Morning Papers - continued...

Sidney Morning Herald

Climate strategy a disaster: study
Marian Wilkinson, Environment Editor
September 28, 2007
THE Howard Government's strategy to deal with climate change - including support for "aspirational" goals rather than binding targets - could lead to catastrophic consequences in Australia, a study has found.
These include a threefold increase in heat-related deaths, the collapse of crop yields and a serious decline in river flows.
The scientific report, commissioned by the conservation group WWF, will be released today, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, and the Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, join ministers from the main polluting economies in Washington to discuss climate change negotiations.
The head of WWF, Greg Bourne, criticised the Government yesterday over its support for "aspirational" goals to reduce emissions. It promoted the goals at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting that resulted in the Sydney Declaration.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/pms-climate-strategy-a-disaster-study/2007/09/27/1190486482407.html


Arctic thaw becoming critical: NASA
September 28, 2007 - 11:24PM
A record melt of Arctic summer sea ice this month may be a sign that global warming is reaching a critical trigger point that could accelerate the northern thaw, some scientists say.
"The reason so much (of the Arctic ice) went suddenly is that it is hitting a tipping point that we have been warning about for the past few years," James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Reuters.
The Arctic summer sea ice shrank by more than 20 per cent below the previous 2005 record low in mid-September to 4.13 million sq km, according to a 30-year satellite record. It has now frozen out to 4.2 million sq km.
The idea of climate tipping points - like a see-saw that suddenly flips over when enough weight gets onto one side - is controversial because it is little understood and dismissed by some as scaremongering about runaway effects.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Arctic-thaw-becoming-critical-NASA/2007/09/28/1190486579178.html



Climate change may sink Maldives
September 28, 2007 - 6:45PM
Unless the world starts taking climate change seriously, the Maldives could become uninhabitable this century, the president of the Indian Ocean archipelago Maumoon Abdul Gayoom says.
With a United Nations climate panel forecasting world sea levels likely to rise by up to 59cm by 2100 due to global warming, the clock is ticking, he said.
"Time is running out for us," Gayoom told Reuters.
"Global warming and sea-level rise pose a clear and present danger for the Maldives and its people.
"Three-quarters of our 1,200 islands lie no higher than four feet above mean sea-level. The projected rise in sea-levels by the end of this century could mean that our islands may become uninhabitable at that time."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Climate-change-may-sink-Maldives/2007/09/28/1190486562744.html


US vows to tackle climate change
September 28, 2007 - 2:15PM
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today declared climate change to be a "real and growing problem" that should be resolved under the UN at the start of a forum of major polluters viewed warily by defenders of the Kyoto Protocol.
"We have come together today because we agree that climate change is a real and growing problem - and that human beings are contributing to it," Rice said in her opening address.
"I want to stress that the United States takes climate change very seriously, for we are both a major economy and a major emitter. We do not think of ourselves as standing above or apart from the international community on this issue."
The two-day talks in Washington kick off a 15-month process under which the 16 participating economies will sketch targets for reducing their emissions, examine the possibility of a long-term goal and look at ways of harnessing the power of business and new technology to tackle their pollution, according to a US proposal.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-vows-to-tackle-climate-change/2007/09/28/1190486558748.html


'Disgust' at bid to save bombers
Australians who lost relatives and mates in the 2002 Bali bombings say they're disgusted by an Amnesty International campaign to save three of the bombers from execution.
The Australian arm of the human rights group is urging people to lobby Indonesian authorities to stop the executions as part of Amnesty's ongoing campaign against capital punishment.
The three bombers - who played key roles in the attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians - could face the firing squad soon after Indonesia's Supreme Court rejected their final appeals.
Amnesty International Australia anti-death penalty coordinator Tim Goodwin said the group was ramping up pressure on Indonesian authorities to stay the executions.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/disgust-at-bombers-plea/2007/09/28/1190486553694.html


Anglican church allows women bishops
Australia could have its first Anglican woman bishop as early as next year following a decision by the church's highest court.
The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Philip Aspinall, said the appellate tribunal had decided there was nothing in the church's constitution that would prevent a woman becoming a bishop.
In 2005, a group of 25 members of the church's national parliament - the General Synod - asked the tribunal for its view on the lawfulness of women bishops.
The tribunal, by a majority of four to three, today found that it was possible to consecrate women bishops.
However, it said it could only occur in a diocese that had both adopted a 1992 church law allowing women priests and which had ensured its own laws and constitution allowed it.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/anglican-church-allows-women-bishops/2007/09/28/1190486541592.html


