The Australian
Talk about gutting the allies ! Jeeze !
Costs hit fighter jet order
John Kerin
January 04, 2006
AUSTRALIA may halve its order for US F-35 joint strike fighter jets to 50 planes because of continuing cost blowouts on the $256billion project, a move that could threaten regional air superiority.
Australia had pledged to buy 100 of the radar-evading stealth aircraft to replace an ageing air wing of 71 F/A-18 attack aircraft and 26 F-111 tactical fighter bombers.
The first of the US-built Lockheed Martin joint strike fighter aircraft are due to be delivered to Australia in 2014.
Australia has joined its allies in the project to build the planes, which has enabled the order to be purchased for a reduced total of $16billion, including maintenance, spare-parts and other costs.
But a senior Defence official has warned a parliamentary inquiry in Canberra that Australia could be forced to reduce its target order if the US slashes the number of planes it plans to build, because this would further drive up costs of the troubled F-35 project.
The price of the aircraft has reportedly already blown out from $45million to $60million per plane, but this could rise further if the US slashes its order of 2500 aircraft by one-fifth, as some US reports have suggested.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17725359%255E601,00.html
US out of cash for Iraqi projects
Stephen Farrell, Baghdad
January 04, 2006
THE US is nearing the end of its $US18.4 billion fund for Iraqi reconstruction, with little prospect of further multi-billion-dollar injections.
In language mirroring the announcement of a planned reduction of troops, US officials in Baghdad have begun talking of "drawdown", "transition" and the "wind-down" of US reconstruction projects.
Instead, they will focus on the Iraqi Government's capacity to manage its own affairs.
Outlining the "drawdown", one US official said: "US reconstruction is basically aiming for completion (this) year. No one ever intended for outside assistance to continue indefinitely, but rather to create conditions where the Iraqi economy can use reconstruction of essential services to get going on its own."
The realisation that the last of the US money will be allocated by mid-year, but with work due to continue well into next year, will dismay the Iraqis.
Millions are frustrated at the lack of large-scale projects such as power stations. They expect the US coalition to rebuild the shattered country's electricity network and essential services.
In the capital's Baladiyat district, amid heaps of sewage and rubbish, casual labourer Hamza Abbas said: "There isn't any construction. The only construction is piles of trash. Even if anything is rebuilt, it will be sabotaged and the money will be in vain."
In the slum of Sadr City, traffic policeman Jassem Zawaed conceded that international and Iraqi efforts had begun paving roads and treating sewage, but said: "It's only the beginning."
Brigadier-General William McCoy, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Gulf, said contracts for 80 per cent of the $US18.4billion ($24.9billion) had been issued. Those for the remaining funds will be issued by mid-year.
Asked if more congressional money was expected, he replied: "No. Our intent always was that as (the Iraqis) began to generate their own revenue and stabilise their own economy and stabilise the security situation, they would take this over."
Brigadier-General McCoy insisted the Iraqis' ability to rebuild had "developed quite well".
While 60 per cent of reconstruction contracts were once carried out from design to completion by international firms, almost 77per cent now went to Iraqi contractors, he said.
US officials say experts will remain to train Iraqi ministerial staff to manage their budgets. The aim is to decentralise and free up the sclerotic Iraqi economy through privatisation and subsidy reductions, and to improve the business climate.
Washington also aims to replace the poorly targeted ration system with a welfare network designed for the "poorest of the poor" - the 25 per cent of Iraqis living on less than $US1 a day.
But Iraqis complain that, almost three years after the war, Iraq still produces just 4800 megawatts of power, little more than the 4000MW before the war, and far short of its needs.
Baghdad remains a special problem, receiving just three hours of electricity a day because of sabotage to the oil and electricity lines.
Insurgents have exploited the public anger, timing a series of attacks on the vulnerable electricity and oil lines to coincide with the Shia-led Government's recent decision to increase petrol prices five-fold.
The price rises caused riots and tyre-burning protests among Iraqis accustomed to having the world's cheapest petrol.
Although Brigadier-General McCoy insisted the trend of attacks was down, he confirmed that last week was the worst so far for the US-led reconstruction team, with six personnel killed in attacks or accidents, four wounded and two kidnapped.
But he said his team, especially its Iraqi members, remained "resilient".
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17725491%255E601,00.html
HOW MANY Journalists were wiretapped as well with incoming messages into their companies in the USA? These wiretapes were exclusively of average citizens. Company executives, you name it, if it was speech or messages of internet coming in or our of the USA it was tapped. That includes nearly every American.
