 Site Navigation
There are 1 online users browsing:
0 members and 1 visitors
Recommended Sites
|
|
 Skippy by any other name |
| Posted by daisy - 11-14-05 02:04 - 1 comments |
|
Skippy by any other name
From:
November 14, 2005
Identity crisis ... An industry body thinks a name change will make roo meat more enticing / File SKIPPY the bush kangaroo could soon be coming to a dinner plate near you - under an assumed name.
The Kangaroo Industry Association is searching for a new name for the national symbol to make roo meat more palatable to domestic consumers.
One of the new names being considered for a piece of grilled kangaroo is marsu fillet.
Your say: Skippy steaks? »
Association chief executive John Kelly said a national competition had been launched to find a new name for kangaroo meat to help boost the $200 million a year industry and help change its image.
Referring to other cuts of meat such as beef or pork, Mr Kelly said yesterday: "We don't eat cow, or pig - the industry has been saying why do we eat kangaroo."
Kangaroo meat is a major growth industry in Australia and is now available in most supermarkets.
http://www.news.com.au/ |
Read 231 times - last comment by AussieLover
|
| Police urged to crack down on schoolies |
| Posted by daisy - 11-14-05 02:00 - 0 comments |
|
Police urged to crack down on schoolies
The Western Australian Opposition has expressed concern about the approach of police to this year's school leavers' celebrations, saying they are taking a soft stance on drug and alcohol abuse.
Police are expecting 3,000 to 4,000 teenagers to converge on both Rottnest and Dunsborough from next week - other hot spots include Margaret River, Lancelin and Kalbarri.
The Opposition's drug abuse strategy spokesman, Graham Jacobs, says police appear to have conceded defeat in the war against alcohol and drug abuse in the underage community.
Mr Jacobs says a tougher stance is needed to limit the injury toll during the celebrations.
"I mean, the issue is that school leavers don't arrive there by hot air balloon. They arrive by car usually to Yallingup and Dunsborough and there is the potential for damage and I think it is important that that be enforced," he said.
|
|
Read 101 times - make a comment
|
| Australia Rejects Crocodile Hunting Plan |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-12-05 23:48 - 0 comments |
 |
| QUOTE | Australia Rules Out Allowing Trophy Hunters to Shoot Crocodiles
CANBERRA, Australia Oct 6, 2005 — The government on Thursday rejected a plan to allow trophy hunting of saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia despite two recent fatal attacks on divers.
Croc numbers have exploded in Australia since a 1971 federal ban on hunting the creatures.
Some northern Australians have called for a lifting of the ban after two men were killed by crocs in a span of five days last month while snorkeling in Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory government proposed allowing trophy hunters to annually shoot 25 crocodiles longer than 13 feet as a means of controlling their numbers and earning income for Aborigines, who own much of the giant reptiles' habitat in the sparsely populated northern province.
The proposal was backed by international croc experts but opposed by animal welfare organizations who regarded it as cruel.
Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell announced Thursday he had ruled out allowing trophy hunting.
"I do not believe safari hunting of crocodiles is consistent with a modern day approach to animal welfare and responsible management," he said in a statement.
Campbell said it would have been difficult to achieve humane recreational hunting.
"The problem is, if you've got an amateur shooter traveling from overseas to Australia shooting a crocodile from 50 yards, they're very hard to shoot in a humane way where you can guarantee a kill with a first shot," he told Nine Network television.
Crocodile expert Grahame Webb dismissed the cruelty argument as a fabrication, saying crocodiles that aren't killed or captured by humans were eventually torn apart by other crocodiles in the wild.
"It's crocs controlling crocs out there," said Webb, a Northern Territory-based zoologist.
"Catch 10 big crocs and seven or eight of them will have had a leg ripped off or significant chunks ripped out of the tail, or head or snout," he said.
Webb is chairman of the Crocodile Specialist Group a 350-member global network involved in croc conservation and management which backed the trophy hunting proposal. The population of crocodiles in Northern Territory has soared to about 60,000 since they became protected. Years of hunting had reduced their numbers to about 5,000.
Crocodiles, which can grow up to 23 feet long, lurk in rivers and in the sea throughout Australia's tropical north and regularly attack and sometimes kill swimmers.
