Aust-China free trade talks set for May

TALKS on a free trade agreement between China and Australia will continue in May, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

The two countries agreed to start negotiations on the FTA in April 2005 and to date 18 rounds of talks have been held.

Ms Gillard told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday that she had told Premier Li Keqiang in their first formal meeting since he came to power in March that it was a "gap" in the relationship that Australia wanted to rectify.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said Australia was seeking "high ambition" from the agreement, including agricultural tariffs and quotas, manufactured goods, services, temporary entry of people and foreign investment.

"We could have a low ambition FTA, like a trophy to sit on the national mantelpiece...but we want it to do work," he said.

Dr Emerson said that during the meeting with Premier Li in the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday, the Chinese leader had looked around the room asking: "Who is the FTA guy?"

"I said I'm the FTA guy," Dr Emerson said.

"The premier was very keen and spent some considerable time talking about the challenge but also the great benefits an FTA would bring."

Australia has six FTAs with New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, US, Chile and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The countries covered by these FTAs account for 28 per cent of Australia's total trade.

Australia is engaged in nine FTA negotiations covering a further 45 per cent of Australia's trade.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Frenchman appeals O'Keefe conviction

A 37-YEAR-OLD Frenchman has insisted on his innocence as he appeals his conviction for murdering an Australian student who was severely beaten, strangled and dumped in a car park outside Paris.

Brazilian-born Adriano Araujo Da Silva was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2012 for the murder 11 years earlier of 28-year-old Jeannette O'Keefe.

O'Keefe's body was found rolled up in a sleeping bag in a parking lot in the Paris suburb of Les Mureaux on January 2, 2001 -- three days after a series of events left her alone and without a bed for the night on New Year's Eve.

"I am innocent, I must be acquitted," Araujo Da Silva told the court as his appeal began in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

A ruling is expected on Thursday.

Araujo Da Silva had confessed to the crime twice before retracting his testimony, admitting to taking the woman to his home and having an argument with her, but insisting she left unharmed.

He said he had met O'Keefe on the Champs Elysees in Paris on New Year's Eve and taken her to his home in Les Mureaux, where her body was found three days later.

French investigators found male DNA under the victim's fingernails, but it was eight years before they found a match, when Araujo Da Silva's genetic profile was entered into a database after he was arrested for petty theft.

He confessed to the killing when detained by police, saying he had beaten O'Keefe and strangled her to death when she refused to have sex with him a second time and threatened to call police.

An autopsy found she had been struck by at least 13 blows before being strangled to death.

Araujo Da Silva told the court on Tuesday that he had only confessed under pressure from police, who had said he would receive a lighter sentence if he admitted to the crime.

"I was tricked and manipulated during questioning," he said.

O'Keefe's four brothers and sisters, who are civil plaintiffs, were in court for the start of the appeal.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spain sees economy improving in early 2013

SPAIN'S economy is faring a little better after an end-2012 slump and growth could even return by the end of 2013, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos says, as doubts grow over the prospects for debt-laden southern European economies.

The Spanish economy had "clearly" improved from the final three months of 2012, when output plunged by 0.8 per cent, De Guindos told an economic forum.

The Spanish economic chief did not, however, predict an economic expansion in the first quarter of 2013.

"The first quarter of this year will be clearly less bad than the previous quarter," De Guindos said.

Later, on the margins of the forum, he said the government expected gross domestic product to show a decline of 0.5 or 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, a further slight improvement in the second quarter and nearly zero growth in the third quarter.

In the final three months of 2013, the government believed there was a "possibility" of positive economic growth for Spain on a quarterly basis, De Guindos said.

The minister stressed, however, that his first-quarter estimate was based on incomplete data with all the figures for March yet to come in.

Spain is immersed in a double-dip recession after failing to recover convincingly from the collapse of a decade-long property boom in 2008, an economic disaster that has sent the unemployment rate soaring to a record 26 per cent.

The Spanish economy, the eurozone's fourth-largest, contracted by 1.4 per cent last year, the second worst yearly slump since 1970.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government is predicting a return to economic growth in 2014 if the country sticks to a program of cost-cutting measures and of reforms aimed at improving economic efficiency.

The government has admitted that it will have to revise its existing forecast for an economic dip of only 0.5 per cent this year.

The Bank of Spain is predicting a 1.5-per cent plunge in output this year and only a "modest rebound" in 2014.

Portugal is preparing a new battery of spending cuts after the country's constitutional court rejected a number of austerity measures aimed at respecting the terms of its international bailout.

Spain recorded an annual public deficit equal to 7.0 per cent of gross domestic product last year, missing a 6.3-per cent target it had agreed with the European Union.

