UK car manufacturing rises 1.1%

THE number of cars built in the UK increased by 1.1 per cent in the first half of the year, to 764,390 units, figures have shown.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said growth was 4.6 per cent in the second-quarter of the year and 10.4 per cent in June.

Four out of five cars built in the UK are exported, but the SMMT said higher output for the home market, up 24.4 per cent, had boosted volumes.

"Car output in the UK grew during the first half of 2013, up 1.1 per cent, building on a strong 2012 when manufacturing performed above pre-recession levels," said Mike Baunton, SMMT interim chief executive.

"Subdued demand in some European countries has held back production levels this year, but it is encouraging to see a significant rise in volumes destined for UK buyers.

"Our industry is building and developing innovative, high-quality products that appeal to a global customer base and because of this, independent analysts are confident that car output will grow in the long-term despite economic concerns on the continent."

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

First test for PNG deal after boat arrives

A new approach to boat arrivals could save lives, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare says. Source: AAP

MORE than 80 boat people are facing transfer to Papua New Guinea under the government's tough new asylum seeker plan, after their vessel was intercepted off Christmas Island.

A boat with 81 passengers and two crew on board was stopped by HMAS Bathurst on Saturday morning, with the mostly Iranian asylum seekers transferred to Christmas Island for health checks.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke confirmed they would be the first processed under the government's hardline approach, which will see those seeking asylum sent to Manus Island with no chance of resettlement in Australia.

Mr Burke said the 81 on board Saturday's boat arrival were a mix of single-adult males and family groups, but he could not confirm if there were any unaccompanied children.

Families and kids would be spared immediate transfer to PNG, because of the inadequate state of facilities on Manus Island, he said.

"As soon as I believe we're able to have appropriate accommodation and services, then transfer to Papua New Guinea will occur," Mr Burke said.

Interception of the vessel came as the government launched a nation-wide newspaper, radio and television blitz with the message: "If you come here by boat without a visa you won't be settled in Australia".

Mr Burke dismissed claims from refugee advocates that the government's policy was inhumane, saying there is nothing compassionate about allowing people to die at sea.

He also said he was "shocked" at those who said the advertising campaign was waste of taxpayers money.

"I want the message to get out, and I want there to be fewer people drowning on the high seas," Mr Burke said.

"I make no apology for that, and if the advice comes back that more advertising will help get that message out further I'll be authorising more."

Outflanked by the government's tough stance on asylum seekers, announced by Kevin Rudd on Friday, the coalition continued to question the prime minister's ability to deliver on the PNG asylum seeker deal.

Addressing the Liberal National Party state conference in Brisbane, Tony Abbott praised PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill as a "good man", but said "I will never subcontract out to other countries the solution of problems in this country".

"If you want solutions for this country you can't rely on the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, you've got to be able to rely on the Prime Minister of Australia, and I am someone the Australian people can rely on," the opposition leader said.

Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said: "The problem is not with the idea but with this government's inability to implement ideas".

Greens immigration spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson-Young labelled the agreement with PNG "a rush to cruelty as Kevin Rudd rushes to the polls".

Australian Lawyers for Human Rights said the plan would expose asylum seekers "to greater harm".

"Australia's obligations are not met by effectively engaging in the people trade itself: paying poor and needy countries to take asylum seekers and refugees who sought Australia's protection," president John Southalan said in a statement.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it had not been involved in the agreement between Australia and the PNG, and that it was seeking more information about the deal.

The policy arrived on the same day that inmates at the Nauru immigration detention centre rioted over delays to their refugee claims, resulting in tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

G20 seeks to narrow differences on growth

FINANCE chiefs of G20 states have sought to narrow differences on how to keep budget deficits in check without harming fragile growth as the world economy emerges from slowdown.

The finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the top 20 advanced and emerging economies will seek in their final communique to show unity on the often divisive issue of how to promote growth without harming fiscal situations.

The meeting in Moscow in an exhibition centre outside the Kremlin walls aims to set up the G20 heads of state summit in Saint Petersburg in September, which will be the culmination of Russia's presidency of the group.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters that for the moment the negotiators had not managed to find a consensus on how to square stimulating growth with reducing deficits.