The government will continue to allow 600 crocs a year to be trapped and shot by professionals for farming, skin and meat or because they threaten humans.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
|
|
Read 81 times - make a comment
|
| Australia's Strategy For Defeating Terrorists |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-12-05 23:46 - 0 comments |
|
Australia's strategy for defeating terrorists
Australia is working with Indonesia to fight the terrorist plague, writes Alexander Downer.
LAST Friday I was at the opening of a multi-faith conference speaking of the threat from transnational terrorism and how we can best tackle it.
The following night, the reality of these threats tragically materialised once again with the despicable attacks in Bali.
The threats of further attacks continue to be present and real.
What the terrorists want cannot be agreed to. Their ultimate goal is to create a new caliphate in the Muslim world.
They want to drive out Western interests and influence from Muslim countries and they want to destroy moderate Muslim governments. They want to establish in their place an extremist Islamic regime that would be brutal, tyrannical and intolerant.
Such a regime would plunge these countries into a pre-modern world, where women and minorities would have no rights, where technology would be shunned and where personal choice and economic freedom would not be tolerated.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
To picture the sort of regime I am talking about, you only have to cast your mind back a few years to the Taliban regime that existed in Afghanistan. This is the reality that the extremists seek to impose on the Islamic world. And to achieve their evil ends, they will attack their fellow Muslims as well as Westerners, as they did in Bali.
Australia's efforts to confront terrorism have been considerable. Strengthening co-operation and capacity in our region has been our primary focus.
In 2004 and 2005 Australia's regional counter-terrorism efforts have been worth more than $250 million. This money funds direct co-operation. Police co-operation is at the front end of our efforts. Australian Federal Police officers are working to support Indonesian officers in their investigation of the recent brutal attacks.
But the degree of co-operation is much broader and deeper and touches on all aspects of policing. Australia and Indonesia, for example, jointly run a regional facility for training and operational support — the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation.
On the intelligence front, Australian agencies are closely networked with their counterparts in the region. These liaison relationships have resulted in an unprecedented level of co-operation and information sharing, underpinned by a $20 million regional counter-terrorism intelligence training program operated by Australia.
In February 2004, my Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, and I co-hosted the Bali regional ministerial meeting on counter-terrorism, which has set in train a process that is further deepening practical legal and law enforcement co-operation. Our 2005-06 federal budget included an additional $40 million to strengthen regional counter-terrorism co-operation in key sectors such as law enforcement, border and transport security, intelligence and legal affairs.
We have achieved considerable results with our efforts. For example, Indonesia has captured more than 40 of the 2002 Bali bombers, and successfully bought them to trial. Three got death sentences; four received life imprisonment. This was a joint investigation — a model for successful international co-operation to combat terrorism.
We are yet to determine who was behind the recent attack, but again our two police forces are working day and night to determine who they are.
But it is clear we must do more. We will continue to urge Indonesia to strengthen further its counter-terrorism laws, including by banning JI — I will do this myself when I visit Indonesia. Our own domestic laws are being strengthened.
Much more is to be done internationally as well. At the UN, I called attention to the regrettable fact that the chance was missed to produce a political declaration defining acts of terrorism.
We must also continue to fight and win the battle of ideas. Contesting their extremist vision is a challenge that religious, political and community leaders must embrace worldwide. The most successful warriors against the Islamic extremist terrorists will be moderate Muslims. They must be given support to ensure that they successfully defeat the divisive message of hate, tyranny and intolerance propagated by the extremists.
But there is no quick fix to the terrorist threat. Our enemy will not disappear overnight. But there is one message that the terrorists should understand: we will not back down.
Alexander Downer is Foreign Minister. |
|
Read 65 times - make a comment
|
| Australia Soothes Muslim Fears Over New Terror Law |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-12-05 23:45 - 0 comments |
|
Australia Soothes Muslim Fears Over New Terror Laws
By Phil Mercer
Sydney
06 October 2005
Australia has moved to assure Muslim leaders that new anti-terrorist laws will not unfairly target their communities. The Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has briefed a dozen senior Islamic leaders in Canberra on the new powers approved last week.
Leaders of Australia's Muslim community agreed Thursday to support tough new anti-terrorism measures after the government assured them the new laws would not discriminate against their communities.
Islamic leaders were concerned that enhanced police stop-and-search powers would be used on those of Middle Eastern appearance more than anyone else.
But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Thursday members of Australia's 300,000 strong Muslim community would not be unfairly singled out.
