Yes.

Then again, do you think that because it can that it will? Should we behave any differently because of the possibility?

The rights and privacy of Western populations have eroded significantly since the 2001 attacks, has it been worth it?

Because when it's the same "cause" in the name of which innocent people lose their lives it is something that can be fought against in a concerted effort. We shouldn't be afraid of calling a spade a spade, or keep a special eye on a group that is more likely to offend.

This was Islamist terrorism in Boston, just like it was in so many other places. If we pretend it isn't we are weakening efforts to defend ourselves against it.

This kind of terrorism touches all of us. I personally know about 5-6 people who've run the Boston marathon over the years. The husband of a very distant relo in NY was in a building 100 yards from the twin towers when the planes hit. He walked home to Brooklyn and the family spent the day not knowing if he'd lived or died.

I know plenty of Londoners and Aussies who've been on the same subways that were bombed by the same kind of terrorists, in the name of much the same "cause". And every second Aussie's been to Bali.

Yeah, it's personal. Islamist terrorism affects us personally in a way that murderers like Timothy McVeigh never could. That's what makes them successful. If you don't see it, maybe you should grow up and have some kids.

They say 9/11 was the most successful act of terrorism of all time. Not only did they kill 3,000 innocent people, but for the cost of a few hundred grand and a few effectively suicide killers they tied up America into a war that is financially bleeding it dry. And America's financial health affects all of us in the Western world.

So yeah, the least we can do is call a spade a spade.

Yes, it has been, given that we're in a war whether you chose to accept it or not, and there have been a number of terrorist attempts that have been foiled due to those laws.

And yes, we should behave differently. If citizens of a country - US and England - can turn against the country that they either grew up in or gave them a home then a special eye ought to be kept on those communities. What's to say that another cricket loving bunch of guys whose parents came Australia and started a new life won't turn radical and do the same thing in Sydney in the name of Islam? Or their version of it. It's happened before, who's to say it won't happen again?

This is already happening, apparently the Federal Police and Asio have a good working relationship with imams who are happy to point out a potential suspect if they feel a member of their congregation is very far along in his views.

I am not certain they have that working relationship with the Catholic church just in case someone called O'Brien or whatever decides to go off to Ireland and let off a bomb in Belfast.

Oh my :lol:

Where to even begin? :lol:



So how shall we call a spade a spade then?

All Muslims or those of Islamic faith are crazy terrorists?

They all fight this one cause to see all white westerners/Christians die?

Nobody has ever denied that the Boston bombers had Islamic tendencies, but you have to realise that he was an extremist who had derived his logic and way of thinking from Islamic extremists.

I am not saying terrorism should be taken lightly, but the way you are talking is stereotypical American Media 101 all-Muslims-are-terrorists rhetoric.

-PB

Fuck me dead rofl :lol:

So only people who immigrate here can become Islamic Radicals or terrorists in general? :lol:

David Hicks?

-PB

So how should we deal with Islamist terrorism? If at all. Notor, feel free to add your bit too.

Ignore it, IMO. Any freedom lost since 2001 is a win to the terrorists, not to democratic societies.

Norway got it right with their own religious terrorist incident (a right wing christian) - they responded by not taking away any freedoms or rights, mourning the dead, beginning the legal process and celebrating an open & free democracy.

As their Prime Minister said:

So... UKIP, thoughts?

What's come up recently?

UKIP have done very well in the local elections, won't do much for Westminister, but it's stood to represent a change of opinion that the big parties will have to work with. They're the Eurosceptic party.

Nigel Farage seems pretty cluey on economics...he was at the Sovereign Man conference in Chile recently...alongside an all star cast of Jim Rogers, Ron Paul, Peter Schiff. Will be drooling over that vid if it ever hits Youtube. They've only been releasing bits and pieces of it so far.

Im a little more open to multiculturalism myself than the UKIP seems to be, at least from what i know of them. But then we are in Australia and not the UK...its us who should be filling the 'land of opportunity' role. Cant figure why anyone would migrate to europe these days if they had more of a choice, i guess its just an obvious and more porous bordered option than elsewhere.

Do libertarians believe in nationalism, and if so, why?

