Sweden takes EU helm and vows action on climate change

July 01, 2009

Article from: Agence France-Presse

SWEDEN has taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, vowing to tackle climate change and combat soaring unemployment in Europe following the global economic crisis.

“The financial crisis and climate change, with the preparation of the Copenhagen conference, will be our main priorities,” Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters on the eve of the Swedish presidency. 

Stockholm wants to get the EU to sign up to a new UN global warming treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December and which would replace the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions that expires in 2012. 

“We need a global answer to this global problem,” Reinfeldt said. 

But Reinfeldt and his centre-right government, which took over the reins on Wednesday after a turbulent Czech presidency, have their work cut out for them for the next six months as the 27-member bloc finds itself in a period of limbo. 

A new European parliament has just been elected and is in the process of settling in, a new Commission will be installed - and it is not yet certain who the next president will be - and the bloc's institutional framework may be altered depending on the outcome of a referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty in October. 

The Scandinavian country, which like the Czech Republic is not a member of the eurozone, nonetheless aims to restore confidence in the financial markets by establishing “a European body to supervise stability”. 

“We need to work in a more coordinated and cross-border way for supervision,” Reinfeldt said. 

Sweden also plans to “lay the foundations for a new growth and employment strategy” to help the millions of unemployed Europeans, according to its work program. 

Other priorities include EU enlargement, of which Sweden is a fierce advocate, improving European judicial co-operation, and developing a strategy to improve the Baltic Sea's marine environment and the region's growth potential. 

Reinfeldt's government will host the European Commission for a meeting in Stockholm on Wednesday that will formally open the Swedish presidency. 

That will be followed by festivities at Stockholm's Skansen open air museum attended by the Swedish government, the Commission and Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia and the public. 

Wallabies on opium making crop circles

Thursday, 25 June 2009

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Wallabies snacking in opium poppy fields are getting "high as a kite" and hopping around creating crop circles.

Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally-grown opium for the pharmaceutical market.

Tasmania attorney-general Lara Giddings told a budget hearing yesterday that she recently read about the wallabies in a brief on the state's large poppy industry.

She said: "We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles.

"Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

A manager for one of two Tasmanian companies licensed to take medicinal products from poppy straw said wildlife and livestock - including deer and sheep - that eat the poppies are known to "act weird".

Tasmanian Alkaloids field operations manager Rick Rockliff said: "There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles."

Tasmania supplies about 50% of the world's raw material for morphine and related opiates. About 500 farmers grow the crop on 49,420 acres of land.

Baghdad market blast kills scores

NEWS MIDDLE EAST Baghdad market blast kills scores At least 61 people have been killed by a bomb in Baghdad's predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, an interior ministry official has said. Police said 116 people were also wounded in the blast that took place at the popular market on Wednesday. The explosion, caused by a motorcycle rickshaw loaded with explosives and covered with fruit and vegetables, happened in the north Baghdad district at around 7.30pm (1630GMT), according to one official. Women and children were among the casualties and dozens of market kiosks were damaged, the official said. Attacker flees The attacker got off the motorcycle rickshaw in the middle of Mraidi market and managed to escape before the bomb was set off, he said. The attack comes a few days after US combat troops handed over the neighbourhood to Iraqi forces. US troops plan to pull out of Iraqi cities, towns and villages by June 30. Violence has dropped markedly in Iraq in recent months, with May seeing the lowest Iraqi death toll since the 2003 invasion. But attacks remain common, particularly in Baghdad and the main northern city of Mosul. Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, warned earlier this month that attacks were likely to increase in the coming weeks in a bid to undermine confidence in the Iraqi security forces.

Sri Lankan reporter 'kidnapped'

By Charles Haviland  BBC News, Colombo A Sri Lankan journalist says she was kidnapped from outside her home in the capital Colombo and held for a day by people claiming to be the police. Krishni Ifam, a Tamil reporter who works for media development NGO Internews, said the men had warned her to give up journalism altogether. She said she was then released in the central city of Kandy late on Wednesday with a tiny amount of cash. Police in Sri Lanka could not be reached for comment. Unmarked vans Ms Ifam has been speaking about her ordeal on a private television station and, separately, to the BBC. She said men who said they were policemen forced her to get into their vehicle outside her Colombo home early on Wednesday and drove for several hours while keeping her blindfolded. She said they had taken her belongings, asked if she was writing articles for foreign media outlets and warned her to give up journalism altogether before releasing her. Ms Ifam used to write for a prominent Tamil-language newspaper. Separately, a columnist who usually covers astrology was picked up late on Wednesday by men with identity cards from the Criminal Investigation Department. His wife said he was still being held 24 hours later. In both these cases the vehicles used were said to be unmarked white vans, which have become notorious in Sri Lanka as a means of abduction and sometimes disappearance. The Sri Lankan government insists that the media here are free. But many journalists say they do not feel free to write or broadcast what they want - many have been physically attacked and others have fled into exile.

US and Canadian swine flu deaths revised upwards

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From correspondents in Washington | June 20, 2009

Article from: Agence France-Presse

THE swine flu pandemic has killed 100 people in Canada and the US, figures released by US and Canadian health authorities show.

Eighty-seven people died from the disease in the US, the Centres for Disease Control reported, adding that there were 21,449 confirmed cases.

The figures are a jump from the previous report on June 12, when 44 people were reported dead and 17,855 cases were confirmed.

In Canada, the world's third most affected country, health authorities reported a 13th death and 5710 confirmed cases of A(H1N1) flu.

In Mexico, where the flu strain was first spotted, authorities reported 113 killed by the disease and the number of confirmed infections at more than 7000.

The most recent World Health Organisation data, released on Thursday, showed that swine flu has infected nearly 40,000 people around the world in 89 countries and territories, causing 167 deaths since late March.

