WA could be home for US Navy aircraft carrier group

From: AAP August 01, 2012 6:02PM

AUSTRALIA'S HMAS Stirling navy base in Western Australia could become the base for an entire United States Navy aircraft carrier battle group, if a proposal by a US think tank is accepted.

..The idea is contained in an independent assessment of US force posture in the Asia-Pacific commissioned by the military and delivered to US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in late June.

The report prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) focuses on how to align US force posture, now tilted towards north-east Asia, Korea and Japan, to south and southeast Asia.

It outlines a number of options for US forces in the Pacific, including greater use of the Stirling fleet base in Fremantle, to increase overall military capability in the region.

If pursued, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, up to nine squadrons of aircraft, two guided missile cruisers, two or three guided missile destroyers, one or two nuclear attack submarines plus supply ships could be based at Sterling.

CSIS said Stirling offered advantages such as access to existing Australian naval facilities and Indian Ocean training areas, as well as opportunities to expand cooperation with Indonesia, other south-east Asian countries and India.

However, it's further away from troublespots in the western Pacific and Middle East than US bases at Guam and Diego Garcia.

"HMAS Stirling is not nuclear carrier-capable. This forward-basing option would require significant construction costs," the report said.

Costs of between $US1 billion ($A957 million)and $US6 billion for similar bases else where have previously been quoted.

Australia's Force Posture Review, released in May, said Stirling could support an enhanced US naval force posture in the Indian Ocean.

It recommended defence consider expanding wharf capacity and support facilities to meet the requirements of future acquisitions of submarines and warships.

Comment is being sought from the office of Defence Minister Stephen Smith.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said WA should not become a base for the US and warned the state's emergency and police services were ill-equipped to deal with the risks posed by nuclear-powered submarines.

"The Australian government needs to take a clear stand against this encroachment on our independence. We are not a colony."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/wa-could-be-home-for-us-navy-aircraft-carrier-group/story-e6frf7jo-1226440607037

Cold War view shows Romney suffers Asia-Pacific blind spot

DateAugust 3, 2012

Mitt Romney is accumulating some serious frequent-flyer miles. In what has become a summer ritual for presidential candidates, Romney recently embarked on a six-day trip through London, Poland, and Israel to burnish his foreign policy credentials.

Despite campaigning for the presidency for the better part of five years, Romney remains a foreign policy cipher. Before flying to London, he delivered only his second major foreign policy speech since announcing his 2012 candidacy in June last year. The first address, in October, came when he was trying to capture the Republican nomination.

The tone of both speeches was remarkably similar. They were littered with paeans to American exceptionalism and calls for an ''American century''. In neither speech did Romney discuss Asia. China received scant attention; in October, Romney solemnly intoned that China possessed "hidden and emerging aspirations", although he did not try to parse that linguistic inconsistency. This time around, Romney restricted his criticisms to Beijing's trade and domestic policies. No mention was made of the broader strategic implications of an ascending China.

Romney devoted more time last week to Russia, which is proving to be a nuisance to US interests in the Middle East but is hardly a peer competitor, than to addressing the consequences of the profound shifts in power under way in the Asia-Pacific region.

The last nine months have revealed that when Romney does think about foreign policy, Moscow is usually at the forefront. In a March interview with CNN, Romney declared that Russia is "without question our number one geopolitical foe". The next day, Romney argued in an op-ed that Obama had "capitulated" to Russia at the United Nations and "abandoned" a missile defence site in Poland "without extracting meaningful concessions from the Russians".

This Cold War mentality is a stark reminder of Romney's distinct lack of interest in, and understanding of, the Asia-Pacific region. Late last year, as part of the Obama administration's so-called "pivot to Asia", Hillary Clinton declared that the 21st century would be "America's Pacific century". Walter Russell Mead, formerly a senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, has described Washington's new Asia policy as nothing short of a "diplomatic revolution" and "the biggest geopolitical event since 9/11". Including an Asian country on his itinerary - perhaps a stop in Delhi or Seoul - would have provided Romney the opportunity to articulate some thoughts about the great geostrategic questions of this generation. As it now stands, policymakers in Canberra, and in capitals throughout Asia, must be scratching their heads as they ponder a possible Romney presidency.

Of course, no president guides the ship of state alone. Romney's website lists some three dozen foreign policy advisers on hand to assist the candidate as he navigates the campaign waters. Unfortunately, Romney has given few hints as to who among them might assume the top posts in his administration. Nor is there any ideological consistency among this group - it's a grab bag of Republican foreign policy wisdom, from moderates to neo-conservatives. The only thing Romney's advisers have in common is that they advise Romney.

What can be said is that Romney's Asia specialists, Aaron Friedberg and Evan Feigenbaum, do not conceive of the world along the same Manichean terms as does Romney. To Friedberg and Feigenbaum, Beijing and Washington might disagree as often as they co-operate, but this does not mean China represents the kind of existential threat the Soviet Union posed for half a century. It is a subtlety apparently lost on Romney. Friedberg, who served as Dick Cheney's foreign policy adviser, while not convinced that American confrontation with China is inevitable, has argued for a more assertive US presence in Asia. Feigenbaum likewise believes that the US can "pursue good relations with China and good relations with [other Asian] countries, too".

These sentiments are reassuring but do little to ease the sense that Romney has given little thought to the region. To be fair to Romney, foreign policy will not resonate the way it did four years ago, when Iraq was at the forefront of public consciousness. Romney's laser-like focus on the economy undoubtedly reflects this reality. Still, with just under 100 days left in the campaign, plenty of opportunities remain for Romney to lay down a coherent and substantive vision for American foreign policy under his aegis. If he doesn't, Romney might have a lot of time on his hands to use all those frequent-flyer miles.

Adam Clancy is an Australian journalist in Washington who writes regularly for The American Interest.

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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/cold-war-view-shows-romney-suffers-asiapacific-blind-spot-20120802-23idx.html#ixzz22TH5oYHO

Police consider criminal charges against News

DateAugust 3, 2012
Jonathan Russell

LONDON: News International and its directors may face criminal charges in Britain after it emerged the parties could be liable for phone-hacking offences under ''neglect of duty'' laws.

The deputy assistant commissioner leading the police phone-hacking inquiry, Sue Akers, confirmed last week in evidence to the Leveson inquiry that police were taking advice on potential corporate charges from the Crown Prosecution Service.

It is understood criminal charges could be brought under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which covers phone hacking. The legislation allows companies to be prosecuted for phone hacking, with directors liable for negligence that allowed phone hacking to take place.

Several News International staff, including its former director Rebekah Brooks, have been charged with phone-hacking offences relating to the now-defunct News of the World.

Lawyers for News International and News Corp were reported to have contacted ''authorities'' to protest about the potential escalation of the phone-hacking inquiry to a corporate level.

As well as Ms Brooks, both Rupert and James Murdoch sat on the News boards.

The Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment. A News International spokesman said: ''We are aware of the reference made by … Sue Akers in her evidence to the Leveson inquiry and noted also that she agreed that the current senior management and corporate approach at News International has been to assist and come clean.''

Telegraph, London



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/police-consider-criminal-charges-against-news-20120802-23i3w.html#ixzz22TaMbSoE

Syrian peace hopes going with Annan

DateAugust 4, 2012 2

THE resignation of Kofi Annan, the negotiator for international efforts to bring peace to Syria, emphatically confirmed what events on the ground had already been making clear: The country's fate is far more likely to be decided by force than by negotiations.

The former UN secretary-general's announcement that he was ending his attempt to negotiate an end to the conflict came amid a sharp increase in fighting that began after a bomb killed four top security aides to President Bashar al-Assad last month.

While government forces subsequently pushed insurgent bands out of the capital, Damascus, they are now locked in what could be a decisive battle for the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub and most populous urban centre.

''Most people have concluded that this is not going to be settled by talk at the UN, but by developments on the ground,'' said Robert Malley, a former Clinton administration official now with the International Crisis Group think tank.

In comments on Thursday, Mr Annan voiced an opinion he had never before uttered publicly - that, as part of the solution he had been seeking for Syria, Dr Assad would have to go.

''The transition meant President Assad would have to leave sooner or later,'' Mr Annan said in Geneva.

He cited the Syrian government's ''intransigence'' and the opposition's ''escalating military campaign'' as major impediments to his peace efforts, along with a lack of unity in the international community on how to deal with the crisis.

The conflict in Syria, analysts say, has already moved into a new phase that in some ways resembles 1980s Afghanistan, a kind of proxy war for foreign interests in which Western-backed guerillas are fighting to topple an ally of Moscow.

