kutamaya

Yahoo has angrily rejected a joint takeover offer from Microsoft and the investor Carl Icahn.

Microsoft would have bought Yahoo's search engine while Mr Icahn would have ended up with the rest of the business.

Yahoo objected to being given only 24 hours to consider the offer and there being no opportunity to negotiate the terms of the deal.

"It is ludicrous to think that our board would accept such a proposal,"

Yahoo said in a statement.

"This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind," Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo, said.

Still for sale

The proposal involved the immediate removal of the Yahoo board as well as its top management.

The statement from Yahoo repeated the offer to sell the entire company to Microsoft for at least $33 (£16.5) a share and suggested that a takeover of the entire company would be much simpler than the proposed restructuring.

Microsoft offered $31 a share for Yahoo in February. On Friday the shares closed at $23.16.

The latest offer comes weeks before Yahoo's 1 August annual meeting, when Mr Icahn will be trying to replace its board with his own slate of directors.

Mr Icahn owns about 5% of Yahoo.

Microsoft has said it is no longer interested in negotiating with the current directors, but will enter talks if a new board is in place in August. [kutamaya]

Australia's tuna industry says climate change could be increasing the size of the fish.

The chief executive of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Association, Brian Jeffriess, says this year has been excellent for quality and fish size.

Mr Jeffries says this can be partly attributed to climate change and its effect on feed species, such as sardines, in the Great Australian Bight.

For example, this year some of the oceanographers are saying they've never seen south easterly winds in a sustained strong way now that creates a lot of upwellings in the water, that brings nutrients to the surface," he said.

"There's a feed chain which feeds on those - the tuna is virtually the last part of that food chain and benefits from improvements in the other parts of the food chain." ABC

Fiji's Attorney General says a South Korean company's plan to manufacture electric cars in Fiji could reduce the country's reliance on fuel.

The company, C and T, makes electric cars and golf carts, and recently won a contract to supply cars for next month's Beijing Olympics.

It's looking for investors for a new assembly plant for electric cars, in Fiji.

Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the investment could bring in export dollars to Fiji.

"It also has the potential of an export market, because we have very competitive labour rates particularly in comparison to Australia and New Zealand and we are only about three or four hours away from Australia and New Zealand.

"So it has the potential to also earn us some foreign dollars too," he said. ABC

Fiji is preparing to name its envoy to New Zealand.

The Fijilive website reports the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Public Utilities, Cama Tuiloma, will take up the post of acting High Commissioner in Wellington.

The Prime Minister's Office is yet to confirm its appointee.

However, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters has welcomed the appointment "given the importance of maintaining diplomatic engagement" with Fiji.

Australia has also invited Fiji to appoint an Acting High Commissioner in Canberra. ABC

A review of national numeracy standards has found that too many Australian students are failing to acheive acceptable levels of proficiency.

The Council of Australian Governments commissioned the National Numeracy Review report in July 2006.

The report released today found that by international standards, overall maths achievements by Australian students are good.

But the report says too many students, particular from indigenous backgrounds, aren't meeting acceptable standards.

It cites as a major problem the belief that minimum standards are good enough.

Among its 15 recommendation, is that all states and territories work towards 5 hours per week of maths for primary school students.

It also recommends teachers who are teaching maths out of their area of specialty be given greater support. [ ABC ]

Brunei telah menyatakan minat untuk memimpin Tim Pemantauan Internasional yang mengawasi gencatan senjata antara militer Filipina dan pemberontak Front Pembebasan Islam Moro, MILF.

Menurut Sekretariat MILF, Ketua Partai Pembangunan Nasional Brunei telah meyakinkan kelompok pemberontak tersebut bahwa pihaknya bersedia mengambil alih dari Malaysia begitu Malaysia selesai menarik tentaranya bulan depan.

Malaysia telah memulai penarikan bertahap pasukan perdamaiannya dari Filipina selatan karena lambannya kemajuan dalam perundingan damai antara pemerintah Filipina dan MILF.

Tim pemantau internasional itu terdiri dari tentara Malaysia, Brunei dan Libia serta seorang pakar pembangunan dari Jepang. [ ABC ]

Mahkamah Pidana Internasional akan mengusahakan penahanan Presiden Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, atas kejahatan perang di Darfur, menyebabkan Sudan marah dan mengancam upaya perdamaian di kawasan itu.

