http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/ http://www.eblah.com en http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1275097676/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1275097676/#num1 BP's 'top kill' begins again as effort to plug Gulf of Mexico spill continues
By staff writers From: AFP May 28, 2010 11:42am

BP's 'top kill' to cap the Gulf of Mexico oil leak will last at least another 24 hours, a BP official said, after re-starting the procedure following testing.

"I should stress... that this operation continues," BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles said, referring to a risky bid to try to cap the leak spewing from the Deepwater Horizon well.

The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, engulfing it in fire and killing 11 workers. The rig sank two days later.

New oil flow estimates by scientists studying the blown-out well make the leak the worst in the nation's history, far bigger than 42 million litres that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.

US Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt says the results were preliminary, but two teams using different methods determined the well has spilled between 64 million litres and 148 million litres.

Mr Suttles said BP had stopped pumping a mixture of heavy drilling fluids known as "mud" into the fractured pipe to drown the oil flow in the early hours of Thursday, in order to monitor the results before resuming the work late in the day.

"Nothing's actually gone wrong or unanticipated," Mr Suttles stressed, saying it was important for engineers to keep checking pressures as robotic submarines carry out the complex operation nearly a mile (1.6km) down on the seabed.

"We reinitiated a second round of pumping and drilling mud late yesterday evening and continued that to just before midnight, when we stopped pumping operations. We then suspended activities overnight while we monitored the well,” he said.

Since the pumping had been halted "we have been assessing the first - results from the first portion of our top kill efforts," Mr Suttles said.

"We restocked the vessels that were offshore and we have developed the next phase of the top kill operation. We should begin pumping operations some time a little later this evening."

He stressed the flow of oil had not yet stopped and that the operation "may take longer" than anticipated.

Disaster is a ‘wake-up call’

US President Barack Obama unveiled tough moves to suspend new oil drilling and exploration following the Gulf of Mexico disaster, while denying the Government was too slow to tackle the crisis. After reviewing an Interior Department report into the massive oil spill, Mr Obama outlined four steps to prevent such an accident from happening again including suspending 33 deepwater exploratory wells being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico for six months.

"If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wakeup call," he said.

Planned exploration in two locations off the coast of Alaska was suspended, and "we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia," he said.

Mr Obama said the disaster showed the need to develop renewable energy sources, but dismissed charges the Government had acted too slowly in the crisis.

"This notion that somehow the Federal Government is sitting on the sidelines and for the last three or four or five weeks we've just been letting BP make a whole bunch of decisions is simply not true.

"This entire White House and this entire Federal Government has been singularly focused on how do we stop the leak and how do we prevent and mitigate the damage to our coastlines."

But the US President said that "more than anything else this economic and environmental tragedy, and it's a tragedy, underscores the urgent need for this nation to develop clean renewable sources of energy". He said it was time to move forward on legislation to promote renewable energy sources.

"It's time to accelerate the competition with countries like China who have already realised the future lies in renewable energy and it's time to seize that future ourselves."

http://www.news.com.au/world/b.....frfkyi-1225872318733]]> Sat, 29 May 2010 11:47:56 SuziH http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273477659/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273477659/#num1 Deadly violence mars Philippines election

Elections in the Philippines have been marred by violence with six people killed, while voters have expressed frustration at problems with vote-counting machines that led to long queues.

More than 40 million Filipinos were expected to turn up at polling stations across the archipelago to elect a successor to president Gloria Arroyo, whose near decade-long rule has been tarnished by allegations of corruption.

Noynoy Aquino, a 50-year-old bachelor, is the favourite to win the presidency.

But violence that always plagues Philippine politics, as well as problems with the nation's first effort at using computers to count votes, fuelled longstanding concerns about the whether the election would be credible.

More than 17,000 positions are at stake - from president down to municipal council seats - and local politicians are infamous for using their own "private armies" to kill rivals or intimidate voters.

At least two civilians were killed as a series of battles raged in the flashpoint southern province of Maguindanao, where 57 people died in an election-linked massacre late last year.