Now, the Spanish government wants Brussels to agree to relax its 2013 deficit target to about 6.0 of GDP from the previously agreed 4.5 per cent, a government source said this month.

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Holden wrong to axe SA jobs: Weatherill

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill is in "serious talks" with Holden on a breach of agreement. Source: AAP

SOUTH Australian Premier Jay Weatherill will have "serious talks" with Holden about a breach of agreement and says it's wrong the car maker didn't warn of trouble ahead of launching its Cruze model last month.

Holden boss Mike Devereux announced on Monday it will cut 400 jobs at its factory in Adelaide and 100 at its plant in Melbourne.

Mr Weatherill says the government and the car maker celebrated the launch of the company's Cruze model in March.

"There was no mention of such a dramatic decision that was about to be announced," he told ABC television on Monday.

"That is wrong."

The premier said Holden's decision to axe jobs was in breach of a 2012 agreement to provide Holden with $50 million from his state to develop two new cars and guarantee the future of local operations until 2022.

He said the state had not paid the $50 million to Holden and they would have to discuss the future.

South Australia deserved better, Mr Weatherill said.

"There are a range of important undertakings in that agreement that I want to ensure that are delivered to South Australians," he said.

"We need to have some serious discussions with the company."

The government had been working with Holden to use Australian component suppliers in a global supply chain.

They also wanted Holden at the Elizabeth plant to be part of the global supply chain, not just a part of the domestic supply chain.

Mr Weatherill said Holden gave him little notice about the decision and Mr Devereux had only told him on Monday morning.

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Buy local car policy is needed: Vic oppn

GOVERNMENTS across Australia should buy their car fleets locally to support an industry that benefits the broader national economy, the Victorian opposition says.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews was responding to news Holden would shed 100 jobs in Melbourne and a further 400 in South Australia.

A year ago Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a $275 million rescue deal for the car maker, including $215 million from the federal government, $50 million from the South Australian Labor government and $10 million from the Victorian coalition.

Mr Andrews defended government support for the embattled industry and argued governments should all agree to buy cars locally.

"The thing that should be considered nationally is not a withdrawal from the automotive sector but in fact a national procurement and purchasing, (a) national buy-local campaign, so that every car that can be purchased in any government fleet across Australia is in fact an Australian-made vehicle," he said.

"That would be a step forward, that's the sort of thing that we should be putting on the COAG table and if we have to have an argument, then so be it."

Describing Holden's job cuts as distressing for workers and their families, Victorian Minister for Manufacturing David Hodgett says the federal government's carbon tax has only made things harder for Australia's automotive industry.

"A range of factors are affecting the industry including the high Australian dollar, higher energy costs under Labor's carbon tax and tough global competition," he said in a statement.

Mr Andrews said the car industry produced economic and skill benefits for every state, not just those that built cars.

Mr Hodgett said the state government is committed to working with the automotive industry to secure and strengthen its future, and that Holden had reaffirmed its commitment to an $800 million joint state and commonwealth investment to keep making cars in Australia at least until 2022.

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Vic man arrested over mum's bashing death

A MAN has been arrested over the bashing death of a 29-year-old woman in her Victorian home.

Police announced late on Monday they had arrested a 30-year-old man over the woman's death, hours after telling reporters her traumatised four-year-old son had seen the man suspected of killing her.

The boy told police he saw an unknown man inside his Ballarat home, west of Melbourne, on the night his mother died.

Relatives found her body in her bedroom on Saturday morning.

Police say she was assaulted with a blunt object and suffered injuries to her head and body.

Detective Inspector John Potter, head of Victoria's homicide squad, said the boy spotted a man inside the house before her death, but couldn't identify him.

"It's pretty difficult to take it much further than that," Det Insp Potter told reporters earlier on Monday.

"We're talking darkish clothing, and that's probably the best we've got."

The boy and his mother had gone out on Friday night but returned home by 8.30pm (AEDT).

The stranger then entered the house at some point between 8.30pm Friday and 10.30am Saturday.

Det Insp Potter said police believe the man was involved in the mum's slaying but can't pinpoint the exact time he was inside the home.

The boy would have been aware of what happened to his mum, he said.

"You can imagine under these circumstances the child is extremely traumatised," he said.

Police say there were no signs of forced entry and it's possible the woman knew the man.

Det Insp Potter said security footage from nearby businesses was being viewed for clues.

He said police had spoken to the woman's former partner and followed those lines of inquiry "thoroughly".

"This is quite a brutal crime to a woman in her own home so we're very keen to work out who's responsible," he said.

A 30-year-old Sebastopol man was in police custody and being interviewed, police said just before 10pm (AEST) on Monday.