Andrew Sullivan: Restoration of the imperial presidency
January 04, 2006
"NOW, by the way, any time you hear the United States Government talking about wire-tap, it requires - a wire-tap requires a court order. Nothing has changed." Those are the words of President George W. Bush on April 20, 2004.
He reiterated them at a press conference the following July: "The Government can't move on wire-taps or roving wire-taps without getting a court order."
In both cases he was referring to the Patriot Act, which expanded the federal Government's powers for surveillance in the war on terror. But his statements were broad ones, designed to reassure Americans that their constitutional rights were protected, and we now know the President was not telling the truth.
It turns out the President has authorised thousands of wire-taps of American citizens' phones without any court order for the past four years, clearly violating a 1978 law that set up a special court to monitor and approve such taps.
The wire-taps were restricted - or at least so we are told - to domestic recipients of foreign phone calls, and so could be viewed as falling within the remit of the President's foreign policy rather than his domestic one. They are also unobjectionable to most Americans. A recent poll showed 64 per cent were fine with wire-tapping Americans if they might have contacts with terrorists abroad.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17722595%255E7583,00.html
Sudanese refugees face new hurdles
IT is 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, and Thomas Thiik, 21, has just been released from prison.
"I've been free for two hours," he said, dipping into a pizza box. "So I'm having a celebration."
Thiik (pronounced "Tik") went to jail for three months for driving without a licence, a crime that he, as a newly arrived refugee from Sudan, says he could not comprehend.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17725357%255E2702,00.html
Villages cut off as flood toll rises to 63
January 04, 2006
JAKARTA: Rescuers struggled to reach cut-off villages and recovered dozens more corpses yesterday as the death toll from flash flooding in central Indonesia reached 63.
Several villages were inundated when heavy weekend rains triggered a landslide on a hill in Panti, a district of East Java province, and forced a river to break its banks early on Monday.
Television footage showed a crying survivor carrying a dead baby wrapped in a blanket and policemen hauling injured people on stretchers from destroyed villages in the district of Jember, about 900km east of Jakarta.
The local government scrambled to provide food, shelter and medicine to more than 5400 people made homeless by the flooding. Heavy rains sent mud, water and logs crashing into villages, destroying hundreds of buildings.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17725155%255E2703,00.html
Plight of Katrina's forgotten victims
David Nason, New Orleans
January 04, 2006
IF Renita Miller ever chose to be resentful about the aid money now pouring into New Orleans for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, many would say she had every right.
The Florida-based mother of eight, who has two dependent grandchildren, is a Katrina victim too, but in the political uproar that followed last year's hopelessly inadequate New Orleans relief effort, people like her were put to one side.
Ms Miller lives in a low-income housing project at Homestead in southern Florida.
The community was battered by storms on August 25 last year as Katrina made her way east into the Gulf of Mexico. Flooding ruined most of Ms Miller's family's meagre possessions.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17725161%255E2703,00.html
US warns Iran off nuclear plan
From correspondents in Washington
January 04, 2006
THE US threatened to seek international action against Iran if it resumes nuclear fuel research, suggesting the world's patience with Tehran could be wearing thin.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack accused the Iranians of doing a "bob and weave" in negotiations to persuade them to halt uranium-enrichment activities that could lead to a nuclear bomb.
"Our view is that if Iran takes an further enrichment-related steps, the international community will have to consider additional measures to constrain Iran's nuclear ambitions," McCormack said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17727072%255E23109,00.html
Corpses dragged from Iraqi home
By Dhia Hamid in Baiji, Iraq
January 04, 2006
EIGHT corpses, including those of two children, were pulled overnight from the rubble of a house in northern Iraq after it was bombed the previous night by US aircraft.
The air strike came as a team of international monitors started to review contested results from Iraq's December general elections following accusations of fraud by Sunni-based and secular parties.
The US military confirmed it attacked a house in Baiji, 200km north of Baghdad, yesterday after an unmanned drone spotted three men planting a roadside bomb and then fleeing into the building.
"The individuals were assessed as posing a threat to Iraqi civilians and coalition forces, and the location of the three men was relayed to close air support pilots," said US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17727016%255E23109,00.html
Bali tourists numbers plunging
From correspondents in Jakarta
January 03, 2006
FOREIGN tourist arrivals to Indonesia's resort island of Bali fell 22 per cent in November compared to a month earlier, figures showed today as the October suicide bombings still kept visitors away.