Varies depending on which end of the 'libertarian' scale...

so classical liberals more so...there is probably a mix of reasons varying from cultural to practical...especially on issues of the welfare state where they would see a more open borders mentality as incompatible with maintaining a social safety net. There is probably also a social and cultural cohesion rationale too.

Minarchists less so, but most likely still on national defense issues (and by that i mean real defense, not US style offense or expansionary militarism)....also to protect gains made by more liberty orientated societies from external influence.

then u have Anarcho-Capitalists who are anti statist and anti nationalist by extension in most cases. I see this as an end point libertarian philosophy...utopian...we'd need to be further advanced in other cultures for true Ancap to work, at least on a species, post nationalist/statist level. Though some ancap folks would probably agree with a nationalist framework to 'protect' an internal ancap society.

Its hard to answer any 'what do libertarians think' type questions, as it is the classic choose your own adventure type philosophy ;)

Fark me, some people are theorising that the Texas Plant Explosion was caused by someone shooting a rocket at it >.<

-PB

800,000 Polish people have come to England since Poland came into the EU. Australia is a big country, it can afford to fill the "land of opportunity" role, Britain is not and has millions unemployed. It's not about multiculturalism, it's about how many people Britain can sustain.

Australia can't sustain it either. Everyone wants to come here for the 'rockstar' lifestyle. Working from nothing to owning it all and subsequently nobody builds up the infrastructure which would sustain the kind of expansion which people purport this country to have the potential for.

We can sustain it better than europe though as Ken points out...the resistance over there to migration is not as blindingly xenophobic as its made out to be....shows up in the Ukip's support being broader than just fringe right wingers or ultra nationalists.

The thing with infrastructure...if we had more lower cost, construction sector migrant labour then we would be able to build the country up further.

But yeah of course with Straya being so run by unionists its no surprise wages here are incompatible with major projects that are not public funded. Hopefully the Libs get in, grow a pair and deregulate the fuck out of this country. Then we'd be able to fulfill some of that potential....we have more than enough foreign capital here, its really labour market costs that hold things back.

There have been anti-Jew rallies all week in Hungary.

Israel have bombed a Syrian Weapons Convey, the second airstrike they've conducted in Syria in about 3 days, and the third since the start of the year.

Quite frankly, given the dire situation the Syrian governments in, I'm surprised they'd be willing to send precious weapons to Lebanon.

Torchlight?

Huh?

The World Jewish Congress is being held in Budhapest. The Jobbik (Hungarian for 'better') Party - a far-right organisation - have been holding anti-Semitic rallies across the city.

I was just referring to Nazi torchlight rallies of the 1930s. Should be on YouTube - check it out, it's a scary sight.

Brazil in talks to hire 6,000 Cuban Doctors

Brazil has begun negotiations to hire at least 6,000 Cuban doctors to work in rural areas, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota says.

Both countries are consulting the Pan American Health Organisztion to allow Cuban doctors to practise in Brazil.

Most Brazilian doctors are concentrated in the country's bigger cities, leaving remote areas badly covered.

Cuba has already sent tens of thousands of doctors to work in Venezuela, which in turn provides Havana with cheap oil.

There was no deadline yet for the doctors' arrival in Brazil, Mr Patriota told reporters after meeting his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, in the Cuban capital.

A Brazilian doctors' organisation, the Federal Medical Council, said the proposal was "irresponsible" because of questions surrounding medical qualifications. It condemned the step as a "politico-electoral" programme.

'Pharmaceuticals'
The talks with Cuba were initiated by President Dilma Rousseff in January last year, during her visit to Havana.

At the time, Ms Rousseff also spoke about joint production of medicine, another topic mentioned by Mr Patriota on Monday.

"Cuba is very proficient in the areas of medicine, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and Brazil is considering receiving around 6,000 Cubans doctors or a little more," said the Brazilian Foreign minister.

Both countries also discussed infrastructure projects in Cuba "such as the Mariel port, and also the refurbishment of the airports in Havana and Santiago, which will also be financed by Brazil," Mr Patriota said.

Brazil is expected to loan $176m (£113m) from its development bank BNDES for work at Cuban airports, Reuters reported.