The army, which had deployed thousands of troops to Maguindanao in a bid to minimise the violence there, said soldiers engaged in a series of fire fights with unknown assailants.

Voters fled polling booths to escape the violence, while the military reported the two civilians who died were killed elsewhere in clashes between the private armies of rival candidates for a vice-mayoral post.

Another four people were killed in other parts of the restive southern Philippines this morning.

Mr Aquino's main rivals are former president Joseph Estrada, 73, and property magnate Manny Villar, 60.

Two major independent surveys gave Mr Aquino voter support of between 39 and 42 per cent, a two-to-one lead over his challengers that places him on course for the biggest win in Philippine election history.

Another candidate for the lower house is Imelda Marcos, 80, who gained global notoriety when thousands of her shoes were found in the presidential palace after her late husband Ferdinand's overthrow in 1986.

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/10/2895297.htm]]> Mon, 10 May 2010 17:47:39 Paula http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273476996/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1273476996/#num1 Europe approves massive bailout package
By business editor Peter Ryan

European Union finance ministers have agreed on a rescue deal worth more than 500 billion euros ($717 billion) to stop the financial crisis in Greece from spreading to other fragile EU economies.

In an emergency meeting, EU finance ministers pledged to do "whatever it takes" to underpin the sinking euro currency and to prevent a second phase of the global financial crisis.

The enormity of the combined guarantee mechanism is reminiscent of the global emergency leading up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

In total, 720 billion euros is standing by to underwrite the sinking euro currency - now at a 14-month low against the US dollar - and potentially some of the debt of struggling EU member nations.

As he arrived at today's emergency summit, Swedish finance minister Anders Borg summed up the fears of a widening global crisis if a deal was not reached.

"We now see herd behaviours in the markets that are really pack behaviours, wolf pack behaviours, and if we will not stop these packs they will tear - even if it's self-inflicted weakness - they will tear the weaker countries apart," he said.

The aim was to strike a deal before markets opened in Asia this morning and with the clock ticking, the ministers made a deal about 2:30am Brussels time.

Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado delivered the news to breathless financial markets.

"It shows the decision that we are placing considerable sums in the interests of stability in Europe," she said.

The EU's monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn underscored the reality that Greece was now a sideshow to a much wider problem with global implications.

"This is not only about Greece but about the financial stability over the European Union as a whole," he said.

"The finance resistance by the commission and by the member states and the actions taken today by the ECB [European Central Bank] proves that we shall defend the euro, whatever it takes."

Broken down, the potential cash fire represents 440 billion euros from 16 Euro governments, 60 billion euros from the EU and a further 220 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund.

Mr Rehn says the rescue deal will underpin Spain and Portugal, which could follow Greece into crisis.

"This is particularly crucial for countries that have been under speculative attacks in recent weeks," he said.

"They need to take action now and in this sense I'm satisfied to know that Portugal and Spain have expressed their clear commitment to take significant new measures."


Market relief

The guarantee had an immediate impact on the euro, which rose more than 0.5 per cent against the US dollar.

The price of crude oil jumped and futures trading for Wall Street pointed towards a positive opening for the first time in a week.

In Australia, the All Ordinaries Index rose 1.6 per cent, despite earlier predictions of another dismal day.

Westpac's chief economist, Bill Evans, says today's emergency action has put a credit crisis on hold for the time being.

"This has really settled things down. It's indicating that the credit crunch that we thought may have been starting in Europe has been short-circuited at this stage," he said.

But will the EU's intervention be enough to save the euro? Currency strategist Boris Schlossberg is still worried.

"There's so much fracture going on in the Union that there's a very serious risk for the first time since it's been created of real fragmentation in the eurozone, of the euro possibly blowing up as a currency," he said.

"That certainly is something that I think none of the European leaders want to see."

Mr Schlossberg says that in addition to the euro, the EU needs to take a firmer stance on underwriting sovereign debt repayments.

"We have a huge amount of maturity coming up in Italy, in Spain, and all of those debts are going to start to really begin to impact on the market, unless there is some sort of facility to be able to refinance that debt perhaps internally," he said.