"The issues that we are dealing with are not with Muslims," said Mr. Ruddock. "They are not with people of any particular race or religion."
The head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Dr. Ameer Ali, said he and his colleagues were "comfortable" with the government assurances and now accepted the need for the laws.
Australia's new counter-terror laws will allow suspects to be electronically surveilled or held in custody for up to 14 days without charge. There will also be tighter checks on citizenship applicants and jail terms for inciting violence.
The meeting between Islamic leaders and the government comes days after bomb attacks blamed on a radical Islamic organization killed 22 people on the Indonesian island of Bali, a popular tourist destination for Australians.
Muslim leaders told the government their greatest fear is a terrorist attack on Australian soil, which could trigger a backlash against their community, one of the country's fastest-growing minority groups. |
|
Read 67 times - make a comment
|
| Australia's Death Toll In Bali Bombings Rises To.. |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-12-05 23:41 - 0 comments |
|
Australia's death toll in Bali bombings rises to four
CANBERRA, Oct. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Australia's death toll in the latest Bali bombings rose to four after a missing couple's bodies were identified formally by the Indonesian authorities.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Thursday confirmed that the couple, Colin and Fiona Zwolinski, from Australia's southeast city of Newcastle, have been killed in the Bali bombings last Saturday.
"We can now confirm that four Australians have actually been killed in the bombings in Bali," Mr Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
"The bodies of Colin and Fiona Zwolinski have now been identified formally by the police and we're able to verify that it' s them who were killed," he said.
Earlier, a 16-year-old boy from the state of Western Australia and a 48-year-old woman from Newcastle have been confirmed dead in the bombings. |
|
Read 68 times - make a comment
|
| Australia Relives Bali Nightmare |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-12-05 23:40 - 0 comments |
|
Australia relives Bali nightmare
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney
Almost exactly three years after the first Bali bombings, Australia has again been confronted by mass murder on the Indonesian holiday island.
Bali memorial at Coogee beach in Sydney
Australia is still coming to terms with the first Bali attack, in 2002
Much of the dread and revulsion sparked by the October 2002 slaughter returned as news of last week end's attacks spread.
"I thought 'my God, not again'," said Dr Dianne Stephens, the director of the intensive care unit at the Royal Darwin Hospital, where several survivors of the latest blasts were taken.
She also helped treat critically ill patients who were airlifted to Darwin from Bali in 2002.
"I had that sinking feeling you get when you know what's coming, what the injuries are going to look like and the trauma people are having to go through," she said.
Dr Stephens, a Royal Australian Air force reservist, flew to Bali on the first RAAF Hercules sent to collect seriously ill survivors.
"This was a little different to the first bombings, where there was a lot of fire and so there was a huge amount of burns," she said. "This time it's all blast wounds and shrapnel injuries, which unfortunately I saw quite a lot of in a three-month deployment in Iraq."
Peter Hughes
"They would be feeling a sense of numbness going through their system, along with shock and panic
Peter Hughes, 2002 survivor
Doctors have removed enough shrapnel during surgery on survivors in Darwin to fill dozens of large shopping bags.
It is a chilling repeat of what happened in Bali three years ago.
Peter Hughes, who was in a coma for two and a half weeks and in hospital for three months after the 2002 blasts, said he felt "a bit empty" when news came through of the latest explosions.
"They [the survivors] would be feeling a sense of numbness going through their system, along with shock and panic," he said.
Mr Hughes' hard-hitting book 'Back from the Dead' details his thoughts and experiences after October 2002. He had suffered 54% burns.
"Sometimes I'm as normal as anyone who goes through trauma," he said, "but sometimes mentally I struggle with it. But I'm very lucky to be alive."
Mother's anguish
The mother of another 2002 survivor has also been warning those affected by the latest bombing what to expect.
"I just felt so deeply sorry for them because I know that the anguish would be absolutely ghastly," said Dawn Fox, whose daughter Therese suffered burns to 85% of her body. "They will be going through hell," she told ABC television.
Therese Fox spent a year in hospital and was one of the last Australian victims of the 2002 attacks to be allowed home.
Dawn Fox has told of her daughter's ordeal at that time.
"You hear [her] having her dressings done and they take four hours, six hours, and you hear the screaming and then you see your daughter and she says: 'Just let me die'", she said.
Australia and Indonesia have learned a great deal since the first attacks in Bali - from emergency preparedness to the value of intelligence sharing.
