Chinese army for disputed islands

DateJuly 25, 2012

China's government establishes a new city in the disputed South China Sea.


CHINA'S most powerful military body has approved the deployment of a garrison of soldiers from the People's Liberation Army to guard disputed islands claimed by China and Vietnam in the South China Sea.

The troop deployment appeared intended to reinforce China's claims over the South China Sea and its potential energy resources.

The moves came a week after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, at which China, according to diplomats at the meeting, used its influence to stop even a rudimentary communique on the South China Sea among the 10 ASEAN nations.


On Monday, 45 legislators elected over the weekend to govern the 1100 people who live on the island groups of the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Macclesfield Bank, had their first official meeting, Chinese authorities told state media.

The new legislators will not only govern the island groups, many of which consist of rocks and atolls, but also about 2 million square kilometres of the South China Sea over which China claims jurisdiction, state media said.

The establishment of a legislature for the islands and the Central Military Commission's troop dispatch will antagonise Vietnam, which claims the same islands. Vietnam and China have fought since the 1970s over the three island groups. Last month, Vietnam passed a law that claimed sovereignty over the Paracels and Spratly islands. In response, China called the islands its ''indisputable'' territory.

The Philippines and China have also been involved in a dispute for months over Scarborough Shoal, an area off the coast of the Philippines claimed by both countries.

On Monday, President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines said his country would not back down from its dispute with China, saying in an address that the nation's military would get dozens of new aircraft and ships for defence of the shoal, which Manila identifies as Bajo de Masinloc.

''There are those who say that we should let Bajo de Masinloc go,'' Mr Aquino said.''But if someone entered your yard and told you he owned it, would you agree?''

Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, making the area a source of a potential military showdown. With the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Macclesfield Bank, China's State Council approved the establishment of a prefectural-level administration known as Sansha City to replace a lower county level administration last month.

The election of the legislators and their meeting at a first session of a people's congress appeared to be practical steps to show that China was serious in its drive to put much of the South China Sea under its domain.

The speed of China's actions was not surprising, said Wu Xinbo, deputy director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

''Now the Philippines and Vietnam are both advancing their claims so China must also respond accordingly with its own plan,'' Mr Wu said.

New York Times



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/chinese-army-for-disputed-islands-20120724-22n9i.html#ixzz21cW2vbTC

Extreme right politicians need to accept that their opinions are going to be compared to that of Hitler and get the fuck over it.

President siphons a fortune for family

DateJuly 21, 2012

LONDON: Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, has amassed up to $1.4 billion for his family and close associates, analysts say, despite moves in London, Switzerland and the US to freeze his regime's assets.

Many of Mr Assad's assets are held in Russia, Hong Kong and a range of offshore tax havens to spread the risk of seizure, according to the London business intelligence firm Alaco. Myriad companies and trusts are understood to have been deployed to disguise assets that ultimately belong to members of the regime. Iain Willis, the head of research at Alaco, said the millions of pounds frozen in British bank accounts make up just a fraction of the regime's estimated global wealth.

In peacetime the Assads and their close friends owned 60 per cent to 70 per cent of Syria's assets, from land and factories to energy plants and licences to sell foreign goods. But Mr Assad would find it difficult to liquidate these if his regime collapsed.

''In terms of realisable assets, it's likely to be in the region of $US1 billion to $US1.5 billion,'' Mr Willis said. ''This would be in line with Egypt's Mubarak and the Marcoses of the Philippines.

''These are held, not just by Assad himself, but by extended family members, by second cousins, uncles, business partners and their advisers. Those funds are likely to be held in places like Russia, maybe Dubai, Lebanon, Morocco, even Hong Kong, but the assets themselves are likely to be worldwide.''

In Britain, £100 million ($150.7 million) of Syrian regime assets, mostly cash in bank accounts, have been frozen in the past 14 months. The Swiss authorities have frozen 50 million Swiss francs ($49.1 million) belonging to Mr Assad and other top officials in recent months. Switzerland said it has targeted at least 127 officials and 40 Syrian companies related to the Assad regime. Last year Swiss prosecutors froze about €3 million ($3.5 million) held in a Geneva bank by Hafez Makhlouf, a cousin of Mr Assad, for suspected money laundering.

Mr Makhlouf's brother, Rami, is a key fixer for the Assad family and has amassed a fortune since Mr Assad took power in 2000. He is believed to be Syria's richest man.

Mr Willis said Mr Assad's resistance to sharing assets among the military and diplomatic officials may be why he has few friends during the crisis. Mr Makhlouf reportedly once tried to wrest Syria's main Mercedes car dealership from a leading family outside Mr Assad's circle. Mercedes refused to ship cars while the dispute continued and Mr Makhlouf was forced to hand back the licence.

Guardian News & Media



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/president-siphons-a-fortune-for-family-20120720-22fh0.html#ixzz21G4wbN2w

Laws introduced in Republican-controlled states are making it harder to cast ballots, writes Nick O'Malley.


WASHINGTON: Viviette Applewhite once marched in Georgia with Dr Martin Luther King in support of her civil rights and in 1960 she voted for the first time, helping to elect Jack Kennedy.

Though she has voted in nearly every election since, the 93-year-old Pennsylvanian may not be allowed to vote in the presidential election in November, the victim of what the American Civil Liberties Union, among other groups, is calling a systematic campaign of voter suppression.

''I think it stinks,'' Mrs Applewhite told the American Civil Liberties Union.

According to a study by New York University's Brennan Justice Centre released last week, 14 Republican-controlled states have introduced laws making it harder for 5 million voters to cast their ballots. The laws are targeted at groups that tend to vote Democratic.

The states that have introduced the laws account for 127 electoral votes, nearly half of the 270 needed to win the presidency.

''Therefore, the ability of eligible citizens without photo ID to obtain one could have a major influence on the outcome of the 2012 election,'' says the report.

The laws began to appear after the 2010 mid-term elections, when voters angry at the recession and the bank bail-out elected Tea Party affiliated-Republicans across the nation, says a lawyer for the Brennan Centre, Mimi Marziani.

Asked if some of these politicians were changing voting regulations in order to secure their positions in office, Ms Marziani pauses, then chooses her words carefully.

''When you look at this as a pattern it is hard to reach any other conclusion,'' she says.

Civil liberties groups are battling the laws state by state.

Mrs Applewhite, a lead plaintiff in a case being fought by the ACLU against the state of Pennsylvania, is victim of one of the most controversial types of the new laws, which calls for voters to present photo identification at the polling booth. Mrs Applewhite does not drive and her purse containing her identification card was stolen.

About one-quarter of African Americans, 16 per cent of Hispanics and 18 per cent of Americans over age 65 do not have the type of ID that the voting laws require, according to the Brennan Centre report.

The Brennan Centre found one in 10 people lack photo ID in the states that have introduced similar laws - Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

In Texas voters will be allowed to use a gun licence to vote, but not student identification cards.

The Brennan Centre argues some of the laws are effectively a poll tax, because of the expense of securing official documents.

''A birth certificate can cost $15 to $30, a passport $135, a naturalisation certificate or certificate of citizenship $345, and a marriage license from $5 to $40,'' says the Brennan Centre study. ''By comparison, the poll tax outlawed by the Civil Rights Act cost $10.64 in current dollars.''

Those defending voter ID laws say they are needed to prevent voter fraud, but according to Ms Marziani, instances of voter fraud are so rare as to be almost immeasurable, about .0003 per cent of votes cast. She says the risk of jail and or deportation was sufficient deterrent against such fraud.

