Australia calls off search for shipwreck survivors

Australia calls off search for shipwreck survivors

Australia calls off search for shipwreck survivors

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 12:28 AM PST

SYDNEY, Saturday 18 December 2010 (AFP) - Australia said Saturday it had called off the main search for survivors from a shipwreck on Christmas Island in which dozens of asylum seekers died, as tensions rose on the crowded immigration outpost.

read more

Nine dead in China fireworks accident: state media

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 12:18 AM PST

BEIJING, Saturday 18 December 2010 (AFP) - Nine people were killed and nine others injured when a truck loaded with fireworks material hit an electricity pole and blew up in central China, state media reported Saturday.

read more

Leaflet balloons

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 12:09 AM PST

Defectors and conservative activists release balloons carrying leaflets condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a rally denouncing North Korea, on Yeonpyeong isand on December 18, 2010.

read more


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Philippines cautions over Hong Kong hijack probe

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:57 PM PST

MANILA, Saturday 18 December 2010 (AFP) - The Philippines will put the rights of its nationals first if Hong Kong calls them to testify at an inquiry into a fatal hijacking in Manila, a presidential aide said Saturday.

read more

Child nursery with qualified instructors should be set up at workplace - Rosmah

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:51 PM PST

The prime minister's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor said child nurseries with qualified instructors should be set up at the workplace to prevent accidents involving children.

read more

Malaysia poised to become developed country

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:50 PM PST

Malaysia is poised to become a developed country as various strategies unleashed to solve the economic crisis a decade ago have borne fruit, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

read more

Varsities urged to take stern action on lecturers, students involved in Syiah teachings

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:49 PM PST

Public and private institutions of higher learning are urged to take stern action against lecturers and students involved in Syiah teachings.

read more

Taib Mahmud marries Lebanese woman

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:48 PM PST

Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud is believed to have married a woman in her 30s from Lebanon.

read more

US Senate to hold key test vote on gay ban

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:57 PM PST

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's historic drive to repeal the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" ban on gays serving openly in the US military faces a critical test vote in the US Senate on Saturday.

Supporters who want to scrap the prohibition, enacted in 1993, say they will lose their best chance in years when a new US Congress musters in January with Republicans -- who largely oppose repeal -- in charge of the House.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid played it coy Friday when asked about optimism among backers of the legislation that they will peel off enough Republicans to rally the 60 lawmakers needed in the 100-seat chamber.

"Hope so," he told reporters when asked whether the measure would draw enough support to close off debate and lead to a vote on final passage.

If successful, that second vote would send the measure to Obama to sign into law, fulfilling a 2008 White House campaign promise and ushering in perhaps the biggest sea change in the US military since racial integration began in 1948.

In recent weeks the measure has drawn enough tentative Republican support to clear Saturday's vote, but increasingly nasty political infighting in the year-end session placed the outcome in doubt.

The House of Representatives approved the bill Wednesday by a 250-175 margin that reflected broad US public support for doing away with the rule, which requires gays to keep quiet about their sexual orientation or face dismissal.

Obama responded in a statement that repeal of the ban was "the right thing to do" to ensure all those who risk their lives for their country are "treated fairly and equally."

The legislation envisions lifting the ban only after the president, the secretary of defense, and the top US uniformed officer certify that doing so can be done without harming military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention.

The Pentagon issued a study this month that found a solid majority of troops were not bothered by the prospect of lifting the ban and that the military could implement the change without a major disruption or upheaval.

The repeal effort enjoys broad support from the US public, as well as from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the top US uniformed officer, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen.

Gates has warned that, absent congressional action, US courts may weigh in and force an end to the policy before the Pentagon is fully prepared to do so.

In the years since the ban was enacted as a compromise to deal with the tricky issue of gays in the military, some 13,000 US troops have been ousted, and critics have pointed out that many were trained at great expense, like fighter pilots, or had skills which the US military is starved of, such as Arabic translators.