20.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thousands at Egypt Copt funeral prayers

THOUSANDS of people have packed Cairo's main cathedral for the funeral prayers of four Coptic Christians killed in sectarian clashes.

"Down, down with Brotherhood rule," the congregation chanted in reference to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood of President Mohamed Morsi.

"Leave!" they chanted as they held up wooden crosses, television footage showed.

One Muslim was also killed in the clashes which flared on Friday night in Al-Khusus, a poor area in Qalyubia governorate, after a Muslim in his 50s objected to children drawing a swastika on a religious institute.

The man insulted Christians and the cross, and an argument broke out with a young Christian man who was passing by, which escalated into a gun battle between the Muslims and the Christians in which assault rifles were used.

A priest in Al-Khusus, Suryal Yunan, said on Saturday attackers torched "parts" of an Anglican church.

Muslims also set a Christian home ablaze and ransacked a pharmacy owned by a Copt, a police official said.

A number of angry Muslim residents tried to surround the town's Mar Girgis church, but the security presence in the area prevented them from doing so.

Both sides then lit tyres in the narrow streets where residents live in crowded slum housing.

Christians form between six and 10 per cent of Egypt's population of nearly 83 million people.

The country's Coptic Christians and Muslims have clashed on several occasions since the revolution that toppled the former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Around 50 Christians and several Muslims have been killed in the clashes.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Foxtel picks up its first Logie

PAY TV has infiltrated the industry's awards night with Foxtel picking up its first Logie.

Foxtel won the Most Outstanding Sports Coverage award in Melbourne on Sunday night for its Olympics broadcast.

Eddie McGuire accepted the peer-voted award with host Matt Shirvington.

Shirvington thanked the Australian athletes who took part in the Olympics for making the coverage possible and the games memorable.

"Foxtel is an innovative and forward thinking company," he said.

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Sebbens hopes Logie opens more doors

ACTRESS Shari Sebbens hopes winning a Logie opens more doors for her - and not just the ones at a hi-fi store where she works part-time.

Sebbens won the peer-voted Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent at the annual television awards night at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

The panel of judges singled out Sebbens for her role as Julie in the ABC indigenous-based series Redfern Now.

"This is the first time I have ever received anything with my name on it," Sebbens said.

"I'll give it to my mum."

Sebbens, who also appeared in the critically-acclaimed movie The Sapphires, says she has a few projects on the horizon which includes a movie.

However she is still battling unemployment as an actress.

"Other than that I'll go back to my part-time job at JB Hi Fi," Sebbens said.

Puberty Blues star Brenna Harding may have missed out on the Graham Kennedy award but she was voted the Most Popular New Female Talent.

It was the only award the highly-acclaimed series won from five nominations.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kenya to toughen poaching sentences

Poaching has recently risen in east Africa, with whole herds of elephants massacred for their ivory. Source: AAP

KENYA plans to bolster lenient sentences for convicted wildlife poachers or ivory smugglers in a bid to stamp out a spike in elephant killings, the government says.

Poaching has recently risen sharply in east Africa, with whole herds of elephants massacred for their ivory. Rhinos have also been targeted.

Last year poachers slaughtered 384 elephants in Kenya, up from 289 in 2011, according to official figures, from a total population of around 35,000. This year, poachers have already shot dead 74.

"We intend to fight poachers at all levels to save our elephants," government spokesman Muthui Kariuki said in a statement on Saturday.

A major obstacle to this is that Kenyan courts are limited in their powers to jail or fine those convicted of wildlife crimes, he said.

"One of the major setbacks are lenient penalties and sentencing for wildlife crime by the courts," he said.

"The government is concerned about this and has facilitated the process of reviewing the wildlife law and policy with a view to having more deterrent penalties and jail terms."

Passing tougher wildlife laws will be made a priority for Kenya's parliament, elected last month but which has yet to begin business.

"We look forward to... parliament giving priority to passing of a new wildlife law and policy," Kariuki added.

Kenya's wildlife act caps punishment for the most serious wildlife crimes at a maximum fine of 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($A450), and a possible jail term of up to 10 years.

Last month, a Chinese smuggler caught in Kenya with a haul of ivory was fined less than a dollar a piece.

The smuggler, who was arrested carrying 439 pieces of worked ivory while in transit in Nairobi as he travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Hong Kong, was fined $US350 ($A337) and was then set free.

Such fines pose little if any deterrence, with experts suggesting a kilogram of ivory has an estimated black market value of some $A2406.

The illegal ivory trade is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used to make ornaments and in traditional medicine.

Africa is now home to an estimated 472,000 elephants, whose survival is threatened by poaching as well as a rising human population that is encroaching on their habitat.

20.08 | 0 komentar | Read More