APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, April 27, 2009

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"APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, April 27, 2009", APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, April 27, 2009, https://nautilus.org/apsnet/apsnet-27-april-2009/

APSNet 27 April 2009

  1. Australian troops in major battles with Taliban insurgents
  2. Britain ‘cannot afford to send more troops to Afghanistan’ because of the recession
  3. We took a lot and now have to give
  4. Japan aims for nuke-free world
  5. WHO cites potential for swine flu pandemic
  6. Japan’s PM Taro Aso must apologise: POWs
  7. East Timorese go begging as foreign advisers rake it in

1. Australian troops in major battles with Taliban insurgents, Media Release, Department of Defence, 2009-04-25

Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) and the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force (MRTF) have been involved in major combat operations against Taliban insurgents during operations which began in March. SOTG operations supported coalition force operations in Helmand province which has taken Taliban insurgents by surprise and left their operations in north Kajaki in disarray.

2. Britain ‘cannot afford to send more troops to Afghanistan’ because of the recession, James Kirkup, Telegraph, 2009-04-24

Treasury is blocking Ministry of Defence plans to match a US troop surge with thousands more British soldiers on financial grounds. The growing cost of bailing out Britain’s banks and funding an ever-longer unemployment queue is understood to have forced ministers to rule out any significant deployment.

3. We took a lot and now have to give, Hamish McDonald, SMH, 2009-04-25

We can thank generations of Australian government lawyers and diplomats for making the [asylum seeker] journey a lot easier. Some unintended consequences are the legacy of their hardball. We pushed hard for their landing points on the islands and oil platforms close to Indonesia, Timor Leste and PNG, and happily collect petroleum revenues. The refugee obligation comes with the territory.

4. Japan aims for nuke-free world, Peter Alford, Australian, 2009-04-27

Japan wants the work of the nuclear weapons commission it jointly sponsors with the Rudd Government to form the basis of a new global initiative on nuclear disarmament. Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone proposes trying to resolve the “nuclear breakout” challenges of North Korea and Iran within President Barack Obama’s policy objective of a world free of nuclear weapons.

5. WHO cites potential for swine flu pandemic, Joshua Partlow and Rob Stein, Washington Post, 2009-04-26

The World Health Organization rushed to convene an emergency meeting to develop a response to the “pandemic potential” of a new swine flu virus that has sparked a deadly outbreak in Mexico and spread to disparate parts of the United States.

6. Japan’s PM Taro Aso must apologise: POWs, Drew Warne-Smith and Peter Alford, Australian, 2009-04-24

Three Australian prisoners of war used as slave labour in a Japanese coal mine owned by the family of Japan’s current Prime Minister, Taro Aso, are seeking compensation and a personal apology from him. In January, Mr Aso acknowledged for the first time that about 300 Allied POWs, including 197 Australians, had been forced to work at the Aso Mining Company’s Yoshikuma Coal Mine in Fukuoka.

7. East Timorese go begging as foreign advisers rake it in, Paul Toohey, Australian, 2009-04-25

Ines Almeida is a consultant for East Timor’s Ministry of Finance. This year, she will earn a lot more than her Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao. The World Bank has approved the extraordinary consultancies. In 2007-08 Australia contributed $388.8 million to the World Bank’s International Development Association. AusAID gave $13 million to East Timor’s five-year Public Finance and Management Capacity Building Program, out of which the consultants are being paid.

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Richard Tanter,
Project Co-ordinator