Insurer Aviva posts huge 2012 loss

BRITISH insurer Aviva says it tumbled into a net loss of STG3.0 billion ($A4.4 billion) last year and slashed its shareholder dividend, sparking a slump in the group's share price.

The loss after tax, owing mainly to a massive writedown following the sale of its US business, contrasted with a net profit of STG60 million in 2011, Aviva said in a results statement on Thursday.

The company meanwhile reported underlying operating profit - an indicator of its day-to-day business - of STG1.78 billion.

However, shares plunged in value after Aviva cut its full-year shareholder dividend by 27 per cent to 19 pence a share, as it sought to cut debt and improve performance.

Chief executive Mark Wilson insisted in the earnings release that the group had achieved major progress in its turnaround program.

"2012 was a year of transition at Aviva. There has been solid progress against the turnaround plan set out last year. Our capital strength has improved materially and we have completed the vast proportion of the disposal program. We have made progress reducing costs and we also have a strong new management team in place," he said.

Wilson added: "The STG3 billion loss after tax is driven principally by writedowns we have previously announced due to the agreed sale of our US business.

"Operating profit levels were healthy across our major businesses, especially in the UK, France and Canada."

Aviva - Britain's second-biggest insurer after Prudential - said last July it would withdraw from 16 non-core business areas following a major strategic review of the group.

The review was launched after the shock resignation of chief executive Andrew Moss in May 2012 amid shareholder revolts over pay for top managers viewed as underperforming.

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US trade gap widens in January

THE US trade deficit grew sharply in January after a plunge in December, government figures show.

The Commerce Department reported the trade gap rose to $US44.4 billion ($A43.5 billion), up from a revised $US38.1 billion in December.

Exports fell by $US2.2 billion to $US184.5 billion, led by declines in exports of industrial supplies and materials as the United States beefed up its imports of those goods.

Total imports rose about $US4.1 billion to $US228.9 billion.

The increase in the trade shortfall came in larger than the average analyst estimate of $US43.0 billion.

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Employers must modernise workplace: ACTU

EMPLOYERS must modernise workplaces and make conditions more flexible to help single mothers and carers stay in their jobs, the ACTU says.

Friday is International Women's Day and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Ged Kearney has used the event to ask employers to "open their minds to different working hours and conditions".

"This International Women's Day we call on employers to modernise their view of work and women's caring responsibilities," Ms Kearney said in a statement.

"Employers are missing out on a lot of talented workers when they don't attempt to accommodate those employees who have to carry, sometimes alone, the responsibilities of caring."

A group of equality organisations say female homelessness is rising faster than that of men and a "tsunami" of housing stress is confronting Australia.

This is brought about by the pressures of balancing work with family responsibilities and gender inequalities in the workplace, the Equality Rights Alliance (ERA) and the Australian Woman Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) said in a joint statement.

"Housing stress is fundamentally an issue of poverty and Australian women face significant financial disadvantage when compared with men," ERA manager Helen Dalley-Fisher said in a statement.

"The high number of women in low paid jobs, heading single parent families, and the high rates of poverty among ageing women means women are disproportionately affected when it comes to housing."

The gender inequality, including a pay gap of 17.5 per cent between men and women, must be resolved to prevent other women from joining the 45,813 homeless females across the country, the groups said.

Investment and education is needed to bring about change, they added, like dropping the number of women who experience violence.

Violence happens to one in three women, a statistic which has remained static over decades, AWAVA chief Julie Oberin said.

"We know greater investment is needed in early intervention and prevention as these are proven to be the most effective tool to bring about real social change," Ms Oberin said.

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US stocks open higher after Dow record

US stocks have opened higher after central banks in Europe, Britain, Japan and Brazil held off from further loosening already accommodative monetary policies despite facing weak growth.

Five minutes into trade on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 36.11 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 14,332.35, after setting a fresh all-time closing high on Wednesday at 14,296.24.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 3.42 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 1,544.88.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 4.40 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 3,226.77.

Traders remained cautious but there were no signs yet that investors believed the market was overvalued.

"The lack of selling interest reflects concerns about missing out on further gains and getting mentally whipsawed again by the sight of the market quickly bouncing back from any type of dip," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

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Berlusconi sentenced to jail over wiretaps

AN Italian court has sentenced former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to a year in prison over the publication of leaked transcripts from a police wiretap in a newspaper he owns.

Berlusconi, who faces two more verdicts this month for tax fraud and having sex with an underage prostitute, can appeal the conviction, which would suspend the sentence under Italian law.

"It is impossible to tolerate this kind of judicial persecution that has lasted for 20 years," Berlusconi said in a statement.