But opponents of the legislation have cited testimony from US military service chiefs who warned against a quick repeal, citing concerns about unit cohesion.

General James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps and an opponent of lifting the ban, warned Tuesday that ending the ban could jeopardize the lives of Marines in combat by undermining closely knit units.

"I don't want to lose any Marines to distraction. I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda (hospital) with no legs," he told reporters this week.

The Saturday procedural ballot on repeal will occur after the Senate holds a vote on whether to end debate on an immigration bill, which is not expected to net the 60 votes needed to proceed.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a military lawyer who opposes the change, accused Democrats of having "poisoned the well" by blocking amendments on the bill and of being "driven by politics."

But Graham said that while he would vote no on Saturday, "quite frankly I understand that times are changing, and I understand the policy over time may change."

- AFP

Venezuela grants Chavez power to rule by decree

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:18 PM PST

CARACAS: Venezuelan lawmakers yesterday granted President Hugo Chavez extraordinary legislative powers to govern the country by decree for the next 18 months.

Applause broke out as the heavily pro-government national assembly approved the measure just three weeks after the opposition made landmark gains to take 40% of seats – 67 out of 165 – in the new assembly from January.

The new legislature will end the unhindered advantage the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela has enjoyed for five years in passing laws, after opposition parties boycotted the 2005 elections and were shut out of the process.

The new law yesterday appears to mean that Chavez could now simply overrule the legislature by issuing a decree.

"We declare as approved the law authorizing the president... to issue decrees with rank, worth and power of laws on matters delegated to him," said National Assembly President Cilia Flores, adding the measure would be submitted to Chavez immediately.

It is the fourth time Chavez has been allowed to rule by decree since he was first elected in 1999. He was given special powers in 2000, 2001 and 2008, when he approved more than 100 laws.

Chavez asked for the special powers to quickly deal with the heavy rains and flooding in past weeks which has killed 38 people and affected some 130,000.

Originally, the powers were to last for 12 months, but lawmakers extended them to 18 months by "request of the (flood) victims themselves."

According to the government's Gaceta Oficial publication, Chavez's new authority, beside emergency matters, will also extend to finance, housing and infrastructure, social affairs, international cooperation, and urban planning.

In an address to the nation on Thursday, Chavez said he had "nearly ready" some 20 laws he would announce once he was granted decree-ruling powers.

Effrontery to democracy

The assembly backing Chavez's socialist-populist government has scrambled in recent weeks to pass major legislation on the banking system and public administration, among other laws.

One law set for approval would punish electronic media that broadcast messages that put national security at risk, encourage unrest or support killing the president.

The measure, known as the Law of Social Responsibility on Radio and Television, also authorises the executive to order Internet operators to restrict access to websites that broadcast the banned information.

The new law was strongly criticised both inside and outside Venezuela, with opposition lawmakers saying it was an effrontery to democracy and the principle of separation of powers.

"It simply makes a mockery of all our people, including those who voted on Sep 26" for a new Parliament, said Estado Miranda Governor and opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

One of the new lawmakers voted in September, Julio Borges, said Chavez was seeking a stranglehold on power.

"Hugo Chavez's abuse of power these past few days shows that the process behind building a dictatorship in Venezuela is taking on a definite face," he added.

"It's a government plan to disqualify parliament and establish absolute autocratic rule starting Jan 1, with no oversight," said opposition lawmaker Ismael Garcia.

Socialist lawmaker Carlos Escarra defended the new law however, saying "our legal system requires a set of modifications so we can act quickly".

The United States has criticised Chavez's demand for special powers, accusing the Venezuelan president of subverting the will of his people.

"He seems to be finding new and creative ways to justify autocratic powers," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Wednesday.

Chavez later shot back at Crowley, saying he was "reading from the far-right's playbook," and insisting the charge was a "lie."

The new law required a three-fifths vote of the assembly, the same majority now needed for it to be revoked, something unlikely given the new assembly will still include 60 percent of Chavez followers.