Some 67,700 foreign visitors travelled to Bali in November, down from October's 86,800.
The figure was down 59.8 per cent on September's 168,200 arrivals, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
"The fall remains attributable to the effects of the Bali bombing II," the bureau said in a release posted on its website, referring to triple suicide bombings which targetted popular eateries in Bali on October 1.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17723430%255E23109,00.html
Big quake hits in Pacific
From correspondents in Washington
January 03, 2006
A BIG earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hadhit the Fiji region of the south Pacific, the US Geological Survey reported today.
It said the tremor occurred at 10.13am (0913 AEDT), 335km north west of Tonga's Nuku'Alofa.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said it did not expect the quake, which happened 579km below the earth's surface, to trigger a damaging Pacific-wide tsunami.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17719251%255E23109,00.html
Nazi hunters decry trial 'whitewash'
From correspondents in Tallinn
January 03, 2006
A JEWISH organisation that tracks down Nazi war criminals overnight slammed Estonia's judiciary as inept and corrupt after the Baltic state's prosecutor dropped a case against an Estonian businessman accused of murdering Jews in World War II.
"The conclusions of the Estonian investigation of suspected Nazi war criminal Harry Mannil are a pathetic political whitewash and we categorically reject the prosecutors assessments of the case," Efraim Zuroff, the Israeli director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said .
"Mannil should be held accountable for his role in the fate of Estonian civilians persecuted and murdered by the Nazis and their Estonian collaborators," Zuroff said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17718989%255E23109,00.html
Yemeni landslide toll hits 63
From correspondents in San'a Yemen
January 02, 2006
THE number of people killed in last week's landslide in Yemen rose to 63 today after search teams pulled out seven more bodies, said a council official in the north Yemeni village.
Six of the corpses recovered belonged to children aged seven to 16 years old, councillor Bakeel al-Thufeiri said.
The seventh body was that of a 20-year-old woman who was due to get married next week.
The village of Dhafeer, about 100km north of the Yemeni capital of San'a, was half buried last week when part of an adjacent mountain broke loose and flattened 23 houses.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17717566%255E23109,00.html
Bomber kills Iraqi police
January 02, 2006
AT least five policemen have been killed after a suicide car bomber struck their bus in Baquba north of Baghdad today, a medical source said.
The bus was taking policemen to a Kurdish city in the north for training.
Another five policemen were wounded in the attack, the source said.
The area around Baquba, 65km northeast of Baghdad, was scene to several attacks against Iraqi security forces and civilians lately.
Insurgents stormed a police checkpoint with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in a small town near Baquba a week ago, killing five policemen and wounding four.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17715142%255E23109,00.html
Buddhists shot dead
From correspondents in Yala
January 02, 2006
TWO Thai Buddhists including an army officer have been shot dead in separate attacks by suspected Islamic militants in southern Thailand, police said today.
Sergeant Major Chan Thanyod, 32, was shot dead and two other soldiers wounded while patrolling a village in Yala province's Ban Nang Sata district early today during an ambush by an unknown number of gunmen, they said.
Thai Buddhist Viroj Plienjai, 69, was shot dead in Pattani province's Muang district late on Sunday afternoon as he guarded a private house.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17713468%255E23109,00.html
Christian priest murdered in Laos
From correspondents in Hanoi
January 02, 2006
AN evangelical Protestant pastor was killed in Laos late last month, an official spokesman in Vientiane said Monday, confirming an exiled group's report.
Aroun Voraphom led a religious service at Pakading town in central Bolikhamsai province on December 22 and never made it back home.
"The motive for the murder seems to be clear - it was to steal money," Laotian foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy said, adding that provincial authorities were still investigating.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17713196%255E23109,00.html
China prepares for big freeze
From correspondents in Beijing
January 02, 2006
CHINA, already enduring its coldest winter in 20 years, is preparing for a cold snap that will see temperatures drop by as much as 16C, state press said today.
Northern China, where temperatures are already as low as minus 15-20C, will feel the strongest effects of the cold front, which is sweeping in from Mongolia and western Siberia, the China Daily reported.
In the capital of Beijing, which enjoyed a relatively warm start to the New Year with temperatures just above freezing, the thermometer is expected to plunge 10C tonight, according to the paper.
The Beijing News advised the city's residents to return home from New Year holidays early today to avoid expected overnight snowfalls.
Even in the warmer southern regions, the temperatures are expected to drop sharply.