Some states have introduced laws banning convicted felons from voting even after they have served their sentences. In Florida, a state that could decide the presidential election, felons are banned from voting until they are granted clemency by the governor.

''It essentially gives the governor, an elected official, the power to decide who will (or will not) be allowed to vote in the next election,'' notes the Brennan Centre's report.

In the first four months of this year Florida officials purged 7000 convicted felons from voter rolls.

According to a study by The Miami Herald, Democrats were three times more likely than Republicans to be removed. Blacks were almost as likely as whites to be removed (44 per cent of those removed were white; 43 per cent were blacks), while blacks make up only 16 per cent of the state's population.

At least 13 states have introduced bills to end highly popular election day and same-day voter registration, limit voter registration mobilisation efforts, and reduce other registration opportunities, says the report. These are all programs that have benefited Democrats.

Not surprisingly the new laws are becoming an issue in the election campaign.

Visiting Wisconsin, where new voter laws were recently found to be unconstitutional, the presumed Republican candidate Mitt Romney joked to supporters: ''In my state we joke 'vote early and vote often' and I am afraid the other side has been doing that a bit too much in some places. I like voter ID laws by the way … more of them.'' More seriously he has argued for voter ID laws to prevent people from casting multiple votes.

Equally, Democrats have attacked the laws, most recently at the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People annual convention earlier this month, where the Vice President, Joe Biden, was cheered when he said in a speech, ''I want to remind everybody of one thing - remember what this [the NAACP] at its core was all about … It was the franchise. It was about the right to vote. Because when you have the right to vote, you have the right to change things.

''And we - the President and I and Eric [Holder, the US Attorney General] and all of us - we see a future where those rights are expanded not diminished, where racial profiling is a thing of the past, where access to the ballot is expanded and unencumbered, where there are no distinctions made on the basis of race or gender in access to housing and lending.

''Did you think we'd be fighting these battles again?''

Addressing the convention, Mr Holder, America's first African American Attorney General, compared the laws to the Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation, prompting a furious response from the Texas Governor, Rick Perry.

''In labelling the Texas voter ID law as a 'poll tax,' Eric Holder purposefully used language designed to inflame passions and incite racial tension,'' he said. ''The President should apologise for Holder's imprudent remarks and for his insulting lawsuit against the people of Texas.''

Witold Walczak, the legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said at the news conference when Mrs Applewhite's case began: ''What we're not talking about here is just any right, we're talking about the right to vote. Two hundred years ago, we actually fought a war for this right.''



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/americans-right-to-vote-under-siege-20120720-22fft.html#ixzz21DnEEowS

National Front to sue Madonna over swastika video

From: AFP July 16, 2012

Madonna has overlaid the swastika on French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen's forehead in a stage show's multimedia background.

FRANCE'S far-right National Front says it plans to sue Madonna over a video at the US pop star's concert in France showing party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead.
"We cannot accept such an odious comparison," National Front vice-president Florian Philippot said, adding that the legal action would be filed this week.

The video, which served as a backdrop for Madonna's performance of the song Nobody Knows Me, flashed a picture of Le Pen's forehead superimposed with a swastika, followed by an image resembling Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

There was an audible gasp from the audience at the Stade de France on Saturday when the image of Le Pen appeared briefly on a giant screen in a video clip which also showed Madonna's face merging with a number of public figures including Pope Benedict XVI and toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

"Projecting such an image of Marine Le Pen with a swastika implies that she is a Nazi," National Front lawyer Wallerand de Saint-Just told AFP, adding that the civil complaint for insult would be lodged with a court this week.

Tour promoter LiveNation declined to comment on the National Front action against the queen of pop, who has been no stranger to controversy during her long career.

"This is just another provocation in Madonna's world tour so that people will talk about her," Philippot charged, claiming that the stadium was "far from full" for Madonna's gig and that the tour was a "fiasco".

"Marine Le Pen will defend not only her own honour but her supporters and the millions of National Front voters."

Le Pen, a French presidential candidate, had already warned the US superstar in June that she was mulling legal action after the video was shown at Tel Aviv gig in May when Madonna, 53, kicked off her world tour.

"(When) old singers want to get people to talk about them, it's understandable that they do such extreme things," the 43-year-old Le Pen said at the time.

SOS Racisme however said it supported Madonna, paying tribute to her "resolutely anti-racist" stance. "She made clear last night that the fight against discrimination is a fundamental battle."

About 70,000 people were at the Stade de France to watch the "Material Girl" perform on Saturday night, the latest concert in her MDNA tour which covers about 30 countries in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas and will wrap up in Australia in 2013.

Madonna will next appear in France in Nice on August 21.

In 1987, Madonna caused a stir when she threw her panties into the crowd at a concert where then president Jacques Chirac was in attendance.

On her latest world tour, she made headlines when she flashed a nipple at a gig in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul last month.

Le Pen, the daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, won 18 percent in the first round of the presidential election in April.

But she lost her bid to win a seat in legislative elections last month although the party _ which wants to ditch the euro and battles against what Le Pen calls the "Islamisation" of France _ returned to parliament for the first time since 1998.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/music/national-front-to-sue-madonna-over-swastika-video/story-e6frexl9-1226426792231

TROLL-QAEDA: The US's new way of fighting terror

by: Staff Writers From: news.com.au July 19, 2012 2:04PM

AFTER years of trying to win over hearts and minds in the field, the US State Department has a new tactic in the war on terror - trolling.

A Silicon Valley dot com veteran now working for the Government has launched a program called “Viral Peace” which aims to occupy online terror sites and shame, humiliate and annoy fundamentalists, Wired reports.

State Department senior technology adviser Shahed Amanullah told the magazine he wanted to use “logic, humour, satire, [and] religious arguments, not just to confront [extremists], but to undermine and demoralize them”.

Presumably this will involve infiltrating comment threads with lots of comments like "LAME" "You call yourselves a terrorist?", flame wars and pedobears.

Mr Amanullah said rather than trying to censor or take down these extremist websites, a better strategy would be to undermine the macho element so heavily promoted across them.

...
“Online extremists have an energy," he said. "They’ve got a vitality that frankly attracts some of these at-risk people.

“It appeals to macho, it appeals to people’s rebellious nature, it appeals to people who feel downtrodden.”

The aim of the program is to train trolls internationally and let them do the work in their own languages and cultures.

“I want to prove you can do small, inexpensive, high-impact projects that don’t just talk about the problem but solve the problem,” Mr Amanullah said. “And solve it the right way: not with the government’s heavy hand but by empowering local people to do what they already know to do but don’t know how.”

Leading jihad researcher Jarret Brachman agreed with this tactic, calling the people who post on the forums "massive narcissists who need constant ego boosts".

“If you can get rid of them, it’ll pay dividends,” Mr Brachman said.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/trollqaida-the-uss-new-way-of-fighting-terror/story-fn7celvh-1226430052754

Women's rights become a fight to the death in Pakistan
DateJuly 15, 2012

FARIDA Afridi, a 25-year-old women's rights activist, left her parents' home early in the morning of July 4, as she typically did. She was walking to her non-profit organisation's office when two men with Kalashnikovs pulled alongside her on a motorcycle and shot her multiple times, killing her.

Ms Afridi's killing in the town of Jamrud, in the restive tribal Khyber Agency, shocked Pakistan's human rights community of non-governmental organisations, which are no strangers to acts of intimidation and terror, especially against foreigners. Some international NGOs, most recently the Red Cross, have pulled out their personnel.