Jurubicara Deplu Amerika mengatakan kepada wartawan di Washington, tim jaksa berniat mengajukan informasi kepada majelis hakim dan meminta surat perintah penahanan.

Ini adalah upaya pertama di mahkamah independen tersebut, yang berkedudukan di Den Haag, untuk mengenakan dakwaan kejahatan perang atas seorang kepala negara yang masih memegang jabatan.

Pemerintah Sudan merespon dengan marah berita tersebut.

Menteri Luar Negeri Sudan, Al-Samani al-Wasila, mengatakan, Sudan tidak akan pernah tunduk pada Mahkamah Pidana Internasional dalam hal ini. [ ABC ]

A new report by the CSIRO has warned the cost of petrol could rise to as high as $8 a litre in the next 10 years.

The Fuel for Thought study by the Future Fuels Forum says that would be the worst-case scenario if oil production does not keep up with increasing demand.

Petroleum engineer Phil Hart from the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas believes it will not be long before the demand for oil will outstrip supply.

"Oil production has been essentially flat since 2005, and we have only another couple of years at this same sort of level of production before we start seeing oil production going into decline," he said.

Doctor John Wright from the CSIRO has told ABC's AM program the study also suggests that such an oil shock would have a greater impact than a carbon emissions trading scheme.

"If we, for example, end up, as a result of an emissions trading scheme, [with the] price of carbon dioxide credit at something like $40 per tonne, which is probably reasonably likely, that would increase the price per litre of fuel by about 10 cents," he said.

Monica Richter from the Australian Conservation Foundation has told AM the report should serve as a wake up call to the Federal Government.

"So we need to do two things," she said.

"We need to urgently get [the] Government to help manufacturers re-tool, for building cleaner cars here in Australia.

"And of course the other thing we need to do to help vulnerable families and low income families is for the Government to invest in public transport." [ ABC news ]

As energy prices hit historic highs, film studios have been forced to shoulder higher production costs.

But the fuel spike does not spell bad news for everyone in the industry; for some, it is actually a boon.

And for the global industry, economists say that, despite some mixed signals, there is some evidence to support the truism that higher fuel prices boost box office sales by prompting consumers to opt for the local multiplex over longer trips.

A certain kind of film financier has been the most obvious beneficiary of the recent spikes. For instance, Leomax Entertainment, a Los Angeles- and Berlin-based financing and production banner, has found that the jump in oil prices has opened up its financing options.

The company has created a five-year slate using money from an oil-based hedge fund - one of its current projects is a thriller called Short Cut from Adam Sandler's production company - and found financing relatively easier to come by.

"If you need to shelter windfall profits, there's really no better place than the movie business," Leomax boss Ingo Volkammer said.

Basically, that's because tax laws in some countries require that windfall profits are taxed heavily unless the money is quickly invested in an intangible asset like film.

That has prompted oil investors to look more favourably on the film biz - any film, really - because it means that even if a movie loses 30 per cent of its money, investors still come out on top because those losses pale compared with what a government might have taken.

Box office

But the greatest potential upside to oil and fuel price increases lies with ticket sales at the box office.

Economists have long debated how much of a factor petrol prices are on movie attendance.

While there are data showing both sides - and experts say any connection is at best correlated, not causal - several pivotal years of box office growth during the past several decades did come at times of high oil prices.

In 1981 and 1982, for example, oil prices rose roughly 30 per cent and then 10 per cent year-over-year; in that same period, the global box office saw sizeable increases of 8 per cent, then 16 per cent.

In years when oil prices were roughly flat, like 1992, box office rose only 1 per cent.

Other years, however, show little correlation: 2005's notorious 6 per cent drop in box office came when oil prices actually had risen more than 25 per cent.

Economists say oil prices may not so much cause a box office spike as provide a cushion; where other industries see dips in times of recession and high gas prices, the movie industry can stay closer to flat, as the number of people switching to low-cost options like moviegoing offsets the consumers who choose not to spend at all.