"Upon the heels of the cold front ... more snowfall can be expected in the north with rain or snow flurries possible in the south," the paper quoted Yang Guiming, a senior official with the Central Meteorological Office, as saying.
Wang Bangzhong, a deputy director with the China Meteorological Administration, said temperatures across China had already been 1.5C lower than the historical average throughout December.
"China is experiencing the coldest winter in 20 years," Mr Wang told the paper.
He said three more successive "winter freezes" were expected to affect China during January, usually the coldest month of the year.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17713048%255E23109,00.html
Troops kill 12 crude oil thieves
January 02, 2006
NIGERIAN troops killed 12 men caught stealing crude oil from a pipeline in the southern state of Delta, the head of a government task force on pipelines said overnight.
Siphoning oil from pipelines, a practise known locally as bunkering, is common in the Niger Delta, a vast region of mangrove creeks and swamps that accounts for almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) production of crude.
Government official Isiaka Pachiko said troops on patrol in remote Oghara community stumbled on a group of bunkerers on Saturday who had heavy drilling equipment and four trucks ready to be loaded with oil.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17711556%255E23109,00.html
Iraq coalition numbers decreasing
By Will Dunham in Washington
January 02, 2006
THE number of countries with troops in Iraq as part of the American-led coalition is declining, with some key US allies planning to keep forces there only at reduced levels.
These developments come as the United States plans to roll back the size of its own 155,000 strong force that was in place for December 15 Iraqi parliamentary election and considers deeper troop cuts later in 2006.
Meanwhile, the number of US-trained Iraqi security personnel has been steadily growing and stands at 223,000, according to Pentagon figures.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17711528%255E23109,00.html
Storm Zeta lingers over Atlantic
From correspondents in Miami
January 02, 2006
A SLIGHTLY weakened Tropical Storm Zeta lingered over the open Atlantic overnight, a month after the end of the official Atlantic and Caribbean hurricane season.
The 27th named storm of a season that broke a whole catalogue of weather records, Zeta's centre was about 1795 km southwest of Portugal's Azores islands, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
The storm's maximum sustained winds were near 85km/h, and a further weakening trend was forecast to begin during the next 24 hours, the Miami-based centre said.
Zeta caps a record hurricane season that forced forecasters to choose storm names from the Greek alphabet after exhausting their annual list of 21 names.
The previous record for most tropical storms was 21, set in 1933. Fourteen of last year's storms strengthened into hurricanes, breaking the old record of 12 set in 1969.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17711524%255E23109,00.html
Syria expels former vice president
By Roueida Mabardi in Damascus
January 02, 2006
SYRIA'S ruling Baath party has expelled former vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who has implicated the regime in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
The party, which has ruled Syria with an iron grip since 1963, said Mr Khaddam's comments to Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya from his base in exile in Paris were a "slander which violates the principles of the nation".
"The national leadership has decided to throw Khaddam out of the party. It considers him a traitor. Khaddam has betrayed the party, the homeland and the (Arab) nation," the party leadership said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17711523%255E23109,00.html
Tourists' skydiving adventure ends with five dead in dam
Sean Parnell and Steve Creedy
January 03, 2006
A PLANE that crashed shortly after take-off yesterday - killing three foreign tourists learning to skydive, an instructor and their pilot - had been modified to use an engine similar to the one that failed in the Whyalla crash that claimed eight lives in 2000.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17717357%255E23349,00.html
Bird flu outbreak confirmed
From correspondents in Beijing
January 04, 2006
CHINA'S Agriculture Ministry had confirmed an outbreak of bird flu in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the China Daily newspaper reported today.
More than 1800 poultry were found dead on December 22 on a farm in Sichuan's Dazhu county and Agriculture Ministry officials sent to the area confirmed the birds had the H5N1 strain of the virus, the report said.
Since then, 12,900 poultry in the area had been culled to try to contain the virus, which is found mostly in birds but which scientists fear could mutate into a form that can pass easily between people, leading to a pandemic.
Scientists are worried because the virus, although hard for humans to catch, has killed more than half the people reported to have been infected.
Since late 2003, more than 70 people have died in Asia from bird flu and the virus is endemic in poultry flocks in parts of the region, highlighting the urgency in trying to control the disease and prevent more human infections.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17727304%255E1702,00.html
Bail over 11,000 ecstasy tabs
January 04, 2006
A MAN allegedly caught in a car with thousands of ecstasy tablets and $24,000 cash would plead not guilty to drug offences, an Adelaide court has been told.