It has still not been enough to protect the innocent.
"I look at the sheer madness of it and feel frustration that there is nothing we can do to stop this from happening all over the world," said Dr Stephens.
Bomb survivor Peter Hughes believes there is a danger that the extremists could be getting the upper hand.
"We need to push back on terrorism very quickly," he said. "Otherwise it is going to overcome us."
"These people aren't going to stop. If it's Bali now, it will be Australia next," he said. |
|
Read 69 times - make a comment
|
| Australia Beats World Xi |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-11-05 22:52 - 0 comments |
|
Australia Beats World XI by 156 Runs, Wins Super Series 3-0
Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Australia beat a World XI by 156 runs in Melbourne today to complete a 3-0 whitewash in cricket's first- ever Super Series of one-day matches.
Home captain Ricky Ponting made 68, Michael Hussey 75 not out and Shane Watson 66 not out as Australia totaled 293-5 in its 50 overs. In reply, the World XI were dismissed for 137, including 21 from England's Andrew Flintoff.
Flintoff, a hero of England's Ashes series victory over Australia last month, batted after being taken to hospital for X- rays on his right wrist, which was injured as he attempted a return catch off Ponting. Virender Sehwag top-scored for the World XI with 37 as Brett Lee took 4-30 and man of the match Watson 4- 39.
``The way that we've gone about our cricket this week has been first class,'' Ponting said on Sky Sports afterwards. ``All the batters have scored a lot of runs and the bowlers have done all that's been asked of them.''
Hussey and Watson joined for an unbeaten stand of 145 runs to combat a middle-order slump and turn the match in Australia's favor.
Australia is seeking to reassert its position as cricket's dominant nation after losing the Ashes to England for the first time since 1987. There now follows a six-day Super Series Test in Sydney starting Oct. 14 and Australia will be seeking to bounce back from the Test series setback in England. ``I know the guys are very keen to rectify that,'' Ponting added.
Flintoff suffered bruising and swelling to his wrist, though it is not serious and he will be available for the Test, Web site Cricinfo reported.
Two days ago Adam Gilchrist hit the fastest one-day international century by an Australian to spearhead the home side to a 55-run victory and a 2-0 lead. Australia won the first match by 93 runs on Oct. 5.
The series was devised by the International Cricket Council, the sport's ruling body, two years ago and pits the No. 1 team against the best of the rest. At the time, Australia had won a record 16 straight Tests and secured back-to-back World Cups. Performances will count toward players' career records.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Peter-Joseph Hegarty in London phegarty@bloomberg.net
|
|
Read 67 times - make a comment
|
| The Tragedy Of History Lost |
| Posted by AussieLover - 10-4-05 00:18 - 0 comments |
|
| QUOTE | The tragedy of history lost
The ransacking of the Iraq Museum is an incalculable loss to mankind, writes Sebastian Smee
October 01, 2005
AFTER the invasion of Iraq by coalition troops in 2003, as days became weeks and then months, conflicting reports about the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad kept appearing in the press. At first we were told that something like 170,000 artefacts had been stolen by looters in the 48 hours after coalition troops entered Baghdad. Later came reports that this number was a huge exaggeration. Claim and counter-claim have followed ever since: most of the time, it has to be said, in opinion columns more concerned with the rights and wrongs of the war than with the true extent and significance of the museum's losses.
Many people reading the commentaries had not heard of the Iraq Museum before the war, nor did they have any idea of what it contained. Not surprisingly, perhaps, since Baghdad has not been a holiday destination of choice for decades. Now they found themselves reading about civilisations of which they may have had only the dimmest idea: fabled cities such as Ur, Babylon, Nineveh and Nimrud, and rulers such as Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar, Ashurnasirpal II and Sargon II.
Well, it all sounded rather exotic, and no doubt looting is a regrettable thing, but weren't people making a bit too much of the fate of the museum when, in the rest of Iraq, history was being made, statues were being toppled and a tyrant had gone into hiding? What real importance could a few thousand cuneiform tablets and vases have when the lives of soldiers and civilians were hanging in the balance?
Now is a good time to revisit such questions, since we suddenly have a great many more facts at our disposal. Matthew Bogdanos, the American attorney who led the attempt to recover antiquities looted from the museum, has published an account of his operation in the July issue of the American Journal of Archeology, and it clears up many inaccuracies and misunderstandings reported in the media and reiterated elsewhere.