While the Kremlin does not have troops in Syria, as it did in Afghanistan, Dr Assad received diplomatic cover from Russia, a long-time ally. And Dr Assad also maintains the backing of Iran, a neighbour and regional power.

The Obama administration this week reportedly signed off on clandestine action by the CIA on behalf of the Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow Dr Assad. The White House has also agreed to bolster ''non-lethal'' aid to the opposition and make it easier for outside groups to aid the rebels.

The US and its allies are providing increasing amounts of aid to a highly decentralised rebel force that has a substantial Islamist element - including some admitted sympathisers with al-Qaeda.

Washington has said it is not supplying arms to the rebels. That task appears to have been outsourced to allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Those Gulf monarchies, dominated by Sunni Muslims, are intent on helping Syria's Sunni majority overthrow Dr Assad's government, which is dominated by the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The departure of Mr Annan, who served since late February as the UN and Arab League peace envoy to Syria, would seem to signal the unravelling of his six-point peace plan. Inside Syria, both sides in the conflict have long ignored Mr Annan's blueprint, which, among other things, called for the withdrawal of troops and armour from populated areas.

Instead, the small contingent of UN observers still on the ground in Syria said this week that the government had begun using jet fighters - a significant escalation. Meanwhile, insurgents were deploying tanks and other heavy weaponry seized from the military.

On the ground, the brutality of the conflict is increasingly evident, with almost daily reports of ''massacres'' by both sides. A widely circulated video uploaded onto YouTube this week documented the execution of alleged pro-government militiamen by rebels.

Mr Annan, a Nobel peace prize laureate, voiced deep frustrations with his effort to overcome profound divisions among global powers on how to stop a conflict that has already cost more than 10,000 lives.

''I can't want peace more than the protagonists, more than the Security Council or the international community for that matter,'' Mr Annan said.

''Syria can still be saved from the worst calamity - if the international community can show the courage and leadership necessary.''

The spillover effect has already been enormous. Fighting has sent more than 200,000 refugees streaming into neighbouring nations, including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Cross-border battles have erupted along the Lebanese frontier, while Turkey moved up troops and anti-aircraft batteries to its border after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane.

It remains unclear what exactly the UN can do. Major powers such as the US and its allies are hesitant to intervene militarily in Syria.

Russia, with veto powers in the Security Council, was determined to avoid any kind of Libya-style Western intervention. On three occasions Russia and China blocked Security Council resolutions that could have led to sanctions against the government of Dr Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, praised Mr Annan for taking on a ''thankless and difficult task''. She blamed the Syrian government, and without naming them, the Russians and the Chinese, for its failure.

Russian officials appeared surprised by Mr Annan's resignation, and one put the blame on the West. LOS ANGELES TIMES



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/syrian-peace-hopes-going-with-annan-20120803-23l0d.html#ixzz22V1tK0ei

Armstrong seeks restraining order against doping agency

August 4, 2012 - 4:14PM

Cyclist Lance Armstrong says the US Anti-Doping Agency has no authority to force him into arbitration over allegations that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

The seven-time Tour de France winner is seeking a US court order blocking the agency (USADA), which is threatening to strip his titles and ban him from competition if he doesn't meet an August 13 deadline to accept binding arbitration.

Armstrong claims the allegations against him fall under the jurisdiction of the international cycling federation, which hasn't brought a case against him.

"The international cycling federation, the Union Cycliste Internationale, has exclusive jurisdiction over matters in USADA's charging letters and has specifically directed USADA not to proceed," Armstrong's attorney said in a document to the federal court in Austin, Texas.

"USADA has no jurisdiction to bring the charges it has asserted."

Armstrong said, in the same document, that his contracts did not require him to accept USADA arbitration of doping disputes.

Annie Skinner, spokeswoman for Colorado Springs-based USADA, has so far not responded to questions about Armstrong's claims.

US District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin has scheduled an August 10 hearing on Armstrong's request for a temporary restraining order barring USADA from forcing him into arbitration.

Bloomberg



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/armstrong-seeks-restraining-order-against-doping-agency-20120804-23m5s.html#ixzz22Yk7U5Tm

Secret tunnel inflames tensions over Kashmir
DateAugust 6, 2012

DELHI: A week after a secret tunnel was discovered running underneath the disputed India-Pakistan border in Kashmir, authorities on both sides of the border still don't yet know who built it, why, or even which way its traffic was running.

The restive province has been fought over since Pakistan and India came into being in 1947.

As an Islamist insurgency against Indian rule continues, since 1972 a heavily militarised Line of Control has served as the de facto border. But last week, heavy rains caused landslips in the Samba region of India, and revealed sections of a 400-metre long tunnel.

Land suddenly collapsed in the field of Indian farmer Sukhdev Singh in three places, all in a straight line, revealing sections of the tunnel. ''My field had caved in and I immediately rushed to the nearby Border Security Force post,'' he said.

The one metre-by-one metre passageway was more than 7½ metres below ground and ventilated by a five-centimetre diameter pipe.

It runs 100 metres underground on the Indian side and up to 300 metres on the Pakistani, according to media reports, but its exits have not been found, and details of who built it, and why, remain unclear.

India believes the tunnel was dug from the Pakistani side and used as a conduit to smuggle weapons and insurgents into India.

''Since it is difficult to push in the militants to the Indian side [overland], they decided to set up a tunnel to facilitate infiltration,'' the Senior Superintendent of Police, Israr Khan, said.

The two countries meet regularly over border issues, and India's Border Security Force has lodged a ''strong protest'' with its Pakistani counterpart.

The border security chief, UK Bansal, said the tunnel's sudden appearance would damage the already fractious relationship across the border. ''The discovery of a tunnel in Indian territory is something that goes against the confidence-building measures which are being initiated to deepen the trust between India and Pakistan.'' He said he believed the tunnel was dug by militants on the Pakistani side.

But he would not be drawn on rumoured involvement of the Pakistani military or intelligence agencies. ''I will not hasten to reach any conclusion,'' he said. ''We are trying to find out alignment and end of the tunnel - once we have that, the conclusion will become obvious.''

The Indian army says there has been a recent spike in militant activity, with at least six attacks on villages and border posts in recent weeks. More than 300 militants have crossed the border this year, Lieutenant-General KT Parnaik said, with terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba recruiting poor, young men on the Pakistani side to fight against the Indian Army, whom they view as an occupying force.

''It is a new desperate strategy. They may not be getting ideologically oriented hardcore people but they are using the unemployment problem, poverty problem,'' he said.

News of a secret passageway into India has been far less controversial on the Pakistani side. Media reports on the discovery have been scarce, but Pakistan authorities released information that three Indian men, a former soldier and two civilians, had recently been caught spying on the Pakistani side of the border.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/secret-tunnel-inflames-tensions-over-kashmir-20120805-23o0r.html#ixzz22lASYMCe

Leighton Holdings wins $124m contract to help build rail system for Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup

NewsAugust 3, 2012 0

Leighton Holdings wins $124m contract to help build rail system for Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup

by Bonita Mersiades

Guided by international consultants Peter Hargitay, Andreas Abold and Fedor Radmann, Australia may have managed only one vote for our (almost) $50 million of expenditure for the 2022 World Cup, but Australia’s Leighton Holdings has 124 million reasons to smile today.

Leighton’s Middle East subsidiary, the Habtoor Leighton Group, has won a US$124 million contract as part of a consortium led by Siemens AG for the design, construction, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance of a light rail system in Doha’s ‘Education City’ for the Qatar Foundation. The total value of the head contract is $412 million.

Habtoor Leighton’s scope of work incorporates the design and construction of track work, tram stops and the depot facility including maintenance workshops and administration buildings. It will be the first rail system operating in Qatar and is the beginning of an investment estimated at $35 billion in rail infrastructure over the next 10 years leading to the 2022 World Cup.

CEO and Managing Director of Habtoor Leighton, Laurie Voyer, said the company was “delighted” to be awarded one of Qatar’s first rail projects.

“Qatar is a key market for us,” Voyer said. “This project confirms our status as one of the largest and most established contractors operating in the country and by successfully delivering this project, we place ourselves in a very good position to secure additional work as part of the Doha Metro.”

Habtoor Leighton has been operating in Qatar for more than six years and employs 6,000 people. The light rail system is expected to be completed by September 2015.

CEO of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, Hassan Al-Thawadi, said that the investment and development spurred by the World Cup is part of Qatar’s longer term and broad national strategy. Al-Thawadi said one of the reasons Qatar was only interested in 2022 from the beginning of the bidding process (and not also 2018) was because they knew they needed the lead time to have Qatar “World Cup ready” through massive infrastructure and human capital development.

