock and cash to help pay for the deal. The rest of the money would be supplied by the investment firm, Silver Lake, loans from Microsoft Corp and a litany of banks. The loans will burden Dell with debts that could leave the company with less money to invest in innovation and acquisitions.

Dell said on Monday the deal "shifts the risks facing the business to the buyer group".

The proposed $US24.4 billion purchase price is 80 per cent below Dell's top market value of more than $US150 billion at the peak of the dot-com boom 13 years ago.

The $US13.65 per share offer is 25 per cent above where Dell's stock stood last month, before word of the buyout negotiations leaked out.

Dell's stock has plunged during the past year as PC sales have slumped amid the technological upheaval caused by the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers.

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Nine die in blast near Turkey-Syria border

NINE people have been killed and dozens wounded when a car exploded near the border between Turkey and Syria, officials say.

A Syrian-registered car is believed to have been at the centre of Monday's blast on Turkish soil, local mayor Huseyin Sanverdi told the NTV news channel.

Dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the scene at the Cilvegozu border crossing near the town of Reyhanli in the southern province of Hatay.

An official from the Turkish foreign ministry confirmed the deadly explosion, adding that the blast triggered a fire that damaged about 15 humanitarian aid vehicles.

The explosion happened barely 40 metres away from the Cilvegozu crossing, NTV reported, adding that it might have been caused by a mortar bomb fired from the Syrian side.

Another Turkish foreign ministry official said the explosion did not appear to have been caused by a mortar but that a suicide bomber might have been involved in the blast that smashed apart the gates at the crossing, opposite Syria's Bab al-Hawa post.

"It is too early to make a conclusion as the inquiry is still going on," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The car was believed to have been parked at a crowded lot filled with trucks ready to leave for war-torn Syria with humanitarian supplies, the ministry official added.

The explosion comes after a suicide bomber attacked the US embassy in Ankara on February 1, killing a Turkish security guard and wounding three others.

That attack was claimed by a radical Turkish Marxist group classified as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and the United States.

Monday's blast also came less than three weeks after NATO declared that a battery of US-made Patriot missiles had become operational on Turkey's border with Syria.

Several other batteries of the surface-to-air missiles have also been dispatched by NATO allies Germany and the Netherlands to protect Turkey from a possible spillover of the conflict in Syria.

Turkey, a one-time Syria ally which is now vehemently opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's regime, has taken in close to 200,000 of refugees from the conflict which has killed more than 60,000 Syrians in nearly two years, according to UN figures.

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US shares ease from five-year heights

US shares have pulled back in opening trade after reaching five-year peaks in light trade on Friday.

Little direction was seen in the market, with traders "waiting to be moved by something", said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

Five minutes into trade on Monday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 31.06 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 13,961.91.

The S&P 500 index fell 2.01 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 1,515.92.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 2.87 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 3,191.00.

Google shares fell 0.8 per cent to $US779.30 after the company revealed on Friday that chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell 3.2 million of his "A" shares in the company, currently worth $US2.5 billion ($A2.4 billion), over the next year.

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New Anglican leader hails Benedict papacy

JUSTIN Welby, leader of the world's Anglicans, says he understands "with a heavy heart" Pope Benedict XVI's decision to step down aged 85 due to his fading strength.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury said Pope Benedict had been a messenger of hope at a time when Christian faith was called into question.

"It was with a heavy heart but complete understanding that we learned this morning of Pope Benedict's declaration," said Welby, who formally became the spiritual leader of the Church of England last Monday.

The head of the 85-million-strong worldwide Anglican communion said Pope Benedict held his office with "great dignity, insight and courage".

The 57-year-old said Anglicans would thank God for the pontiff's "priestly life utterly dedicated, in word and deed, in prayer and in costly service, to following Christ".

In 2010, Pope Benedict made a historic first state visit to Britain by a pope.

The tour was seen as a bridge-building mission between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches and the pontiff held joint prayers with Welby's predecessor Rowan Williams.

During the visit, Pope Benedict "showed us all something of what the vocation of the See of Rome can mean in practice - a witness to the universal scope of the gospel and a messenger of hope at a time when Christian faith is being called into question", said Welby.

"In his teaching and writing he has brought a remarkable and creative theological mind to bear on the issues of the day."

The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.

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Pope delivered nothing: abuse victims

A GROUP representing victims of child abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland has welcomed the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI after "he promised a lot but delivered nothing".

"This pope had a great opportunity to finally address the decades of abuse in the church but at the end of the day he did nothing but promise everything and in the end he ultimately delivered nothing," John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse support group, told AFP.

