Reporting on world events from a Bairnsdale Conservative perspective.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Prime Minister John Howard's Defence Gap Year announcement
* Market plunge, but Australia not exposed to sub prime loans * Rescuers break through mine in Utah, met by silence * Chinese MP sentenced to death for murder
Chinese MP to die for murdering mistress from news.com.au correspondents in Beijing A FORMER high-ranking Chinese politician and his policeman accomplice have been sentenced to death for murdering the politician's young mistress with a car bomb.
Duan Yihe, 61, former chairman of the parliament in Jinan, a major city in eastern China, organised for the policeman to carry out the killing last month, the China Daily reported, citing a local court's ruling.
Duan had been having an affair with Liu Haiping, a divorced woman 30 years his junior, since 2000 but had grown tired of her incessant demands for money and for him to leave his wife, the paper said.
She had also threatened to report him to local authorities after he said he wanted to end the relationship.
To finally silence her, Duan used the services of policeman Chen Zhi, who was also his wife's nephew. Duan planted a remote-controlled bomb in Liu's car.
Liu died in the blast and two people nearby were injured, according to the paper.
A local court yesterday sentenced Duan and Yu to death, while a third man who was an accomplice, Chen Changbing, was handed a life jail term.
Liu was killed on July 9 and Duan was arrested a week later. The sentencing was unusually quick in China, where legal proceedings often take years.
But in the lead-up to the Communist Party's five-yearly congress expected to be held in a few months, the Chinese Government is doing all it can to show the general population it is serious about tackling rampant corruption.
President Hu Jintao has said that corruption within official ranks is one of the greatest threats to the legitimacy of the Communist Party's rule.
Silence as rescuers break through to trapped miners from news.com.au correspondents in Huntington, Utah RESCUERS have broken through into a cavity where six coal miners are believed to be trapped under a mountain in Utah.
"We know that the drill went into a void. That was good news," Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of state for mine safety, said.
The drill had a listening device directly behind it but no sound could so far be picked up inside the cavity, he said.
"I would not look at that as good or bad news," Robert Murray, a director of Utah American Energy, which owns and operates the mine, said.
"The work is not done."
Rescuers have been working relentlessly to reach the men, not heard from since a tunnel they were working in at the Genwal Mine in Crandall Canyon, 200 kilometres southeast of Salt Lake City, collapsed on Monday.
Market plunge wipes off $56bn from news.com.au THE stock market posted its biggest one-day fall in six years today following falls on Wall Street still spooked by the rout in the US sub-prime mortgage sector.
The largest fall since the September 2001 US terrorist attacks wiped almost $53bn from the value of the market, rattling investor confidence and eroding superannuation-linked gains
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 229.6 points lower at 5936, while the all ordinaries retreated 222.5 points to 5965.2.
At 1621 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 227 points lower at 5924, on a volume of 34,944 contracts.
MFS Ltd chief executive Guy Hutchings said it would take time for the market to settle, with further volatility expected next week as investors anticipated further effects from the credit crisis.
"Cash is king at present, with the market continuing to respond very directly to offshore volatility as the fall-out from sub-prime credit crisis spreads," Mr Hutchings said.
"Investors are clearly spooked by the extent of loses in the US and Europe overnight and there were no real positions of safety, with losses across the board.
"The fact that the local market fell away quite dramatically at the end of the session implies traders did not want to hold stocks over the weekend, which indicates the nervousness is likely continue well into next week.
Treasurer Peter Costello moved to hose down concerns of a market collapse in Australia, noting the market was undergoing a correction, coming off a very high base.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 387.18 points to 13,270.68 overnight, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 44.40 points to 1,453.09 and the Nasdaq gave up 56.49 points to 2,556.49.
Locally, the big miners were weaker, with BHP Billiton losing $2.00 to $34.66 and rival Rio Tinto Ltd shedding $3.49 to $84.77.
Chinese MP to die for murdering mistress
ReplyDeletefrom news.com.au correspondents in Beijing
A FORMER high-ranking Chinese politician and his policeman accomplice have been sentenced to death for murdering the politician's young mistress with a car bomb.
Duan Yihe, 61, former chairman of the parliament in Jinan, a major city in eastern China, organised for the policeman to carry out the killing last month, the China Daily reported, citing a local court's ruling.
Duan had been having an affair with Liu Haiping, a divorced woman 30 years his junior, since 2000 but had grown tired of her incessant demands for money and for him to leave his wife, the paper said.
She had also threatened to report him to local authorities after he said he wanted to end the relationship.
To finally silence her, Duan used the services of policeman Chen Zhi, who was also his wife's nephew. Duan planted a remote-controlled bomb in Liu's car.
Liu died in the blast and two people nearby were injured, according to the paper.
A local court yesterday sentenced Duan and Yu to death, while a third man who was an accomplice, Chen Changbing, was handed a life jail term.
Liu was killed on July 9 and Duan was arrested a week later. The sentencing was unusually quick in China, where legal proceedings often take years.
But in the lead-up to the Communist Party's five-yearly congress expected to be held in a few months, the Chinese Government is doing all it can to show the general population it is serious about tackling rampant corruption.
President Hu Jintao has said that corruption within official ranks is one of the greatest threats to the legitimacy of the Communist Party's rule.
Silence as rescuers break through to trapped miners
ReplyDeletefrom news.com.au correspondents in Huntington, Utah
RESCUERS have broken through into a cavity where six coal miners are believed to be trapped under a mountain in Utah.
"We know that the drill went into a void. That was good news," Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of state for mine safety, said.
The drill had a listening device directly behind it but no sound could so far be picked up inside the cavity, he said.
"I would not look at that as good or bad news," Robert Murray, a director of Utah American Energy, which owns and operates the mine, said.
"The work is not done."
Rescuers have been working relentlessly to reach the men, not heard from since a tunnel they were working in at the Genwal Mine in Crandall Canyon, 200 kilometres southeast of Salt Lake City, collapsed on Monday.
Market plunge wipes off $56bn
ReplyDeletefrom news.com.au
THE stock market posted its biggest one-day fall in six years today following falls on Wall Street still spooked by the rout in the US sub-prime mortgage sector.
The largest fall since the September 2001 US terrorist attacks wiped almost $53bn from the value of the market, rattling investor confidence and eroding superannuation-linked gains
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 229.6 points lower at 5936, while the all ordinaries retreated 222.5 points to 5965.2.
At 1621 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 227 points lower at 5924, on a volume of 34,944 contracts.
MFS Ltd chief executive Guy Hutchings said it would take time for the market to settle, with further volatility expected next week as investors anticipated further effects from the credit crisis.
"Cash is king at present, with the market continuing to respond very directly to offshore volatility as the fall-out from sub-prime credit crisis spreads," Mr Hutchings said.
"Investors are clearly spooked by the extent of loses in the US and Europe overnight and there were no real positions of safety, with losses across the board.
"The fact that the local market fell away quite dramatically at the end of the session implies traders did not want to hold stocks over the weekend, which indicates the nervousness is likely continue well into next week.
Treasurer Peter Costello moved to hose down concerns of a market collapse in Australia, noting the market was undergoing a correction, coming off a very high base.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 387.18 points to 13,270.68 overnight, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 44.40 points to 1,453.09 and the Nasdaq gave up 56.49 points to 2,556.49.
Locally, the big miners were weaker, with BHP Billiton losing $2.00 to $34.66 and rival Rio Tinto Ltd shedding $3.49 to $84.77.