The Qatar 2030 vision aims to develop its social and human capital as the key to its future rather than reliance on finite hydrocarbon resources, and building on Qatar’s existing interest in the areas of energy, media and sport.

“Every modern major sporting event has to complement the nation’s plans,” Al-Thawadi told SB Insider.

http://sportbizinsider.com.au/news/leighton-holdings-wins-124m-contract-to-help-build-rail-system-for-qatar-2022-fifa-world-cup/

Bob Hoskins has Parkinson's, retires from acting
DateAugust 9, 2012 - 6:11AM

Bob Hoskins retires from acting

Bob Hoskins, aged 69, has announced his retirement from acting after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Autoplay OnOffVideo feedbackVideo settingsBob Hoskins has announced his retirement from acting, aged 69, after Parkinson's disease was diagnosed.

The Oscar-nominated star of The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa said he had enjoyed a wonderful career and wished to spend time with his family.

He disclosed yesterday (Wednesday) that Parkinson's, an incurable condition which causes tremors and unsteadiness, was diagnosed last autumn.

In a statement, the actor's agent said: "Bob Hoskins wishes to announce that he will be retiring from acting ... He wishes to thank all the great and brilliant people he has worked with over the years, and all of his fans who have supported him during a wonderful career.

Advertisement "Bob is now looking forward to his retirement with his family, and would greatly appreciate that his privacy be respected at this time."

Hoskins, a best actor Oscar nominee for Mona Lisa, appeared this summer in the Hollywood adventure Snow White and the Huntsman.

In an interview published in April, Hoskins discussed retirement but gave no hints about his diagnosis.

He said: "I'm trying to retire. I'm not doing very well at it though. Every time I say, 'Nah, I don't want to do it'. They say, 'Bob, I know you're trying to retire but I've got a little swansong here' and I get talked into it."

He added that he was beginning to take his health seriously by eating healthily and cutting down on alcohol. "Getting older is not for sissies," Hoskins said. The father-of-four lives in north London with his second wife, Linda, and has said that he is looking forward most to having grandchildren.

Hoskins fell into acting by accident when he accompanied a friend to an audition in 1968 and was mistaken for a candidate. He read for the part and got the role.

A string of bit-parts followed in the 1970s until his big break, playing Arthur Parker in Dennis Potter's 1978 BBC serial, Pennies From Heaven.

His breakthrough film role came two years later, as gangster Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday. Roles followed in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club in 1984, Mona Lisa in 1986 and A Prayer For The Dying in 1987, and Hoskins had his first Hollywood lead in Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, considered a landmark in film for the way that it merged live action and animation.

Although he is one of Britain's most successful actors, Hoskins has always been keen to play down the importance of his career.

"Actors are just entertainers, even the serious ones. That's all an actor is. He's like a serious Bruce Forsyth," he told The Daily Telegraph in 2009.

Frances Barber, who appeared opposite Hoskins in the BBC One drama The Street, was among those paying tribute to his career.

"One of the most generous, brilliant actors ever. Go well, Bob," she said.

About 127,000 people in Britain suffer from Parkinson's disease.

The Daily Telegraph, London



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/bob-hoskins-has-parkinsons-retires-from-acting-20120809-23v5u.html#ixzz232ex14fc

The rise of Ryan: now things might get interesting

DateAugust 10, 2012 - 8:06AM

There is an off chance that the presidential election, to date a dull and relentless slanging match, is about to get interesting.

A chorus is building in the conservative establishment of the Republican Party calling its safe and steady presumed candidate Mitt Romney to select a fiscal firebrand, Paul Ryan, as his running mate.

If he did, there would finally be something to talk about.

Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin, is the young(ish) head of the House Budget Committee who has made a name for himself in the Republican Party not by simply opposing every Democrat budget measure – they all do that – but by drafting his own detailed budget proposal in response.

Not only that, as The New Yorker explains in a feature in its current issue, he has convinced his party to back it.

Called The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise, the proposal is political dynamite.

Under the plan to balance America’s budget, Obama’s healthcare reforms would be scrapped, Medicare would be abolished and replaced with vouchers and massive spending cuts would be introduced across the board.

Rather than raising taxes to help pay down debt, they too would be cut, prompting, it predicts, a surge in business activity and a corresponding lift in employment and thus revenue.

It is conservative catnip. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman has called it cruel and ludicrous, surely the finest stamp of approval a Republican can hope for.

Mitt Romney has endorsed the plan, and President is already campaigning against it.

Until recently it was considered by many to be so radical as to knock its author out of contention to be Romney’s running mate.

But earlier today (Thursday morning US time) The Wall Street Journal backed Ryan for the job in a punchy editorial that declared that Ryan more than any other potential running mate “exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election.”

“Against the advice of every Beltway bedwetter, he has put entitlement reform at the center of the public agenda—before it becomes a crisis that requires savage cuts,” wrote the Journal.

The conservative magazine National Review chimed in with a story headlined Ryan Rises.

”These days, you hear it everywhere — from Republican donors and veteran operatives, and at Capitol Hill watering holes. A few weeks ago, it was a wishful rumor floating in the Beltway ether. Now, sources close to the Romney campaign say it’s for real, that the taciturn former Massachusetts governor is quietly warming to the idea.

“Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the budget king of the GOP, may be Mitt Romney’s veep. ”

The neocon opinion journal Weekly Standard has Ryan’s back too, writing in a long piece that since Romney had already backed the Ryan tax plan and will be forced to stand by it through the campaign, he may as well pick the man himself.

“If your campaign is about telling people ‘we’ve got to cut back on our spending and finally live within our means or we could face economic calamity,’ then there's an awfully strong case for picking Paul Ryan as your running mate,” it concluded.

Even the neo-conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute has voiced its support, publishing an opinion piece a week ago arguing that, “Ryan is serious, substantive – wonky, even – and is clearly ready for the presidency. Importantly, insiders report that Romney likes him, feels comfortable campaigning with him, and considers him a “safe” pick — in the sense that he would be taken seriously as a potential president.”

It goes on, “There are certainly other outstanding picks Romney could make. But if Romney decides to pick someone in the mould of Dick Cheney – someone that combines Cheney’s gravitas with Cheney’s conservative credibility – he could not go wrong with Paul Ryan.”

While Ryan might be uncompromising in his political economics, he has made other tweaks to his public profile to make himself more palatable to conservative voters. He once declared Ayn Rand to be the very reason he got into public life and insisted his staff read her work. In interviews these days is careful to denounce Rand’s atheism in interviews.

There is still good money backing the “safer” candidates, like the former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Rob Portman, the Senator from Ohio, but you can bet Romney will not be ignoring the conservative drums beating for Ryan.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/altered-states/the-rise-of-ryan-now-things-might-get-interesting-20120810-23y19.html#ixzz238rtnlgD

Most major world economies slowing: OECD

From: AAP August 10, 2012 8:45AM

MOST of the major world economies are slowing, with Britain the only country to see tentative signs of a pick-up, the OECD says.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Thursday its composite leading indicators continued to point to "an easing of economic activity in most major OECD economies and slowdowns in most major non-OECD economies".

The individual indicators for Japan and the United States "show signs of a fading growth momentum," the Paris-based OECD, which groups the world's most developed countries, said in its latest report.

The signs from the eurozone, Germany and France "continue to point to weak growth", except in Italy where they point "more strongly to a slowdown".

Data for Britain, however, shows "tentative signs of a pick-up in economic activity", making it the only country to show improvement.

In Canada they point to "continued weak growth".

In the emerging markets of China, India and Russia, the indicators "continue to point to a slowdown" while in Brazil they suggest "a more moderate pick-up in economic activity than in last month's assessment".
.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/markets/most-major-world-economies-slowing-oecd/story-fn7j1dyq-1226447296436

Romney picks Ryan for US running mate
DateAugust 11, 2012 - 9:44PM
.AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has selected Paul Ryan, a US congressman from Wisconsin, as his vice presidential running mate.

The candidate made his announcement to supporters via a phone app, saying "Mitt's Choice for VP is Paul Ryan".

The pair were set to appear together at 9am local time (2300 AEST) in Norfolk, Virginia.

Romney and Ryan are kicking off a four-day bus tour that will take them to as many states.

Advertisement At 42, Ryan is a generation younger than the 65-year-old Romney.