Ireland has been stunned by a series of revealing reports in recent years that lifted the lid on decades of child abuse suffered at the hands of religious members that stretches back to the foundation of the state in 1922.

"We asked the Pope for sanctions against the religious orders who committed the abuse and the religious leaders in Ireland who allowed this to happen but to our dismay nothing has happened," Kelly added.

Kelly himself spent most of his childhood living in Catholic-run institutions and recalls being flogged with a whip and having a religious brother standing on his hands.

Groups such as Survivors of Child Abuse have repeatedly called on the Vatican to bring to justice priests found to have carried out abuse.

"The church needs to acknowledge that all of this happened. They need to acknowledge that they allowed the devil inside and had him reside there for 50 years," Kelly said.

"The church cannot move on. This pope's tenure has been plagued by scandals and that will continue unless the pope addresses the root causes and that can only start from the top."

The surprise announcement from the 85-year-old Pope that he intends to step down marked a first in the modern history of the Catholic Church.

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Comedian's sister in Western Wall protest

ISRAELI police have detained 10 women, including the sister of American comedian Sarah Silverman, as they tried to pray at a Jerusalem holy site, the head of a liberal Jewish women's group says.

Anat Hoffman, who was among those detained, said the women were stopped because they were wearing religious garb that Orthodox Judaism reserves for men only. The incident occurred at the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites.

Silverman's sister Susan, a Jerusalem rabbi from the liberal Reform stream of Judaism, was detained along with her teenage daughter.

Sarah Silverman wrote on her Facebook page that she was "SO proud" of her sister and niece for their "civil disobedience". The original post included more explicit language typical of Silverman's humour.

The women belong to "Women of the Wall", a liberal group that goes to the Western Wall each month to worship. They conduct certain rituals, such as wearing prayer shawls and skullcaps and singing out loud, practices reserved for men under strict Orthodox interpretations of Judaism.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the women were detained because they acted against court-ordered regulations that bar women from wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall so as not to offend Orthodox Jewish worshippers. Rosenfeld said the women were released after several hours.

The group has been gathering at the Western Wall for a quarter of a century, but in recent years its activists have been increasingly detained by police. Hoffman, who chairs the group, said no woman detained has ever been formally charged with any crime.

"This is just attrition," said Hoffman. "They want the group to become frightened."

The Monday detentions took place after about 300 people gathered at a prayer service at the Western Wall to protest Orthodox control of the site.

Among the worshippers in the group, Hoffman said, were about 100 male supporters, including veterans from the legendary Israeli paratroopers' battalion that captured Jerusalem's ancient walled Old City, including the Western Wall, in the 1967 Middle East War.

In December, after Hoffman was arrested under similar circumstances, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the head of the semi-governmental Jewish Agency to come up with solutions that would allow for non-Orthodox women to pray freely at the site.

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Three wounded in US courthouse shooting

A SHOOTING at a courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware has ended with at least three people wounded and the shooter dead, US media report.

The state police told AFP there was an exchange of fire on Monday in the New Castle county court, which was evacuated.

NBC TV said three people were wounded and the shooter was killed by police.

The area around the courthouse was surrounded by police, ambulances and fire trucks, televised images of the scene showed.

The Wilmington police were not able to confirm the number of victims.

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Briton is 10th case of SARS-like virus

A BRITISH resident has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal SARS-like virus, British health authorities say, in the 10th confirmed case worldwide.

The Health Protection Agency said the person, who recently travelled to the Middle East and Pakistan, was being treated at an intensive care unit at a hospital in Manchester after contracting novel coronavirus.

"The HPA is providing advice to healthcare workers to ensure the patient under investigation is being treated appropriately," said John Watson, head of the agency's respiratory diseases department.

"Contacts of the case are also being followed up to check on their health."

He added: "Our assessment is that the risk associated with novel coronavirus to the general UK population remains extremely low and the risk to travellers to the Arabian peninsula and surrounding countries remains very low."

Travellers who develop severe breathing difficulties within 10 days of returning from the region should seek medical advice, said Watson.

This is the second case to hit Britain after a 49-year-old Qatari man was treated at a London hospital in September for the virus.

The HPA said five patients had died worldwide as a result of the disease.

Five cases have been confirmed in Saudi Arabia resulting in three deaths, while two patients treated in Jordan have died, the agency said. A patient from Qatar was treated for the virus in Germany and given the all-clear.

Coronaviruses cause most common colds but can also cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

The SARS epidemic killed more than 800 people when it swept out of China in 2003, sparking a major international health scare.

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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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