NAPLES - THOUSANDS of people, including the acclaimed author of mafia expose 'Gomorrah,' marched in southern Italy's Naples on Saturday against decades of mafia violence that has killed some 900 people.

'The mafia and the Camorra (the Naples-area mafia) are not eternal. They can be beaten,' Antonio Bassolino, president of the Compania region that includes the city, told the crowd marking a remembrance day for victims of organised crime.

SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA'S ruling Labour party on Saturday fought off a conservative challenge in an historic state vote won by the country's first elected woman premier, early results showed.

Anna Bligh led Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's centre-left Labour party to a fifth consecutive victory in the resource-rich northeastern state of Queensland despite a swing to the opposition Liberal National Party.

LUANDA - POPE Benedict XVI issued a warning against witchcraft on Saturday during his visit to Angola, after calling on African leaders to battle corruption and drawing a tough line against abortion.

The pope celebrated a private Mass for Angola's clergy and laypeople in the modernist Sao Paulo church, which along with much of the surrounding neighbourhood has been freshly painted and upgraded for his visit.