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/romney-picks-ryan-for-us-running-mate-20120811-241o1.html

Passengers 'asked to chip in' for fuel Save this story to read later

From: AFP August 17, 2012
5:24AM

AIR France passengers on a flight which was diverted from Beirut and landed instead in Damascus were asked at one point to chip in and help pay to refuel the plane, a passenger has said.


"We went down in Syria where there were lots of soldiers ... We thought there were some problems and that there was no money to pay for the fuel," 42-year-old businessman Najib said.

"They asked if the passengers could contribute for the refueling. Then they found a solution to the problem" for Wednesday night's flight from Paris that was diverted to Damascus because of tensions in Beirut and then flew on to Larnaca, he said.

Roland, a 23-year-old engineer who was also on the flight which finally landed in the Lebanese capital on Thursday, said the plane was held up in the Syrian capital because of the fuel problem.

"There were some negotiations going on to buy fuel because Air France doesn't fly to Damascus at the moment and so it doesn't have an account" with Damascus airport authorities, he explained.

France's carrier suspended flights to Damascus in March because of the deadly unrest sweeping Syria.

The flight to the Lebanese capital, where unrest broke out on the airport road on Wednesday night, was diverted first to Damascus after an attempt to reach Amman was abandoned and the plane needed fuel to divert to the safety of Cyprus.

According to an Air France employee who declined to be named, the crew at first offered to pay for the fuel in Damascus with a credit card but the transaction was impossible because of financial sanctions which have been slapped on Syria.

He did not specify how the payment was finally arranged for the Boeing 777 with 174 passengers and 11 crew to fly on to Larnaca after a two-hour stop for the refueling.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/air-france-flyers-asked-to-chip-in-for-fuel/story-e6frfq80-1226452220043

Moors murderer 'reveals location of body'

DateAugust 17, 2012 - 12:32PM

Dying mother's plea
Notorious Moors murderer Ian Brady has revealed details about where one of his victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, is buried, British police believe.

Greater Manchester Police said in a statement on Thursday night Brady had recently given details of the location of the body to one of his long-term visitors.

The force added that a 49-year-old woman had been arrested in south Wales on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful exercise, and remained in police custody for questioning.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "On 30 July 2012, Greater Manchester Police received information that led officers to believe that Ian Brady had recently given details of the location of Keith Bennett's body to one of his long-term visitors.

"Officers in the cold case unit made inquiries to the accuracy of this report and have since had extensive contact with Ashworth hospital and Keith's close family."

They said warrants were executed at Ashworth hospital and a private address in south Wales on Thursday.

"A 49-year-old woman has been arrested in south Wales on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful exercise and remains in police custody for questioning. Searches of both locations are ongoing," police said.

Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were responsible for the murders of five youngsters in the 1960s.

They lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor, above Manchester.

Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12, 1963 and John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November the same year.

Keith Bennett was abducted on June 16, 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother.

Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964.

Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.

Brady was given life at Chester Assizes in 1966 for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

Hindley was convicted of killing Lesley Ann and Edward and shielding Brady after John's murder, and jailed for life.

In 1987, the pair finally admitted killing Keith and Pauline.

Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor in 1987 to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline's body was found.

Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, has made repeated calls for Brady to reveal the location of his grave.

Hindley died in jail in November 2002, aged 60.

Brady, 74, has spent the last 25 years at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside.

He was due to go before a mental health tribunal in July but it was delayed after he suffered a seizure.

The tribunal was to consider Brady's application to be transferred to a Scottish prison and be allowed to die. He has been tube-fed since refusing food 12 years ago.

PA



Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/world/moors-murderer-reveals-location-of-body-20120817-24d0r.html#ixzz23npDJxeL

Several people shot outside Empire State Building

From:
AP August 24, 2012
11:44PM

NEW York City officials say several people have been shot outside the Empire State Building and that the gunman is dead.

City police say three or four civilians have been wounded in the morning shooting and that the shooter is dead.

A fire department spokesman says it received a call about the shooting just after at 9am Friday and that emergency units were on the scene within minutes.

The spokesman had no information about how many people were wounded or their conditions.
The shooting occurred at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/several-people-shot-outside-empire-state-building/story-fnddckzi-1226457781266

Greece's PM flags selling off islands

DateAugust 25, 2012

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has suggested his government could sell or lease some of the country's islands to help revive a state asset sales plan central to receiving international funds to prop up his country's failing economy.

He told Le Monde newspaper that uninhabited Greek islands could be used to generate revenue.

''On condition that it doesn't pose a national security problem, some of the isles could be used commercially,'' he was quoted by the newspaper as saying. ''It would not be a case of getting rid of the isles, but of transforming unused terrain into capital that can generate revenue, for a fair price.''

Mr Samaras vowed to speed up asset sales and structural revamping, such as changes to labour markets, after meeting Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the group of euro-area finance ministers, on Wednesday. Greece is behind on money-raising targets tied to €240 billion ($A287 billion) of rescue packages in the past two years.

''The state asset sales process must be relaunched,'' Mr Juncker told reporters. ''I do not ignore that this privatisation process is swimming in difficult waters given the fact that the rumours of the exit of Greece from the euro area are spread around day after day.''

Selling public land is politically sensitive in Greece. A proposal by members of the troika, who represent the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to increase revenue from asset sales, including property, drew opposition from then-premier George Papandreou, who said in 2011 he would legislate to prohibit such sales.

In 1996, Greece and Turkey almost went to war over who owned the uninhabited islet of Imia.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/greeces-pm-flags-selling-off-islands-20120824-24s19.html#ixzz24XpqXTfp

16 Amish face Ohio trial in beard-cutting attacks

By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Published: Aug 26, 2012 at 11:22 AM MDT Last Updated: Aug 26, 2012 at 11:22 AM MDT


TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A breakaway Amish group accused of settling a score by carrying out hair-cutting attacks against members of their faith moved into the hills of eastern Ohio two decades ago following a dispute over religious differences.

How their community came about is quite common and on the rise among the Amish. Disagreements over church discipline and how to maintain their simple way of life amid the encroaching outside world have created dozens of splinter groups.

But there was something troubling about this one and its leader, according to authorities. They say Samuel Mullet Sr. allowed beatings of those who disobeyed him, had sex with married women to "cleanse them," and then, last fall, instructed his followers to cut the beards and hair of his critics, an act considered deeply offensive in Amish culture.

Mullet and 15 other Amish men and women are to go on trial Monday in Cleveland on charges of hate crimes in the hair-cutting attacks. Other charges include conspiracy, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice in what prosecutors say were crimes motivated by religious differences. They could face lengthy prison terms if convicted.

The defendants - including four of Mullet's children, his son-in-law and three nephews - say the government shouldn't intrude on what they call internal church disciplinary matters not involving anti-Amish bias. They've denied the charges and rejected plea bargain offers carrying sentences of two to three years in prison instead of possible sentences of 20 years or more.

Mullet has said he didn't order the hair-cutting but didn't stop anyone from carrying it out. He also has defended what he thinks is his right to punish people who break church laws.

"You have your laws on the road and the town - if somebody doesn't obey them, you punish them. But I'm not allowed to punish the church people?" Mullet told The Associated Press last October. "I just let them run over me? If every family would just do as they pleased, what kind of church would we have?"

The tactics Mullet is accused of violates basic principles of the Amish who value nonviolence and forgiveness even when churches break apart. "Retribution, retaliation, the use of force; that's almost unheard of," said Thomas J. Meyers, a sociology professor at Goshen College in Indiana.

Schisms within the church, which has no central authority, go back centuries and have created a range of Amish churches with varying rules and beliefs. The Amish famously broke away from the Mennonites in 1693 over the practice of shunning church members. Another group known as the Beachy Amish formed in 1927 and soon began allowing the use electricity and automobiles.

There are a dozen groups living in Ohio's Holmes County alone, home to one of the nation's largest Amish settlements, said David McConnell, an anthropology professor at Wooster College. The number has grown as churches struggle where to draw the line on allowing modern technology into their simple, modest lifestyle. Those decisions often revolve around dealing with young people and those who have been forced out of the church, he said.

Matthew Schrock, who left Holmes County's Amish community during the mid-1990s, said religious disputes were common and often took an emotional toll even on those not directly involved.

"When there are conflicts and you find yourself outside the accepted set, it's a very difficult place to be," he said.

Some within the community have trouble letting go following a dispute, he said, because the Amish so closely identify themselves based on their beliefs. "When someone believes something slightly different, that's a threat to my existence," he explained.

When there are splits, a new set of bishops and ministers take over. Sometimes the new group will move away but not usually. Those that are pulled apart can join together at weddings and funerals but not for worship services. Even families can be divided.