For activists, Ms Afridi's death made evident an escalating campaign by Islamist militants against anyone promoting equality for women. Zar Ali Khan Afridi, chairman of the Tribal NGOs Consortium, of which Ms Afridi was a member, said it was the first time a Pakistani woman working for an NGO had been killed by militants.

''We are all afraid,'' he said. ''If your activities are against fanaticism, if you are talking about human rights, they will kill you.''

Advertisement Ms Afridi was the founder, with her sister Noorzia, of an organisation that promotes social and economic development in Khyber Agency and other semi-autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan. In such areas, the traditions of purdah are the norm, meaning women are expected to conceal themselves from men.

She was from a part of Khyber that only had one school but she managed to get an education, Mr Zar Afridi said. She earned a master's degree and learnt English. In 2004, she co-founded her organisation, SAWERA, or Society for Appraisal and Women Empowerment in Rural Areas.

Female NGO workers have been accused of not observing cultural norms - not wearing their veils, encouraging other women to work outside the home, and working alongside male colleagues.

''The militants are labelling the NGOs, especially where women are working, as spreading obscenities and vulgarities,'' said a tribal elder in the region, who spoke anonymously.

For colleagues of Ms Afridi, the message sent by her killers was chillingly direct: ''They don't want any women from NGOs to come to their areas and have discussions with their women, because they think we are propagating Western agendas,'' said Zainab Bibi of South Asia Partnership Pakistan, a pro-democracy group. ''Women are totally restricted there.''

WASHINGTON POST



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/womens-rights-become-a-fight-to-the-death-in-pakistan-20120714-222pz.html#ixzz20es57a5c

Attacks aim to wind back Afghan gains

DateJuly 15, 2012 Rea

FUELLING fears over the dangers faced by Afghan women, a bomb attached to the car belonging to a provincial women’s affairs chief has killed her and seriously injured her husband.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assassination of Hanifa Safi, who headed the department of women’s affairs in Laghman province, east of Kabul. But a spokesman for the provincial government, Sarhadi Zewak, blamed ‘‘enemies of the people’’ — the term Afghan officials customarily use to describe the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

Friday’s killing comes against a backdrop of high-profile attacks against women in recent months, including the public execution of a woman in a province only an hour’s drive from Kabul, which was captured on video.

With the Western combat role in Afghanistan set to end in 2014, many women are worried about a sharp erosion of gains made in the 11 years since the toppling of the Taliban movement.

Many women fear the government of President Hamid Karzai, which desperately wants to reach a political settlement with the Taliban, would be willing to trade away their hard-won freedoms in order to come to an accord with the fundamentalist Islamist movement.





Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/attacks-aim-to-wind-back-afghan-gains-20120714-222px.html#ixzz20erk3fAl

Indian campaign confronts fear of baby girls
DateJuly 15, 2012

ELSEWHERE it would have been front-page news: a couple on the run after being caught trying to bury their newborn baby girl alive. But in India, where there are now 914 girls for every 1000 boys, the case last week in Dausa, Rajasthan, warranted just 300 cursory words on an inside page.

''Yet another incident of apathy towards the girl child,'' said the Deccan Herald.

Call it apathy, call it attempted murder. The fact is, said Zaheer Abbas, ''most Indians are preoccupied with trying to eat two meals a day'' - and not fretting about how the country's sex ratio has become the worst since independence in 1947.

Abbas, editor-in-chief of the Udaipur Times, last year tried to jolt his readers into action by printing a picture of a three-month-old female foetus found in a sewerage canal.

''But look,'' he said, scrolling down his computer screen to below the article. ''One comment. Just one. We want people to be angry about this. But they don't want to be seen by their parents and friends talking about such an issue.''

Female foeticide has shot to prominence largely thanks to Satyamev Jayate, a popular campaigning TV show fronted by the Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan.

One episode was dedicated to the widespread practice of aborting female foetuses, particularly in the state of Rajasthan, which has one of the worst sex ratios in the country, having dropped to 883 girls per 1000 boys in 2011, from 909 in 2001.

Within days of the program airing, Rajasthan's government sprang officials vowed to set up fast-track courts to punish those who practise sex-based abortion. They also cancelled the licences of six sonography centres and issued notices to 24 others for their suspected involvement in female foeticide. A drive is also under way to install trackers at all sonography centres in the state within four months, which will allow inspectors to check how many female foetuses make it to birth and beyond. These clinics are the battleground for campaigners fighting against sex selective abortion.

Dr Arvinder Singh is the Mr Big of antenatal scanning in Udaipur. The calm waters and Rajput palaces of this pretty lakeside city hide a murky secret: Udaipur is one of the Rajasthan districts that ''lost'' girls between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. There are now just 920 girls per 1000 boys; 28 fewer than 10 years ago.

Every day his clinic carries out about 50 antenatal scans. Last week Dr Singh said that not one of his patients in the past six months had asked the sex of their unborn child - it was now well known, he insisted, that to ask (or tell) was illegal.

But Manisha Bhathnagar, a local watchdog, said the state of Rajasthan plans to file a complaint against Dr Singh after undercover inspectors discovered that not all women at his clinic were filling out the compulsory form detailing how many children they have, what gender they are and who has referred them for a scan.

Pragnya Joshi, an academic expert on female foeticide,said the dowry culture was primarily to blame for the ever-worsening gender ratio. Though prohibited by law since 1961, dowry is ingrained in Indian culture, she said. A traditional Hindu wedding blessing was, ''May God give you eight sons'', she said.

It is not unusual for an unwanted baby girl to be given a horrible name, said Usha Choudhary, programme director of Vikalp (''Alternative''), an NGO.''I've met girls called Mafi, meaning sorry, and another called Dhapu, which translates as 'enough' - she was the fifth girl in her family,'' said Ms Choudhary.

As part of an effort to encourage villagers in Rajasthan to celebrate, rather than mourn, the birth of a girl, Vikalp carries out alternative naming ceremonies, giving babies names such as Khushi (Happy) or Pari (Angel).

GUARDIAN



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/indian-campaign-confronts-fear-of-baby-girls-20120714-222py.html#ixzz20eqdW2yt

Policeman investigated for threat against Michelle Obama
DateJuly 15, 2012

WASHINGTON DC police have stripped an officer of his powers and gun as they investigate his alleged threat against the US first lady, Michelle Obama.

Police and the Secret Service have not yet determined precisely what was said by the officer or his intent, the Police Chief, Cathy Lanier, said on Friday. At a breakfast with other officers on Wednesday, police officials have said, the officer threatened to shoot the first lady.

The officer, whom authorities have not named, works on motorcycle escorts and has been with the force for about 17 years, Ms Lanier said. The White House deputy press secretary, Josh Earnest, said the President, Barack Obama, was ''aware'' of the alleged threat.

Several officials said they had received initial reports the officer used his mobile phone to display a picture of the firearm he intended to use. Those officials later said he may have used an application on his phone that makes the sound of gunfire.

Ms Lanier declined to discuss details of the alleged conversation but it was possible the statement was intended as humour. ''There's absolutely no place for jokes that could be perceived as a threat to the first lady or anybody else,'' she said.

One officer said: ''You don't say things like that, especially when you have access to the South Grounds [of the White House].''



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/policeman-investigated-for-threat-against-michelle-obama-20120714-222pu.html#ixzz20eoRAsxY

Ulugbek Kodirov sentenced to 15 years for Obama kill plot

by: Jay Reeves From:
AP July 14, 2012


AN Uzbek man sentenced to more than 15 years in US prison for plotting to kill President Barack Obama was "a victim of social media", he lawyer claims.