University of Michigan economist Paul Edelstein, who co-authored a paper last year titled Retail Energy Prices and Consumer Expenditures, said that even though in his study consumption of events such as live theatre and spectator sports went down during a period of high fuel prices, there was "a positive response" - albeit a small one - for movie tickets.

"It's a low-cost option, so it's conceivable that in the aggregate, the movies don't feel as much pain," he said.

- Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Posted 2 hours 26 minutes ago

The price of oil has hit new highs in London and New York.

In London, Brent crude rose to $US147.25 during trade - 56 cents above the record set last week.

Traders say the main reason for the rise is simmering tension over key producer Iran.

Light sweet crude reached $US146.90 in New York, which is 92 cents higher than the previous peak.

- Reuters

Greenpeace says two of its activists have been charged with stealing a box of whale meat while conducting a covert operation into suspected cases of embezzlement.

The public prosecutors office in Aomori, northern Japan, charged Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki with theft and trespass, the group said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Aomori Public Prosecutors Office declined to comment.

Greenpeace had used the meat as evidence when complaining to prosecutors that members of Japan's whaling fleet crew shipped large quantities of the meat home, which they said amounted to embezzlement.

Japan has come under fire from environmentalists and foreign countries for its whaling programme.

The Government says its whaling is for scientific research purposes.

Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 international moratorium, but Tokyo has campaigned for a lifting of the ban, saying whaling is part of the country's cultural tradition.

A recent poll showed that a majority of Japanese support whaling, although whale meat is now less popular among the public than in the past.

The country's fleet caught only 551 minke whales compared with a planned 850 in its latest Antarctic hunt, after obstruction by anti-whalers.

- Reuters

Georgia's Ambassador to Russia has been recalled as tensions between the neighbouring countries escalate.

The move comes after Russia admitted to flying fighter jets in Georgian airspace earlier this week.

Georgia says it is recalling its Ambassador from Russia for consultations.

The Ambassador, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, has accused Russia of engaging in an open act of aggression against Georgia.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has admitted that earlier this week, Moscow sent warplanes over the disputed Georgian region of South Ossetia.

The Ministry says the aircraft were sent to cool down hotheads in Georgia and ward off a possible invasion of the breakaway region by Georgian forces.

Both countries have been accusing each other of stoking tensions in South Ossetia and another Georgian region pushing for independence, Abkhazia.

Georgia has threatened to shoot down any Russian military aircraft that violates its airspace.

A senior member of the Georgian Parliament's Defence and National Security Committee has told local media that if Russian military aircraft violate the country's airspace again, then Moscow will collect the wreckage. [ ABC ]

It might be the depths of winter in Antarctica but scientists say they're seeing more signs of global warming on the frozen continent.

New satellite photos show the Wilkins Ice Shelf is even closer to breaking from the peninsula. Experts say the effects of warming there now look irreversible.

That may eventually lead to rising sea levels in more populated parts of the world.

Neal Young is a glaciologist with the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart, and is scrutinising pictures from the European Space Agency.

"What we can see is a sequence of images so you can from late May through to early July, showing this ice shelf, Wilkins Ice Shelf, gradually breaking up," he said.

"We can see large icebergs forming.

"We can see fractures forming in the shelf itself such that it is now reducing down to a slender strip of ice connecting to one island called Charcot Island, and back to another island behind it, Alexander Island."

Inevitable

Dr Young says he expects this ice shelf will break free soon.

"This ice shelf is in the region called the Antarctic Peninsula. This one is on the west side of the peninsula," he said.

"Two sections of another ice shelf called Larsen Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the peninsula broke up over the last decade or so - one section back in 1995 and another one, Larsen B in 2002."

He says it's a progression that calls attention to what's happening in Antarctica - and an irreversible one at that.

"There are indicators of change going on and the message that is coming through now is this change is continuing," he said.

"The way things are trending and what we can see right now, it certainly looks [irreversible]."

World is watching

On the other side of the world, developments are also being watched at the United States National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

Walt Meier is a research scientist there.

"Summertime is becoming warmer in the Antarctic Peninsula area where the Wilkins is and so we have had more melt than in the past, and that's obviously going to make things more susceptible to breaking up," he said.