"It's a divorce within the congregation," said Karen Johnson-Weiner, a professor at the State University of New York in Potsdam who has written extensively about the Amish. "It's very, very sad and heart-breaking."

The expectation is that the breakup is the end of the dispute, she said.

"Each side says you go off and do your own thing and that's the end of it," said Johnson-Weiner. "There's an understanding that you can't judge them. It's up to God to judge the choices they make."

Mullet relocated the members of his group in 1995 to a hilly area near the West Virginia panhandle where they live on farms along a gravel road.

The 66-year-old, who has fathered at least 17 children, has denied characterizations from authorities that his group is a cult. The hair-cuttings, he said last fall, were a response to continuous criticism he'd received from other Amish religious leaders about his being too strict, including excommunicating and shunning people in his own group.

The Amish believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.

In one of the attacks, authorities say, one couple acknowledged that their two sons and another man came into their house, held them down, and cut the father's beard and the mother's hair. They refused to press charges.

http://www.kboi2.com/news/national/16-Amish-face-Ohio-trial-in-beard-cutting-attacks-167477455.html

Spain downgrades economic performance

From: AAP August 27, 2012 10:24PM

SPAIN has downgraded its economic performance in 2010 and 2011, showing it barely recovered from the last downturn before plunging anew into recession.

Spain's economy grew just 0.4 per cent last year after emerging from recession at the start of 2010, not the 0.7 per cent previously stated, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday.

In 2010, output shrank 0.3 per cent rather than the much milder 0.1-per cent decline earlier estimated, it said.

Spain only emerged at the start of 2010 from nearly two years of recession sparked by the global financial crisis and a property bubble implosion that destroyed millions of jobs and left huge debts in its wake.

But the recession returned with a vengeance.

Output has been shrinking since the final quarter of 2011, and the trend is deteriorating.

In the second quarter of this year the economy posted a 0.4-per cent contraction - after showing declines of 0.3 per cent in the previous two quarters - and the unemployment rate hit 24.6 per cent.

Spain's government is tipping an economic decline of 1.5 per cent this year, and another 0.5 per cent in 2013.

The backdrop is grim.

Spain snatched a 100 billion euros ($A120.8 billion) eurozone rescue loan in June to salvage the balance sheets of its banks.

The government is meanwhile pursuing a severe austerity program, slashing spending to rein in a gaping deficit and to regain the confidence of investors, who are demanding a high premium for loans.

Nevertheless, analysts increasingly believe Spain will have to seek a sovereign bailout as borrowing rates remain high and the nation faces a crunch in October with more than 30 billion euros in debt payments due.

The Spanish government has called on the European Central Bank to come to its aid by resuming its program of purchasing government bonds on the open market.

But the ECB is expected to act only if Madrid accepts new conditions by formally requesting help from eurozone bailout funds, which could also lend a hand by purchasing newly issued bonds.

Spain's statistics institute said it revised the previous years' data after taking into account structural data related to business, agriculture and services.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/breaking-news/spain-downgrades-economic-performance/story-e6freuyr-1226459393645

German business confidence falls: survey

by: By David McHugh From: AAP August 27, 2012 8:28PM

GERMAN business optimism fell more than expected in August, according to the Ifo survey published on Monday - another sign that Europe's largest economy faces trouble from the eurozone debt crisis.

The index released fell to 102.3 points in August, down from a revised 103.2 in July. Market analysts had expected a smaller dip to 102.6 points.

Economists have been warning that the debt crisis in the 17-country eurozone could eventually catch up with Germany. The country's economy has over the past few years done better than the currency union as a whole, which is struggling with a crisis over too much government debt and recessions in several countries. Germany grew 0.3 per cent in the second quarter and unemployment remains low.

But the debt crisis is having an increasing impact on Germany, as orders fall from its eurozone trading partners and businesses and consumers hold off on spending and investment out of fear of the future.

The Ifo index is based on a survey of 7000 German businesses who are asked about their views of current business conditions and their expectations for the next six months. While views of how things are now were only slightly more downbeat, expectations for the future darkened significantly across several sectors, including manufacturing and retailing.

"Enterprises are increasingly pessimist about their business development," Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn said in a statement. "The Germany economy is weakening further."

Troubles elsewhere are starting to make themselves felt. Italy and Spain, the No 3 and No 4 eurozone economies, are in recession as they try to reduce budget deficits and struggle to refinance their debts in bond markets. Greece, Portugal and Ireland have been bailed out by loans from other eurozone countries.

So far, exports to stronger economies in Asia and the United States have helped Germany, and low unemployment has buoyed consumer spending. But that may be wearing off.

"Exports and domestic consumption have shielded the German economy against the euro crisis virus up to now," ING analyst Carsten Brzeski wrote in a note to investors. "This immunity, however, has been crumbling away quickly over recent months. As a consequence, it looks as if the German economy will, at best, be treading water in the coming months."

He said the evidence points to a contraction of the economy in the third quarter of the year. "However, let's be clear, given the sound fundamentals of the economy, any contraction should hardly feel recessionary in Germany," he said.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/breaking-news/german-business-confidence-falls-survey/story-e6freuyr-1226459341013

US soldiers 'plotted to kill Obama'

August 29, 2012 - 9:03AM

A group of American soldiers formed an anarchist militia and spent $US87,000 ($83,922) on weapons in an elaborate plot to overthrow the government and ultimately assassinate the president, a court heard.

The soldiers allegedly made themselves into a group called FEAR, standing for Forever Enduring Always Ready, and bought land in Washington state from which to launch attacks.

They were said to have planned to blow up a dam and poison apple crops in Washington state, bomb a park in Savannah, Georgia, attack vehicles belonging to Department of Homeland Security employees, and take over an ammunition control point at the sprawling Fort Stewart army base in Georgia.

Prosecutors said its long-term goal was revolution; bringing down the US government and killing President Barack Obama. It is not known over what period of time this alleged plot would have taken place.

Advertisement Details of the militia emerged during civilian court proceedings in Georgia in which three soldiers have been charged with murder.

Pte Isaac Aguigui, who was identified as the founder and leader of FEAR, Sgt Anthony Peden, and Pte Christopher Salmon, are charged over the deaths of a former soldier, Michael Roark, 19, and his girlfriend Tiffany York, 17.

The victims were allegedly killed in woodland in Georgia last December, to keep the militia's existence secret.

A fourth defendant in the case, Pte Michael Burnett, 26, admitted two counts of manslaughter on Monday. He is co-operating with prosecutors in a deal which will see him avoid a possible death sentence.

Burnett told the court Pte Aguigui introduced him to "the manuscript", which was "a book about true patriots", and that the militia aimed "to give the government back to the people".

Prosecutors said militia members wore anarchist tattoos and it was unknown how many members there were. The court heard that Pte Aguigui funded the group using $US500,000 in insurance money and benefit payments he received after the death of his pregnant wife a year ago. He was said to have recruited members through the US army.

Prosecutor Isabel Pauley said the militia "possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans".

The Daily Telegraph, London



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-soldiers-plotted-to-kill-obama-20120829-24zfu.html#ixzz24w8bAUKO

Getting to know Romney: will Americans like what they see?
DateSeptember 1, 2012

TAMPA, Florida: In the tone of a wise and forgiving father Mitt Romney has given permission to the millions of people who voted for Barack Obama four years ago to unite with Republican true believers and install him in the White House.

It was a invitation carefully extended many times over the past four days at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, and one that could cost Mr Obama his presidency should he not give his supporters adequate reason to renew their faith during the Democrats' convention next week.

"Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president," said Mr Romney in his speech to formally accept his nomination.

"That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us," he said, setting himself up for the killer line to come.

"Tonight I'd ask a simple question: if you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama?''

Then the pivot to attack. "He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government."

This was one of the other great themes not only of Romney's speech but of the convention. Speaker after speaker highlighted the stubbornly high unemployment rate and linked it to a Democratic Party they claim is wedded to high taxes and cumbersome regulation.

By contrast, the narrative goes, Mr Romney is one of the country's most accomplished businessmen. He made a direct appeal to women to counter claims by Democrats - and some women's groups - that his party engaged in a culture war against them.

"My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, 'Why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation?'

''I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."

He won thunderous applause after declaring the US would become "energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables".

There was unanimous sniggering (a disconcerting sound in a sporting arena) when he said: "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet". Chants of USA USA USA followed, with the denouement: "MY promise is to help you and your family."