Ulugbek Kodirov, 22, had faced up to 30 years in prison.

Defense attorney Lance Bell argued that Kodirov had accepted responsibility for his actions and was trying to straighten out his life. He said Kodirov wasn't a "big, bad terrorist."
"I'm not calling him a victim, but he's a victim to a degree of social media," Bell said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Whisonant said Kodirov would have tried to kill Obama, and a foreign group would have taken credit, if he had not been arrested a year ago.

"This case is an example of how our youth can be radicalized by the propaganda and lies on the Internet," Whisonant told the judge.

Kodirov pleaded guilty in February to threatening to kill Obama, providing material support to terrorism and unlawfully possessing a firearm. He said he came up with the plan to kill the president as he campaigned for re-election after communicating online with a man he believed to be a member of an Uzbek Islamic group the United States classifies as a terrorist organisation.
.
With limited proficiency in English, Kodirov worked seven days a week in a kiosk at a shopping mall in Alabama before his arrest, the defense said.

A complaint said Kodirov contacted an unidentified person trying to buy weapons in early July 2011, and that person became a confidential source for the government. Accompanied by the witness, Kodirov bought an automatic rifle from an undercover agent and made a final threat against the president, authorities said. The agent also gave Kodirov four hand grenades with the powder removed.

Authorities said Kodirov was in the country illegally because he obtained a student visa but never enrolled in school. He faces deportation after his release from prison.
The defense argued Kodirov was lonely and turned to the Internet for entertainment and companionship after moving to Alabama, where few people speak his native language.
A sentencing memorandum submitted by his defense attorney said Kodirov began viewing jihadist websites and YouTube videos. After communicating with Muslim men, he "came to the belief that Americans were killing his people in cold blood."

Kodirov's beliefs changed after his arrest, when he learned stories he had been told were lies, Bell argued.

Located in central Asia, Uzbekistan and was once part of the former Soviet Union. The vast majority of its population is Muslim. Islamic terrorists have been linked to sporadic violence in the country for more than a decade, according to the State Department

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/ulugbek-kodirov-sentenced-to-15-years-for-obama-kill-plot/story-fnd134gw-1226425913146

Indonesians impatient on asylum seeker backlog
DateJuly 14, 2012

THE Indonesian government is growing impatient with the 10,000 or more asylum seekers using its country as a waiting room, and wants Australia to accept more of them to reduce the numbers.

The deputy head of the high level Human Trafficking, Refugees and Asylum Seekers desk, Johnny Hutauruk, told The Saturday Age this week that both the large number of asylum seekers, and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's pledge to send them back to Indonesia, threatened his country's sovereignty.

Mr Hutauruk's office, part of Indonesia's Co-ordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, was created in March in response to what is viewed as a growing domestic problem in a country that struggles to feed and house 35 million of its own citizens.

The refugee influx, and Australia's reluctance to accept them, has not until now been a big political issue in Indonesia.

But Mr Hutauruk's comments suggest it may soon become one in a way that could damage relations with Australia. Mr Hutauruk said 5347 registered refugees lived in Indonesia, and perhaps double that number were unregistered. He expected more to arrive from Malaysia.

Indonesia's views on the issue are beginning to strongly echo the ''border protection'' debate in Australia. ''On the one hand we have to guard our sovereignty - we don't want too many of these people here - but we also must respect their human rights,'' Mr Hutauruk said.

Most of the refugees were living in villages and towns in West Java, where the local residents were growing impatient.

Many refugees in Indonesia are Shiite muslims from Afghanistan and Iran, while Indonesia is predominantly Sunni, but Mr Hutauruk denied the conflicts were over religion.

''Some are involved in criminal cases such as drugs and crime … sometimes they marry locals, but they're not legal marriages,'' he said.

''The most important solution is to reduce the number here because they all want to go to Australia. The solution is to open the doors.''

That view reinforces Indonesia's strong aversion to Mr Abbott's plan to push back boats. Asked, though, whether harsher policies in Australia would reduce the numbers in Indonesia by discouraging people from coming in the first place, Mr Hutauruk conceded, ''It's possible.''

His organisation was also seeking help from agencies such as the Indonesian navy to increase patrols to the country's north, he said.

The Greens are claiming vindication on asylum seekers, with their policy of onshore processing and an increased humanitarian intake from Indonesia and Malaysia being backed in many of the submissions to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's expert panel.

Barrister Julian Burnside yesterday endorsed Cathy Oke, the Greens candidate in the Melbourne byelection, as former prime minister Malcolm Fraser and a host of refugee organisations appeared before the expert panel in Carlton.

Mr Burnside praised the Greens for proposing ''a safe and lasting regional solution'', while Mr Fraser called for a higher refugee intake from Indonesia and Malaysia and increased funding for the United Nations' refugee body.

''This year, we have only resettled 61 people from the 1200 recognised refugees in Indonesia. Increasing the number of people we resettle from Indonesia and Malaysia is the only way to stop people getting on boats,'' Mr Fraser said in a submission to the panel.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/indonesians-impatient-on-asylum-seeker-backlog-20120713-221jw.html#ixzz20VwOiDTE

Syria massacres up to 200 in Hama
DateJuly 13, 2012 - 11:41AM

Syrian troops using tanks and helicopters have massacred more than 150 people in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

A rebel leader put the toll at more than 200.

It is obvious that the regime knows no limits. The mosque was shelled, it collapsed, and that killed the people in it.
Government troops bombarded a village for about 10 hours using tanks and helicopters, according to the Observatory, which earlier put the death toll at more than 100.


Smoke rises from Kerkenez near Idlib on July 6. Thousands of families in Syria have fled their homes in the past two weeks due to heavy fighting between government forces and rebels and many face food shortages. Photo: Reuters

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP by telephone that the bodies of 30 villagers had been identified following the attack, which brought the day's total death toll in the conflict-torn nation to more than 200.

Rebel leader Abu Mohamad, chief of a group based further to the north, told AFP early on Friday that the attack using helicopters, tanks and multiple rocket-launchers had killed more than 200 people in the village.

Abu Mohamad said he had been in phone contact with a resident of Treimsa who told him that government forces were on hills a few kilometres outside the town.

The army and the Shabiha, pro-regime militia who are said to accompany troops to make sure they do not desert, started to bombard Treimsa on "Thursday around 11am (1800 AEST)," Abu Mohamad said.

Hama-based activist who identified himself as Abu Ghazi told AFP via Skype that the bombardment was "followed by clashes with the (rebel) Free Syrian Army, but the FSA does not have a big presence in Treimsa and could not fight long."

"The number of martyrs is very high partly because the army shelled a mosque where scores of people had taken shelter, to treat the wounded and hide from the bombs," Abu Ghazi said.

"But it is obvious that the regime knows no limits. The mosque was shelled, it collapsed, and that killed the people in it."

The village, which had a population of 7,000, "is empty now. Everyone is dead or has run away," he said.

The state-run SANA news agency said there had been clashes between the army and an armed "terrorist" group in the village but made no mention of a massacre and gave no overall death toll.

"There were heavy losses among the ranks of the terrorists," said the report, adding that three government soldiers were killed.

The head of the opposition Syrian National Council, Abdel Basset Sayda, voiced outrage about the latest killings and called for a tough UN resolution that allows for military intervention against the Damascus regime.

"This was a massacre perpetrated by the Syrian regime," he said, speaking to Al Jazeera TV.

"It is a shame for the UN Security Council and the Arab League."

"What we want is a clear and straightforward resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which puts all the options on the table, including the use of force. This Syrian regime only understands the language of force."