"We also have had a strong decrease in sea ice in that area particularly in the summertime and that allows warmer ocean currents and oceans waves to kind of buffet that ice shelf, and that also probably contributes to the break up.

"So it's really a fundamentally, at the most basic level, a response to warmer temperatures."

Dr Meier contributed to last October's report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He says it's no exaggeration to say the Wilkins Ice Shelf is hanging by the thinnest of threads.

"There is still a fair amount of ice there but one of the things that has been stabilising it is this rather thin kind of narrow slab of ice that is connecting the main part of the ice shelf to an island to the north," he said.

"You can see in the image - the most recent imagery - that that thin kind of connection, that thread so to speak, is getting thinner and thinner.

"And once that breaks away, it is going to destabilise the ice shelf. It is kind of like an arch in a cathedral or something.

"It can be quite a delicate structure but it can be reasonably strong because it is all connected but when you take away that keystone, you suddenly weaken the structure and it could collapse quite quickly."

Adapted from a story by Simon Santow for The World Today, July 11.

The Australian Government is facing fresh warnings that planned changes to the Medicare surcharge threshold will increase public hospital waiting lists by 200,000.

Catholic Health Australia says it's reached the figure by analysing private health insurance data, and the Government's Treasury estimate that the changes will lead 485,000 people to drop private cover.

The legislation to raise the threshold is currently before a Senate committee.

But the group's Chief Executive, Martin Laverty says an increase in public waiting lists will affect low income earners the most, and the government should reconsider the changes.

"We don't think the proposal to lift the threshold from $AU50,000 to $100,000 for individuals or to $150,000 for couples is appropriate," Mr Laverty said.

"We've asked the Government to give reconsideration to the needs of low-income earners around Australia because after all, it was low-income earners that this change in threshold was actually meant to help." [ radio australia ]

The Philippines Commission on Human Rights says an Australian mine operator will be investigated for alleged human rights abuses.

Oceana Gold (Philippines) Inc. would be investigated for rights violations at its gold and copper mine site in Didipio in the country's north.

Commission chairwoman Leila de Lima says the company has been accused of forcibly demolishing more than 180 houses owned by a local tribal community.

Other alleged abuses include a connection to "killings, forced negotiations and harassments" .

In a statement Oceana Gold says it continues to abide by laws governing its mine site

The firm is a unit of Australia's Oceana Gold Corporation and the 320-million-dollar project is due to start production in 2010. ( radio australia )

The United Nations has described the threat of rising global food prices as a silent tsunami which threatens to push 100 million people into hunger.

Food prices have risen 80 per cent in the past three years, leading to social unrest in more than 33 countries, in a crisis the International Monetary Fund believes could destroy a decade of development gains and even lead to war.

An increase in westernised animal-rich diets across Asia, where more livestock need more grain; the push to convert crops into biofuels; and weather woes as droughts and floods hit crop producing nations have all led to increased demand and prices.www.radioaustralia.net.au

In the south west regions of Chongching and Yunan, the glamour of Beijing and Shanghai is 2,000 kilometres away.

China's future depends on the success of its particular form of capitalism. While the scale and pace of change is perhaps the fastest any society has had to cope with, its benefits have been uneven. The glamour of the east coast continues to outshine the poorer regions of the interior.

Now millions of farmers who once were forbidden are being encouraged to move into rapidly growing provincial cities. But for jobs and social services to also "go west", private investment will have to follow them.

In this special report, Radio Australia's Karon Snowdon travels 'Beyond the Boomtowns', to discover a capitalist experiment China can't afford to have fail.

China's capitalism has more than one face.

In Beijing, showrooms selling luxury cars vie for business on streets where people still pedal bikes to go to work.

In hilly Chongching, the shoulderpole man still gets paid a few cents to carry loads in baskets strung from a pole across his shoulders.

Chongching is home to some of the most important cultural heritage areas in China.

And its near the world's largest dam...the Three Gorges project - one of the foundations of China's future prosperity according to its national leaders.

Millions of people are on the move - some forced to relocate by the rising waters, some looking for a better life.

Chongching was separated from the enormous Sichuan province in 1997.

Since then its been a centrally administrated area and the beneficiary of Beijing's "Open Up the West" policy to develop the western provinces.

