APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, November 13, 2008

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APSNet 13 November 2008

  1. East Timor Talks Tough
  2. AWB Case Put On Hold Indefinitely
  3. Indonesia Defends Executions
  4. Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda
  5. US Wants To Resume Nuke Testing To Retain Bomb Making Skills
  6. Nuclear Security in Pakistan after Musharraf
  7. US to Drop Mullah Omar from Blacklist
  8. Solomons Accepts Controversial Iranian Aid

1. East Timor Talks Tough, Angus Grigg, AFR*, 2008-11-13

Woodside petroleum’s $14 billion Greater Sunrise project may be delayed indefinitely as relations between East Timor and the energy major turn openly hostile over the location of a downstream processing plant. Flushed with oil money the tiny nation can afford to wait. For Woodside, however, the deadlock could delay one of its most promising projects for as long as a decade.
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2. AWB Case Put On Hold Indefinitely, Leonie Wood, Age, 2008-11-13

The corporate regulator’s bid to penalise five of six former Australian Wheat Board senior executives and directors, who helped engineer the wheat exporter’s $300million payment of kickbacks to Iraq, has been suspended indefinitely. The Victorian Supreme Court found that criminal charges could be laid against five AWB managers and, as a result, it would be unfair and unjust for them to fight a complex civil penalty case that would be halted if criminal proceedings began.

3. Indonesia Defends Executions, Brendan Nicholson, Age, 2008-11-13

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda has defended his country’s continued use of the death penalty, saying it had executed fewer people since independence in 1945 than the US executes in a year. Mr Wirajuda said that if any of the Bali nine still faced the death penalty when their legal options were exhausted, a plea for clemency would be considered.

4. Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda, Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, 2008-11-09

The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
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5. US Wants To Resume Nuke Testing To Retain Bomb Making Skills, Nikita Petrov, UPI, 2008-11-07

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is all for a resumption of nuclear tests. In a key speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he said the United States could not maintain deterrence, reduce arms or modernize them without tests.

6. Nuclear Security in Pakistan after Musharraf, WMD Insights, October 2008

The resignation of Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf after nine years in power and the return of a civilian-led government in the recent presidential election have raised questions about how the nuclear security system in Pakistan will operate in a period of political transition and turmoil.

7. US to Drop Mullah Omar from Blacklist, Press TV, 2008-10-28

The US agrees to drop the name of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar from the terror list ahead of talks with the insurgents, an official says. The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Patrick S Moon, said that during his upcoming visit to Kabul, he will fully support the idea of negotiated settlement with the Taliban militants to end the violence in the region.

8. Solomons Accepts Controversial Iranian Aid, ABC, 2008-11-11

Health officials in the Solomon Islands say they are happy to use money from Iran to help medical students if it increases doctor numbers in the Pacific nation. But Premier of the Solomons’ western province, Alex Lokopio, raised his concerns about the Government aligning itself with a regime whose interests appear to differ significantly to the Solomons’ current main aid donors, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

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