Rates pressure grows: survey
Australians would likely cop another interest rate rise before the end of the year if not for the ongoing ructions in financial markets, TD Securities senior strategist Joshua Williamson says.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) last raised rates in August, but left them on hold at 6.50 per cent when the bank's board met in September.
Most economists now expect the central bank to maintain the cash rate status quo until the middle of 2008.
But Mr Williamson said the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge, released today, shows inflation remains at the top of the RBA's target band, adding weight to the argument for another interest rate rise.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/general/rising-pressure-on-interest-rates/2007/09/28/1190486529089.html


Party politics with footy finals
Edmund Tadros
September 28, 2007 - 2:31PM
The Labor party will run radio advertisements during the NRL and AFL football finals criticising the Federal Government's planned weekend advertising blitz.
NRL legend Tommy Raudonikis and AFL legend Peter "Crackers" Keenan will front the Labor campaign, which will slam the Government for spending $227 thousand of taxpayer funds on advertisements.
Raudonikis has previously appeared in advertisements opposing the Howard Government's industrial relations laws.
The Government said that they followed guidelines when developing and running media campaigns.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/party-politics-with-footy-finals/2007/09/28/1190486545357.html


Fans rage against the scalpers
Asher Moses
September 28, 2007 - 1:27PM
Australian Rage Against The Machine fans are now raging against cyber-scalpers and Ticketmaster after tickets to the rock band's local shows sold out within seconds yesterday.
The tickets to the Sydney and Melbourne gigs went on sale at 9am and within minutes scalpers were listing them on eBay at a significant premium.
General admission floor tickets, which had a face value of $111.70, are now selling on the auction site for over five times that amount.
Enraged fans who had been hoping to see the shows, scheduled for January next year, were so dismayed they attempted to sabotage the eBay auctions by registering fake accounts and entering bogus bids as high as $1 billion.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/fans-rage-against-the-scalpers/2007/09/28/1190486540211.html


Police confront Burmese protesters in Canberra
Protests in Canberra ... police and demostrators confront each other outside the Burmese embassy.
Photo: Andrew Taylor
Being a Burmese-Australian, we feel neglected ... It is really hard to control the emotional point of view. There are people dying back home."
Erik Jensen
September 28, 2007 - 4:04PM
Police detained an assistant nurse, still wearing his Uniting Care uniform, at a pro-democracy demonstration outside the Burmese embassy in Canberra today.
"I was dragged down to the other side [of the embassy]. I was kicked in the back,'' Maung Maung Than, the detained man, said.
"It was an over-reaction. We didn't show any sign of violence towards the police. We are here to protest the Burmese military dictatorship.''
The protest of about 60 people assembled outside the Burmese embassy and was peaceful until a scuffle broke out over a sit-in on the closed road between the designated protest area and the embassy.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/police-confront-burmese-protesters-in-canberra/2007/09/28/1190486546224.html


14kg of cocaine found in kindergarten
September 28, 2007 - 6:05AM
Police in Los Angeles discovered 14 kilograms of cocaine and some 20 kilos of marijuana in a raid on a kindergarten in the city, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
They also found a stash of firearms and $US300,000 ($342,720) in cash stored in shoeboxes.
"In the same place as cellophane-wrapped cocaine and marijuana and a loaded assault rifle and three handguns, we found children's toys," spokesman Paul Vernon said.
Maria Castellon, 47, the owner of the building was arrested and is being held in lieu of $US2.03 million ($2.32 million) bail.
Police estimated that the cocaine was worth at least $US252,000 ($287,885) on the street, while the marijuana is valued at about $US20,000 ($22,850).

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/14kg-of-cocaine-found-in-kindergarten/2007/09/28/1190486514594.html


Teacher's aid on child pornography charges
September 28, 2007 - 12:14PM
A 60-year-old Townsville teacher's aid has been charged over the importation of child pornography.
Police today said a joint operation with customs led to the arrest of the man this month after customs allegedly found child exploitation material being imported in the form of commercially produced DVDs.
The man, who cannot be named, is listed on court documents as a teacher's aid and computer technician.
Officers have searched his Townsville home and car, seizing more than 50 computer hard drives, hundreds of DVDs and other items.
Investigations were now being carried out into whether the man had had contact with children in his neighbourhood, a police spokesman said today.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/teachers-aid-on-child-pornography-charges/2007/09/28/1190486535204.html



