The leader of the main opposition conservative party in Australia, Tony Abbott, has criticized the country's new Labor Party Prime Minister Julia Gillard after she called an early general election. Mr Abbott said voters wouldn't be conned by a leader who, he said, was running to the polls before establishing her credentials. Julia Gillard became Australian prime minister last month after ousting her Labor Party predecessor Kevin Rudd.

The authorities in central Nigeria say about eight people, including the family of a priest have been killed in fresh clashes. Residents said men with machetes were involved in the attack on a Christian village near Jos. Richard Hamilton reports.