You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2009.
Australia’s opposition Liberal Party has elected a new leader, amid a searing row over the government’s carbon trading laws.
Tony Abbott was chosen to replace Malcolm Turnbull at a Canberra meeting.
Mr Turnbull had backed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), but Mr Abbott opposes it.
The government needs the support of the Liberals to pass the legislation in the Senate. The Liberal revolt throws Mr Rudd’s plans into turmoil.
Mr Rudd had wanted the legislation to pass the Senate – where his party does not have a majority – by the start of the Copenhagen climate change summit next week.
Last week he secured Mr Turnbull’s support for the bill, prompting the angry reaction from some Liberal lawmakers that triggered the leadership challenge.
Climate centrepiece
Mr Abbott won the final vote against Mr Turnbull by 42 votes to 41. A third challenger, Joe Hockey, was eliminated in first-round voting.
Minutes after his victory, Mr Abbott told a news conference that he would fight the ETS bill.
“We will seek to refer the legislation to [a Senate] committee for further scrutiny. If we cannot get the support for that course of action we will oppose the legislation in the Senate this week,” he said.
“I think on something of this magnitude, it is much more important to get it right than to rush it,” he added.
The government’s immediate hopes of passing the bill now rest on the possibility of some opposition lawmakers rebelling and voting with it.
But if the Senate fails to back the scheme – as now looks likely – Mr Rudd could call a snap election, correspondents say.
Opinion polls suggest he would win such an election and could then pass his climate legislation in a joint sitting of parliament.
But, says the BBC’s Nick Bryant in Sydney, the issue is complicated by the onset of the southern summer, when political hostilities tend to be put on hold.
The ETS, aimed at reducing Australia’s carbon footprint, is the centrepiece of the government’s environmental strategy.
Mr Rudd wants to cut Australia’s carbon emissions by up to 25% from 2000 levels by 2020.
But some opposition politicians question the scientific case for global warming and the energy lobby says the move would damage Australia’s economy.
Australia has the highest per capita carbon emissions among developed nations and coal is its biggest export.
from: BBC
Manila, Philippines (CNN) — One hundred more suspects — including police officers — could face arrest over massacre in the Philippines, a government official said Friday after authorities charged the alleged architect of the killings.
At least 57 unarmed civilians were slain Monday in Maguindanao, in the southern Philippines. Andal Ampatuan Jr. — mayor of Datu Unsay and son of the provincial governor of Maguindanao — faces seven counts of murder.
Justice officials said they have collected sworn statements from witnesses and expect to file more charges as the investigation unfolds.
Witnesses have implicated dozens of people in the election-related killings, said Philippine Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno.
“There are an estimated 100 people that will brought to account for this incident,” he said. “We are in the process of preparing cases against them and ultimately filing similar charges. These people are actually members of the police in the province and civilian volunteers in the province.”
Speaking to state-run television from behind bars, Ampatuan denied any involvement, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN news reported Friday.
Meanwhile, police were on alert to prevent further violence, ABS-CBN said.
Violence in the run-up to elections — the next set for May — is not uncommon in the Philippines. The Maguindanao massacre, however, is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history, according to state media.
Ampatuan voluntarily turned himself in for questioning Thursday, then was charged.
In the subsequent television interview, he blamed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commander Umbra Kato as the possible architect of the massacre.
Puto on Friday rejected that allegation.
“At the moment, there is no evidence that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front had anything to do with this,” he said.
Maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly Muslim Mindanao, which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Christian Asian nation.
Negotiations between the MILF, which is one of those armed groups, and the Philippine government broke down last year after the country’s Supreme Court blocked a peace deal that would have increased the size and scope of the autonomous region.
The MILF lashed out at Ampatuan over his accusation, calling it a “clear attempt to divert the issue,” ABS-CBN reported.
Suspicion fell on Ampatuan after a government construction vehicle was found at the hastily dug mass grave where the massacre victims’ bodies were found.
Among the victims were the wife and sister of Islamel “Toto” Mungudadatu, who had sent the women to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao. He said he had received threats from allies of Gov. Andal Ampatuan, the father of the accused mayor, saying he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself.
Also killed were a dozen journalists who had accompanied the women.
Witnesses and local officials have blamed Ampatuan, a longtime ally of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a known warlord.
They said the killings were an attempt to block Mungudadatu from challenging him in the gubernatorial election.
The exact number of those kidnapped and killed was still unclear, as recovery continued at the mass grave site.
from: CNN
about indonesia 