FRENCH police say they have seized 7.5 tonnes of marijuana along the border with Spain, reportedly their biggest haul this year.
The drugs were found hidden in trucks transporting fruit and vegetables in the coastal resort of Hendaye, south of Biarritz, the La Depeche newspaper said on Friday.
Police found about 5.5 tonnes of marijuana under oranges in one truck and two tonnes in another laden with pumpkins.
Documents show ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy (R) was the top gift-giver to the Obamas in 2011. Source: AAP
FORMER French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his supermodel wife Carla Bruni were clearly taken with President Barack Obama and his family back in 2011.
The Sarkozys gave the Obamas more than $US41,000 ($A40,000) worth of presents that year, becoming the most prolific foreign gift-givers to the first family, documents released on Friday show.
Most other leaders' gifts to the Obamas, however, were more modest.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, for example, presented the president with a green and white iPod shuffle and Aussie rules jerseys, while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave him an autographed Toronto Raptors basketball.
The Sarkozys' gifts ranged from designer golf and travel bags and fine crystal to soaps and perfumes, according to the State Department's Office of Protocol, which catalogs gifts to US officials from foreign leaders and publishes an annual accounting, often one or two years late due to processing.
Among the goodies presented to the Obamas by the Sarkozys were a large black Hermes golf accessory bag worth $US7750, two Baccarat crystal table lamps on silver pedestals worth $US5500, two Baccarat crystal statuettes depicting golfers, a monogrammed black leather Louis Vuitton business bag, his-and-hers Christian Dior bathrobes and a black leather Dior clutch.
Sarkozy also gave Obama a glass sculpture of Alexander the Great's horse, a Lacoste shirt, a fountain pen and, perhaps in a nod to his tobacco-using days, a Ligne 8 lighter.
But don't expect the Obamas to furnish a post-White House residence with the items, because under law, most non perishable gifts to the president and other US officials must be transferred to the National Archives or General Services Administration unless the recipient reimburses the Treasury for their estimated value.
The Sarkozys largesse may have been a function of France hosting the Group of Eight summit in 2011, at which the world financial crisis was a main topic of conversation.
In an exception to most other leaders modest gifts was a variety of artwork worth $US13,200 that was given to Obama by the governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Although the Sarkozys were the top presidential gift-givers in 2011, the single most valuable package of goodies - $US29,450 in art, watches and electronics - was given to former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen by Kuwait's emir.
Deputy CIA Director Michael Morrell may have received the most unusual gift in 2011, a silver hookah worth $US1500 from a giver whose identity is classified.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't make out so badly either in 2011, getting a $US3400 silver bowl and a $US7425 gold coin and silk scarf from the sultan of Oman, a $US3200 strand of pearls from a senior Chinese official and artwork from the president of Tajikistan worth $US2850.
The most lavish gift given to Clinton came from the first lady of Zambia, who presented her with an emerald and diamond necklace worth $US7834, according to the records.
A MAN has been shot in a hunting accident in southwest Victoria.
The 55-year-old man from Adelaide suffered wounds to his upper body at Casterton about 2pm (AEST) on Saturday.
An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said he was being taken to Hamilton Hospital.
UK prosecutors have charged celebrity publicist Max Clifford with 11 counts of indecent assault. Source: AAP
PR guru Max Clifford has vowed to clear his name in court as he was charged with 11 historic counts of indecent assault against teenage girls.
The 70-year-old, famed for representing celebrities including Simon Cowell and Jade Goody, said he has been "living a 24/7 nightmare" since his arrest in December.
Clifford was charged with offences linked to girls aged from 14 to 19 between 1966 and 1985 and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on May 28, Scotland Yard said.
He was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, the national police inquiry sparked by allegations of abuse against Jimmy Savile.
Clifford told the Press Association: "The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely false and I have made this clear to the police during many, many hours of interviews.
"Nevertheless a decision has been taken to charge me with 11 offences involving seven women, the most recent of which is 28 years ago and the oldest 47 years ago.
"I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings."
Clifford has made a career of taking on some of the most talked-about celebrity stories in the last few decades.