Salvatore Lupoi, 30, was granted bail today in Adelaide Magistrates Court after his lawyer, Tim Moffat, said his client would plead not guilty.
Police allegedly stopped Mr Lupoi on December 22 in a car in which were found 11,000 ecstasy tablets and $24,000 in cash.
Further police property searches yielded 5000 more ecstasy tablets, amphetamines and cannabis.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17727192%255E1702,00.html
The Intelligencer/Wheeling News Register
Arrest Those Who Sell Votes, Too
The Intelligencer
As recently as 1990, a pint of cheap whiskey was all it took to buy a vote in West Virginia. That ought to make thoughtful, ethical Mountain State residents want to throw up.
Federal prosecutors are continuing their campaign against vote fraud in southern West Virginia. During the past several months they have uncovered plenty of it in both Lincoln and Logan counties. One former state Division of Highways worker has admitted that, during 1988 or 1990, he bribed some Lincoln County voters with pints of whiskey and, sometimes, cash payments of $10 to $15. In another case, Logan County Clerk Glen D. Adkins admitted that he sold his vote for $500 in 1996.
Southern West Virginia at one time was infamous for vote fraud. Clearly, attempts to influence elections illegally are far from a matter for the history books.
We're pleased that federal prosecutors are attacking the problem - but we have a suggestion for them. Nothing that the authorities do seems to eliminate the problem. Down through the years, dozens of public officials have been charged with election fraud-related offenses.
Perhaps it's time to begin arresting those who sell their votes - as many of them as possible. The message being sent to voters thus far is that those who buy votes will be prosecuted, but most of those who sell them will get off with merely a bad scare.
Why not prosecute West Virginians who are willing to trade honest elections for pints of rot-gut? That may be the only way to eliminate election fraud in the Mountain State, by letting dishonest voters know that they may not take elections seriously - but the rest of us do.
http://theintelligencer.net/edit/story/014202006_edt01.asp
Mexican Regime Insincere on Illegals
The Intelligencer
The debate over illegal immigration from Mexico naturally tends to focus on what U.S. policymakers ought to do - for instance, actually dedicate resources to border and employment law enforcement. But what about Mexico's role in the creation of an illegal Diaspora that now numbers at least 10 million?
Illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States principally consists of poor, uneducated Mexicans looking for a better life north of the border. Victor Davis Hanson, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, points out in a Wall Street Journal essay that these illegal immigrants represent Mexico's "abjectly immoral export of its own dispossessed." Mexico's impoverished show by their actions that they see more hope working illegally in the United States than in a change in their own government and its policies.
The Mexican government clearly likes things the way they are. It exports its poor to the United States, whose law-abiding taxpayers then pay for health care, prison space, education and other costs associated with illegal immigration. Meanwhile, those who escape the reach of U.S. law send home some $10 billion to $15 billion a year in cash "remittances." No wonder the Mexican government openly agitates in the United States on behalf of its exported citizens, while doing little to improve their lot at home.
The United States government's continuing de facto acquiescence to Mexico's export of its poor, Hanson says, enables Mexico to avoid reforms in its own government and economic policies. Mexico is not lacking for resources. It has vast tropical and semi-tropical coasts, fertile land and abundant mineral deposits. But corruption remains pervasive, and the government still leans toward socialism.
The North American Free Trade Agreement was supposed to boost Mexico's economy, and the election of Vicente Fox was supposed to be a harbinger of cleaner government. Neither has fully materialized. Hanson argues that a big reason is that by exporting millions of its poor, Mexico relieves itself of a political pressure point for reform.
Congress and the Bush administration should get serious about border and employment law enforcement. But they also should get serious about the true nature of the Mexican government, and hold the Fox government accountable for its actions - and inactions - when it comes to trade policy and foreign aid.
http://theintelligencer.net/edit/story/014202006_edt02.asp
The New Zealand Herald
Whales under threat again
03.01.06 1.00pm
By Michael McCarthy
Twenty years after the introduction of an international whaling moratorium the great whales face renewed and mortal dangers in 2006.
A double threat is looming for the world's largest mammals, many of them endangered species, in the coming year.
In the biggest whale slaughter for a generation, more than 2000 animals are likely to be directly hunted by the three countries continuing whaling in defiance of world opinion: Japan, Norway and Iceland. And in a crucial political move, this year the pro-whaling nations look likely to achieve their first majority of votes in whaling's regulatory body, the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
The first development will be brutal, bloody and shocking to many people who might be under the impression that whaling is a thing of the past. But the second may be even more significant for whale welfare in the long term, for it would pave the way for an eventual resumption of commercial whaling, which the 1986 moratorium put on indefinite hold.