"So ultimately I think the market really needs to see that the ECB is going to monetise some of this debt in order to be fully reassured that they can control this issue."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/10/2894790.htm]]> Mon, 10 May 2010 17:36:36 Paula http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1270553277/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1270553277/#num1
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces May 6 UK election

    * From correspondents in London
    * From: AFP Link to story
    * April 06, 2010 7:59PM


BRITAIN'S general election will be held on May 6, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced in Downing Street today.

The British leader had earlier that day  left his office at 10 Downing Street in central London at

10am (9pm AEST) for the short drive to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen for permission to dissolve parliament.

The Queen had been enjoying an Easter break at Windsor Castle but returned to Buckingham Palace by helicopter minutes ahead of her meeting with Mr Brown.

The election is expected to be the most tightly fought in nearly two decades, with Labour and the opposition Conservative Party battling to win over voters based on the merits of their rival plans to support Britain's economic recovery.

Fresh opinion polls published today had both parties poised for a tough battle over the next four weeks, with a hung parliament a distinct possibility.]]> Tue, 6 Apr 2010 21:27:57 122 http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1260181107/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1260181107/#num1 It seems we've been hearing about it and waiting for it for ages.

What will it bring? Or will it just be another talk-fest?



Letter to Copenhagen from the People of Australia - the final draft]]> Mon, 7 Dec 2009 21:18:27 122 http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1231321866/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1231321866/#num1 Wed, 7 Jan 2009 20:51:06 iview http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1227972229/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1227972229/#num1 'Weeks' to repatriate tourists in Thailand

From correspondents in Bangkok
Agence France-Presse
November 29, 2008 10:10pm
    
THE repatriation of thousands of foreign passengers following protests which have paralysed Bangkok's airports could take up to a month, the deputy premier says.

The effects on Thailand's tourism industry could be "mammoth'', Olarn Chaiprawat said.

Around 30,000 passengers a day are missing flights because of the closures, and with travellers currently being evacuated from a Vietnam War-era navy base in eastern Thailand, progress has been slow.

"The operation to help return passengers home may take around one month from now to be done,'' Mr Chaiprawat said.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport closed on Tuesday after protesters stormed the terminal and authorities shut Don Mueang domestic airport on Thursday after a similar blockade.

Mr Chaiprawat  said up to 50,000 Thais were stuck abroad because of the occupation, which police have shown no signs of wanting to end amid fears of bloody clashes with protesters.

The operation to repatriate foreigners and Thais would cost at least $US28 million ($42.56 million), he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24727911-23109,00.html



We have some people from work expecting to be home. Not sure what is happenning with them.]]> Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:23:49 122 http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1226891809/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1226891809/#num1 Obama vows to shut down Guantanamo Bay
November 17, 2008 - 10:10AM

US President-elect Barack Obama says he will shut down the "war on terror" internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and rebuild "America's moral stature in the world" during a major interview aired on Sunday.

"I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that," the Democrat, who takes office on January 20, told 60 Minutes.

"I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world," Mr Obama added.

AFP
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.a.....7/1226770317069.html

Obama's CrackBerry habit
Jeff Zeleny | November 17, 2008 - 11:27AM

Sorry, Mr President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.

Those are seven words president-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.

For years, like legions of other on-the-move professionals, Mr Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry - or CrackBerrys as they are sometimes called for exactly that reason..

But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about keeping email secure, he faces the Presidential Records Act - which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review - and the threat of subpoenas.

A final decision has not been made on whether he could go against precedent to become the first emailing president but aides said that seemed doubtful.

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the US is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. But Mr Obama seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score. Aides said he hoped to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first US president to do so.

Mr Obama is the second president to grapple with the idea of this self-imposed isolation. Three days before his first inauguration, George Bush sent a message to 42 friends and relatives to explain his predicament.

"Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace," Mr Bush wrote from his old address, G94B@aol.com. "This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you."

But in the eight years since, as BlackBerrys have become ubiquitous - and often less intrusive than a telephone - the volume of email has multiplied and the role of technology matured.