Abu Ghazi said that with Idlib in the northwest, Homs in the centre and much of the countryside of Aleppo in the north "out of control, the regime is trying to keep Hama on its side."

"Hama is in the centre of Syria, and is a link in a chain of provinces where anti-regime feeling is strong; the regime will do anything to keep it controlled."

The Observatory said more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in mid-March last year.

It is not possible to independently verify death tolls. The United Nations stopped compiling such figures at the end of 2011.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/syria-massacres-up-to-200-in-hama-20120713-2204h.html#ixzz20UPPULz8

Embarrassment as Chinese frigate runs aground
DateJuly 13, 2012 - 3:22PM

Email articlePrint .A Chinese warship has run aground while patrolling contested waters adjacent to the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The frigate pinned itself to a reef last night at Half Moon Shoal, on the south-eastern edge of the Spratly Islands, and remains "thoroughly stuck", according to Western diplomatic sources shortly after midday local time, or 2pm AEST.

Salvage operations could be diplomatically challenging, given the vessel appears to have run aground within 200 kilometres of the Philippines coast, which is squarely within what Manila claims to be its Exclusive Economic Zone.

The stricken People's Liberation Army Navy vessel, believed to be No. 560, a Jianghu-class frigate, has in the past been involved in aggressively discouraging Filipino fishing boats from the area.

The accident could not have come at a more embarrassing moment for the Chinese leadership, who have been pressing territorial claims and flexing the country's muscle ahead of a leadership transition later this year.

Today's meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Cambodia ended in disarray, without a code of conduct for resolving conflicts in the South China Sea, following robust intervention from China.

Also this week, China yesterday dispatched one of its largest-ever fishing expeditions from Hainan Island to another disputed archipelago in the South China Sea.

Earlier in the week, PLA generals and top foreign policy advisers urged China to do more to press its claims.

Cui Liru, president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a leading think tank that reports to the main intelligence department, said Beijing had previously focused too much on seeking common ground with its neighbours and putting disputes on the shelf.

"In the foreseeable future, say at least in five years, the Asia-Pacific region will still be showing every feature of a transitional period, which is characterised by a certain level of chaos," he said.

China's ministry of foreign affairs was not immediately available for comment.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/embarrassment-as-chinese-frigate-runs-aground-20120713-220r8.html#ixzz20UOKgzGD

Putin sends warships to boost Syria

DateJuly 12, 2012

RUSSIA has sent a flotilla of warships to its naval base in a key Syrian port in an apparent show of support for President Bashar al-Assad in what would be the largest display of Russian military power in the region since the Syrian conflict began almost 17 months ago.

Two destroyers and three amphibious landing vessels carrying marines set sail from Russian bases in the Arctic and the Black Sea, according to Russian military sources.

The development appeared intended to underline Russia's effort to position itself as an increasingly decisive broker in resolving the anti-government uprising in Syria, Russia's last ally in the Middle East and where Russia has its only foreign military base outside the former Soviet Union.

The move follows Russia's announcement earlier this week that it was halting new shipments of weapons to the Syrian military until the conflict settled down.

Russia's defence ministry insisted the mission was part of a previously scheduled exercise in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea and at least one of the vessels has patrolled waters off Syria this year. Western diplomats say the purpose of the mission is to show support for Dr Assad, to warn the West against military intervention in Syria and to prepare for the possible evacuation of Russian nationals from the country.

Russia has occasionally sent naval vessels on manoeuvres in the eastern Mediterranean, and it dispatched an aircraft-carrying battleship, the Admiral Kuznetsov, there for manoeuvres with other vessels from December 2011 to February 2012. There were rumours in recent weeks that the Russians planned to deploy another naval force near Syria. But the unusually large size of the force announced on Tuesday was considered a message, not just to the region but also to the US and other nations supporting the rebels now trying to depose Dr Assad.

Russia's base at Tartus consists of little more than a floating refuelling station and some small barracks. But any strengthened Russian presence there could forestall Western military intervention in Syria.

Russia renewed naval patrols in the Mediterranean in 2007 after a 15-year hiatus with a wider aim of expressing the country's military resurgence. It was unclear whether the ships heading for Syria were carrying weapons supplies or large numbers of marines.

The Russian announcement got a muted response in Washington. ''Russia maintains a naval supply and maintenance base in the Syrian port of Tartus,'' said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council. ''We have no reason to believe this move is anything out of the ordinary, but we refer you to the Russian government for more details.''

The announcement came as a delegation of Syrian opposition figures was visiting Russia to gauge if that country would accept a political transition in Syria that excludes Dr Assad. It also coincided with a flurry of diplomacy by Kofi Annan, the special Syria envoy from the United Nations and Arab League, who said Dr Assad had suggested a new approach for salvaging Mr Annan's sidelined peace plan during their meeting on Monday in Damascus.

The Kremlin has opposed foreign military intervention in Syria, and the ships have been presented as a means to evacuate Russian citizens or to secure the fuelling station at Tartus.

AGENCIES



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/putin-sends-warships-to-boost-syria-20120711-21w3g.html#ixzz20PGuSfGU

Obama hits Romney where it hurts

DateJuly 11, 2012


IF ANYONE still harboured any suspicions that Barack Obama was a transformative figure, above the cut and thrust and rank brutality of modern politics, the past few days should have sorted them out.

On Friday the Obama campaign was hit with two items of bad news: that jobs growth had stalled in June and that over the same month Mitt Romney had taken $US106 million ($A104 million) in donations - $US35 million more than Obama.

The Obama campaign's response was a masterclass in negative campaigning. On Sunday, Democrats fanned out across the morning political TV programs attacking Romney for his Swiss bank account and holdings in a Caribbean tax haven, as revealed last week in a Vanity Fair story.

They all dutifully read from the same script.

''I've never known of a Swiss bank account to build an American bridge,'' said Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley in a typical comment.

On Monday, the President fronted the media at the White House to announce that he wanted to keep tax cuts introduced by former president George W. Bush for everyone earning under $US250,000.

''I believe it's time to let tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, folks like myself, to expire,'' he explained.

It is not a remarkable position, not even a new one, but the timing was great. Obama had contrasted the Democrats' tax position with Romney's personal circumstances.

Romney, whose personal wealth is estimated at $US250 million, pays an effective tax rate of about 15 per cent, because most of his earnings are in the form of capital gains or dividends. Obama had also exploited the White House as a campaign backdrop - securing untold hours of free air-time - and he had distracted attention from his own bad news.

He had also painted Romney into a corner, forcing him to defend tax cuts for millionaires and even billionaires. On Sunday, Romney had very publicly attended fund-raisers at some of these same people's homes and palmed another $US3 million in the process.

This played directly into the hands of the Obama campaign, which has been flooding battleground states with ads attacking Romney for his time at the head of the private equity firm he founded, Bain Capital, which it claims profited by offshoring jobs and breaking up businesses.

Unable to discuss his time as governor of Massachusetts, where he introduced a healthcare reform that was the model for the Obama model he now opposes, Romney has been presenting himself as a successful businessman, capable of rebuilding the economy.

''When you can make a perceived strength an actual weakness, that is when you are running an effective campaign,'' Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist, told The Age.

The early evidence is that the Democrat push to turn Romney into Gordon Gekko is meeting some success. A USA Today/Gallup poll released on Sunday shows that in the swing states where the attack ads are screening, 76 per cent of people who say ads have changed their minds about the candidates favour Obama, compared with only 16 per cent favouring Romney.

Romney's failure to find an adequate response is worrying some senior Republicans.