Japan is leading the way on both counts. Its whalers are currently in the Southern Ocean where they plan to kill 935 minke whales, more than double the number they took last year, all of them under the guise of "scientific" whaling - killing the animals allegedly for research purposes. This label is a fiction which fools no one, as whale meat, popular with Japanese consumers, is sold on the open market.
It is also hunting 10 endangered fin whales - the second-largest animal on earth, after the blue whale - and over the next two years will seek to harpoon 40 more fin whales, and 50 humpbacks, the big whales whose spectacular "breaching" - leaping from the water - delights observers on whale-watching cruises.
Norway, which is pursuing commercial whaling openly by simply declining to adhere to the moratorium, is following close behind, with another leap in its planned kills in the coming year. Four days before Christmas, the Norwegian government announced it would increase its 2006 whale hunting quota by a further 250 animals to 1052, following a unanimous recommendation by the Storting (Norwegian parliament).
Iceland, which resumed whaling three years ago, also under the "scientific" label, killed 39 minkes last year and is expected to hunt a similar number in 2006.
That all adds up to by far the bloodiest bout of whale slaughter since the days of full-scale commercial whaling and has greatly angered environmental campaigners.
"People should wake up to the scale of what is happening this year," said the whaling campaigner for Greenpeace UK, Willie McKenzie. "Politicians who are supposed to be anti-whaling especially need to wake up to it, and press their governments to put as much effort into saving the world's whale populations as the whaling countries are doing to exploit them."
Greenpeace has sent two of its ships to the Southern Ocean to try to hinder whaling operations directly. In actions strongly reminiscent of those which first made the group famous in the 1970s, activists in small inflatable boats have been trying to block the harpooners' line of fire and, on a number if occasions, have succeeded.
Joining in the pursuit of the Japanese whalers is the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which says one of its ships, Farley Mowat, was nearly rammed by the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru on Christmas Day.
What especially angers environmentalists is the fact the Japanese hunt is taking place in the Southern Ocean Whaling Sanctuary, an area encompassing 21 million sq miles of sea around Antarctica which the IWC declared off-limits for whaling in 1994. Japan ignores it.
Some campaigners are now calling for the anti-whaling countries - the so-called "like-minded" group, led by New Zealand, Australia, the US and Britain - to take legal action against Japan over the "scientific" whaling issue.
"Scientific whaling needs to be stopped, and legal action needs to be taken against Japan in the International Court," said Joth Singh, director of wildlife and habitats for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
"We believe there is, in fact, an opportunity to do that, and we have contracted a lawyer in Australia who has done an evaluation of the possibilities of legal action. We think the like-minded countries should look at them.
"They need to take this issue to the International Court, because international pressure is required. Trade sanctions should certainly be a possibility." Mr Singh added: "I have been attending IWC meetings for years, and a number of resolutions which have been passed aimed at stopping scientific whaling have had no effect whatsoever. Diplomatic demarches, notes to Japan, have had no effect either.
"If there is any seriousness in terms of saving whales, this seems to be the way."
But time is pressing if the anti-whaling countries want to act, because in June, at the IWC meeting to be held in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, the whaling nations seem likely to secure a voting majority for the first time.
It would be the result of an intense diplomatic campaign by Japan to get small developing countries to join the IWC and vote in its favour, by offering them substantial aid. Over the past six years, at least 14 nations have been recruited to the IWC as Japan's supporters, most of which have no whaling tradition. Some of the newcomers, such as Mongolia and Mali, do not even have a coastline.
Mark Simmonds, international director of science for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, believes the Japanese already had their majority at last year's IWC meeting in South Korea but administrative hitches meant they were not able to exercise it. This year, he thinks, they will.
"This would be the most enormous setback for whale and dolphin conservation," he said. "People don't realise how significant it is and how close it is. The world needs to be alerted to it."
The whaling moratorium, voted through at the IWC meeting in Brighton in 1982 and brought in four years later, has been a rare environmental success story. It was intended originally, not as an outright and permanent ban on whaling, but as a pause to give whale stocks time to recover while their numbers were assessed comprehensively, and new ways of managing whale killing were introduced, based on the close study of whale population dynamics.