Mr Obama used email to stay in touch with friends when he was on the road. He also relied on email to keep abreast of the rapid whirl of events on a campaign day.

"Given how important it is for him to get unfiltered information from as many sources as possible, I can imagine he will miss that freedom," said Linda Douglass, an adviser who was on the campaign.

Even if he does not carry a BlackBerry or a mobile phone, Mr Obama almost certainly will not lack a variety of new forms of communication.

On Saturday, as he broadcast the weekly Democratic radio address, it came with a twist. For the first time, it was also video-taped and archived on YouTube.

The New York Times
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.a.....7/1226770315216.html



]]> Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:16:49 SuziH http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1226048705/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1226048705/#num1
By RAY LILLEY – 42 minutes ago

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A party representing New Zealand's indigenous Maori may hold the key to power in elections Saturday that could also end the rule of one of the world's longest-serving elected women leaders.

Polls have shown a center-right coalition is consistently ahead of Prime Minister Helen Clark's Labour government, though both sides were cautious Friday as they wrapped up their campaigns.

The country's foreign affairs and trade policies are unlikely to change much no matter which side wins — including the long-standing ban on nuclear-powered ships entering New Zealand ports that has rankled military ally Washington.

Domestic issues dominated the campaign, though the global financial crisis loomed large, worsening a recession and forcing both main parties to pare back promises of big tax cuts.

Conservative National Party leader John Key, a multimillionaire former foreign currency trader, has campaigned on a platform of change and says he can better steer the country though the economic woes.

Clark argues that the troubled economic times mean voters should stick with the government they know.

"At the end of the day it will be people seeing Labour puts people and jobs first," Clark said, predicting a closer result than polls suggest.

National and Labour are racing for a majority in the 123-seat parliament, but the country's complex proportional voting system ensures small parties get a significant number of seats, and government is formed after intense horse-trading.

Both sides have wooed smaller allies to their side — Greens and Progressives to Labour and conservatives to National. The only unaligned group is the Maori Party, likely to win at least four seats.

If Labour claws back late ground, the Maori party may be able to play kingmaker.

"We'll decide totally based on the relationship and also what we are able to advance for our people," Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said of who her group would support after the vote.

Maori make up 15 percent of New Zealand's people but are among the poorest, worst housed, least healthy and suffer higher unemployment and crime rates than most other citizens. They blame their conditions on European colonization that saw their lands seized and many tribes impoverished.

The party's other leader, Pita Sharples, said Maori had drawn inspiration from Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential election, which "sends a message to New Zealand that anything is possible."

"It's a message to the whole world that we can build on our past and move forward," Sharples told The Associated Press. "Such a success in America has got to be stimulating and good for the world."

Maori have been part of mainstream politics in New Zealand for more than a century, and there are more than 20 legislators with indigenous backgrounds across the spectrum of parties.

Sharples said he hoped Obama's win would spur more voters in New Zealand to support candidates who want to close the social divides between minorities and the broader community.

Clark, 58, and who first came to power in 1999, has pledged to deal with Maori Party concerns.

Key, 47, and in parliament for just five years, acknowledges some of his policies are "diametrically opposed" to the Maori Party's, but says he will be flexible if they hold the key to his party taking power.
]]> Fri, 7 Nov 2008 20:05:05 Dara http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1219991784/ http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/m-1219991784/#num1 -I think Georgia was a bit dumb for attacking when they know Russia has their own agenda in this country
-I think I support Georgia, these people stole their land
-But this is the way any new country is made..even in ancient times.. attack and conquer.


The comparison sounded a little strange, looking around this city, the capital of the enclave of South Ossetia, which was burned and battered by Georgian attacks earlier this month. Bullets had torn big chunks out of the pine trees, and the turret of a tank lay upside down in a doorway. Someone had spray-painted the words “Shame, Georgian bootlicker!” on a wall on the main boulevard.

Still, after Russia formally recognized South Ossetia as an independent state, Zalina Tskhovrebova, editor of the city’s largest newspaper, allowed herself to think about the distant, wealth-drenched European principalities of Liechtenstein and Andorra, which are about the size of South Ossetia.