- AFP

Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin sells for US$87,000

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:17 PM PST

LOS ANGELES: The coffin in which JFK alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was buried went under the hammer for over US$87,000, the auction house which organised the sale said yesterday.

The pine coffin is partially water-damaged by the 18 years it spent in the ground before Oswald's body was exhumed in 1981 to lay to rest rumours that a lookalike Soviet agent was buried in his place.

The body – confirmed as genuinely his – was reburied in another casket, and the original was offered for sale for the first time, by the Nate D Sanders auction house in Los Angeles.

A spokeswoman declined to reveal the identity of the purchaser who paid US$87,468 for the casket.

According to the Dallas News, the coffin was sold by Allen Baumgardner, a Fort Worth funeral home manager who had kept it after being present when Oswald's body was exhumed.

Oswald, charged with killing president John F Kennedy on Nov 22, 1963, was himself shot two days later and buried on Nov 25, fuelling conspiracy theories which still rage to this day.

- AFP

Protests in Australia after shipwreck deaths

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:11 PM PST

SYDNEY: Asylum seekers have staged two protests on Australia's Christmas Island, an official said today, days after dozens of men, women and children died in a shipwreck as they tried to reach the outpost.

The immigration department official said the demonstrations yesterday were peaceful and involved no damage to facilities at Christmas Island, a purpose-built centre to house asylum seekers while their claims are assessed.

While he would not say what triggered the incidents, he said detainees were upset about Wednesday's disaster in which a fishing boat crowded with families was smashed apart in heavy seas, leaving at least 30 people dead.

"They had something to say and the media were there and they decided to speak up," the department spokesman said.

The first protest involved up to 50 people venting their frustration at conditions inside the camp, including the lack of air-conditioning caused by a power outage on the island, as well as the recent deaths, he said.

The second demonstration included up to 70 people who staged a peaceful sit-in at the gates to the compound, with some holding signs calling on the United Nations to help them.

"It was a passive protest," the spokesman said.

Thousands of asylum seekers, mainly from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, have arrived by boat at Christmas Island in the past 12 months.

- AFP

Seoul to go ahead with fire drill despite North Korea threat

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 02:10 PM PST

By Kim Jae-Hwan

SEOUL: South Korea vowed today to go ahead with a live-fire drill on a border island bombarded by North Korea last month, despite the North's threat to strike back harder.

"There is no change in our stance with regard to the live-fire exercise," a defence ministry spokesman said. "We cannot confirm... whether we will carry out the exercise today."

On Yeonpyeong Island, focus of the latest flare-up which has sparked regional alarm, propaganda balloons were launched today but no artillery shells.

The one-day firing practice scheduled sometime between Dec 18-21 may be delayed till early next week when the weather is expected to improve, the Yonhap news agency quoted a military source as saying.

North Korea yesterday threatened a new and deadlier attack if the South's marines launch shells into what the North claims as its own waters.

"It will be deadlier than what was made on Nov 23 in terms of the powerfulness and sphere of the strike," it said.

US politician Bill Richardson, who is visiting Pyongyang, described the situation as a "tinderbox".

Pyongyang disputes the Yellow Sea border drawn after the 1950-53 war and claims the waters around Yeonpyeong and other frontline islands as its own maritime territory.

Last month's bombardment killed two marines and two civilians and damaged dozens of homes. It came after a firing drill into the sea by South Korean marines based on the island.

The North's latest warning sharply raised the stakes in the crisis.

Russia urged South Korea not to go ahead with the exercise and China, the North's sole major ally, said it opposed any action that would raise tensions.

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun summoned South Korea's ambassador Yu Woo-Ik yesterday to express concern at the planned drill, Yonhap quoted a diplomatic source as saying.

South Korea, outraged at the first shelling of civilian areas since the war, has fortified Yeonpyeong with more troops and artillery and vowed to use air power against any future attack.