"We must keep to a balanced language on the balance between reducing deficits and (promoting) growth," he said.

He said that the final communique would not contain a specific numeric target for reducing public debt and deficits, as was the case at the summit in Toronto in 2010.

"The reduction of deficits is a medium term objective. But at the same time the short term priority is growth, growth, and growth," Moscovici added.

The United States made clear ahead of the meeting that the fight against unemployment should be at the centre of the agenda, with US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew calling on EU states to do more to improve demand and growth.

However, some states, in particular Germany, have repeatedly argued over the importance of fiscal prudence and not harming budgets for the sake of stimulus.

The meeting comes amid demands for clarity after the US Federal Reserve said it could begin cutting its quantitative easing program, which injects some $85 billion a month into the economy via bond purchases, later this year and end the program by mid-2014.

In testimony to Congress the week, the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke stressed that the central bank would only move to taper the program if the economy appeared strong enough to withstand less support.

Some key nations, fearing that if the US slows down or shuts down completely the flow of money could hurt their own struggling economies, called on US policymakers to be as transparent in their communication on the issue as possible.

All G20 governments are acutely aware of the fragility of their recoveries from the global slowdown.

The IMF earlier this month cut its forecast for global growth, projecting the world's economy would grow 3.1 per cent in 2013, down from its April estimate of 3.3 per cent.

China and other emerging economic powers now face new risks, it warned, "including the possibility of a longer growth slowdown."

The economic fragility appears to have helped unite the G20 in a fight against tax avoidance, technically legal schemes which allow multinationals to pay very low tax by registering abroad, as well as illegal tax evasion.

Companies in the spotlight in the last months for using legal, but controversial, methods of booking profits in low-tax countries include US giants Google, Amazon and Starbucks.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kremlin critic Navalny cheered in Moscow

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has received a hero's welcome after his release from jail. Source: AAP

HUNDREDS of supporters of Alexei Navalny have gathered at a Moscow rail station to cheer the Russian opposition leader as a national hero following his unexpected release from jail.

The 37-year-old lawyer was greeted with loud cheers, chants and bouquets on his arrival from the city of Kirov on Saturday.

"We are a strong people's movement. I did not think that we were so strong," said Navalny, who was accompanied by his wife Julia.

Navalny told the crowd he would contest the Moscow mayoral election on September 8.

"We will win in the election," he said.

Police had cordoned off the Yaroslavsky station in the centre of Moscow and anti-terrorism units were on guard. The security measures came after an anonymous caller earlier warned of a bomb in the station.

Navalny walked out of the regional court in Kirov on Friday after a judge ruled that his arrest the previous day, following sentencing on embezzlement charges by a district court, had no legal basis.

The ruling did not overturn the five-year prison sentence handed down on Thursday, but it left observers puzzled about whether it reflected infighting between different factions in the Russian leadership.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Message rush as India stops telegrams

THOUSANDS of Indians have crammed into telegram offices to send souvenir messages to friends and family in a last-minute rush before the service shuts down after 162 years.

Sunday is the last day that messages will be accepted by the service, and the Central Telegraph Office in New Delhi said it was geared up to tackle the expected rush.

"We have increased the number of staff in the expectation that the number of people will grow at our counters," telegraph senior general manager Shameem Akhtar said.

"We will take the final telegram at 10:00 pm on Sunday and try to deliver them all the same night and the remaining would be sent on Monday," he added as dozens waited to hand over messages handwritten on slips of paper.

Leave for all staff has been cancelled in a bid to handle the volume of messages, which cost a minimum of 29 rupees (50 US cents) and are hand-delivered by delivery workers on bicycles.

On Sunday morning joggers, housewives and students were among those sending messages to loved ones. Many were seen making calls on their mobile phones to get the postal addresses of their friends so they could send the last dispatch.

"I have never seen such a rush before. They are some people who are sending 20 telegrams in one go," said Ranjana Das who is in charge of transmitting the telegrams.

"The service would not have been killed had there been this kind of rush through the year," added worker Vinod Rai.

The service, known popularly as the "Taar" or wire, will close on Monday because of mounting financial losses.

"While we communicate with improving modern means, let us sample a bit of history," said one of the last telegrams sent.