By this point, Mr Romney, not a natural orator, was working his audience well. It exploded when he talked tough on foreign affairs: "President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro's Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defence commitments, but is eager to give Russia's President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone."

The audience cooed when he described how his mother learnt of his father's death when the rose George Romney had placed

on her pillow each day of their marriage was absent one morning. He channelled JFK, or perhaps Jed Bartlet, in tone and tempo for the crescendo: "If I am elected president of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight."

Clearly the many hours of preparation he had done - reportedly taking notes on his campaign performances, studying previous convention speeches and rehearsing - had paid off.

Earlier in the evening the campaign introduced the crowd - and more importantly the TV audience - to a string of people it had referred to as character witnesses, who told stories that breathed life into a political figure who has long been viewed as slightly mysterious and distant.

Ted and Pat Oparowsky described how Mr Romney in his role as a Mormon bishop befriended their 14-year-old son, David, as he was dying of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Pat said David, ''knowing Mitt had gone to law school at Harvard, asked Mitt if he would help him write a will. He had some prized possessions he wanted to make sure were given to his closest friends and family''. Mr Romney drew up the will.

Athletes from the Winter Olympics that Mr Romney was drafted to manage after a corruption scandal paid tribute to his leadership. One perhaps drew a long bow when he linked Mr Romney's involvement in America's Olympic success to the nation's recovery from the September 11 attacks.

Introducing Mr Romney, Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and young Grand Old Party star, gave one of the most polished performances of the convention.

He stayed true to the strategy of appealing to Obama voters. "Our problem with President Obama isn't that he's a bad person. By all accounts, he too is a good husband, and a good father - and thanks to lots of practice, a pretty good golfer," he said. "Our problem is he's a bad president."

Clint Eastwood appeared on stage as a mystery guest. His performance veered between doddering and masterful, addressing an imaginary Mr Obama in an empty chair next to him.

The point he was there to make was not clear, but Clint being Clint, perhaps it was enough just to have him there.

By the time Living in America blared, it was clear the Republicans had hit all their marks. Ann Romney's speech - a love letter to Mitt and American women - had dazzled the audience.

The speech of the vice-presidential nominee, Paul Ryan, had energised the Tea Party base and softened his harsh image.

One poll shows that the convention has already given Mr Romney a four-point bounce to 44 per cent against Mr Obama's 42 per cent among likely voters. But it is yet another statistical dead heat despite months of campaigning and millions spent on advertising.

But the US knows Mr Romney better today, and probably likes him more too. It is too early to say if that is enough.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/getting-to-know-romney-will-americans-like-what-they-see-20120831-255pd.html#ixzz25Dsa3Trj

Bill Clinton urges US to stick with Barack Obama

by: Brad Norington, in Charlotte From: AFP September 06, 2012 2:32PM

FORMER US president Bill Clinton has thrown his weight behind Barack Obama's campaign for re-election, declaring his Democrat successor has "laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy".
In a speech to the Democratic National Convention that drew repeated standing ovations, Mr Clinton praised Mr Obama for putting “a floor under the crash” after inheriting a deeply-damaged economy four years ago.

He also drew a sharp contrast between the Democrat President and his Republican opponent, accusing challenger Mitt Romney of wanting a “you're on your own, winner-take all society”.

Mr Clinton was handed an important job by the convention of pumping up voter enthusiasm for Mr Obama, after his standing has slipped in opinion polls.

But he also took more a formal role, personally nominating Mr Obama as “the standard bearer of the Democratic Party”.

.“I want to nominate a man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside,” Mr Clinton said.

The latest pollster.com average of voter surveys puts Mr Romney slightly ahead of the Democrat President, reflecting disenchantment with Mr Obama over his handling of the economy as unemployment remains above eight per cent.

Mr Clinton's relations with Mr Obama have been strained at times, dating back to when the former president's wife, Hillary, fought unsuccessfully to win the Democratic nomination.

But the two men embraced warmly on stage at the end of Mr Clinton's speech and Mr Obama's campaign team considers the former president an important assert whose endorsement could be worth several percentage points in the November 6 election.

Mr Obama's appearance was a surprise after quietly arriving in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier in the day.

Mr Clinton bowed to the President before the two men hugged, amid cheers from the audience.

Mr Clinton had received rapturous support as he urged voters to stick with Mr Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for a second term.

He told Democrat delegates, in a speech televised across the US, that Mr Romney's message last week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, had been “pretty simple, pretty snappy: we left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back'.”

Mr Clinton said he liked the argument for President Obama's re-election a lot better.

“He inherited a deeply-damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for innovators.

“No president, no president - not me or any of my predecessors, no-one could have fully repaired all the damage he found in just four years,” said Mr Clinton.

Voters, he said, had to decide what kind of country they wanted to live in.

“If you want a `you're-on-your-own, winner-take-all society', you should support the Republican ticket.

“If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility - a `we're-all-in-this-together society' - you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Earlier, Massachusetts senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said she supported Mr Obama because he had spent his life standing up for the middle class, while Mr Romney wanted to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.

Ms Warren, a former academic whose nomination to become head of Mr Obama's new consumer watchdog was frustrated by Republicans in the Senate, is now running for the key senate seat formerly held by the late Edward Kennedy but won in early 2010 by Republican Scott Brown.

Ms Warren, said the Democrat President believed in a level playing field and a country where no one got a free ride or golden parachute.

“And Mitt Romney? He wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. But for middle class families who are hanging on by their fingernails? His plans will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to $2000.

“Mitt Romney wants to give billions in tax breaks to big corporations _ but he and (vice presidential running mate) Paul Ryan would pulverize financial reform, voucher-ise Medicare and vaporise Obamacare.”

Sandra Fluke, a young women's rights activist and former law student, said today that the re-election of Mr Obama was important for women across the US.

Ms Fluke, who was accused by conservative radio hosh Rush Limbaugh of being a “slut” and “prostitute” when she advocated university health insurance cover birth control, criticised Mr Romney for staying silent while Mr Obama was prepared to stand up for women's rights.

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll also shows Mr Romney catching up to Mr Obama on a rating of “favourability”.

In one month, Mr Obama's favourability rating has slipped from 50 to 47 per cent. Mr Romney remains behind with 43 per cent viewing him favourably, but his rating has risen three points in one month.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/us-election/bill-clinton-urges-us-to-stick-with-barack-obama/story-fn95xh4y-1226466516568

Greek unemployment surges to 24.4 per cent

From: AAP September 06, 2012

GREECE'S unemployment rate surged to 24.4 per cent in June, according to official figures, as protests continued against a massive new austerity package, with police blocking their colleagues from starting work.

..The Greek Statistical Authority said on Thursday the number of people out of work in June rose by 34,000 to more than 1.2 million. The jobless rate was up from 23.5 per cent in May and 17.2 per cent the previous year.

Greece's coalition government is hammering out a new 11.5 billion-euro ($A14.30 billion) austerity package for 2013-14, demanded by rescue creditors from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

The new cuts, though not yet finalised, are likely to see further cuts to benefits as well as pensions and several groups of employees on the state payroll, including the police.

Earlier on Thursday, protesting police officers in Greece have defied their own colleagues in the riot police and blocked the entrance of one of their own facilities for about four hours.

About 50 members of the Greek Police Officers' Association picketed police facilities at Zografou, northeast of central Athens, preventing buses used for transporting riot police from leaving the site. The buses are scheduled to go to the northern city of Thessaloniki, where weekend anti-austerity demonstrations are planned.

The protesters are planning a protest rally in central Athens later on Thursday with officers in uniform joined by colleagues from the Coast Guard and Fire Service.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/breaking-news/greek-unemployment-surges-to-244-per-cent/story-e6frf7ko-1226466814185

Obama just doesn't tell the truth, claims Romney



Saturday September 15 2012

Mitt Romney accused Barack Obama of a tendency to "say things that aren't true" yesterday, as the Republican challenger came under mounting pressure from a series of polls that showed him trailing in key battleground states.

After a week in which Mr Romney was heavily criticised by members of both parties for political point-scoring following the death of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, the former Massachusetts governor said he was now looking forward to locking horns with Mr Obama in next month's first Presidential Debate.

"I think the challenge that I'll have in the debate is that the president tends to -- how shall I say it? -- say things that aren't true," he said in an interview with ABC News.

Mr Romney, who has been practising hard for the debates, added that he was still undecided on how best to tackle his opponent.

Bounce

"It's difficult to say, well, am I going to spend my time correcting things that aren't quite accurate? Or am I going to spend my time talking about the things I want to talk about."