Cuban authorities say Brazil is its sixth biggest trading partner and main food supplier.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record $661m last year, up 6% on 2011.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22429101?

05.06.13 - 10:43 PM
Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention Chief Arrested For Sexual Assault
by Abby Zimet


How bad is the epidemic of sexual assault in the military? This bad: Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, was arrested Sunday and charged with sexual battery after drunkenly accosting a woman in a suburban Arlington parking lot. Until that happened, Krusinski was chief of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program, which “reinforces the Air Force’s commitment to eliminate incidents of sexual assault." His arrest comes about a week after a report that the military has been handing out breath mints, lip balm and other freebies in hopes they would promote good behavior among the military's evidently many sexual predators and “spread the message of respect" to their victims. It also comes a day before the Pentagon releases its annual report on the epidemic of sexual assault in the military that Krusinski was supposed to be combatting, but, it seems, wasn't.

“How many more reasons do we need to take cases of rape and sexual assault out of the chain of command?” - Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.)

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/05/06-3?

Welp...somebody's about to get a dishonourable discharge.

I back Mugabe land grab says MSP-in-waiting

Paul Hutcheon
Investigations Editor
Sunday 12 May 2013

A Frenchman in line to become a Scottish Nationalist MSP has been criticised for defending Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe's notorious land reform policies.

Christian Allard said Mugabe's land redistribution, when his government forcibly seized farms, was needed, and slammed an award-winning film on the plight of one of the farmers as being "for white people to support white people".

In 1979, Mugabe agreed a land-reform policy which involved buying white people's farms. But in 2000 he began to pursue a strategy of seizing white-controlled land without compensation.

This led to beatings and forced evictions, and has been denounced by Amnesty International as a "corrupt and violent system".

In 2009, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson directed a documentary about farmer Mike Campbell and his son-in-law Ben Freeth as they fought Mugabe's policy in the courts.

A tribunal of the Southern African Development Community ruled the confiscation of Campbell's farm was racially discriminatory, but Mugabe's regime ignored the findings.

The film, Mugabe and The White African, was listed for an Oscar, nominated for a Bafta and was voted best documentary at the British Independent Film Awards.

But in a series of internet postings, Allard savaged the film, saying: "I agree the comments from the dictator are often vile, but so are the comments of Mike Campbell ... Let me be clear, they are men from the past who refuse to accept that Africa is moving on.

"Robert Mugabe and Mike Campbell won't be there for long and every copy of this 'documentary' should be buried with them."

He also wrote: "Mike Campbell, a South African army captain - came to Zimbabwe from South Africa in 1974, in the middle of the guerrilla war against the black majority ... Original Rhodesian white farmers have now all left or have complied with the land reform."

He added: "This 'documentary' was made for white people to support white people to keep hold of the land in Africa."

Allard is set to become a list SNP MSP because MSP Mark McDonald is likely to be chosen as the party's candidate in the coming Aberdeen Donside by-election. If he is, he must vacate his list seat, meaning Allard takes his place.

The documentary's producers, Elizabeth Hemlock and David Pearson, said: "Mr Allard seems to have no concern about the violence directed at the Campbell and Freeth families and [about] the 500 farm workers and their families who lived on the farm.

"The Campbell family were kidnapped and brutally beaten and the injuries sustained by Mike Campbell contributed to his death in 2011."

On Friday, Allard said: "I feel very sorry for the white farmers and what happened to them, but the black majority are suffering more."

However, the SNP press office then provided a statement in his name. It said: "Like every right-thinking person, I abhor the regime of Robert Mugabe and its brutal land grabs. My point is that land reform must always be pursued democratically and consensually."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/i-back-mugabe-land-grab-says-msp-in-waiting.20948693?

Extremism in Nigeria: Africa's great unreported bloodletting

The sophisticated weaponry flooding into the country has enabled Boko Haram to step up the ferocity of its attacks
AP LAGOS SUNDAY 12 MAY 2013


At first, the Islamic extremists in Nigeria's dusty north-east rode on the backs of motorcycles, firing on government officials and other perceived enemies with worn Kalashnikovs hidden beneath their flowing robes. Now, they come prepared for war.