The public relations veteran notably represented OJ Simpson and was behind the rumours that sparked the tabloid headline "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster".
Clifford said: "I am naturally disappointed about today's decision, particularly because of the distress it has caused my wife, Jo, my daughter, Louise, and all those close to me.
"However, at least I will now be in a position to fully consider all the evidence against me and to answer the evidence in public and ultimately clear my name in a court of law.
"Since last December I have been living a 24/7 nightmare."
THE ranks of World War II veterans are thinning, but thousands of younger men and women stepped up to carry on the Anzac tradition as Sydney marked the Gallipoli landing of exactly 98 years ago.
After a solemn dawn service at the Cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place, an estimated 20,000 veterans, serving defence force personnel and relatives of old soldiers took part in the Anzac Day parade up George St.
Thousands of flag-waving onlookers cheered as sturdy old veterans marched past and their more frail comrades were pushed in wheelchairs or rode in army vehicles.
Maurice Kriss, 76, a navy gunner in Malaya, said Anzac Day was his favourite day of the year.
"In my life I live from one Anzac Day to another," he said.
"As long as I can do the march I feel alive."
James Thompson marched in honour of his father Horace Thompson, who was just 17 when he landed at Gallipoli, in Turkey, in 1915.
He said it was important to keep the Anzac legacy alive now that no World War I diggers were left and that was a lesson he impressed on his son, who also marched.
"I told him about how proud he should be to have had someone that participated in that war," Mr Thompson said.
Rear Admiral Rothesay Swan, who led the navy's contingent in the parade, reflected on the doubts and fear he felt as a midshipman on HMAS Shropshire in World War II.
It was hard to convey the feeling of being in a big sea battle like Leyte Gulf in 1942, he said.
"It was not easy knowing that you may not be alive at the end of the day or even the next day," Mr Swan said.
Former Defence Force chief Peter Cosgrove, who joined the parade in Sydney, said the cheers from the crowd were uplifting for veterans.
"People wearing grandpa's medals, great-grandpa's medals, turned up and marched with the veterans who are still up and about," General Cosgrove said.
"To me that's special ... I like the idea that there's a transference of something important within family groups from one generation to the next."
At the midday memorial service, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said Anzac Day was Australia's most sacred national day, but not a glorification of war.
"No veteran that I've ever met has sought to glorify war.
"Rather, it's a celebration of freedom and a commemoration of those who sacrificed for us and guaranteed the freedoms that we enjoy here today."
RSL NSW President Don Rowe said the younger veterans turning up to march were helping make up for the thinning out of World War II veterans.
"There are battalions there now down to literally platoon size, in other words half a dozen men where there used to be a battalion with a thousand to 1200 men."
Mr Rowe said younger veterans now felt they were part of the Anzac tradition and were more inclined to march.
"So they should, because a lot of those guys have spent more time on the frontline than my father did during the Second World War."
The death toll from a building collapse in Bangladesh reached 113, as rescuers search for survivors. Source: AAP
A GARMENT factory building in Bangladesh that collapsed, killing at least 175 people, had been ordered to be evacuated due to deep cracks but the factories flouted the order and continued working, officials say.
One day after Wednesday's collapse, as hundreds of rescuers clawed through the rubble, the cries of trapped survivors could still occasionally be heard, with the screams of a woman pinned between concrete slabs mingling with the wails of distraught relatives waiting for news or collecting bodies.
An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs.
The disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar came less than five months after a blaze killed 112 people in a garment factory.
The incidents underscore the unsafe conditions faced by Bangladesh's garment workers, who produce clothes for global brands worn around the world.
After the cracks were reported on Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building, evacuated their workers and suspended their operations.
However, the garment factories continued working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of the industrial police.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting Wednesday morning, just hours before the building fell.
"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.
On Thursday morning the odour of rotting bodies was evident as rescue workers continued to search for more survivors and victims.
Junior minister for Home Affairs, Shamsul Haque, said that by late Thursday morning a total of 2000 people had been rescued from the wreckage.
Brigadier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing army rescue teams, said the death toll had climbed to 175 on Thursday afternoon.
Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a local school building so relatives could identify them.
The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3122 workers but it was not clear how many workers were in the building when it collapsed.
Searchers worked through the night to probe the jumbled mass of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to people pinned inside.
"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry," said fire official Abul Khayer.
Abdur Rahim, an employee who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that the cracks in the building were no cause for concern, so employees went inside.
"After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly," Rahim said.
The next thing he remembered was regaining consciousness outside.
On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished".
Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-storey building but he added another three storeys illegally.
Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.
Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the owner as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front.
Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.
POLICE have named a man they want to question about the murder of a mother and daughter at a western Sydney home.
Officers are looking for Hong Rui Fu, 28, who is described as being of Asian appearance and medium build.
Police say there are concerns for Mr Fu's welfare and are also warning that he not be approached.
He is wanted for questioning over the murder of two women, aged 49 and 26, whose bodies were found about 10pm (AEST) on Wednesday in a house at Auburn.
Police are declining to say whether or not Mr Fu was related to the women or if he lived with them in the Paul Street residence.
Earlier on Thursday Auburn Detective Inspector Angelo Memmolo announced police were investigating the deaths as murders.
However, with post-mortem examinations continuing, no details about how the women died have been released.
Insp Memmolo described the crime scene as "extensive" and "confronting", but said it was too early in the investigation to offer more information.
A WORLD War II merchant navy ship sunk by the Japanese off the coast of northern NSW has been given historic protection by the federal government.
The cargo ship MV Limerick was part of a coastal wartime convoy travelling from Sydney to Brisbane when it was torpedoed on Anzac Day 1943 by a Japanese submarine, killing two of its crew.
The vessel had been missing for almost 70 years, but was located by local fisherman near the NSW town of Ballina at the end of last year.
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke on Thursday declared the Limerick a protected historic shipwreck, making any damage or interference to the site illegal.
"The ship and her crew put themselves in danger to protect us, it's only right that we now protect the shipwreck of the Limerick forever," Mr Burke said in a statement.
"In making the declaration the Australian government recognises and acknowledges the exceptional heritage significance of the shipwreck of the MV Limerick and is ensuring its legacy is protected forever under Australian law."
US Marines and Australian veterans are looking forward to marching alongside each other when Darwin holds Anzac Day commemorations.
About 200 US Marines are stationed in Darwin for the dry season for training, and two platoons of Americans, about 90 people, are set to take part in Anzac Day proceedings on Thursday.
Marine Gunnery Sergeant Larry Thomas, 35, has been in Darwin for about three weeks and said he was looking forward to honouring Australian soldiers.
"I am going to the dawn service in Darwin and the parade there and then I will be trying to go to the Palmerston parade as well," Sgt Thomas said.
"I think it is a good bonding experience between us and the Australian army.
"It is not like our own Memorial Day event ... you do a lot more traditional things," he said.
In 2012 Marines marched in the Anzac parade in Darwin for the first time.
Australian Vietnam War veteran Peter Mansell, the NT coordinator of the Returned and Services League (RSL), said he supported US Marines taking part in Anzac Day.
"Last year while (RSL) president I invited the American Marine Corps to march with us," Mr Mansell said.
"They are brothers in arms. We have fought alongside American forces for a long time," he said
A dawn service will be held at Darwin's cenotaph on Thursday not far from where the American warship the USS Peary sank during the bombing of Darwin in 1942.
AUSTRALIAN authorities have intercepted two more suspected asylum seeker boats with 175 people on board.
The first, with 107 passengers, was spotted near Cocos (Keeling) Island and the other with 65 aboard was intercepted northeast of Darwin, both on Tuesday.
The passengers will soon be transferred to Australian government facilities for security and health checks.
Under current laws, asylum seekers intercepted near the Ashmore Islands, Cartier Island, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands risk being sent to offshore processing centres, while asylum seekers who reach the Australian mainland have to be processed onshore.
The federal government is seeking to remove this legal loophole with legislation currently before the Senate. If passed, the laws will excise the Australian mainland from the migration zone.
More than 15,000 people have arrived by boat since Labor reintroduced offshore processing in August 2012.