Although Mr Romney is trailing Mr Obama by just 3.2pc nationally, a new poll yesterday showed him trailing dangerously in the pivotal swing states of Ohio, Florida and Virginia, which analysts say he must win at least two out of three if he is to win.

According the NBC News/WSJ/Marist Poll survey, Mr Obama was up seven points in Ohio (50-43), five in Virginia (49-44) and five in Florida (49-44). The Romney campaign countered that the survey, which was taken after the Democratic Convention, reflected the 'bounce' Mr Obama was expected to get.

Mr Romney said he was unconcerned, predicting that polls would "bounce around" a lot before November 6.

"I'm ahead in a lot of other states, too. I saw one this morning, ahead in Florida, ahead in North Carolina. Gosh, we're even tied in Wisconsin," Mr Romney said. (©Daily Telegraph, London)

- Peter Foster in Washington

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/americas/obama-just-doesnt-tell-the-truth-claims-romney-3229690.html

Poll gives Obama historic September lead

DateSeptember 21, 2012

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is in a better position to win November's election than any candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996, according to a nationwide poll that shows him with an eight-percentage-point lead among likely voters.

In the survey by the Pew Research Centre, Mr Obama is ahead of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney 51 per cent to 43 per cent, the largest advantage in September the survey has shown for any presidential nominee among likely voters since 1996, when Mr Clinton - then seeking re-election - led Republican challenger Bob Dole 50 per cent to 38 per cent.

The latest polling comes amid fresh signs of a rebound in housing, one of the slowest sectors of the economy to recover from the national downturn of 2008.

The government said construction of single-family homes jumped to the highest rate in more than two years. Separately, the National Association of Realtors reported home sales rose last month to the highest level since May 2010.

''It's a substantial lead for Obama'' in the latest poll, said Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Washington-based centre. ''His image is stronger at this point and he's doing better on most, but not all, issues.''

The survey was taken on September 12-16, after both national party conventions and before a videotape surfaced of Mr Romney referring to 47 per cent of Americans as government-dependent ''victims'' who will support Mr Obama in the election.

A USA Today/Gallup survey of 885 registered voters taken on September 18 found 36 per cent were less likely to vote for Mr Romney as a result of his taped comments, 20 per cent more likely to back him and 43 per cent said his remarks would not make a difference. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In the Pew poll, Mr Obama had a 56 per cent to 38 per cent advantage among likely women voters. Mr Romney led among men, 48 per cent to 46 per cent.

Among registered voters, 66 per cent said Mr Obama connected well with ordinary Americans, compared with 23 per cent who said the same thing about Mr Romney.

The survey of 2192 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

A CBS News/New York Times/Quinnipiac University survey showed an improvement for Mr Obama in the three key swing states of Virginia, Wisconsin and Colorado over similar polls taken before the conventions.

The poll gave Mr Obama a 50 per cent to 46 per cent lead in Virginia and a 51 per cent to 45 per cent edge in Wisconsin, home state of Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

In Colorado, Mr Obama led Mr Romney 48 per cent to 47 per cent, within the margin of error, after trailing 50 per cent to 45 per cent last month.

Even before Mr Romney's taped remarks, the CBS/Times survey showed Mr Obama with wide leads among voters on the question of which candidate cared about their needs and problems.

Richard Eichenberg, a political scientist at Tufts University, said the polling impact of Mr Romney's taped remarks ''is probably going to be negligible because the number of unmade-up minds is relatively small''.

''But it is a close election, and in a close election every percentage counts,'' he added.

Professor Eichenberg said the controversy had other potential repercussions. ''In terms of the larger campaign impact, every day Romney is off message is a bad day for Romney.''

BLOOMBERG, AGENCIES

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Pakistani minister puts bounty on anti-Islam filmmaker's head

DateSeptember 23, 2012 - 12:19PM


ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani Cabinet minister has offered a US$100,000 reward for the death of the person behind the anti-Islam video made in the United States that has roiled Muslims around the world, even suggesting that Taliban and al-Qaeda militants could carry out the killing.

Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Balor said at a news conference in Peshawar that he would personally finance a bounty aimed at the maker of the crude, low-budget video that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.

Mr Balor acknowledged that incitement to murder was illegal but said he was "ready to be hanged in the name of the Prophet Muhammad." And he invited the Taliban and al-Qaeda to be "partners in this noble deed," according to news reports.

Advertisement The incendiary statements came a day after violent protests paralysed Pakistan's largest cities, leaving 23 people dead and more than 200 injured, and invited fresh criticism of the government's handling of the crisis.

A senior aide to Mr Balor sought to qualify his statements, saying that their purpose was to channel frustration and anger away from the streets of Pakistan and toward the filmmaker in the United States.


But in Islamabad, the government distanced itself from the comments.

"We completely dissociate ourselves from the statement of Mr Balor," Shafqat Jalil, press secretary to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, said in an interview after several hours of silence from the government.

Mr Jalil added that the prime minister had been trying contact the leader of Mr Balor's party, a minority member of the coalition government. "The PM will try to work something out with him" he said.

An Obama administration official ? said he did not want to comment until he knew more about the context of the comments.

The bounty offer came during widespread criticism of the government, which declared a public holiday Friday to facilitate what it hoped would be peaceful protests, calling it a "Day of Love for the Prophet Muhammad."

"Pakistan was truly leaderless on Friday," said Maleeha Lodhi, a former ambassador to the United States. "By ceding space to the mob, the government actually joined the mob. These statements only reinforce how playing to the gallery has very dangerous, long-term consequences for the country."

Mr Balor did not name the target of his bounty, but it was widely presumed to be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, who lives in California and has been linked to the 14-minute video, described as a trailer for a movie named Innocence of Muslims.

Nakoula has not confirmed reports of his involvement, but he has been questioned by police near his residence south of Los Angeles. In Pakistan, Mr Balor's offer was taken more as a piece of political grandstanding than a serious threat. A day earlier, at least six people died during protests in Peshawar, and rioters destroyed property that included a cinema belonging to Mr Balor's brother, Aziz.

"It is not for us to destroy our country and our own poor people. That's why he said this," said Mr Balor's aide, Zulfikar Ahmed, explaining the rationale for the bounty.

Yet Mr Balor's party has suffered many attacks at the hands of the Taliban, which has killed dozens of his party members in recent years.

Pakistan Railways, the state-owned company Mr Balor presides over, is deep in debt and its performance has been marked by frequent strikes, poor service and train crashes — a fact to which some irate Pakistanis referred in comments on social media after the reward was announced.

"Mr Balor would better serve the Prophet Muhammad by saving the railways," said a person using the name Tariq Ahsan on Twitter.

Protests continued in other parts of the subcontinent. In Bangladesh, clashes between Islamist groups and the police left more than 100 people wounded after the protesters tried to march through the capital, Dhaka, in defiance of a ban on demonstrations that has been in force since Friday afternoon.

In Pakistan, a group of Christians in the northwestern city of Mardan said they would hold their Sunday service on the road to protest the destruction of their church during Friday's riots.

The New York Times



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.Hillary Clinton considers presidential run
DateSeptember 25, 2012

THE 2012 US election may be far from decided, but suddenly there is fresh speculation over the 2016 race, and whether Hillary Clinton might once again feature on the ballot paper.

When Bill Clinton was asked whether his wife might run in four years if Barack Obama is re-elected in November, he hinted it was a possibility. ''I have no earthly idea what she will decide to do,'' Mr Clinton said in a CBS interview.

He said his wife is tired after 20 years of public service - eight as first lady when he was president from 1993 to 2001, then eight more as a senator for the state of New York, and now as Secretary of State.

Mr Clinton said she wanted to take some time off to regroup and write a book. ''I've never met anybody I thought was any better than her at this. But again, we got a lot of able people in our party who want to be president,'' he said.

Asked directly if she would stand, Mr Clinton said: ''I don't know.''

GUARDIAN, AFP


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Polarised America: choose your own truth

September 29, 2012

That footage of Mitt Romney dismissing half the US electorate to a room full of wealthy donors that leaked last Monday may turn out to have been a signal moment of the campaign.

But if you were watching Fox News that day you might not have known it happened. The conservative channel whose trademarked line ''Fair and Balanced'' is more taunt than motto steered clear of the story until the following day, when it demanded to know why the ''mainstream media'' was not focusing on a video dug up by the conservative Drudge Report website revealing that in 1998 the then state senator Barack Obama favoured wealth redistribution.

(Fox News's coverage of the story was so one-legged it was later called ''Chaos on Bullshit Mountain'' by The Daily Show, the news satire program on Comedy Central.)