When Islamic fighters drove into a town in north-eastern Nigeria last week, they used anti-aircraft guns, mounted on the backs of trucks, to destroy nearly every landmark of the nation's federal government. Fighters also rode in on at least one bus, the military said, while in other assaults insurgents have fired rocket-propelled grenades.

The militarisation of Islamic radicals in the north comes after witnesses saw Nigerian fighters mingle with the extremists who took over northern Mali in the weeks following a coup there. It also comes after fighters seized massive deposits of Nigerian military equipment and have gained access to arms smuggled out of the lawlessness of Libya.

Those new arms, and the willingness of extremists to use them, highlight the increasing instability in Nigeria's north and the ever-growing dangers facing the nation's weak central government. With dozens dead in other incidents in the past few days, the violence in this country is mounting, but has yet to make headlines in the West. This is, in ways that Mali – with the intervention of French troops – was not, Africa's great silent bloodletting.

"Each year, they grow in prominence and sophistication," said David Zounmenou, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa. "That's what's making the fighting that much more difficult for the Nigerian security forces."

The sophistication of the fighters, who are most likely from the extremist network Boko Haram, could be seen in their assault on Bama, a town some 40 miles south-east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The military said some 200 fighters in buses and pickup trucks laid siege to the town. In their arsenal were truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, weapons seen during the civil war in Libya and the recent fighting in northern Mali.

That attack in Bama killed at least 42 people, as well as 13 others that authorities described as Boko Haram fighters. The insurgents' heavy weapons helped them overrun the barracks of the Nigerian army's 202nd Battalion, as well as a police station, a police barracks, a magistrate's court, local government offices and a federal prison. The extremist fighters freed 105 prisoners during their assault, a Nigerian military spokesman, Lt-Col Sagir Musa, said.

The use of such weapons marks a transformation of Nigeria's Islamist insurgency, which grew out of a riot in 2009 led by Boko Haram members in Maiduguri. That ended in a military and police crackdown that killed 700 people. The group's leader died in police custody in an apparent execution-style murder, fuelling dissent that broke into the open in 2010 with the targeted killings of government officials, security agents and religious leaders who spoke out against Boko Haram.

Since then, Islamists have engaged in hit-and-run shootings and suicide bombings, attacks that have killed at least 1,618 people, according to an Associated Press count. That number doesn't include the killing in April this year of at least 187 people in the fishing village of Baga during fighting between extremists and security forces, as witnesses and human rights activists said Nigeria's military killed civilians and burned thousands of homes and businesses.

Casualties are expected to rise as the extremists now have access to sophisticated weaponry. While in the past decade Nigeria's military has fought against heavily armed militants and criminal gangs operating in the creeks of its oil-rich southern delta, analysts and security officials say those groups never had access to anti-aircraft weapons. Nor did those groups launch attacks on military barracks, or level towns.

Where the weaponry has come from also remains unclear. A propaganda video released in March by Boko Haram, featuring its leader, Abubakar Shekau, showed fighters gathered around weapons they said they had stolen from an attack on an army barracks. Those weapons included what appeared to be heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and possibly anti-aircraft weapons, as well as ammunition and brand-new bulletproof vests.

Another source of tactics and weapons may come from northern Mali, where Nigerian extremists had joined the fighting.

"Boko Haram will also likely recruit militants who fought and obtained new skills from warfare in Mali," wrote the analyst Jacob Zenn in a recent publication by the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Army's West Point. "The Boko Haram attack on an army barracks in Monguno... in which the militants mounted weapons on four-wheel drive vehicles, and the discovery of improvised fighting vehicles in a raid on a Boko Haram hideout in Maiduguri... suggest that Boko Haram has already learned new methods of fighting from the Islamist militants in Mali."

Abubakar Shekau is a shadowy figure, now seen mainly in propaganda footage released by the group. Part theorist and part hoodlum, the former theology student is known to be taciturn, but other details remain murky. Even his age – said sometimes to be 34, on other occasions to be nearer 43 – is a matter of conjecture. And even his very existence has been disputed, as Nigerian authorities believed that he had been killed in 2009, only for him to re-emerge in Boko Haram videos.