The upper Yangtze river, home to the city of Chongching. [Karon Snowdon, Radio Australia]

The Mayor of Chongching, Wang Hongju says achieving a balance between economic growth, environmental protection and higher living standards is his most difficult task.

"Chongching is the experiment area approved by the Central government for a coordinated urban and rural development," he said.

"I'm very pleased to tell you that since the great western development program started, these three sectors are developing quite smoothly in a coordinated way.

"In the past nine years, the growth of GDP per capita is 11.3 per cent. Last year, the growth was 15.3 per cent - even in today's China, it's a very high speed.

"At the same time, the environment situation has not worsened, in fact it has improved. For instance, the air quality reached a standard of excellent and good, in the year 1999...[on] 172 days, however last year it was 292."

With 36 million people, Chongching is the world's most densely populated municipality and the plan is to make it even bigger.

Four million people will be encouraged to move from its rural areas into a city already home to 6 million.

Its part of the most ambitious, rapid program of urbanisation the world has known. Political Economist Chris McNally is a research fellow at the East West Centre in Hawaii.

"Success is in a way difficult to define - on the one hand, one of the purposes of the policy was to bridge the increasing gap in per capita income, as well as total provincial GDP between western provinces and eastern provinces," he said.

"And in that sense it has not been successful, because eastern provinces have continued to grow very rapidly, and although west has grown even more rapidly, it has not been able to catch up.

"In other ways, the west has received a lot more policy benefits, but Chongching has just benefited also by its autonomy, by being able to chart its own course, and having actually a some what more enlightened government, especially since 2000-01, and government officials such as the mayor and now especially the party secretary are very well connected with the central government."

Most of the farms remain unmechanised, making the city a collision of old and new. [Karon Snowdon, Radio Australia]

Nine new expressways meet in Chongching, a new rail network means Shanghai is only 8 hours away, 10,000 ton freighters will be able to travel up the Three Gorges waterway.

Chongching's Mayor, Wang Hongju, says they will not allow slums to occur in Chongching as have happened in other metropolises.

"Chongching is becoming, and eventually will be the most important transport hub in China," he said.

There's a new German designed opera house. Communications are central - 100,000 kilometres of optical fibre have been laid - with more to come.

"The speed on the optical fibre system is 300,000 kilometres per second, so even between Chongching and New York, there's no distance," Wang Hongju said.

As we heard from the shoulderpole porter, life can be better in the city than on the farm. Its still a poor province but in ten years average per capita income has grown from $US400 to $US2000 a year.

On a stroll through the street market, a trader rents about one metre square of footpath for 100 yuan or roughly $15 a month.

She says she is doing well now because the city is more affluent and people have more money to spend.

But despite all the planning , can the Go West policy fail or fail to live up to its promises?

"I would say, if this fails, probably China itself has failed," Chris McNally said.

"Probably as long as the east, which is a much larger chunk, in terms of overall GDP, can continue to boom, the central government will have the resources to try to distribute it partially to the west.

"Probably a failure of the western strategy implies that China's overall development strategy has failed. And then we'll probably see all the other things that we see when a country which has enjoyed high growth for something like three decades all of a sudden slows down.

That could include everything from social unrest, pressures for political change, large unemployment; and it could cause real problems - not only for China, but for the whole world, because China's become such an important part of the global economy."

The city intends is to provide low income housing for those moving. [Karon Snowdon, Radio Australia]

Part of the plan for Chongching is to move or close down unprofitable and polluting state owned companies.

At the same time, the intention is to provide work as well as low income housing for all those moving to the city. But unemployment is high. When Hu Yunping found himself without a job in 1995, he started his own business.

With just one employee and a small loan to begin with, the Yuxin Pingrui Electronic Company now employs 600 and is the leading maker of electronic motorcycle parts in China. With the advantage of low labour costs, Hu Yunping says his can be a major international company in future.

The most visible effects of the Go West campaign being driven by Beijing are the large scale infrastructure improvements which will accelerate the region's intergration into the national economy.

Better transport also serves to physically link the more remote communities - one of the aims here is to promote unity in regions with many ethnic minorities and to make central political control easier.

