Gillard speech to have China, cyber focus

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will reportedly seek to boost Labor's defence credentials in a speech singling out China and cyber attacks as key security concerns.

Ms Gillard will make the comments in her first important speech of the election year to the Australian National University's National Security College in Canberra on Wednesday, The Australian newspaper reports.

She will also outline Australia's national security objectives, actions and priorities over the next five years.

Sources familiar with the document told the paper it was a "much more substantial" contribution than former prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 national security statement to parliament.

The document focuses on Australia's strategic environment - in particular, the growing economic, political and military clout of China - and a massive escalation in cyber attacks against government and industry.

It's not expected to contain new policy initiatives or resource commitments, the paper said.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

IMF chief urges Greece to carry out reform

NO additional measures would be necessary for Greece if it carries out the reforms under its bailout program, IMF chief Christine Lagarde says.

"But if the structural reforms are not carried out ... then more cuts would be necessary," the head of the International Monetary Fund has told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini in an interview.

Entering a sixth year straight of recession, the heavily indebted country is relying on EU-IMF bailout packages.

It also received a private-sector debt cut early last year.

Since 2010, the EU and IMF have committed 240 billion euros ($A307 billion) in rescue loans to Greece, while last week the IMF unblocked a frozen tranche of 3.2 billion euros from its pending aid package.

"Greece holds its future in its own hands ... It is up to the country itself to succeed in its program," Lagarde said.

The IMF chief said she had a very good working relationship with both the Greek prime minister and finance minister.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and I "have a very good and honest relationship", she said, adding that he has even "surprised" her with his stance following his election.

Lagarde also said she believed the co-existence of three different parties in Greece's coalition government is beneficial.

"Regarding the implementation of the program and the responsibilities towards the people, a wide coalition is much more important than a tight majority," she said.

Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's coalition government has lost 16 deputies since coming to power in June, as a result of opposition to continued austerity.

It now counts a majority of 163 seats out of an overall 300.

On Friday, the IMF's mission chief for Greece Poul Thomsen said the country will still need additional help from its European partners next year.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Legal challenge to Manus launched in PNG

A LEGAL challenge to Australia's asylum seeker processing centre on Manus Island has been launched by Papua New Guinea's opposition.

Lawyers acting for PNG Opposition Leader Belden Namah filed a summons with the National Court on Friday.

Mr Namah said in a statement that he regretted taking the action against the PNG government but he believed the processing centre was unconstitutional.

"The ministers of the O'Neill-Dion government have now received a summons to appear and defend their conduct in the National Court," he said in a statement.

Mr Namah said the detainees on Manus were being held illegally in PNG.

"We will take this matter as far as necessary to ensure that the values of our nation's constitution are upheld," he said.

"This legal challenge also attempts to remedy the many abuses of PNG law and of ministerial powers which have given rise to the situation on Manus."

Mr Namah said the opposition challenged the right of the government to force people seeking refugee status in Australia to enter PNG, where they were being held "illegally and indefinitely under inhumane conditions".

"We challenge the right of the government to make this arrangement with the government of a foreign nation, again in contravention of our constitution," he added.

The injunction seeks to have the current detainees released and to prevent the government from receiving or detaining any more asylum seekers from Australia.

"I am confident that our justice system will succeed in upholding this truth, where our government has so regrettably failed," Mr Namah said.

The National Court is yet to set a date to hear the challenge, the ABC reports.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Too much money spent on fires: researcher

AN Australian researcher has suggested too much money is being spent on bushfire prevention and more lives could be saved if some of that money goes elsewhere.

Insurance researcher Brian Ashe concedes his findings might upset some people, but says a rational analysis of the $12 billion in annual spending on fire prevention backs his case, Fairfax reports.

If $4.5 billion of the money spent on fire safety was instead returned to businesses and consumers as tax cuts, health and nutrition would improve, Dr Ashe has written in the Australian National University journal Agenda.

His modelling suggests such a tax cut could save between 90 and 225 lives a year.

About 114 lives are lost each year from fire - 14 of them from bushfires.

"This is a very sensitive matter and really what we're looking to get is the best out of our investment," Dr Ashe told Fairfax Media.

"We just have to be careful that we don't put too many resources into one hazard."

But NSW Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers said anyone who had lost their home in a bushfire would not agree with the study.

"You can't discuss fire safety spending as a simple equation," he told Fairfax.

"It's not just above saving lives but properties and what's in them - the things that can't be replaced."

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gandhi seeks to woo 'young and impatient'

RAHUL Gandhi, newly named to the No.2 post in India's ruling Congress party, has delivered a powerful call for change to meet the aspirations of the nation's "young and impatient" population.

"We have to rethink and transform our system and the country," Gandhi, 42, told party members on Sunday as Congress ended a three-day brainstorming session in the northwestern city of Jaipur ahead of a general election next year.

Congress must listen to the voice of a "young and impatient" India to ensure they do not feel alienated from the political system, he said, a day after being unanimously voted party vice-president.

The scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, whose family has given India three prime ministers, is now second in the Congress hierarchy behind his mother, Sonia, who is president.

Rahul Gandhi's elevation represents a generational shift in Indian politics in which most of the leaders are over 60, while roughly half of the country's 1.2 billion population is under 25.

The party stopped short of naming him its candidate for prime minister, amid lingering uncertainty about his political talents and his hitherto apparent reluctance to assume a major political role.