Bones in Russia may be tsar's children
September 28, 2007 - 7:29PM
There is a "high probability" that the bones found near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg belonged to a daughter and son of the last tsar, an official says, citing preliminary forensic work.
"Investigators have made a preliminary conclusion that there is a high degree of probability that the bones ... belong to the Crown Prince Alexei and Princess Maria," Vladimir Gromov, deputy forensic chief in the Sverdlovsk region, said in televised remarks.
The bones were found by archaeologists in a burned field near Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were held prisoner by the Bolsheviks and then shot in 1918.
The discovery was announced in August.
Prosecutors later announced they would reopen an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the royal family.
In 1998, remains unearthed from a mining pit and identified as those of Nicholas and Alexandra and three of their daughters were reburied in a ceremony in the imperial-era capital of St Petersburg.
The ceremony, however, was shadowed by statements of doubt - including from within the Russian Orthodox Church - about their authenticity.
If confirmed, the latest find would fill in a missing chapter in the story of the doomed Romanov family, whose reign was ended by the violent 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, which ushered in more than 70 years of Communist rule.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Bones-in-Russia-may-be-tsars-children/2007/09/28/1190486564847.html


Britney drama queen inks TV deal
Asher Moses
September 20, 2007 - 3:01PM
A week ago Chris Crocker was the laughing stock of the internet, but he will almost certainly have the last laugh - his nutty diatribe has helped land him his own TV show.
The overtly gay 19-year-old, who lives with his grandmother in Tennessee, posted an emotional video clip on YouTube last week in which he hysterically defended Britney Spears's abysmal performance at the MTV Video Music awards.
As his tears made the mascara run down his face, Crocker cried: "She lost her aunt, she went through a divorce, she had two f---ing kids, her husband turned out to be a user, a cheater, and now she's going through a custody battle. All you people care about is readers and making money off of her. She's a human!"

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/britney-drama-queen-inks-tv-deal/2007/09/20/1189881661178.html


Complex's swastika symbol mistake
Painting a swastika on a public building is a hate crime. But what happens when the building is the swastika?
From the ground, a construction in San Diego, United States, appears innocuous. But viewed from the air, on the internet via Google Earth, the shape is unmistakeable - it resembles the Nazi symbol.
Construction began for the six-building complex at the US naval base at Coronado in southern California in 1967.
The plans called for two central buildings and a single L-shaped barracks, but the Naval Amphibious Base Complex 320-325 evolved in design. By the time it was finished in 1970 it had four L-shaped buildings set at right angles. That was when the problem was spotted.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/complex-mistake/2007/09/27/1190486482564.html


Mugabe accuses Bush of duplicity
Claudia Parsons in New York
September 28, 2007
THE President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has accused the US President, George Bush, of "rank hypocrisy" for lecturing him on human rights and likened the Guantanamo Bay prison to a concentration camp.
"His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities," Mr Mugabe said in a fiery speech to the United Nations General Assembly. "He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be our master on human rights?"
Mr Mugabe, 83, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, was speaking the day after Mr Bush scolded the governments of Belarus, Syria, Iran and North Korea as "brutal regimes" in his speech to the General Assembly.
Mr Bush criticised the Zimbabwean Government headed by Mr Mugabe as "tyrannical" and an "assault on its people".

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mugabe-accuses-bush-of-duplicity/2007/09/27/1190486482559.html


Saudi women ponder wheel of change
September 29, 2007
Increasing economic clout could help bring about the right to drive, writes Hassan Fattah.
In a recent episode of Saudi Arabia's most popular television show, a Saudi man of the future is seen sitting in his house as his daughter pulls into the driveway, her children piled into the back of the car.
"Where have you been?" the father asks.
"The kids were bored so I took them to the movies," she replies, matter-of-factly, as she gets out of the driver's seat.
The scene may appear mundane, but in Saudi Arabia, where women are forbidden to drive - and, by the way, where there are no cinemas, either - the skit portends something of a revolution. From a taboo about which there could be no open discussion, a woman's right to drive is developing into a topic of lively debate in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/wheel-of-change-for-women/2007/09/28/1190486567026.html


Pressure to deal with Blackwater mounting
James Risen in Washington
September 29, 2007
SECURITY personnel from Blackwater USA have been involved in 56 shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq so far this year, the US State Department says.
The private contractor, which is based in North Carolina, provided security to US diplomats on 1873 convoy runs in Iraq in the year to date, and its employees fired weapons 56 times, a written statement by the Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, said on Thursday. It is the first time the Bush Administration had made such data public.
The State Department did not release comparable 2007 figures for other security firms, but the Blackwater numbers show a far higher rate of shootings per convoy mission than during the previous year by one of the company's primary competitors, Dander International.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pressure-to-deal-with-blackwater-mounting/2007/09/28/1190486567000.html