Over at the left-leaning MSNBC - slogan: ''Lean forward'' - it appeared nothing else happened in the world for days after the leak. The grainy video apparently shot on a mobile phone resting discreetly between a couple of wine glasses was wallpapered onto the screen.

It is almost as though there are two elections going on in the US, each entirely independent of the other. Each side has its own set of facts, and each side is becoming increasingly baffled and frustrated that its opponent will not accept it.

Bias in American media is not new. During the Gilded Age, the Hearst and Pulitzer press empires competed for readership with sensationalism and propaganda.

But after World War II, the US media market settled into a detente, where two or three newspapers and the three networks led national coverage. All strove to divorce opinion from news.

Back then, says David Maraniss, an associate editor of The Washington Post, the networks' voices were no more rabid than the fatherly tones of news anchors such as Walter Cronkite and Ed Murrow.

The detente collapsed with the rise of talk radio, then cable and internet news. The three networks have lost 50 per cent of their audience since 1980.

But this year, says Steve Schmidt, who as a senior strategist for John McCain's campaign in 2008 was partly responsible for the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, America's media has become so polarised it is possible for followers of both camps to live entirely inside their own news echo chambers,

''It used to be as, Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts,'' said Schmidt, quoting the patrician Democrat senator, who died in 2003. ''Well now you can have your own facts, too.''

It is a phenomenon becoming known as post-truth politics.

Maraniss notes that hyper-partisanship has even spread into the more traditionally staid world of book publishing. His painstakingly researched and well reviewed biography of Obama was significantly outsold by the nakedly partisan biography The Amateur, which charges Obama with wrecking the economy and being rude to Oprah Winfrey.

He says reporters striving for objectivity are becoming so hectored by partisan media accusing them of bias that many news outlets have created ''fact-checking'' teams to insulate them.

It is not hard to find evidence that what we once knew as ''facts'' have become contestable. On Thursday, if you wanted a snapshot of the campaign, you might have looked at an average of 471 national polls published by The Huffington Post's pollster (online, left-leaning) to find that Barack Obama was ahead nationally 48.9 per cent to 44.3 per cent.

But what if you were a Republican and those 471 polls didn't suit your worldview? No problem, just head over to UnSkewedPolls. com, where the hosts skew all the polls with a weighting towards Mitt Romney on the basis that the ''mainstream media'' and its pollsters are biased. There, Romney was up by 5 percentage points on Thursday.

With the success of Fox News on the right, and MSNBC on the left, the honest broker CNN has had its market share plummet and other smaller cable news networks have risen to mimic the partisans - Glenn Beck's The Blaze (right), Al Gore's Current TV (left).

This year, Twitter has allowed people to create their own news feeds by choosing to follow reporters and commentators whose views reflect their own, increasing the volume in their personalised echo chamber.

Meanwhile, stories, true and false, are being fed into the machine by an endless loop of wild claims spread via email chains.

David Frum, the former George Bush speechwriter who now can be relied upon to criticise both sides, noted in his Daily Beast blog that to decode Fox you need to see these emails.

He cited Fox host Greg Gutfeld's line that ''Obama is now out of the closet. He's officially gay for class warfare.'' This, writes Frum, is a reference to the email meme that Obama is gay. ''Fox is only the most visible part of a vast alternative reality. Fox's coverage of the news cannot be properly understood in isolation, but only in conjunction with the rest of that system - and especially the chain emails that do so much to shape the worldview of Fox viewers.''

The impact of the polarisation is demonstrable. A survey taken before the 2010 mid-term elections by the University of Maryland's World Public Opinion project found there were ''substantial levels of misinformation'' among all daily news consumers but that those who got their information from Fox were more likely to be misinformed on issues regarding the environment, the impact of the stimulus package and the war on terrorism.

Greater exposure to Fox News increased the degree to which viewers were misinformed.

But viewers of public broadcasting and MSNBC were more likely to believe (incorrectly) that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates.

And a new poll by Dartmouth found 63 per cent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the US invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 per cent of independents and 15 per cent of Democrats shared that view.

The impact can also be witnessed in the broader polarisation of American society. It turns out Romney was right - both candidates have achieved their expected 46 per cent or 47 per cent support, but neither has so far been able to convince enough independent voters to join their camp, and neither side has made any real effort to attract voters to swap camps.

The polarisation is reflected in Congress, which has been unable to pass a budget in three years. Nor can it be a coincidence that a survey last week found mistrust of the media at the highest in history, at 60 per cent.

It is affecting even the most basic social building blocks. One recent study found 30 per cent of Democrats wouldn't want their child marrying a Republican, compared with 50 per cent of Republicans who don't want their child to marry a Democrat. Overall, 40 per cent of Americans objected to mixed political marriages, up from 5 per cent in 1960.

The Pulitzer prize-winning Princeton professor Paul Starr fears there are fewer tangible but perhaps more consequential impacts of the bipolar American media. He cites research by Diane Muntz that shows that, though people tend to be more tolerant when they mix with people with whom they disagree, few people actually encounter opposing positions and those who do become less likely to act politically. This could lead to lower voter turnout.

This is a quandary that could be exacerbated by the influence of Twitter during this campaign.

He also raises research by Cass Sunstein that shows when groups of like-minded people congregate and speak - as was happening en masse online - their existing biases tend to grow more extreme.

The echo grows in the chamber rather than fades.



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Early voters key to deciding US presidency

DateSeptember 30, 2012

Nick O'Malley

THE US election could be decided long before election day as the two contenders mobilise to have their supporters take advantage of early voting laws.

By Friday night it was estimated at least 30,000 people had already voted, many of them in the key swing state of Iowa, which allowed ballots to be cast from Thursday.

It is estimated that this year up to 40 per cent of voters will cast their ballots early - either in person or by mail - rather than joining the long queues on Tuesday, November 6.

Polls open in Ohio on Tuesday and more than 50 per cent of Florida voters are expected to vote early after it begins to accept ballots at the end of October. Both sides believe that in North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada as much as 70 per cent of the vote could be cast early.

President Obama's campaign is seeking to entrench the slight lead he has carved out in the polls by encouraging supporters to vote early.

According to Michael McDonald, who studies early voting at George Mason University, if either candidate secures a strong enough early lead in Ohio and Florida, the election could be won days before the election day.

Dr McDonald, who designed America's first early voting campaign strategy for the Democrats in California says that those people who have contacted election officials in their states requesting early ballots will now be contacted by volunteers equipped with detailed information in a ''micro-targeting'' campaign.

In many states election officials share the names of those requesting early ballots with the campaigns, along with information as to whether they are registered as Democrats, Republicans or independent voters.

The campaigns will cross-reference that information with consumer databases and any information they have gathered on the voters through previous campaign work.

''They will probably know their age, their race and their income bracket. They may have an idea how they have voted in the past. They will know what sort of car they drive - Volvos are Democrats, Beamers are Republicans. They will know how often they go to Starbucks.''

In 2008 Barack Obama's campaign won the early voting by a big margin, but the Romney campaign demonstrated in the primaries that it was prepared for early voting.

On Thursday morning in Iowa most of those in the queues to vote were wearing Obama campaign badges, and the New York Times reported that the Iowa Secretary of State's office said Democrats had a 5-to-1 advantage over Republicans in the numbers of absentee ballots requested statewide.

Dr McDonald said the early voting patterns might more closely mirror the polls. If that is so, Mitt Romney has a tough fight ahead.

According to the Huffington Post's Pollster.com average of 470 polls Obama had a lead of 48.7 per cent to 44.5 per cent yesterday nationally and measurable leads in the key states.

Both candidates have cut back on public appearances as they concentrate on preparing for the first debate, to be held in Colorado on Wednesday.

Each campaign is working hard to lower expectations for its candidate.

In a leaked memo senior Romney strategist Beth Myers noted that Wednesday's debate would be the President's eighth one-on-one debate but Romney's first. She also noted that the President was a ''universally acclaimed public speaker''.

The Obama campaign has been reminding reporters that Mr Romney had 20 debates during the primaries with Newt Gingrich shortly before Mr Gingrich's campaign collapsed.

''I will just take this opportunity to say that Mitt Romney on the other hand has been preparing earlier and with more focus than any presidential candidate in modern history. Not John F. Kennedy, not President Bill Clinton, not President George Bush, not Ronald Reagan prepared as much as he has,'' White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One.

''So, there's no question that he will have a lead on how prepared he is.''

Given the President's tight but consistent lead, the first debate is critical to the Romney campaign. But by the time the two meet again on October 16, some states could be slipping out of reach.



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