"Keep this safely as a piece of history. Mom," read another.

In the days before mobile phones and the Internet, the telegram network was the main form of long-distance communication, with 20 million messages dispatched from India during the subcontinent's bloody partition in 1947.

At its peak in 1985 the state-run utility sent 600,000 telegrams a day across India but the figure has dwindled to 5,000 at present, telegraph senior general manager Shameem Akhtar told AFP.

One five-word telegram sent from the centre summed up the change.

"The End of an Era," it read.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

China evacuates 500,000 as typhoon hits

EASTERN China is bracing for torrential downpours from Typhoon Soulik which forced the evacuation of half a million people after killing two in Taiwan.

Soulik lashed coastal Fujian province with winds of 118 kilometres per hour when it made landfall but had weakened to a tropical depression as it moved inland, the China Meteorological Administration said.

More than half a million people were evacuated from Fujian and neighbouring Zhejiang as the typhoon approached, with 5,500 soldiers deployed to carry out relief work if needed.

Xinhua news agency said almost 31,000 ships were called back to port and 20 flights cancelled.

Soulik brought torrential rain to Xiamen, with 24 centimetres of rain falling on the port city from Saturday to Sunday.

Rivers swelled beyond warning levels in some areas, and waves up to 10 metres high pounded sea defences in Ningde city.

In Taiwan, two people were killed, one was missing and 104 were injured by the storm, with one town reporting widespread landslides and floodwaters a storey high.

The northern village of Bailan saw the heaviest rain, with 90 centimetres falling in 48 hours, with winds gusting up to 220 kilometres per hour.

While Soulik wrought havoc in Taiwan, tearing roofs from homes and causing landslides that blocked roads, eastern China escaped its full force.

"Billboards have been shattered and trees have been uprooted" but no deaths or injuries were reported, Xinhua said.

The storm was set to dump up to 18 centimetres of rain on parts of eastern China over 24 hours as it moved further inland, forecasters said.

Downpours have already hit wide swathes of China over the past week, leaving dozens dead in rain-triggered landslides.

Officials were calculating the cost of the storm, with the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou alone facing a direct economic loss of 210 million yuan ($A37.23 million)the agency said.

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Malian troops to open Bastille Day

TROOPS coming from Mali and 12 other African countries will march with the French military in an unusual Bastille Day parade in Paris, to honour their efforts against terrorism.

Beyond the triumphal display on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday, including flyovers by fighter jets, the realities in Mali suggest that President Francois Hollande's first military intervention has had mixed results.

The mission he launched in January helped the Malian government retake control of much of the country from al-Qaeda-linked extremists who had seized northern Mali and threatened the capital.

The country is heading for elections July 28, but tensions involving rebel Tuaregs in the north linger, along with political instability.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

PM swamped by supporters in Cairns

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is sure to smell good during his visit to Papua New Guinea after buying six bars of soap from a Queensland market.

Gripping papayas, bread and other goods, his supporters pushed their way through a large crowd to catch a glimpse of the country's leader during his visit to Cairns on Sunday.

As he made his way through Rusty's Market in the CBD he stopped at Maria Dougan's soap stall.

"He asked me what I'd charge for the one soap and I told him it would be $2 or he could purchase six for $10," she told AAP.

"I have to say I was a bit starstruck, so we didn't talk about anything else. I was a bit shocked by all these people."

Ms Dougan called the prime minister a gentlemen and said he had a lot of support.

Shortly after shaking Mr Rudd's hand Lenita Taru, who lives in Cairns but is from PNG, said the prime minister had a good spirit.

"He's a good man for the people, he listens to their cries," she said.

"He comes down to our level and says your problem is my problem, that's why we love him."

But not everyone was happy to see him.

Local woman Val, 68, had to be restrained briefly by bodyguards after lunging at Mr Rudd, saying he wasn't doing enough to stop illegal immigrants coming to Australia.

"He's letting illegal immigrants into the country and they're bludging off us," she later told AAP.

"Every time Labor comes into power they get us in the red, every time Liberals get in we're in the green."

Mr Rudd heads to PNG later on Sunday to hold talks with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill about law and order issues in some of PNG's major cities.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More