Most anti-whaling countries, including Britain, are now firmly of the view that commercial whaling should never resume. Britain's original position was to be "guided by the science" but that view has hardened over the years, and the UK now believes "that properly regulated whale watching is the only truly sustainable use of whales and other cetaceans [dolphins and porpoises]".
MAIN TARGETS
Common Minke Whale
Balaenoptera acutorostrata. The smallest of the great whales, usually about 10m long and weighing about nine tonnes. This is the main target of the summer whale hunt by Norway and Iceland.
Antarctic Minke Whale
Balaenoptera bonaerensis. Slightly larger version of the North Atlantic minke. Because it was the smallest, it was targeted last during the centuries of commercial whaling, so it is still relatively abundant. The main target of the Japanese whale hunt, for "scientific" reasons.
Fin Whale
Balaenoptera physalus. The second-largest of all the whales, exceeded only by the blue whale. Can be 22m long and weigh 75 tonnes. Despite its classification as an endangered species - the result of commercial whaling, especially in the southern hemisphere - it is now being hunted again by the Japanese.
Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae. Medium-sized whale, typically 13m long and weighing 30 tonnes, widely distributed from the Arctic to the Antarctic. This species is probably the best known, and most photographed, because of its habit of making spectacular leaps out of the water. Heavily exploited in the past, it is now recovering in many places thanks to the whaling moratorium, but it is again being targeted by the Japanese.
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362282
Danger ahead from clean air and thin ozone
04.01.06 1.00pm
New Zealand's clean air and thin ozone layer means we are receiving about 40 per cent more dangerous cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation than North Americans at corresponding latitudes, a leading atmospheric researcher says.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) scientist Richard McKenzie said joint research by Niwa and North American scientists had found New Zealand's summer UV levels were as if the country was actually positioned 450km nearer the equator and 1000m higher in altitude, a Wellington daily newspaper reported.
The research findings, to be published in the international journal Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, investigated the UV levels in New Zealand.
"It's no doubt an important factor in causing the high rates of skin cancer we have here," Dr McKenzie was reported as saying.
New Zealand has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.
"UV radiation in New Zealand is only high for its latitude, which is important because most of the people who live here are lighter-skinned and therefore more at risk," Dr McKenzie told the newspaper.
The country's clean air and thinner ozone layer contributed to the risk and helped explain the much higher ultraviolet levels than in North America, where greater pollution blocks more of the rays.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10362387
Risk of cave-in suspends German ice rink rescue
04.01.06 8.00am
By Kerstin Doerr
German rescuers suspended efforts this morning (NZ time) to reach a woman and three youths still feared trapped under an ice rink roof that caved in and killed at least 11 others, saying it might give way completely.
Local officials said they hoped to resume the recovery operation later today, once heavy lifting gear had arrived and removed what remains of the massive building, whose roof fell in yesterday after heavy snowfall.
"Whenever it is possible, we will go in with the dogs and personnel to find those who are still in the wreckage," chief fire officer Rudi Zeif told a news conference.
He said there had been no signs of life from the woman and three youths, aged 12 to 16, that officials believe are still trapped under the rubble, roughly 24 hours after the roof collapsed.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362375
Hopes dim for missing in ice rink disaster
04.01.06 1.00pm
Hopes of rescuing a woman and three youths feared trapped under the collapsed roof of a German ice rink began to fade today.
Chief fire officer Rudi Zeif said there had been no signs of life from the woman and three youths, aged 12 to 16, that officials believe are still trapped under the rubble some 30 hours after the roof collapsed on Monday night (NZ time), killing 11 people.
Cranes worked into the night to remove crushed sections of roof as hundreds of citizens of this Bavarian town near the Austrian border gathered in a central square to hold a candle-light vigil for the victims, mostly children.
"We remain hopeful that there are living people among the missing that we can rescue," Zeif said. "As we clear the beams we'll send dogs into the rubble to search for them."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362385
Pair return to stricken yacht as salvage fails
04.01.06 1.00pm
An attempt to salvage a damaged yacht off the Taranaki coast has failed and its owners have re-boarded the stricken vessel, despite coast guard warnings that it may be perilous to stay on board.
On Monday, a New Caledonian father and daughter had been forced to abandon the Xiphos to salvagers. But with conditions treacherous, the line between the salvage boat and the yacht broke twice, frustrating attempts to tow the damaged yacht back to New Plymouth.
Coastguard Taranaki were forced to abort the salvage attempt and return to shore.