Meanwhile, arms are likely to continue to come out of Libya from heavily armed militias there, Mr Zounmenou said. He explained that arms can be transported quickly through the Sahara and into West Africa's Sahel to Nigeria, a major shipment stop for illegal weapons.

While Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has spoken before about the need to control arms shipments throughout West Africa, the trade continues largely unhindered. And as more of those weapons end up in the hands of Islamists in Nigeria's north, more violence can be expected.

"They are now really going to war," Mr Zounmenou said. It is not surprising that on Thursday, the Nigerian President abandoned a much-heralded diplomatic visit to southern Africa to return home to speak to security services about the increased body counts from violence across his nation.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/extremism-in-nigeria-africas-great-unreported-bloodletting-8612408.html

The second US century
Date
May 13, 2013

Clyde Prestowitz
So you think America is in decline and China on the rise? Think again.

Conventional wisdom says that America is in decline, that the American century is over, and that the future belongs to the rest, especially the rest in Asia. Predictions that China's gross domestic product will soon surpass that of the US to become the world's largest economy are legion.

Prominent authors such as CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria and former diplomat Kishore Mahbubani have rushed to publish books predicting a historic shift in the global balance of power as a result of this change in relative share of global GDP. And the Australian government recently indicated its agreement with this thinking by moving to redeploy its resources and reorient its policies in response to a white paper on ''Australia in the Asian Century''.

Yet, there is growing evidence that all of this analysis may be a bit premature and that America is not only coming back but that this century may well wind up being another American century.

All is not well in many parts of the global economy. Japan, facing population decline from 128 million to perhaps only 88 million people over the next 30 years and with extremely rapid ageing and a national debt of 240 per cent of GDP, is making a desperate gamble that it can shake off two decades of deflation by having the Bank of Japan engage in massive buying of assets. Even if it works, this will not solve the population and other deep structural problems of Japan.

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South Korea appears to be in somewhat better shape, but its population decline and ageing rates are worse than Japan's, and any recovery by Japan will entail damage to South Korea's export-dependent economy.

China has been the great story of the past quarter-century and still is a good one. But the miracle days are past. China has followed a growth strategy based on huge investment, sometimes in excess of 50 per cent of GDP. It has now hit a point of diminishing returns. Each new dollar of investment yields a bit less growth than the previous dollar. For a long time the key question has been whether China would get rich before it gets old. The answer increasingly appears to be no.

India has good demographics with a growing, youthful population, but beyond that the Indian story is a very mixed one. Corruption is rampant and a huge drag on growth. The political system is slow, inconsistent and often incoherent.

As for Europe, it is a nightmare. Austerity is the order of the day. Germany's is the only economy with any growth at all and it's not much. Most European countries have rapidly ageing and shrinking populations and increasingly difficult-to-carry welfare burdens. Whether the European Union and the euro will survive are still open questions. In any case, there is no chance that Europe will lead a global revival.

That brings us to the US. Certainly, it has significant problems. Its government debt is high and federal budget deficits large. Unemployment is stubbornly hanging around 7.5 per cent. Its students score only in the middle on international comparison tests, and its banking practices and financial policies were a large source of the global economic crisis of the past five years. All true.

But where would you most like to put your money? The record highs of the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 tell us that for a lot of people, the US is the place. Why? For all the problems, the future is looking brighter and brighter and, in comparison to the likes of China, more stable.

Start with the big trends. US demographics are among the world's best. It will have steady 1-2 per cent population growth for as far as the eye can see, both as a result of domestic births and of continuing immigration. Thus, compared with the rest of the world, with the possible exception of India and Africa, the US workforce will expand and will become relatively younger. The US dollar is and will remain the world's main reserve currency for a long time.

Serious as the US debt and budget numbers are, they are beginning to get better. Households and businesses have largely repaired their balance sheets and the federal budget deficit has declined from 10 per cent of GDP to a bit over 4 per cent and is heading lower. The US economy is now headed for 3 per cent growth in 2013, according to a number of leading analysts. As this continues, government revenues will rise and the deficit will continue to fall.