At the same time, a new book, The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, has come out, published by Harry N. Abrams. It is an attempt to reconstruct, in book form, the ravaged museum, tracing the history of what the Ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia from prehistoric times through to the advent of Islam. Its chapters are written by many of the archeologists whose finds were collected, catalogued and displayed in the museum.
What is so special about these objects? In Donald Rumsfeld's view, evidently, nothing much. It is still staggering to be reminded of Rumsfeld's initial response to the looting. In the days that looters were ransacking the Iraq Museum, he made it clear he had no interest in trying to prevent it. He joked about the repeated appearance on the television news of "the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase".
"Is it possible," he wondered, "that there were that many vases in the whole country?" This was said within hours of the disappearance from the museum of the Warka vase, a work as important as the Bayeux tapestry or Ghiberti's doors for the baptistry in Florence.
Understandably, the scenes of desecration in the museum, along with Rumsfeld's disgraceful comments, provoked outrage around the world. However, in the polemical battle over the war, half-truths and guesses were repeated as facts, with unhelpful results.
Bogdanos and his taskforce were given the mission of determining what had happened at the museum and recovering whatever antiquities they could. His investigation established that there had been not one but three thefts from the museum by three distinct groups: "Professionals who stole several dozen of the most prized treasures, random looters who stole more than 3000 excavation-site pieces, and insiders who stole almost 11,000 cylinder seals and pieces of jewellery." One of Bogdanos's first discoveries was that the destruction in the museum's administrative offices was "wanton and absolute". But, he says, the mob showed "astonishing restraint and respect" in the public galleries: "It was as if the majesty of the galleries had worked a cathartic spell on many of the looters."
Initial reports that more than 170,000 antiquities had been stolen were certainly wrong. The best current estimate is that 14,000-15,000 pieces were stolen. About 5000 have been returned, which means that as many as 10,000 objects have been lost. Of course, 10,000 sounds a lot better than 170,000. But what do these numbers really mean?
H ...read more |
|
Read 56 times - make a comment
|
| Australia's Population Increases To 20.3 Million |
| Posted by AussieLover - 09-23-05 00:18 - 2 comments |
|
CANBERRA, Sept. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Australia's population stands at nearly 20.3 million at March 31, 2005, representing a 1.1 percent increase in the past year, according to latest official figures.
Figures of Australian Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday said the preliminary estimated resident population of Australia at March 31, 2005 was 20,281,400 persons, an increase of 230,300 persons since March 31, 2004 and 71,400 persons since Dec. 31, 2004.
Natural increase and net overseas migration contributed 52.2 percent and 47.8 percent respectively to Australia's total population growth in the year ended March 2005.
Natural increase for the year ended March 31, 2005 was 120,300 persons, while net overseas migration was 110,000 persons.
All Australia's states and territories recorded positive growth rates for the year ended March 31, 2005, the figures showed.
The highest annual growth of 2 percent, or 76,900 persons, was recorded by the northeastern state of Queensland, followed by Western Australia, 1.6 percent. Enditem
|
|
Read 97 times - last comment by AussieLover
|
| Bombs Scare Australia A Cricket Squad |
| Posted by AussieLover - 09-23-05 00:17 - 0 comments |
|
Bombs scare Australia A cricket squad
By Alex Brown in London
September 23, 2005 - 12:26AM
Page Tools
The Australia A cricket team's management is considering cancelling the one-day section of their Pakistan tour after two bombs exploded in Lahore last night, killing six people and wounding 20.
The team was in the city at the time of the blasts, preparing to play the first of three one-day matches scheduled to start today. No member of the touring party was injured.
"We're in the middle of discussions right now," said Australia's chairman of selectors, Trevor Hohns, who is travelling with the Australia A team.
"We're taking advice from the relevant authorities and will probably make a decision [on whether or not to continue with the tour] later this evening."
Shane Watson and Brad Hodge, both in Australia's 13-man squad for next month's SuperTest, are among the players in Pakistan.
Mike Hussey and James Hopes, named in Australia's one-day squad to play the World XI, are also in Pakistan. Both made centuries in the recent drawn four-day match against a Pakistan A side in Rawalpindi.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
News of the Lahore bombings will no doubt concern England's cricketers, who are preparing for a Test series in Pakistan. |
|
Read 57 times - make a comment
|
| Boy Hit, Killed By Car |
| Posted by AussieLover - 09-16-05 22:40 - 0 comments |
|
Boy hit, killed by car
A young boy who was hit by a car in a driveway at Goolwa Beach this afternoon has died of his injuries.