Trash Talk TV - Tom builds a bunker
2007-09-27 16:44:17
Tom Cruise is going underground, Demi Moore is no more - it must be Trash Talk time again.(02:27)

http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Trash%20Talk&rid=31991



Je t'aime
A Velib docking station in Paris.
Photo: AP
September 29, 2007
Sarah Turnbull returns to Paris after three years and finds her beloved city full of bicycles and buzzing with a new energy.
Returning to a place you adore is a bit like reuniting with a lover: your excitement is tempered by a tweak of apprehension. During time apart, people change, evolve. Cities can, too, as I discovered when I returned to Paris.
My immediate impression, though - upon arriving on a golden evening at the end of what had been a cool, wet French summer - is one of reassuring familiarity. As I walk through the central 2nd arrondissement that was once my home, the cafe terraces are spilling over with chattering crowds.
Apart from a brief stopover, this is my first time here since we left more than three years ago. I don't feel like a tourist exactly, passing the pearl-grey buildings, the quaint shop signs announcing "Closed for holidays", the nonchalant Parisians with sunglasses perched on their heads, but I feel a definite rush of rediscovery.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/france/rekindling-a-romance-with-paris/2007/09/27/1190486467884.html


Have couch, will travel
Rafeal Nussbaum from Switzerland poses with his couchsurfing guests.
Photo: Reuters
September 27, 2007 - 3:39PM
Squeezing 150 people into Vince Peiro's flat in the foothills of the Swiss Alps would be a very tight fit - hence the tent city sprouting outside in the July evening sunshine.
Peiro was hosting a party for members of http://www.couchsurfing.com, an increasingly popular website that matches up travellers with locals offering a spare bed or couch for the night - for free.
Couchsurfing, which people can use to find somewhere to stay or just a local guide to a city, has more than 300,000 members worldwide, with up to 10,000 more signing up each week.
"I travelled for nearly a year in 1998 and I was often surprised by the hospitality I received all over the world and especially in the Middle East," said Peiro, in his early 30s.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/couchsurfing-the-hip-way-to-travel/2007/09/27/1190486465786.html


Scientists discover radio signal from deep space
Scott Casey and Sam Cardwell September 28, 2007 - 5:06AM
CANBERRA - A team of American astronomers has detected a huge burst of radio energy from deep space while using the Parkes radio telescope in NSW.
The huge burst of energy, which has startled scientists with its strength, is thought to have originated over 500 mega-parsecs or one-and-a-half billion light years from earth.
Professor Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University in Melbourne said that the burst was unusual as this kind of activity was usually very faint at such extreme distances.
"Normally the kind of cosmic activity we're looking for at this distance would be very faint but this was so bright that it saturated the equipment," he said in a statement.
The burst of energy, which lasted for only five milliseconds, was so strong that when it was first detected six years ago it was dismissed as man-made interference.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/09/28/1190486511000.html?s_rid=smh:top5


Australians set to flee Burma
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Australia's embassy in Rangoon has contingency evacuation plans if the situation deteriorates amid the Burmese military regime's bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
Tens of thousands of people have joined Buddhist monks and nuns over the past week protesting against Burma's repressive military regime.
Burma state media has reported the government's crackdown on the protests have so far left at least nine people dead. Mr Downer's comments come as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had addressed Burma's representative directly during talks with Southeast Asian officials on the violent crackdown.
Mr Downer today told ABC Radio it wasn't known just how many Australians were in Burma, but there were not believed to be many and so far there had been no reports of any of them getting into difficulties.
"The embassy is saying the crackdown is really well and truly under way now. The military is visiting pagodas and threatening the monks," he said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/australians-set-to-flee-burma/2007/09/28/1190486520736.html


When food is scarce, tempers boil
Australian journalist Peter Olszewski has visited Burma more than a dozen times in the past five years.
I WAS lunching with a young Burmese businesswoman in the Monsoon Restaurant near the Sule Pagoda two weeks ago when the first of the maroon-robed monks marched past. They were a group of 400, waving flags, with a large contingent of supporters.
Suddenly the clatter of the busy restaurant ceased. An eerie silence set in. From outside came chanting, shouting and the strange slapping sound of hundreds of slippered feet.
I looked out the window and there they were — the marching monks. The notion that this might happen had been the talk of the town for days as tensions increased.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/when-food-is-scarce-tempers-boil/2007/09/27/1190486480889.html