“Of course, I have not been there,” Ms. Tskhovrebova said. “We only know what we have read on the Internet.”

Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations has filled people here with hope that other countries will follow. To outsiders, that hope may seem far-fetched; Western leaders have made it clear that they consider the regions part of Georgia.

Critics are particularly skeptical of South Ossetia, whose population of around 70,000 is about the same as that of Passaic, N.J. Most of its working-age men have been fighting against the Georgians for years, and the drawn-out conflict has left its economy a shambles.

Nevertheless, a building has been designated for the city’s first embassy, which will belong, naturally, to Russia. And Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, directly addressed South Ossetia’s smallness in a news conference. [ Why  not just become part of Russia then >:C ]

“There are at least half a dozen U.N. members whose population is less than the population of South Ossetia,” Mr. Lavrov said. “I believe the smallest U.N. member state’s population has some 9,000 members.”

This city has been the site of sporadic fighting for 18 years, culminating in five days of fierce shelling the second week of August. People here are still deeply shaken by the attacks. Attending a boisterous rally on Wednesday, Gulo Pukhayeva, 46, said that for two days, her neighbor’s body lay on the street in the late-summer heat, but Georgian soldiers were posted in tanks at the intersection and they were too afraid to pick up the body. Recalling it, she began to cry.

But Elionora Bedoyeva, South Ossetia’s minister for youth affairs and tourism, was preparing to once again pitch the region as an eco-tourism destination. Her efforts to date have been unsuccessful, she acknowledged with wry good humor. Last year, she organized a booth at a tourism fair in Moscow and persuaded one group of young people to come to South Ossetia on vacation.

“We were so poor that we found each other quickly,” she said. They were the first group of tourists to visit since 1990, when the conflict against Georgia began. They arrived in late July and, unfortunately, got caught in a cross-fire and fled the country. [WOW!]

The mountains here are untouched by heavy industry, she pointed out. Besides, young Ossetian men have been carrying out military operations in the mountains for years, she said, and would make wonderful guides. She talked about starting a ski resort, and it was clear that her competitive juices were flowing.

Sochi, the wildly popular resort on the Black Sea, “has snow for four months a year,” she said.

“We have it for seven.”

With Russian aid pouring into Tskhinvali, it was beginning to take on a new aspect.

Two weeks ago, the air was thick with dust and debris, and bodies lay uncollected in the streets. On Thursday, teams of young Russian men were swarming around a few damaged buildings, wearing neat uniforms with labels that said “Special Construction.” They were cutting glass to replace windows, putting coral-colored paint on a primary school and spackling hundreds of bullet holes. A caravan of trucks passed through town, distributing “Genuine Russian Bread” and a popular Moscow daily, “Russian Newspaper.”
[IT'S BLOODY RUSSIA! OMG. INDEPENDENCE MY a**.]

The Soviet-era House of Printing has been remade into an International Press Center, and journalists now receive press accreditation by the “State Commission for Information and Press of the Republic of South Ossetia.” An exhibit titled “Genocide” appeared this week, with photos of injured children and burned and mangled bodies.

There was no glass in most of the windows, though, and the bathrooms remained a reminder that a war had occurred.

“I would like it to maximally resemble civilization,” said Alexei Martynov, who runs the press center. Despite the dust and heat, Mr. Martynov appears every day in a fresh business suit and tie, providing a contrast with the thick-necked Ossetian militiamen who lounge in front of the building, Kalashnikovs propped beside them.

Mr. Martynov — the director of a nonprofit group in Moscow called the International Institute for Newly Established States — said it was time for South Ossetia to shrug off of its warrior mentality and usher in a period of “managers and engineers.” He said it could prove to be a model for a number of “states with unclear political status,” like Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova that has also moved to reunite with Russia. One possibility would be to make it a tax haven, a strategy that has worked for Monaco, Andorra and Liechtenstein, he said.

“Why can’t Liechtenstein be here?” he said. “The only difference is that they are in the center of Europe. They have the Alps. We have the Caucasus.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/europe/29ossetia.html?ref=europe]]> Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:36:24 Dara