''Never let an attack go unanswered. It's a rule for a reason,'' Republican strategist Rick Wilson told Buzzfeed, which also reported that Romney's campaign plans to begin calling Obama a liar.

Both campaigns are expected to raise and spend $US1 billion each between now and November 6 - mostly on attack ads.

Ads by Google


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/obama-hits-romney-where-it-hurts-20120710-21ttw.html#ixzz20IwsYU7Y

Zero hour has come as Europe's central bank cuts its rates

DateJuly 7, 2012
Malcolm Maiden


.The sinking feeling that central banks are running out of heavy ammo was behind the global market's negative reaction to the latest round of monetary easing yesterday.

On Thursday night our time, there was central bank activity that in the past would have sparked a market rally. China's central bank cut its benchmark lending rate by almost one-third of a percentage point to 6 per cent, and the European Central Bank moved its benchmark rate down, by a quarter of a percentage point to a new low of 0.75 per cent. It also cut its deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to zero, and the Bank of England expanded a ''quantitative easing'' injection of cash into the British financial system by £50 billion to £375 billion ($567 billion).

Shares fell, key European bond yields rose and the euro plunged, mainly in response to the European Central Bank's moves. It was the creation of a zero per cent deposit rate that was the hot topic: Europe is ground zero for the crisis, and it is now moving into uncharted territory.

The deposit rate cut is an attempt by ECB to encourage the banks in Europe to take a bit more risk, and start lending. Its long-term bank refinancing operation swung €1 trillion of three-year money priced at the central bank's benchmark rate into European banks on either side of Christmas, but the money has so far not transmitted strongly into bank lending. Ahead of yesterday's ECB move, European banks had about €800 billion ($965 billion) parked with the central bank, earning an interest rate of 0.25 per cent a year.

Advertisement You would think that's a lousy return, and you would be right, usually. It's unclear whether even cutting the deposit to zero will get the banks moving right now, however. Demand for credit is low as Europe grinds along in its sovereign debt crisis, and the inclination of the banks to lend to each other or their customers is even lower. Here's a brief statistical tour of the eurozone, one that shows how deep the hole Europe is in is.

The gross domestic product of the Euro area shrank by 0.1 per cent in first quarter of this year, and fixed capital formation - investment across the economy by both the government and private sectors in effect - fell by 2.2 per cent.

Government consumption has fallen for six consecutive quarters as nations rein in their deficits and debt loads, and private consumption has fallen by 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent in the past two quarters. Unemployment is at a record high of 11.1 per cent, retail sales have been declining since the beginning of last year, and consumer confidence has fallen by 15.9 per cent, 20.6 per cent and 20 per cent in the past three quarters.

Manufacturing order books have declined by 9 per cent, 14.6 per cent and 15.8 per cent over the same period.

Those are appallingly bad numbers, and the European banks are not just loathe to lend to the relatively few businesses and households who are looking for money, but are uncertain whether the loans they already made are good. They care less about maximising capital returns and more about capital preservation, and in that environment, the ECB is a obvious, even compelling bolt-hole.

With the deposit rate now at zero, the banks will earn absolutely nothing on their deposits, and their inflation adjusted return will be about minus 2 per cent. The central bank's hope is that this is enough pain to persuade them to look elsewhere, and put at least some of that €800 billion pile back to work in the economy.

The ECB boss, Mario Draghi, didn't seem confident yesterday that a sea change was in the offing, however. Recent moves by EU leaders, including the decision to send recapitalisation funding directly to banks that need it instead of through national balance sheets that were already drowning in debt, were positive, he said, but ''downside risks to the euro area growth outlook have materialised''.

Draghi said the €1 trillion ECB funding injection was never going to flow rapidly out through the banks into the economy, and pointed out that credit flows were not uniform across Europe: lending is growing slowly in the north and weakest in the south, where the sovereign debt crisis has hit hardest. He conceded, however, that several months had elapsed since the €1 trillion program had concluded, and credit growth was still weak.

''There are three sets of reasons why banks may not lend,'' he told a press conference. ''Risk aversion, lack of capital, and lack of funding. We have removed only the third, not the other two.''

That comment highlighted the intertwined toxic loop that Europe's policymakers and central bankers are attempting to unravel, and the lengths they are going to as they try.

At the press conference, Draghi was asked an obvious question: was even a zero per cent deposit rate enough to persuade the banks to redeploy their money elsewhere, and if it isn't, will the ECB risk moving to a negative rate, something the markets have no template for and could not have imagined before the crisis emerged?

So-called ''non-standard'' measures wouldn't be discussed in public, Draghi said, but the central bank still had artillery. By the end of the day, Denmark's central bank provided the exclamation mark: it moved its own deposit rate to minus 0.2 per cent.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/zero-hour-has-come-as-europes-central-bank-cuts-its-rates-20120706-21mf5.html#ixzz205S5jxqU

little wonder that joffa has 42,000 posts.....

Passage from India

DateJuly 7, 2012

Bollywood stars and cricketers are part of Australia's push to attract visitors from the subcontinent, writes Robert Upe.

Australian tourism officials are targeting Delhi and Mumbai to lure more Indian travellers here.

Along with China, India has one of the world's fastest-growing outbound travel markets, and more than 50 million Indians are expected to take overseas trips by 2020.


A scene from Indian movie Salaam Namaste, filmed in Melbourne. Tourism Australia says Bollywood stars will be used to spruik holidays in Australia.

India is Australia's 11th-biggest inbound tourism market, bringing in 148,200 visitors who spent $867 million last year, but by 2020 officials say that could reach 300,000 visitors spending $2.3 billion.

Delhi and Mumbai have been targeted by Australia because they have an emerging middle class and India's highest concentration of affluent households.

The Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson, unveiled an India 2020 strategic plan last month at the annual Australian Tourism Exchange in Perth, the largest travel trade show in the southern hemisphere. "We have put a huge effort into attracting tourists from China recently and the next cab off the rank is India," he said.

The plan means that Tourism Australia's "There's Nothing Like Australia" campaign will be rolled out in Delhi and Mumbai and there will be extensive advertising on TV and digital channels as well as print.

Tourism Australia will spend $5 million on the India campaign in the next year and will also use cricketers and Bollywood stars to spruik the virtues of holidaying here. Cricketers Steve Waugh and Brett Lee have acted as advocates in the past, and more Australian Indian Premier League (IPL) players may be recruited.

Another focus of the strategy is to establish direct air links between Australia and India. There are no direct non-stop flights between the countries but talks are taking place with several airlines believed to include Qantas, Virgin and Air India.

Ferguson says there are 70 national tourism organisations from around the world active in India, and competition to win Indian travellers is fierce.

The India 2020 strategic plan follows the China 2020 strategic plan that was announced by Tourism Australia in June last year, which aims to lure a share of the 100 million Chinese who will be travelling by 2020.

The managing director of Tourism Australia, Andrew McEvoy, has denied suggestions tourism officials are concentrating marketing efforts on China and India at the expense of other more established visitor countries.

"The traditional Western countries are essential to our tourism and have not been abandoned," he says. "We are not fair-weather friends. We have been with these markets [New Zealand, Britain, the US] for 40 years and we have literally invested hundreds of millions of dollars into them. We are still spending strongly in those countries but the growth is coming from Asia."

McEvoy says Tourism Australia will also target Japanese travellers later this year.

"We will do something big and significant to reignite our relationship with the Japanese traveller," he says in reference to the drop in visitors since last year's earthquake and tsunami.

Robert Upe travelled to Perth courtesy of Tourism Australia.