Condoms spread HIV: archbishop
September 28, 2007
MOZAMBIQUE'S Roman Catholic Archbishop has accused European condom manufacturers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV "in order to finish quickly the African people".
The Archbishop of Maputo, Francisco Chimoio, told the BBC that he had specific information about a plot to kill off Africans.
"I know that there are two countries in Europe … making condoms with the virus, on purpose," he alleged. He refused to name the countries.
He added: "They want to finish with the African people. This is the program. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/27/1190486480904.html


New Zealand Herald

Did Bush turn down chance to get rid of Saddam for $1.3b?
5:00AM Friday September 28, 2007
President George W. Bush and former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar. Photo / Reuters
MADRID - Saddam Hussein was prepared to take US$1 billion ($1.36 billion) and go into exile before the Iraq war, according to a transcript of talks between United States President George W Bush and an ally, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.
During a meeting at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on February 22, 2003 - one month before the US-led invasion - Bush told former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar that Saddam could also be assassinated, according to the transcript published in El Pais in Spanish.
In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to comment on the report.
The meeting at Bush's Texas ranch was ahead of a final diplomatic pushat the United Nations. The White House was planning to introduce a new Security Council resolution to pressure Saddam, but most council members saw it as a ploy to gain their authorisation for war.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10466396



Locals handed control of foreign companies
5:00AM Friday September 28, 2007
Robert Mugabe
HARARE - Zimbabwe's Parliament has passed a bill giving local owners majority control of foreign-owned companies, including mines and banks, a move analysts say could drive the fragile economy deeper into crisis.
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party pushed through the bill after members of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change walked out in protest.
Mugabe's Government, which critics accuse of plunging Zimbabwe into turmoil by seizing white-owned farms and handing them to inexperienced black farmers, says the bill is part of its drive to empower the country's poor majority.
Analysts fear the move could sound the death knell for an economy that has also suffered from foreign investor flight over fears about the security of their investment.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10466394


Myanmar crackdown draws outrage (+ photos, video)
YANGON - Fuelled by "revulsion" at Myanmar's violent crackdown on popular protests against military rule, Southeast Asia rounded on the generals on Friday and critics planned demonstrations at embassies across the region.
While the streets of Myanmar's former capital were quiet early on Friday, protests were expected at embassies in Taipei, Canberra, Manila and Tokyo, where government officials were trying to formulate a response to the crisis.
In Canberra, some protesters were detained and an axe seized after a group of around 100 clashed with police while trying to charge the Myanmar embassy there.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10466445


Desperate Myanmar junta blocks blogs
10:21AM Friday September 28, 2007
Protesters are beaten while a shot Japanese photographer, who later died, continues to take photos from the ground. Photo / Reuters
The military junta in Myanmar is desperately trying to stem the flow information about the country's turmoil to the rest of the world.
Website mizzima.com says the authorities have blocked popular blogs that have been continuously posting news and photographs of the violence against monks and protesters.
Popular domestic Myanmar blogs Kohitke and Niknayman have been blocked from uploading further content today.
"Curbs of freedom of expression by the people and restricting the free media are a blatant violation of fundamental human rights. We condemn the SPDC vehemently," A Niknayman blogger said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10466465


PM nominates Musharraf
5:00AM Friday September 28, 2007
Pervez Musharraf
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz yesterday filed papers nominating President General Pervez Musharraf to stand in an October 6 presidential election.
Pakistan faces months of uncertainty as Musharraf tries to stay in control. An alliance of opposition parties is demanding an end to military involvement in politics and the restoration of full democracy. It is hoping the Supreme Court will rule against Musharraf's election bid.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10466393


Africa's governments ranked from best to worst
5:00AM Friday September 28, 2007
By Steve Bloomfield
Mauritius came out on top for its strong human rights record and anti-corruption measures.
Most visitors to the tiny island nation of Mauritius come in search of a predictable mix of unspoilt beaches and hot weather. Few will have been aware of the Government's strong record on human rights and most are probably unaware of its rigorous anti-corruption legislation and policies on poverty, education and health.
But now the 1.2 million people who live in Mauritius may start boasting about those achievements a little more loudly. Mauritius, about 1930km off the coast of mainland Africa, has been named the continent's best-governed country in the first comprehensive ranking of African governance.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10466325

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