Of perhaps greatest significance are two dramatic technological and geological developments. Of course, technology, inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit have always been American strong points. In few other places do such endeavours as Google, Apple and Facebook sprout up as frequently as in America. But these bright spots didn't seem to reverse the trend of decline.

In the past five years, however, the technology to obtain natural gas and oil from shale rock formations by fracking has turned the world upside down in America's favour. The US has extensive shale formations over much of the country and these contain as much oil and gas as Saudi Arabia and enough to power America for more than 100 years. Even more importantly, the cost is very low. The price US factories pay for gas is one-third that of German factories and a quarter that of South Korean factories. Cheap gas is also translating into cheap electricity, so that US factories pay half for electricity what a Mexican factory pays and a quarter of what an Italian factory pays. Nor is it just a matter of gas. US oil production has risen by a third over the past four years and America will soon overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world's biggest producer of oil and biofuels.

The gas-oil boom is making America largely energy-independent while creating a huge investment and job creation wave as a lot of manufacturing moves back to America. Given that about a third to a half of the US trade deficit is energy-related, fracking is likely to reduce the deficit dramatically.

The second technology revolutionising production and manufacturing in America's favour is 3D printing. In this process, printers like those that do computer printouts deposit layers of metals, plastics and other materials to create such things as auto and aeroplane parts, furniture, toys and almost anything else you might want to make.

Indeed, in one case, a whole house was built from scratch by 3D printers. The beauty of the technology is that it can be designed to make unusual shapes at low cost and can be expanded gradually and evenly without huge investment in capital equipment. This technology is, of course, not unique to America, but because America is a country of such high demand supplied by a long global supply chain, 3D printing is likely to have the most revolutionary impact by moving much of the production closer to the source of demand, and thereby rearranging the supply chain while greatly reducing the US trade deficit.

Thus America emerges as the major country with the best demographics; best energy picture; improving budget and debt picture; best technology, research and development, and innovation picture; main currency; most powerful military; and most balanced economy.

Perhaps Australia would do well to commission another white paper: Australia in the New American Century.

Clyde Prestowitz is president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington. This is an edited extract from the American Review, published by the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-second-us-century-20130512-2jfuu.html#ixzz2TAeHlLLL

Northeast Japan jolted by earthquake
TOKYO | Sat May 18, 2013 7:09am BST
May 18 (Reuters) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 jolted northeastern Japan on Saturday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

No tsunami warnings have been issued.

The United States Geological Survey recorded the quake at 6.1, with a depth of 20.5 miles. The epicentre of the quake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, more than 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Tokyo, where buildings also shook.

The northeast was hit in March 2011 by a magnitude 9 earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/18/quake-japan-idUKL3N0DZ02420130518?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=governmentFilingsNews

New leads in missing toddler case

Date
May 18, 2013

British police say they have more than 20 suspects in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished from a family holiday in Portugal six years ago.

According to the Daily Mail, a review from Scotland Yard into how the case was handled by Portuguese authorities, identified dozens of fresh leads.

British police said work was under way to support police in Portugal, even though they had closed their investigation into the disappearance.

They new leads included "forensic opportunities" and several "people of interest", which included Britons, who had not been eliminated from the case.

The Mail reported Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann were "greatly encouraged" by the review.

Madeleine vanished from her family's vacation home in Portugal's Algarve region on May 3, 2007, days before her fourth birthday. She was snatched from the family's hotel room while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant.

The McCanns recently went back to the coastal town of Praia da Luz on the anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.

Officials in Lisbon have said they would not reopen the case unless new evidence was presented, while British police are confident the latest breakthrough could result in new and significant evidence.

But the Mail has reported a diplomatic row could be heating up, as Portuguese officials are refusing to reopen the case.

A source told the Mail it was like a "mexican stand-off".

"It's a chicken-and-egg situation. Significant new evidence can be found if the leads uncovered by the Yard are investigated.

"There are two major obstacles to a joint investigation: the money to fund it in Portugal and the loss of face they would suffer from having to agree to such an inquiry."

The case has generated intense media interest in Britain.

British police launched Operation Grange in 2011, to try to solve the puzzle.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/new-leads-in-missing-toddler-case-20130518-2jsw5.html#ixzz2TdbrOJQU