Some affected countries no longer keep track of all cases according to the UN health agency, while others do not report for each of the thrice-weekly bulletins

Ethiopia rejects Somali request

Militants have been battling pro-government forces for three years Ethiopia has refused a request by Somalia for military support to fight insurgents, saying such an intervention would need an international mandate. The Somali authorities have been battling Islamist insurgents who control much of the country. The speaker of Somalia's parliament had earlier urged neighbouring countries to send troops within 24 hours. Ethiopian troops helped topple an Islamist movement in Somalia in 2006, but were withdrawn earlier this year. On Saturday Somali parliamentary Speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur urged neighbouring Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen to intervene as fierce fighting continued for a second day in the capital Mogadishu. But Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon said that an international mandate was needed for such an intervention. He added that the international community, not just Somalia's neighbours, should assist its transitional government. Assassinations Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991. Its UN-backed transitional government controls only parts of Mogadishu, but little of the rest of the country. There are some 4,300 African Union troops deployed in Mogadishu, but they lack any mandate to pursue the insurgents. Pro-government forces have been fighting radical Islamist guerrillas in the capital since 7 May. On Friday, gunmen killed Mohamed Hussein Addow, an MP who represented the Karan district where fighting has been particularly intense in recent days. It was the third killing of a high-profile public figure in as many days. Somalia's security minister - an outspoken critic of the militant Islamist group al-Shabab - was killed in a suicide attack in the northern town of Beledweyne, and Mogadishu's police commander was also killed this week. Militant groups including al-Shabab, which is accused of links to al-Qaeda, have been trying to topple Somalia's government for three years. Some four million people in Somalia - or about one-third of the population - need food aid, according to aid agencies.

Troops Kill 50 Militants in Pakistan Fighting

Saturday, June 20, 2009

CHUPRIAL, Pakistan  —  Pakistani troops backed by jet fighters and artillery have killed about 50 militants in a volatile northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan where the country's top Taliban leader is believed to be entrenched with thousands of his fighters, officials said Saturday.

They were the first known militant casualties in South Waziristan — where Pakistan Taliban head Baitullah Mehsud and Al Qaeda figures are believed to be hiding — since the military started pounding the area with artillery about a week ago. Mehsud is blamed for a series of suicide attacks that have killed more than 100 people since late May.

Although the army has not announced a formal start of full-scale operations in South Waziristan — an offensive that Washington has been pressing Pakistan to undertake — officials said troops are already occupying strategic positions in the region.

The operation, seen as a test of nuclear-armed Pakistan's resolve against an insurgency that has expanded in the past two years, could be a turning point in its sometimes halfhearted fight against militancy. It also could help the war effort in Afghanistan, because the tribal belt has long harbored militants who launch cross-border attacks.

Jet fighters flattened two abandoned militant-linked seminaries and a training facility Friday in a clear sign that the operation was ramping up.

Two intelligence and army officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media, said heavy fighting was under way in the villages of Barwand and Madijan, with about 50 militants killed.

There was no immediate comment from the military, and the reports could not be independently confirmed due to restrictions on media access to the region.

Meanwhile, artillery fire was pounding militant positions in the Biha valley, in the upper Swat Valley, as an intense operation there started Friday night against remnants of Taliban fighting forces and continued into the day.

"This area is the center of gravity for the terrorists," said Maj. Gen. Sajjad Ghani, who is in control of efforts to clear a 3,860-square-mile area of Taliban. "As of now, there are only pockets of resistance left. The terrorists are on the run. Command and control is disarray. They are unable to organize an integrated response."

During a military-sponsored trip for journalists to the town of Chuprial, Ghani said 95 percent of Swat has been cleared and that most of the resistance the military is facing is in Biha, a short valley that backs into snow-covered mountains that are limiting the Taliban's efforts to flee.

He said about 400 militants have been killed in the area over the past six weeks but conceded that many top commanders have managed to escape, some possibly headed to havens in Afghanistan or the Waziristan tribal areas. He did not specify how many militants are believed to be holding out, and his statements could not be independently confirmed.

Overall, the army says it has killed nearly 1,500 militants since April in Swat.

Ghani said a high-intensity operation will continue for about a week or so, then another few weeks will be needed to go after stragglers.

Reporters were taken to an abandoned militant training camp where Ghani said about 50 militants were killed, including Arabs, Afghans and Uzbeks. The complex included tunnels and an ammunition dump. Troops showed off seized weapons, including improvised bombs, heavy machine guns and ammunition boxes for rocket-propelled grenades.

Helicopters, including Cobra gunships, flew overhead, and there was no sign of civilians in the scenic area of steep mountainsides and terraced fields, dotted with small villages of single-story concrete houses. The army clearly has the high ground in most places, dug in with heavy machine guns in sandbagged bunkers.

Officials are planning to let some of the 2 million people displaced by fighting in Swat to start returning home further south Thursday.

They are being sent first to Mingora, Swat's main city. Electricity and civic facilities must be restored before they are allowed to go home in "phases," said Fazal Karim Khattak, a senior government official.

Refugees were happy to hear they will soon go home but worry about what they will find.

"Of course I am happy, but I don't know whether our home is safe or it has been destroyed," said Khadija Bibi, 45, a mother of four who left her home in the Kanjua near Mingora in May.

Khaisata Khan, 32, who owned a shop in the heart of the city of Swat, said he didn't know what had happened to his shop as the military had targeted Taliban in the area where it was located.

"If peace returns to Swat, I will forget the damage to my property and the pain we have to face in the camps," he said as he sat in a camp on the outskirts of the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

The Swat offensive has been generally welcomed in Pakistan, but public opinion could quickly turn if the government fails to effectively help the refugees or civilian casualties mount. The government has said the army will need to stay in Swat for a year to ensure security.