Berlusconi said the decision was unfair since he himself had been the victim of "thousands" of leaks in newspapers and television broadcasts and had filed lawsuits that had never come to trial.

Italian sentencing guidelines indicate that people aged over 75 and with sentences of less than two years do not have to actually go to prison.

Berlusconi, a billionaire media tycoon, is 76.

"I am disappointed and concerned because I am convinced that the proof was insufficient, contradictory or missing," Berlusconi's lawyer Piero Longo told reporters after the hearing on Thursday.

"I was not expecting a conviction," he said.

Fabrizio Cicchitto, a leading member of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, said: "The plan to eliminate Silvio Berlusconi through the justice system is now so obvious that it is dangerous for democracy."

The party is preparing a demonstration later this month against a justice system that Berlusconi frequently portrays as left-wing and biased.

Berlusconi stood accused of violating secrecy laws after his Il Giornale newspaper published transcripts in 2005 that were widely seen as an attempt to discredit a senior member of the centre-left Democratic Party ahead of elections in 2006.

The leaks were about the attempted takeover of BNL bank by insurance giant Unipol.

Berlusconi's brother Paolo, editor of Il Giornale, was sentenced to two years and three months.

Silvio Berlusconi also faces a verdict possibly this month in a trial in which he is accused of having sex with a then 17-year-old prostitute when he was prime minister and then abusing the power of his office by putting pressure on police to release her from custody.

A verdict in his appeal trial against a tax fraud conviction from last year in which he was also sentenced to a year in prison is also expected this month.

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UN orders new North Korea sanctions

THE UN Security Council has imposed new sanctions against North Korea amid escalating tensions as the North threatens a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

The council unanimously passed a resolution, agreed by the United States and China, which added new names to the UN sanctions blacklist and tightened restrictions on the North's financial dealings, notably its "bulk cash" transfers.

North Korea said ahead of the meeting that a new war was "unavoidable" because of South Korean-US military exercises.

The North's military "will exercise the right to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors", said the foreign ministry.

North Korea now faces one of the toughest UN sanctions regimes ever imposed after three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and the latest on February 12.

The new sanctions will "bite hard", the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said.

"Taken together, these sanctions will bite and bite hard. They increase North Korea's isolation and raise the cost to North Korea's leaders of defying the international community," Rice told reporters after the unanimous vote by the council.

Resolution 2094 agreed by the 15-member Security Council threatened "further significant measures" if the North stages a new nuclear test or rocket launch.

The resolution expresses "gravest concern" over the nuclear test and adds three new individuals, a government science academy and trading company to the UN blacklist for a travel ban and assets freeze.

Two of the individuals are Yon Chong-Nam and Ko Chol Chae, the head and deputy chief of Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID). The resolution described KOMID as North Korea's "primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons".

The government's Second Academy of Natural Sciences was also added to the list. It carries out research on North Korea's "advanced weapons systems, including missiles and probably nuclear weapons", said the resolution.

The resolution calls for "enhanced vigilance" over North Korean diplomats. US officials suspect the diplomats have been carrying suitcases of cash to get around financial sanctions.

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Malaysia incursion toll rises to 60

MALAYSIA says clashes between intruding Filipino militants and its security forces have left 60 people dead, as it rejected a ceasefire offer from the fighters' leader.

Police chief Ismail Omar said 32 followers of a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan had been killed in two confrontations since Wednesday near the scene of a three-week standoff in Sabah state, after a military assault to dislodge them.

That brought the total dead to 60, including 52 militants. Eight Malaysian policemen were killed in skirmishes last weekend.

Troops and police are currently hunting the Islamic militants in a remote region of Borneo island, where they landed last month to assert a long-dormant territorial claim in what has become Malaysia's worst security crisis in years.

A spokesman for their Manila-based leader, who called for a midday ceasefire, said 235 people including eight women took part in the original incursion.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who flew to the region on Thursday to inspect security operations, said he told Philippine leader Benigno Aquino by phone the ceasefire offer was rejected.

"I told President Aquino they must lay down their arms immediately," Najib told reporters in a village near where the army and police were searching for scores of militants.

"They have to surrender their arms and they have to do it as soon as possible."

The "sultan", Jamalul Kiram III, declared a unilateral ceasefire for 12.30pm (1530 AEDT) and urged Malaysia to reciprocate.

But Najib said Malaysian forces would press on with the offensive, sending more soldiers into the hilly region of vast oil palm estates and pockets of jungle.

Authorities said one intruder was killed in a clash on Wednesday and 31 on Thursday.

They gave no details, other than to say one encounter was in the village of Tanduo, where the standoff began, and the other in the neighbouring village of Tanjung Batu to the east.

The remaining militants were still believed to be in the two villages.

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