The boy was struck outside a house on Willmet Road at 3:30pm ACST.
He was airlifted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, but later died.
|
|
Read 74 times - make a comment
|
| Australia Joins Global Fight Against Bird Flu |
| Posted by AussieLover - 09-16-05 22:18 - 0 comments |
|
Australia joins global fight against bird flu
Australia has joined a new international partnership set up by the United States to try to prevent an avian flu pandemic.
The International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza has been announced by US President George W Bush, to improve international cooperation and to respond to the threat of a pandemic.
It will support the work of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which estimates more than 50 people have died from a virulent strand of the virus that has now spread to 10 countries across the South-East Asia region.
Prime Minister John Howard says bird flu will also be a major issue at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders meeting in November.
"The possibility of a flu epidemic is quite high and it's very important that the world and in particular our own region do what we can to prepare for that," he said.
At least 16 nations have joined the new global initiative including Argentina, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
|
|
Read 69 times - make a comment
|
| Top US intel rating for Australia |
| Posted by AussieLover - 08-31-05 21:31 - 0 comments |
|
Top US intel rating for Australia
THE US has elevated Australia to their highest ranking of intelligence partner.
The move, confirmed with a decree from US President George W Bush, puts Australia alongside Britain in terms of importance as an intelligence partner, News Ltd papers report today.
Defence Minister Robert Hill confirmed only that Australia had a higher intelligence sharing status with the US than it had ever had before.
"In recent years we have obtained unprecedented access to US intelligence and tactical planning," Senator Hill said.
"That has been of great value to Australia in terms of enhancing our national security.
"This is access to the greatest repository of information that exists.
Advertisement:
"It's another sign of the close relationship between the US and Australia." |
|
Read 63 times - make a comment
|
| Missionary's body flown to Australia |
| Posted by AussieLover - 08-31-05 21:29 - 0 comments |
|
Missionary's body flown to Australia
By Godfrey Olukya in Kampala
September 01, 2005
THE body of Australian missionary James Coulter, who drowned in a river in Uganda, has been flown home to Sydney.
"We took the body to Entebbe Airport in one of our vans and placed it on an Australia-bound plane," said the managing director of Uganda Funeral Services, Regina Mukibi, overnight.
Mukibi said the plane would fly to Sydney via South Africa .
Edward Mwesige, the director of Uganda Evangelists Enterprise which hosted Mr Coulter and five other Australian volunteers, was at the airport to see the body off.
Also there was Mr Coulter's friend David Cooper and the director of Australian Enterprise Africa, Jonathan Anderson.
Witnesses said Mr Coulter, a science graduate, slipped on a rock and plunged into the fast-flowing Musanya River while taking photographs of a waterfall last Monday.
Advertisement:
Local police recovered his body from a 15-metre underwater cave on Friday.
Yesterday, Children and staff at an East African orphanage farewelled Mr Coulter at a funeral service in Njeru, 80 km from the Ugandan capital Kampala.
The service was conducted by the Reverend Geofrey Byamugaba, who said Mr Coulter had been an exemplary servant of God.
He noted the young man's age and his dedication to the children and the needy in Uganda.
|
|
Read 80 times - make a comment
|
| Australia to share US secrets |
| Posted by AussieLover - 08-31-05 21:26 - 0 comments |
|
Australia to share US secrets
By Greg Sheridan
September 01, 2005
Bush and Howard / AFP
Close ties ... Australia has never before had such access / AFP
US President George W. Bush has issued a decree upgrading Australia to the highest rank of intelligence partner that the US has in the world.
Australia's new status is equalled only by Britain and vastly expands the quantity and quality of US intelligence our agencies receive.
In order to bring this about, Mr Bush has changed US national disclosure policy.
In the 50 years of the US-Australia alliance, Australia has never before enjoyed this level of access to American intelligence. The agreement ranges from tactical and operational military information through to comprehensive national assessments.
Increasingly, Australian agencies will have direct access to US intelligence systems. Australian military personnel in the Middle East, for example, can already directly access US intelligence databases and real-time battle space imagery.
John Howard has discussed the new intelligence arrangements with Mr Bush at several meetings in recent years.