As well, numerous large and small environmental programs are making a real difference.

There's a lot to do.

Cao Guanghui holds a powerful position as the head of the Environmental Protection Bureau.

"The [first] problem is air pollution, the second one is the problem is water pollution, and the third one is the relationship between economic development and environment protection," he said.

"Chongching in bygone times was basically one of the most polluted cities in the world. So starting in 2000, they basically tried to abolish all of the 200,000 coal furnaces in Chongching city and replace them with furnaces either generated by oil, or especially, natural gas. The local government of Chongching city is moving faster than what is required by the central government."

The development is being done with a focus on environmental challenges. [Karon Snowdon, Radio Australia]

All of Chongching's buses and taxis use natural gas and 70 per cent of the city's water now undergoes tertiary treatment where once waste poured directly into the river. Extensive replanting of forest is underway on severely barren mountainsides.

An even more powerful job is that of the Development and Reform Commission, whose head is Shen Xiaohong.

"The major organisation project that is going on in Chongching, which is trying to move about four million people - not all of them from the Three Gorges reservoir area - some of them into the environments of the city of Chongching," he said.

"Basically, if you drive one hour, that is going to be the new kind of limit of the larger Chongching urban area, and this will increase by about four million people."

An important change has been a relaxation of the hooku registration system which in the past restricted people's movements and access to health and education services.

"This is a very fragile environment," Shen Xiaohon said.

"It's also a very poor area, and so the hope is that by bringing incentives to the people there, they could encourage that parts of these people move within the one hour city limits.

They've basically done estimates looking at these regions, and how much population they can cope with in terms of ecology, and in terms of employment opportunities. So this policy is very different from the policy used in building the Three Gorges reservoir, that forced about 1.1-1.2 million people to move out of the reservoir area, and it is up to the people themselves whether they want to migrate or not.

"We just hope that we can use incentives to encourage people to move out of areas that are ecologically fragile, and that do not provide enough resources for employment, so that they themselves move into the Chongching area that can cope with a much larger population."

Not everyone is being asked to move.

With very little arable land, productive farmers are being helped to stay on the land.

A shortage of arable land means profitable farmers are being asked to stay. [Karon Snowdon, Radio Australia]

But some have been forced to relocate from the reservoir area of the Three Gorges Dam.

The relocated village of Muhe near Fulin, 120 kilometres from Chongching, is growing beautiful orchards and new entrepreneurs.

All over the west in Sichuan, Chongching, even Tibet rapid development amounts to an experiment of unprecedented proportions.

Yet incomes are unlikely to reach the heights of the boomtowns in the east and pockets of severe poverty remain. The wealth gap between the very rich and almost everyone else is growing.

But if a measure of development is improving people's standard of living, then China's Go West policy can be said to be succeeding.

Political economist Chris McNally says this has been helped by learning from the mistakes of the past.

"They've really mapped out a very detailed strategy that tries to combine green space, residential areas, industrial areas, infrastructure, very good public transport, that will really integrate the city and from the plans it seems somewhat more enlightened than what happened in southern China in the 1980s and 1990s.

"So in that sense, perhaps, Chongching is benefiting from being later in the game in China, from coming after the eastern areas that have developed before it, and from some of the knowledge that China has accumulated in the process.

"But nonetheless, it's a very, very ambitious project, and perhaps more in the human terms - I mean they can put in the infrastructure, they can build the buildings, but what are these people who come from very rural areas going to be able to do? Will they be able to receive good education? Will they be able to receive a good welfare system?

"They're thinking about these issues, they're aware of it, but it is very challenging."

Parallel to this economic development, a running debate is whether the opening of the economy will lead to the opening of the political system and a form or increasing democracy in China.

"The glass is half full, and its half empty on both accounts," Mr McNally said.

"The Chinese government has become a lot more accountable to the people - the Sichuan earthquake compared to what happened in Tangshan some 22 years ago - this already shows how this government has become much more accountable, much more open and much more responsible to its people in the way it behaves.

"But it's still a relatively authoritarian system, with some very rough edges around it, with enormous control over information and the media. Most Chinese, including me as a China scholar, would reckon that the political system is unlikely to undergo major change in the next decade. There will be gradual change.

