* Ugly Apec riots begin, as predicted, drawing blood
* Mr Rudd's Mandarin translated "If China wants Australia, I am your puppet. Pull my strings."
* Bin Laden's taunt to the west has a strong similarity to left wing protestor demands.
* Climate pact of much more substance than Kyoto reached, thanks to Howard and Bush
* Amrozi may now be executed for his crimes.
Osama bin Laden mocks America
ReplyDeletefrom news.com.au
AL-QAEDA chief Osama bin Laden appeared on a video broadcast by Al-Jazira today, in his first public showing in three years, mocking the "weakness" of the United States.
"America is weak despite its apparent strength," he said in a short extract broadcast by Al-Jazira.
The US Government is studying the video as the Central Intelligence Agency warned that al-Qaeda is plotting fresh attacks on the United States designed to inflict massive casualties.
US services monitoring Islamic militant websites announced late yesterday that bin Laden was to appear in a recording to mark next week's anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
If the tape is authenticated it would mark the elusive al-Qaeda chief's first such appearance since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks against the United States just days before US elections.
"I can confirm that USG has the video and it is currently being analysed," a senior administration official said, referring to the US government.
Bin Laden, wanted for the 2001 attacks blamed on al-Qaeda, has evaded capture by US authorities despite a huge manhunt and a $US25 million ($30.2 million) bounty on his head.
CNN reported that a senior official told the network that the video "contains no overt threats but does contain several date references, including one that, if confirmed, would indicate the tape is new".
Bin Laden said in the video that there are two solutions for stopping the war, according to the transcript from the SITE Intelligence Group which monitors Islamic militant websites.
The first solution, "is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out, and I ask Allah to grant them resolve and victory."
The second solution, he argued in the video entitled "The Solution" - which has still to be authenticated by US intelligence services - is to overturn the US political system.
"It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations."
He also rails against international business, saying: "The capitalist system seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations under the label of 'globalisation' in order to protect democracy."
ABC said the transcript contained references to Nicolas Sarkozy's victory in the French presidential elections in May and to the Iraq war in 2007 suggesting that it was made recently, and that bin Laden is still alive.
According to the ABC transcript, bin Laden opens with "praise to Allah" and his "law of retaliation" - "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed".
Bin Laden also addresses the American people directly, saying: "People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped.
"Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there."
The video is timed to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3000 people, a senior US official said.
According to the transcript obtained by ABC, bin Laden also speaks about recent issues grabbing headlines in the United States, referring to "the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes".
"To conclude," bin Laden said, "I invite you to embrace Islam."
Arrests, injuries at APEC rally
ReplyDeleteBy Mark Schliebs
NINE protestors were arrested and two officers left injured after clashes between police and demonstrators during today’s anti-APEC rally.
Police said one officer suffered a head wound when hit with an iron bar while another was hit in the head with a dart during the protest which attracted about 3000 demonstrators.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said that it was unfortunate that a few people decided to become violent.
“I am extremely happy with the police operation and the fact that the majority of protesters complied with the wishes of police,” Mr Scipione said.
“That said, I am not happy that police were targeted and assaulted in such a violent manner.”
The nine protestors arrested will face charges of assaulting police, throw missile, offensive behaviour and resisting arrest.
NEWS.com.au witnessed two men being slammed onto the ground after police spotted them in the middle of the angry, vocal mob as it headed along Park St towards Hyde Park.
However, the majority of the estimated 5000 people who took part avoided any violence, and the gathering took on a carnival atmosphere upon reaching Hyde Park North.
Police fears of a full-scale riot and extreme violence were not realised.
The protesters gathered at Sydney's Town Hall from about 9.30am (AEST) before proceeding along Park Street on the route approved by police following a court action banning access to Martin Place.
As the arrests were made, other protesters began shouting, "The whole world's watching, the whole world's watching."
In the first arrest, a shout of "Watch out for that man" was heard before police sprinted nearly the entire length of a city block to crash-tackle him into the gutter.
Other protesters rushed over to watch the action.
In the second arrest, police again rushed into the crowd, dragging a tall man wearing a black mask from the middle of the road and slamming him heavily onto the footpath.
He was then marched to a waiting police van.
A third man - wearing nothing but a nappy - was also arrested and taken away.
Police earlier this week said a full scale riot "was probable'' after predicting 20,000 people would attend the demonstration set to start at Sydney's Town Hall at 10am (AEST).
However, the organisers, the Stop Bush Coalition, consistently maintained the rally would be peaceful, saying it would more likely attract between 5,000 and 10,000 people.
With AAP
Leaders sign climate pact
ReplyDeleteBy Richard Pullin
ASIA-Pacific leaders are expected to sign a landmark statement on climate change at their annual summit today, papering over differences between rich and developing nations over pollution targets.
The 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum met behind a tight security cordon, as thousands of protesters marched through the centre of Sydney against US President George W Bush, the Iraq war, global warming and a potpourri of other causes.
The so-called "Sydney Declaration" on climate change was to be signed on the first day of the two-day summit to accommodate Bush, who heads back to Washington tonight to prepare for a crucial report on the Iraq war.
Bush has had a whirlwind round of meetings with other leaders on his four-day visit to Sydney, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, Australia's John Howard and leaders of South-East Asian countries.
Today, he met Abe and Howard for a trilateral summit that had been expected to publicly urge China to be more transparent about its military build-up.
But a senior Japanese government official said the three leaders had agreed to deal "constructively" with Beijing, which had cast a wary eye on the meeting, fearing it could turn into an alliance aimed at containing China.
The official said details of the talks would not be disclosed and stressed there were no plans at present to make the three-way talks a regular gathering.
"We cannot disclose details, but there was a common understanding on the importance of dealing constructively with China," the Japanese official said.
Howard placed climate change at the top of the APEC agenda, to the consternation of some members, in search of a consensus on what should happen when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the main global treaty on climate change, runs out in 2012.
Asia-Pacific officials agreed yesterday to a draft climate statement that reaffirms the United Nations convention as the primary vehicle for fighting global warming, while setting non-binding, "aspirational targets" for themselves to reduce greenhouse gas reductions.
Some analysts saw it as too little, too late.
"The issue of climate change is so severe that aspirational goals are too late," said Mark Diesendorf, senior lecturer at the Institute of Environmental Studies at Australia's University of New South Wales.
"Real goals and real targets are really needed and you cannot reduce energy intensity by raising emissions and lowering energy consumption."
The pact, however, does set the stage for the UN climate convention's annual summit in Bali, Indonesia in December, which is looking for a successor to the existing UN pact, known as the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.
Court rejects Amrozi appeal
ReplyDeleteBy Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta
BALI bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim can finally be executed after Indonesia's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against his death sentence.
The only obstacle to Amrozi facing a firing squad is the political will of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who knows he will face a backlash from his Muslim electorate over the execution.
Dr Yudhoyono - who is more than midway through his five-year term as President and the first Indonesian leader to be directly elected - still has the option of granting clemency to Amrozi, his older brother Ali Ghufron and fellow death-row bomber Imam Samudra.
However, that is a route he has expressly ruled out in the cases of the Bali Nine Australian heroin smugglers, and one he is extremely unlikely to take in this case.
The Islamic fundamentalist trio were at the heart of the 2002 nightclub bombing that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
They were sentenced to death in 2003 but appealed against that decision after Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled the anti-terrorism legislation used to convict them should not have been retroactively applied.
That ruling has now been disregarded in a decision confirmed to The Weekend Australian last night by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iskandar Kamil.