WHO IS VISITING

1. New Zealand (1,172,700)

2. Britain (608,300)

3. China (542,000)

4. US (456,200)

5. Japan (332,700)

6. Singapore (318,500)

7. Malaysia (241,200)

8. Korea (198,000)

9. Hong Kong (166,300)

10. Germany (153,900)

11. India (148,200)

12 Indonesia (140,400)

- 2011 arrivals.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/passage-from-india-20120705-21jc1.html#ixzz1zzchfBXw

Spain teeters as eurozone unity tested

DateJuly 8, 2012

Spain's borrowing costs have soared back to crisis levels after infighting among eurozone countries signalled a return to the turmoil that has rocked the global economy in recent months.

The interest rate on Spanish bonds touched 7 per cent, leaving Madrid on the brink of asking Brussels for a formal bailout, despite having secured a €100 billion ($120 billion) rescue facility for the country's banks.

Sharemarkets plunged and the euro tumbled as investors withdrew funds from the eurozone. The euro fell 1 per cent to its lowest level against the US dollar since July 2010. A report on the jobs market in the US added to market tensions. The US added only 80,000 jobs last month, well short of the 400,000 it needs to bring down unemployment.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, warned that it would lower predictions of global growth in 2012 because of a slowdown in Brazil and China as well as the faltering in the eurozone and US economies. ''And even that lower projection will depend on the right policy actions being taken,'' she said.

Advertisement On Thursday the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and Chinese authorities cut interest rates or pumped more money into the financial system to prevent a slump that some economists have warned could be a rerun of the 2008 banking collapse.

The Bank of England increased the volume of quantitative easing by £50 billion ($76 billion) to £375 billion after surveys showed Britain's double-dip recession could stretch into the northern autumn.

The Netherlands and Finland added to the sense of unease after they broke ranks to demand extra collateral for loans. They said that without the involvement of the eurozone's main rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, they would need to secure high-grade assets in case borrower countries could not pay their debts.

Their message was seen as a reference to Spain and Italy, which have avoided using the mechanism to rescue their banks.

The Finnish Finance Minister, Jutta Urpilainen, said Finland would rather leave the eurozone than pay down the debt of other countries.

Russia confirmed on Friday that Cyprus, which hopes to avoid a bailout, had asked it for €5 billion.

Guardian News & Media



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/spain-teeters-as-eurozone-unity-tested-20120707-21nrq.html#ixzz1zzWHEjYf

Military eye-for-eye with USA still intact

TRACY WATKINS
Last updated 05:00 07/07/2012

So much for the charm offensive.

The news that its military refused to let our navy park its frigate at Pearl Harbour alongside America's own battleships somewhat undermined all the recent efforts to flossie up New Zealand-United States relations with the grand-sounding Wellington and Washington declarations.

The truth is, no-one should have been particularly surprised by the snub.

The US has backed down in every meaningful sense over its opposition to New Zealand's anti-nuclear legislation - high-level contact has been restored, intelligence sharing has resumed and there has been a return to joint military exercises and training between the two countries. But given that the nuclear-free legislation remains in place, and compromise has been a one-way street as far as America is concerned, there was always going to be one gesture held in reserve to demonstrate it still disagrees with New Zealand's stance, even if it no longer stands in the way of a working relationship between the two countries.

Silly? Petty? In New Zealand's eyes, of course. But if America tried to park a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in our ports (assuming it would fit, of course) we wouldn't just politely ask it to park around the corner. We would tell it to turn the carrier around and send it home. So if the ban on our ships docking at US military ports is America's eye for an eye, it is also the retaliatory gesture that causes the least inconvenience to everyone. The odds are the ban will be lifted in the next few years anyway.

But of course, it doesn't help to dispel the notion that when it comes to relations between a minnow like New Zealand and the world's only superpower, bullying is the default position. It was US bullying that hardened New Zealand attitudes over the nuclear-free legislation in the first place, after all. Kiwis instinctively rebelled against the notion the US could tell them what to do.

Internet giant Kim Dotcom is fast turning into a cause celebre for similar reasons his case raises fundamental questions about the extent to which New Zealand sovereignty can or should withstand the full might, reach and self-interest of the United States.

After the High Court ruled that police bungled the case against Dotcom by executing illegal search warrants, Mr Key this week unconvincingly ducked calls for an inquiry into the escalating farce and insisted it wasn't New Zealand's problem anyway.

"It's really a matter for the United States and New Zealand is not taking a case against the guy," he argued. "It's just we have extradition treaties and we work through those."

Ad Feedback In other words, New Zealand doesn't have any beef with Dotcom and doesn't even know if he has actually committed any crimes. But it is happy to let US authorities cart a New Zealand resident off to America and remain a spectator to what happens next.

It is that, and not just the bungling of the police in the case so far, that has caused disquiet in most quarters.

Legally, Mr Key is probably right that Dotcom is not our problem. There's bound to be some arcane treaty clause we've signed up to that supports his view that New Zealand's hands are tied.

But there remain serious questions in the minds of many about whether there are sufficient checks and balances in place before a foreign government such as America can reach into New Zealand, pluck out a non-US citizen and try him back in America for alleged offences that arguably weren't committed on US soil.

There are parallels with another case in Britain, where 24-year-old student Richard O'Dwyer faces up to 10 years in a US prison for setting up a website linking to places to watch television online. Criminal copyright infringement carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison in Britain. O'Dwyer is fighting extradition to the US and has some top-level support, including from Conservative MP Dominic Raab, who points out that the US authorities have never let a US citizen be extradited to Britain for alleged crimes committed while on American soil.

Back here, the questions start at an even more basic level, such as who authorised the Hollywood-style raid on the Coatesville mansion where Dotcom lives with his wife, who was pregnant at the time, and his three children?

When armed police swooped on the property in helicopters and stormed the Coatesville home occupied by Dotcom and his family, the obvious assumption was he was either a criminal mastermind or violent thug.

The easy manner in which police let the cameras roll while they seized cash, computers, and art and hauled off lorry-loads of flash cars completely out of character for our traditionally media-shy boys in blue only reinforced that view. After all, when was the last time you saw police swoop on a gang pad and hotbed of drug dealing, violence and sexual abuse in similarly dramatic fashion?

But subsequent publicity about the nature of Dotcom's alleged crimes (which are to do with internet and copyright law) has left most people baffled and more than a little alarmed that someone can be ripped from their home, lose everything they own and be banged up in jail for a month awaiting extradition to a foreign country, for something most people would not consider a particularly heinous crime.

If there is a more than a sneaking suspicion that the FBI clicked its fingers and everyone from the solicitor-general down swooned on cue, then Mr Key's refusal to countenance an inquiry does nothing to dispel that.

If the CTV footage from Dotcom's home is released and supports the view that he had good reason to mistake the plainclothes officers kicking in doors and brandishing guns for kidnappers, then the case for an inquiry will be even more compelling.

Mr Key may yet have his hand forced anyway.

When Dotcom told his newly acquired 46,000 Twitter followers recently that he was sick as a dog, one asked incredulously: "A Superhero can get sick? C'mon Kim, you are kidding me!"

It's a reflection of the cult hero status that has attached itself to the giant German, helped along by a PR offensive, which includes posting tweets and pictures poking fun at his accusers.

As ACT MP John Banks discovered, buried not so deep beneath all that charm and flamboyance, Dotcom is a hard-nosed businessman who'll take no prisoners in his bid to clear his name.

After being hung out to dry by Dotcom over secret donations to his Auckland mayoral campaign, Mr Banks is a lame duck waiting out a police investigation into whether any criminal activity took place.