"The government has made it very clear that in the next decade its goal is to establish a more equitable and just system, especially by extending a more comprehensive bare-bones social welfare system, but comprehensive in that it includes everybody, including farmers, including migrants to the cities - they've done a lot for the migrants already in terms of just easing the restrictions on them in terms of moving into the cities and then being able to find employment there. So in that sense, the system is becoming more equitable already, but they have to sustain this.

"And this is perhaps becoming one of the biggest challenges for the next decade."

This Program was made with assistance of a Jefferson Fellowship from the East West Centre in Hawaii, with thanks to the Centre's Chris McNally, to Dai Jun, from the All China Journalists Association and Pan Zhongming, Deputy News Director for the China Daily newspaper for help with the translations.www.radioaustralia.net.au

Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has acknowledged there have been no great breakthroughs on climate change at the G8 meeting in Japan.

Mr Rudd is adamant that while the meeting didn't end up with bold action it was an important step in ensuring world leaders take a lead during the climate change debate.

He says the risk is the world ends up at climate change talks in Copenhagen next year without firm direction.

Our reporter, Lyndall Curtis, says Mr Rudd has also announced that Australia will donate an extra $A50 million ($US47 million) to the World Bank to help the food security crisis in developing countries.

Mr Rudd says the Major Economies Meeting in Japan identified food security as a major emerging problem.

He says action is required to prevent social instability in countries suffering from a shortage of food.

He says those countries can also be given practical help like fertilisers and seeds.

"There is an immediate crisis to which we were alerted by the World Bank, and this requires further contribution by us, Australia, and other governments to international efforts by the World Bank now," Mr Rudd said.

EU urges global community to 'get real' on climate change

The European Union has urged the international community to "get real" on fighting climate change and recognise that all large economies have to play their part.

At the G8 summit in Japan, the group of the world's eight leading industrialised economies have agreed to a goal of cutting emissions in half by the year 2050.

They have also stressed they can't do it alone.

A Japanese government official says only Indonesia, Australia and South Korea have supported the G8's emissions target.

China and India - responsible for 25 percent of emissions - have committed to action, but have rejected the 2050 goal.

They argue that advanced countries, responsible for the bulk of historical emissions, must act first.
www.radioaustralia.net.au

Barack Obama personal blog.

Blog seorang calon presiden negara adidaya Amerika Serikat, Barack Obama.

Dengan tagline blognya :
"i'm asking you to believe, not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington...I'm asking you to believe in yours"

Here we provide his quick review based on quickoverview.com

Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, he is the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and the only African American now serving in the U.S. Senate. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still serving in the Illinois State Senate. In November 2004, he was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat by a landslide in a presidential election year marked by Republican gains. Recent opinion polls identify Obama as the second most popular choice among Democratic voters for their party's nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, after Hillary Clinton. He is married to Mrs. Michelle Obama and is a father to two daughters.

Inilah salah satu calon presiden amerika, dalam berbagai review serta hasil polling sementara di amerika sana banyak dijagokan. Namun benarkah dia bisa mewujudkan impian amerika ( all american dreams ) di masa mendatang ? itulah pertanyaannya yang sekarang menggelayut di benak serta pikiran rakyat amerika.

Keputusan-keputusan apa yang akan diambil untuk serangkaian kegiatan tentara Amerika di Timur Tengah? Akankah dia berhadapan langsung dengan sang visioner muda Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran.

Akankah statement di bawah ini dilaksanakan?

Plan for Ending the War in Iraq

“But conventional thinking in Washington lined up for war. The pundits judged the political winds to be blowing in the direction of the President. Despite - or perhaps because of how much experience they had in Washington, too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask hard questions. Too many took the President at his word instead of reading the intelligence for themselves. Congress gave the President the authority to go to war. Our only opportunity to stop the war was lost.

I made a different judgment. I thought our priority had to be finishing the fight in Afghanistan. I spoke out against what I called 'a rash war' in Iraq. I worried about, ‘an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs, and undetermined consequences.’ The full accounting of those costs and consequences will only be known to history. But the picture is beginning to come into focus.”

—Barack Obama, Clinton, Iowa, September 12, 2007