Democrats Abroad New Zealand
4.06.2007
Warming Álready Changing World' (news.BBC.co.uk)
Last Updated: Thursday, 5 April 2007, 23:47 GMT 00:47 UK
Climate change is already having major impacts on the natural world, a UN report is set to announce.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes there is also a discernible, though less marked, impact on human societies.
The IPCC is to release a summary of its report on Friday but talks on wording have continued late into the night.
Officials said there were differences between various countries on the strength of the language.
"The Europeans want to send a strong signal. The US does not want as much quantification," one official told the French news agency AFP.
China and Russia had also raised concerns over some passages of the 21-page summary, the official said.
The last-minute wrangling is likely to affect the degree of certainty in the final version, the BBC's Richard Black reports, but not the overall direction.
(More ... BBC > News > Science/Nature)
Climate change is already having major impacts on the natural world, a UN report is set to announce.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes there is also a discernible, though less marked, impact on human societies.
The IPCC is to release a summary of its report on Friday but talks on wording have continued late into the night.
Officials said there were differences between various countries on the strength of the language.
"The Europeans want to send a strong signal. The US does not want as much quantification," one official told the French news agency AFP.
China and Russia had also raised concerns over some passages of the 21-page summary, the official said.
The last-minute wrangling is likely to affect the degree of certainty in the final version, the BBC's Richard Black reports, but not the overall direction.
(More ... BBC > News > Science/Nature)
Labels: BBC News, Climate Change
¶ 13:40 0 comments
2.17.2007
U.S. Releases Details Against Hicks (news.BBC.co.uk)
Last Updated: Friday, 16 February 2007, 04:33 GMT
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney
The US military has released details of its case against David Hicks, an Australian held without trial at Guantanamo Bay for five years.
Mr Hicks is facing charges of providing material support for terrorism and attempted murder.
He was captured in Afghanistan, where he allegedly fought alongside the ruling Taleban against US-led forces.
His continued imprisonment is causing problems for the Australian government, which has faced calls for his release.
Political reasons?
The document released by the Pentagon on Friday sets out its case against Mr Hicks in detail.
It alleges that he took part in an al-Qaeda training course in 2001, and spent weeks learning about covert photography, the use of dead drops and wearing disguises.
Prisoner in cell at Guantanamo Bay
Many Australians are angry that Hicks is still at Guantanamo
It also claims that Mr Hicks used the alias Abu Muslim Australia as he conducted surveillance of the American and British embassies in Kabul.
During that time, it is alleged he drew diagrams of the buildings, windows and doors, and documented the people coming and going.
The Pentagon has claimed before that he travelled to Kandahar airport, and was issued with an AK47 rifle to defend it against American-led forces.
Now US officials say that he also managed to arm himself with 300 rounds of ammunition and three grenades.
The timing of these new details may well have a political dimension, because US Vice-President Dick Cheney arrives in Australia next week.
(More ... BBC News > International > Asia-Pacific)
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney
The US military has released details of its case against David Hicks, an Australian held without trial at Guantanamo Bay for five years.
Mr Hicks is facing charges of providing material support for terrorism and attempted murder.
He was captured in Afghanistan, where he allegedly fought alongside the ruling Taleban against US-led forces.
His continued imprisonment is causing problems for the Australian government, which has faced calls for his release.
Political reasons?
The document released by the Pentagon on Friday sets out its case against Mr Hicks in detail.
It alleges that he took part in an al-Qaeda training course in 2001, and spent weeks learning about covert photography, the use of dead drops and wearing disguises.
Prisoner in cell at Guantanamo Bay
Many Australians are angry that Hicks is still at Guantanamo
It also claims that Mr Hicks used the alias Abu Muslim Australia as he conducted surveillance of the American and British embassies in Kabul.
During that time, it is alleged he drew diagrams of the buildings, windows and doors, and documented the people coming and going.
The Pentagon has claimed before that he travelled to Kandahar airport, and was issued with an AK47 rifle to defend it against American-led forces.
Now US officials say that he also managed to arm himself with 300 rounds of ammunition and three grenades.
The timing of these new details may well have a political dimension, because US Vice-President Dick Cheney arrives in Australia next week.
(More ... BBC News > International > Asia-Pacific)
Labels: Australia, BBC News, Guantanamo
¶ 08:23 0 comments
2.11.2007
Putin's Speech" Back to the Cold War? (news.BBC.co.uk)
By Rob Watson
BBC defence and security correspondent, Munich
The Munich security conference was born in the 1960s - the height of the Cold War. Forty years on, there been talk of a new chill.
Given the tone and content of Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the gathered defence ministers, parliamentarians and pundits, it is not, perhaps, hard to see why.
Warming quickly to his task after only the briefest of greetings, President Putin accused the US of establishing, or trying to establish, a "uni-polar" world.
"What is a uni-polar world? No matter how we beautify this term, it means one single centre of power, one single centre of force and one single master," he said.
President Putin continued in a similar vein for some time.
"The United States has overstepped its borders in all spheres - economic, political and humanitarian, and has imposed itself on other states," he said.
It was a formula that, he said, had led to disaster: "Local and regional wars did not get fewer, the number of people who died did not get less but increased. We see no kind of restraint - a hyper-inflated use of force."
The US has gone "from one conflict to another without achieving a fully-fledged solution to any of them", Mr Putin said.
(More ... BBC > Europe > News) ¶ 22:10 0 comments
BBC defence and security correspondent, Munich
The Munich security conference was born in the 1960s - the height of the Cold War. Forty years on, there been talk of a new chill.
Given the tone and content of Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the gathered defence ministers, parliamentarians and pundits, it is not, perhaps, hard to see why.
Warming quickly to his task after only the briefest of greetings, President Putin accused the US of establishing, or trying to establish, a "uni-polar" world.
"What is a uni-polar world? No matter how we beautify this term, it means one single centre of power, one single centre of force and one single master," he said.
President Putin continued in a similar vein for some time.
"The United States has overstepped its borders in all spheres - economic, political and humanitarian, and has imposed itself on other states," he said.
It was a formula that, he said, had led to disaster: "Local and regional wars did not get fewer, the number of people who died did not get less but increased. We see no kind of restraint - a hyper-inflated use of force."
The US has gone "from one conflict to another without achieving a fully-fledged solution to any of them", Mr Putin said.
(More ... BBC > Europe > News) ¶ 22:10 0 comments