Sailors Daniel Le Meur, 54, and Morgane Le Meur, 19, had earlier been rescued by the TET rescue helicopter after scrambling from the yacht about 90km offshore on Monday.
When the salvage option became fruitless this morning, Le Meur insisted on returning to his vessel, rather than abandoning it to the high seas.
The $300,000 yacht was reportedly insured.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10362390
TV coming to a cellphone near you
04.01.06 1.00pm
By Chris Marlowe
LOS ANGELES - A tech firm is expected to announce today that consumers can use a wide range of mobile devices to watch their home television from anywhere in the world.
Sling Media is set to unveil new software that adds this capability to its Slingbox hardware product this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Jason Krikorian, co-founder of the company and head of business development, said support for mobile devices always has been part of the company's vision but that the initial focus was on the PC because of the broadband connection.
"There are solutions for live and recorded TV on mobile phones, but now for the first time you can have full access to every single channel you've got at your house," he said. "It's not just a TV experience on your phone, it's your TV experience, like you have at home when you're on your couch."
The new mobile client, as the software is known, works with any device that uses Microsoft's Windows Mobile Platform versions 4.0 or 5.0.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/6/story.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10362378
Natural disasters declared in Australian bushfire areas
04.01.06 1.00pm
Natural disaster zones have been declared for bushfire-ravaged areas of NSW's central coast and south west.
Fires swept through parts of Junee and the Brisbane Water National Park on the central coast at the weekend, gutting eight homes and destroying 38,000ha of bush and farmland.
The declaration means the local government areas of Gosford, Junee and Upper Lachlan are eligible for extra assistance under the Natural Disaster Relief Arrangements.
Acting NSW Premier John Watkins, Emergency Services Minister Tony Kelly and Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg will today join Acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile on a visit to devastated areas around Junee.
Mr Watkins will thank local volunteers and inspect relief efforts available to residents, farmers and businesses.
"People across NSW want to offer a big thank you to everyone who's been involved in the battle against these fires," Mr Watkins said in a statement.
"These men and women give up their time to protect lives and property and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude."
A 21-year-old volunteer firefighter remains in a serious condition in hospital after suffering third-degree burns to 60 per cent of his body as he battled a blaze on his property near Junee.
Five homes were lost to the flames, which killed around 15,000 sheep and 88 cattle.
Mr Watkins said the Department of Community Services would work with families whose homes were destroyed and could be eligible for an immediate A$10,000 ($10,938.52) grant.
Mr Kelly said 400 firefighters were strengthening containment lines outside the township of Ilabo.
"While the fire is now contained, the weather forecast is for hot and windy conditions again this weekend," he said.
"That's why it's important people adhere to all safety messages from the Rural Fire Service to try and prevent further outbreaks."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362400
Bashing victim suffers 'loathsome' theft
04.01.06 1.00pm
SYDNEY - NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has described a robbery at the home of Sydney bashing victim Lauren Huxley as a "loathsome act".
Among the items stolen were unopened Christmas gifts given to the 19-year-old, who is still recovering in hospital after being bashed, bound and doused with petrol at her Northmead home in November.
Part of the home was destroyed by fire, and the Huxley family had moved to a block of units at Northmead while their daughter fought for her life in Westmead Hospital.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362383
West Virginia mine rescue makes slow progress
04.01.06 1.00pm
Treacherous conditions, including the presence of poisonous gas, slowed the effort to rescue 13 trapped coal miners this morning, but rescuers still held out hope for a miracle to save the men.
"We still pray for miracles in West Virginia. We still believe in miracles," state Governor Joe Manchin told reporters at the coal mine.
"We are hoping for that miracle." There still had not been any communication with the miners, trapped since around midnight (NZ time) on Monday.
At the White House, President George W Bush said he had spoken to Manchin about the trapped miners. "I told him that Americans all across our country were praying for the miners who are trapped in the mine there in West Virginia," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362381
Russia, Ukraine trade insults in gas dispute
04.01.06 1.00pm
By Christian Lowe
MOSCOW - Russia's gas deliveries to European customers returned to normal overnight (NZ time), as it traded insults with former ally Ukraine over who was to blame for supply disruptions across the continent.
Russian energy officials were set to meet counterparts from Ukraine earlier today to discuss the dispute, but there was no sign of a softening of tone on either side in a dispute with clear political overtones.
Russia switched off Ukraine's gas when Kiev rejected a big hike in prices. It was forced to turn the taps back on after key European partners complained their supplies had been hit too and chided Moscow for using energy as a political tool.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362377
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