Advertisement:
The Prime Minister raised it again with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at their Washington meeting on July 19.
Defence Minister Robert Hill would not comment on anything related to US presidential decrees or US national disclosure policy, but he confirmed Canberra had a higher intelligence-sharing status with the US than ever before.
"In recent years we have obtained unprecedented access to US intelligence and tactical planning," Senator Hill said.
"That has been of great value to Australia in terms of enhancing our national security. This is access to the greatest repository of information that exists. It's another sign of the close relationship between the US and Australia."
Mr Howard raised US national disclosure policy at his meeting with Mr Rumsfeld because of resistance to Australia's new status within the US bureaucracy.
While Mr Bush and Mr Rumsfeld and US service chiefs have strongly backed the new arrangements, the natural inertia and caution of the vast US intelligence and military bureaucracies has meant a lot of operational resistance to their implementation.
Put simply, US spooks are not used to sharing the crown jewels. However, repeated instructions from the top have moved the process steadily forward.
Mr Bush's decree is believed to have followed the annual AUSMIN meeting of Australian and US foreign and defence ministers in Washington last year, where they signed the "US-Australian joint statement of principles on Inter-Operability".
Since the turn of the century, there has been a steady deepening of compatibility in equipment and training between US and Australian military forces. All aspects of this "inter-operability" have been canvassed in a secret paper jointly compiled by the US and Australian defence departments.
The AUSMIN statement said Australia and the US had "agreed to enhance inter-operability between our defence forces such as communications, information exchange, operational planning and training".
It has not previously been revealed that these seemingly anodyne words had brought about the most intimate intelligence relationship in Australian history.
The new relationship occurs at many levels.
Canberra now has a permanent senior officer stationed at the US Strategic Command in Nebraska.
US Strategic Command is responsible for integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, space and global strike operations, information operations, integrated missile defence and command and control.
It is the most sensitive intelligence hub in the US military network and to have Australians stationed there at high levels of seniority is a sign of the depth of the intelligence relationship.
Australia gains access at all levels - to US raw intelligence, to US assessments of the intelligence and to real-time operational information and planning.
This has meant Australia further upgrading its own security because the US is extremely sensitive about who shares such information.
Australia's new status is a sign of the growing trust the US has in the Australian military and intelligence community. Co-operation between Canberra and Washington in these fields has grown exponentially as a result of both the war on terror and the joint operations in Iraq.
|
|
Read 64 times - make a comment
|
| Australia urged to become 51st state!! |
| Posted by AussieLover - 08-15-05 14:03 - 0 comments |
|
"Australia urged to become 51st state
Australia primed to be yanked into US
By Tess Livingstone
July 16, 2003
AUSTRALIA has been urged to seriously consider
becoming the 51st state of the US.
And American-born historian Dr David Mosler told a
Brisbane audience yesterday there was a 20 per cent
chance of Australia becoming an American state in the
next 50 years.
The visiting research fellow at Adelaide University,
who has lived in Australia since 1971, said the
chances would increase significantly in the event of a
major Al-Qaeda attack on Australia or if Indonesia
became a fundamentalist Islamic republic.
Dr Mosler told the 2003 Fulbright Symposium at
Griffith University yesterday that he decided
Australia was "an unreformable society" after the loss
of the 1999 republic referendum.
Australians, he said, had no flag of their own; a weak
sense of nationhood; no prime minister in the Lodge,
with John Howard living in Sydney; no national
bushfire or water plans, even with the worst drought
in history; and no "broad knowledge of nation in
public discourse or popular culture". Australians had
replaced "Empire with Yanks" after 1942, and the
country retained a "quasi-colonial status".
He said Australian governments, attuned to the
British, Americans, Japanese and global capital
markets, had "sold off the farm" - electricity, water,
ports, airports, resources - while Australians weren't
offended by such "treasonous behaviour".
He said Australia's passage to American statehood
would not be difficult under its Constitution.
He listed the advantages of American statehood for
Australia as:
* Access to the world's best higher education system.
* Large savings on embassies.
* Being part of the world's most effective defence
system.
* Merger with the world's strongest currency.
* Being part of the world's biggest economy.
* A constitution bringing a republic and a Bill of
Rights.
* Fielding teams in the US national basketball,
baseball and gridiron competitions.
The Courier-Mail" |
|
Read 73 times - make a comment
|
|
|
|
|
Help
Search
Members
Calendar