In a speech drowned often by applause, Rahul Gandhi sought to dispel doubts about his political commitment, declaring the "Congress party is now my life".

"I will fight for the people of India with everything I have," he promised, adding he was "optimistic as we already have the building blocks for a better future".

He gave no hint of whether he wanted to be a candidate for prime minister.

But analysts said it was unlikely any other Congress leader would be fielded and his mother, who has long been seen grooming him for the post, was now expected to push him to take a bigger role in running the party.

"Congress has no other choice. It would be very difficult to name some other person because there would hardly be any consensus," said Sanjay Kumar, political analyst at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies.

The Nehru-Gandhi clan has ruled India for most of its post-independence history and many Congress members cannot conceive of the party without a Gandhi at the helm.

Newspapers predicted a showdown for the prime minister's job between Rahul Gandhi and hardline Hindu opponent Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister of western Gujarat state, in the 2014 election.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

French troops advance towards Mali's north

FRENCH troops have advanced towards Mali's Islamist-held north as Russia and Canada offered to help transport French and African soldiers to boost the Paris-led offensive.

The progress towards the jihadist strongholds came amid reports that the al-Qaeda-linked militants were abandoning some of their positions and converging on the mountainous region of Kidal, their northernmost bastion, 1500 kilometres from Bamako and near the border with Algeria.

"The deployment towards the north ... which began 24 hours ago, is on course, with troops inside the towns of Niono and Sevare," Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Dosseur told reporters.

Niono is about 350km northeast of the Malian capital and 60km south of Diabaly, which was seized nearly a week ago by Islamists and then heavily bombed by French planes.

Sevare has a strategically important airport that could help serve as a base for operations further north. It is about 630km northeast of Bamako.

The town is also near Konna, whose seizure by Islamists on January 10 sparked the French military intervention in the former colony against the forces occupying northern Mali for about nine months.

"We are in a phase of pushing forward," said a French lieutenant-colonel in charge of operations in Niono and the town of Diabaly, whose fate remained unclear on Sunday amid conflicting claims over whether the Islamists there had been routed.

"In Diabaly, the situation is not very clear, but it appears the rebel fighters have left the town," he said, identifying himself only as Frederic.

The region where the towns are located is known for housing the most battle-hardened and fanatical Islamists.

French-led Malian troops patrolled the outskirts of Diabaly on Sunday in a show of muscle.

"This mission of observation and dissuasion is mainly aimed at stopping any infiltration southwards by the militants," a Malian security official told AFP.

"The jihadists are increasingly leaving other areas to go towards Kidal, which is a hilly region," another security official said.

Kidal was the first town seized by an amalgam of al-Qaeda-linked militants and Tuareg separatist groups in March last year. The two sides then had a falling out and the Islamists have since gained the upper hand in the vast desert north.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Snow causes more cancellations at Heathrow

LONDON'S Heathrow Airport has warned of further flight cancellations, which would leave thousands more passengers stranded in the fourth day of delays after heavy snow swept across Britain.

The airport, one of the world's busiest, cancelled 260 flights on Sunday, the equivalent of 20 per cent of its usual schedule.

Meanwhile the Eurostar train service also cancelled four trains due to snow and ice.

As the bad weather that began on Friday looks set to continue into this week, Heathrow said it was cancelling 10 per cent of flights planned for Monday.

"Latest forecasts for tomorrow show a high probability of low visibility conditions. This will reduce the capacity of the airport and without action would cause significant disruption to passengers and flights," a statement said.

It said the cancellations on Monday would allow more time for other aircraft to take off and land, reducing the likelihood that there would be last-minute cancellations that would cause even more disruption to travellers.

Britain is braced for a continuation of the bad weather that has left hundreds of homes without power, closed schools and caused transport chaos in recent days, with several weather warnings in place for overnight.

Four climbers were killed in an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands on Saturday. The two men and two women were found dead after the accident near Glencoe, and another women is in critical condition.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Boeing battery did not overheat: US

THE US agency in charge of transportation safety says a fire sparked after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed in Boston was not caused by an overcharged battery.

The risk of fire from overheating powerpacks emerged as a major concern for Boeing's cutting-edge new planes after pilots were forced to land a domestic Japanese flight due to smoke apparently linked to the lithium-ion battery.

The planes suffered a series of glitches earlier this month, prompting airlines to ground all 50 of the world's operational 787s after a global alert issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

But the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said its examination so far has shown the battery was not the culprit of an earlier January 7 fire on an empty Japan Airlines plane in Boston.

"Examination of the flight recorder data from the JAL B-787 airplane indicate that the APU battery did not exceed its designed voltage of 32 volts," a statement said.

The physical examination of the battery, including X-rays and scans of the assembled battery and of its disassembled components, was still ongoing, the agency said.

The NTSB said representatives from its Japanese and French counterparts were participating in the investigation, and noted it had sent its own investigator to Japan for the investigation of the incident there.

On Friday, Boeing announced it was halting deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner, but said it would continue to build the aircraft while safety experts examine its battery and electrical systems.

The problems have cast a cloud over the aircraft, which is heavily dependent on pioneering electrical systems and lightweight composite materials and is seen as key to Boeing's future.

No airline has cancelled purchases for the 787, but with 850 of the ambitious $US200 million-plus ($A190 million) aircraft on order, a fortune is at stake.

23.41 | 0 komentar | Read More