Anti-Pyongyang activists launched giant balloons carrying some 200,000 leaflets denouncing the attack towards the North's coastline 12km (seven miles) away.

"Strike Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un who attacked South Korea," read one, in reference to Kim's youngest son Jong-Un, the heir apparent to the leader.

Supporting role

The South's close ally the United States plans to send some 20 US soldiers to play a supporting role in the drill.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley yesterday again defended the South's right to hold the drill in the face of North Korea's "ongoing provocations".

But he said Washington trusts that the South "will be very cautious in terms of what it does".

Pyongyang's disclosure last month of an apparently working uranium enrichment plant – a potential new source of bomb-making material – has also heightened security fears.

The North's website Uriminzokkiri said the drill could spark nuclear war.

"It is clear if war breaks out again in this land, a grave nuclear disaster will take place which will bear no comparison to the Korean War."

Richardson, a veteran troubleshooter with Pyongyang, said he urged North Korean officials to let the South go ahead with the drill.

"I'm urging them extreme restraint," the New Mexico governor told CNN, saying he was "very, very strong with foreign ministry officials" during a dinner yesterday.

"I think I made a little headway," Richardson said.

Analyst Andrei Lankov said that for the first time in decades, a new war on the peninsula appeared to be a distinct probability.

Lankov, a professor at Seoul's Kookmin University, said the Pyongyang regime seemed determined to escalate provocations, and South Korean society was in "unusually bellicose mood" after the last Yeonpyeong attack.

But in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, Lankov said "the hard truth is that restraint is the only option for South Korea".

He said the South in recent decades had shown "almost inhuman patience" in the face of regular provocations – reflecting the grim reality that half its people live in range of the North's artillery.

- AFP

Argentina's YPF to resume Patagonia oil operations

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:47 PM PST

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine energy company YPF will resume operations at its oil fields in the Patagonia region after workers agreed to end a two-week-old strike, a company source said early on Saturday.

Bank of America says cuts off WikiLeaks

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:47 PM PST

REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank of America was quoted as saying late on Friday that it was joining other financial institutions in declining to process payments to WikiLeaks, which has angered U.S. authorities with the mass release of U.S. diplomatic cables.

Who wants a piece of Rio's famed Maracana?

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:31 PM PST

(Brazil-AFP) - Parts of Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium are coming down in a major works project to overhaul the 83,000 seater ahead the 2014 World Cup. Pieces of the 60-year-old stadium, which was built when Brazil hosted the 1950 World Cup, will be sold later by auction. Renovations are due to be completed in December 2012, ahead of the 2013 Confederations Cup. Images of renovation work. Copyright (AFP RELAXNEWS/ AFPTV), 2010.

read more


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Festival of Black Arts lights up Senegal

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:29 PM PST

(Senegal-AFP) - VIDEO: The 'World Festival of Black Arts' has kicked off in the Senegalese capital Dakar. Over three thousand performers are taking part over a three week celebration of art, music, theatre and dance. Copyright (AFP RELAXNEWS/ AFPTV), 2010.

read more


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

World Bank opens up lending for post-war Sri Lanka

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:22 PM PST

COLOMBO, Saturday 18 December 2010 (AFP) - The World Bank said Saturday it has opened another lending window for Sri Lanka thanks to the improved credit worthiness of the war-ravaged island.

read more

WikiLeaks’ Assange says fears extradition to US

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 11:18 PM PST

ELLINGHAM, England, Dec 18 — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said yesterday that he was the target of an aggressive US investigation, and that he feared extradition to the United States was "increasingly likely". The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, whom Swedish authorities want to question over alleged sexual offences, has angered the ...


Iran atomic chief Salehi takes charge as new FM

Posted: 17 Dec 2010 10:41 PM PST

TEHRAN, Saturday 18 December 2010 (AFP) - Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi officially took charge on Saturday as the Islamic republic's new foreign minister after his predecessor was fired by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, media reports said.

read more

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)