The question is where will Dotcom turn his sights next?

In a US interview this week, Dotcom who is promising an expose on the web linked the decision to shut down his MegaUpload site to the White House and political pressure from US movie studios.

How long before he turns his sights on our government and its cosy relationship with the US movie bosses?

As billionaire businessman Owen Glenn proved in his crusade against NZ First's Winston Peters, governments should never underestimate the damage a rich man with the means, motive and opportunity for revenge can inflict.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/tracy-watkins/7236031/Military-eye-for-eye-with-USA-still-intact

China cuts interest rates to spur growth

July 5, 2012 - 9:40PM

China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in two months on Thursday in the latest attempt to bolster slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Benchmark lending rates will be lowered by 31 basis points to 6 per cent, and deposit rates will be reduced by 25 basis points to 3 per cent, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

The latest rate cut is effective from Friday. The central bank last cut interest rates on June 7.

In addition to cutting lending and deposit rates, the central bank took another step in liberalising interest rates by lowering the floor for lending rates to 70 per cent of benchmark rates, from 80 per cent previously.

Reuters


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/china/china-cuts-interest-rates-to-spur-growth-20120705-21k9t.html#ixzz1zkQKkTXZ

Free remaining child asylum-boat crew, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urges Julia Gillard

by: Ben Packham and Lanai Vasek From: The Australian July 03, 2012 5:12PM

The PM and the Indon President have acknowledged the relationship between the countries after early talks.

Sky News3 July 2012

INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on Julia Gillard to release a further 54 underage asylum boat crew members held in Australia, as he and the Prime Minister agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation to fight people-smuggling.

Meeting in Darwin today, President Yudhoyono and Ms Gillard agreed to closer links between the two nations' maritime safety authorities to improve future responses to asylum boat tragedies.

The leaders also agreed to improve extradition arrangements between the two countries, building on an unfinalised extradition deal.

“In the field of preventing or combating people-smuggling and also human trafficking, we have agreed to enhance greater cooperation,” Mr Yudhoyono said.

He said Indonesia wanted to implement the 1992 extradition agreement, “with the hope that we can have extradition in a mutual way” of people-smuggling suspects.

Mr Yudhoyono said he welcomed Australia's release of more than 50 underage sailors who had acted as crew on asylum vessels, declaring “they are also victims of acts of people-smuggling”.

.“No doubt we hope that repatriation of the remaining underage seafarers can be accelerated,” he said.

“We hope another 54 will be released.”

As of last night there were 79 Indonesian crew members in Australian detention centres, many of whom claim to be minors.

Mr Yudhoyono's visit follows two recent asylum vessel sinkings and the Australian parliament's failure last week to agree on a way to stop the boats before they set sail.

Ms Gillard said: “The President and I discussed the importance of the Bali Process in combating people-smuggling.

“I welcome the cooperation we have with Indonesia on people-smuggling including Indonesia's law enforcement efforts against people-smuggling syndicates.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/free-remaining-child-asylum-boat-crew-susilo-bambang-yudhoyono-urges-julia-gillard/story-fn9hm1gu-1226415648686

Insight: the euro-zone crisis

Clancy Yeates
June 27, 2012

Greece makes up just 2 per cent of Europe's economy, but this clearly hasn't stopped the country unleashing havoc on financial markets.

So imagine the consequences of a much larger country in the euro zone - say, Italy or Spain - getting into serious strife.

This is the disaster scenario investors have been fretting about in recent weeks. And, unfortunately, these fears suggest the euro-zone crisis is likely to continue bubbling along for a while yet.

What's behind the latest round of European jitters?

Spain, the fourth-biggest euro-zone economy, is of particular concern. Its banks received a €100 billion ($125 billion) support package this month but it has done little to calm investors' nerves.

This month, Spanish government bond yields - the return investors are demanding for holding the nation's debt - hit their highest level since the country joined the euro zone. Italy's are also on the rise, though they are yet to hit the highs of last year.

The opposite has happened in Germany, the powerhouse of Europe, as investors flock to safer assets.

As these tremors are occurring, investors fear that Spain, in particular, is less likely to repay its substantial debts due to its prolonged recession.

Perversely, the market's fears can be self-fulfilling. A sharp rise in yields increases the cost of new borrowing by the government, making it even harder to refinance their debts.

There's no magic tipping point but, in the past, countries with bond yields above 7 per cent have often required bailouts.

Spanish government bond yields hit this level recently, and people in the markets are fretting that its government, too, might require a full-blown rescue package, as Ireland, Greece and Portugal did.

If this were to occur, the cost to Europe would be enormous and could raise further question marks over vulnerable economies such as Italy, which is even larger than Spain.

To an investor in Australia, all the fuss about Europe might seem a long way removed from our own economy.

But the arcane workings of bond markets are having a big impact on confidence and the fears look unlikely to disappear any time soon.


Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/money/insight-the-eurozone-crisis-20120626-20z5v.html#ixzz1zFAJ3xc7

China praises Gillard Dalai Lama snub

Daniel Flitton, Guangdong, China
June 28, 2012 - 5:19PM

Chinese state-controlled media has heaped praise on Prime Minister Julia Gillard for refusing to met Tibet's Dalai Lama - singling out her break with the past practice of Australian leaders.

But a senior member of the People's Daily - a mouthpiece newspaper for the ruling Communist party - warned an officially sponsored media workshop that Australia's enhanced military ties to the US sent confusing signals to Chinese people.

Liu Huaxin, a committee member of international development at the People's Daily, told the meeting Ms Gillard's decision to snub the Dalai Lama has been "acclaimed" by China.

He also took the rare step of displaying a photograph of the Tibetan religious leader - whose image is almost never seen in China - showing him alongside a separate picture of Ms Gillard with an illustrated speech bubble saying "No!".

China has so far refused requests by Foreign Minister Bob Carr for Australian diplomats to visit Tibet to investigate human rights concerns.

The talks, the Australia China Media Forum, are being held in the southern province of Guangdong and include around 50 representatives of media from both countries and first took place in 2006.

The stated aim is to promote greater links with China's burgeoning media sector, which like in Australia, is undergoing a transformation fuelled by technological change.

But Chinese retains heavy censorship and media representatives are considered unlikely to stray into controversial issues without official imprimatur.

Mr Liu said through a translator there was a view Australia was "tied up to the chariot of the US and it was easy to get on but more difficult to get off".

He realed off a litany of complaints about Australia's attitudes to China, pointing to the decision to base 2500 US marines near Darwin, recent speculation about a secret chapter on war with China in Australia's 2009 military blueprint, banning Chinese company Huawei from investing in the National Broadband Network and plans for American surveilance drones take off from the Australian Indian ocean territory of Cocos Islands.

But he later clarified his remarks, saying he was reflecting general public perceptions, not official policy.

Former Australian ambassador to Beijing, Geoff Raby, told the forum he had no reason to doubt government denials of any secret China chapter in the 2009 Defence white paper.

He said he was "sanguine" about the US-China relationship and thought conflict was unlikely.

But he wanted Australia to do much more to acknowledge the importace of China and the media relationship was underdown, with no commercial TV corespondents from Australia based in China.

The talks also included discussion of promoting business ties and the role of social media in both countries.
Australia's present ambassador to China, Frances Adamson, said it was important not to fall back on stereotypes when reporting both countries.

China's State Council Information Office sponsored Daniel Flitton's travel to Guangdong.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/china-praises-gillard-dalai-lama-snub-20120628-214ww.html#ixzz1z5VC4YKP