1. Iraq: British Exit Plan Not for Us: Nelson
2. Fighter Tail Spin Feared
3. Indonesia-India: The Start of a Beautiful Friendship?
4. War on Terror Costs Us $20bn
5. Limitations of Safeguards on Nuclear Materials
6. Out Today: The Wheat Scandal that Has Plagued Australia
7. Survey to Upgrade Barrier Reef Detail
8. Rapid Tests for Bird Flu Are Flawed

1. British Exit Plan Not for Us: Nelson, Brendan Nicholson, Age, 2006-11-24

   The British planned to reduce their numbers in Iraq, Dr Nelson said, but Australia would not. “For the moment we have no intention of withdrawing our troops until the Iraqis themselves and our coalition partners the British, the Romanians and others * are all satisfied that the Iraqis can take control of their own affairs.”

1. Fighter Tail Spin Feared, John Kerin, AFR*, 2006-11-24

   Australia’s $50 billion defence procurement program, especially the $16 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, could be disrupted if the new Democratic majority in Congress succeeds in a push to cut or delay “big ticket” Bush administration military projects that are being shared with the Australian military.
   * Subscription required.

   • Nelson to Put Down $60m on Up-In-Air Strike Fighter, Alex Mitchell, SMH, 2006-11-26

   • The F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter) Project: progress and issues for Australia, Alex Tewes, Research Note no. 32 2005-06, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Section, 2006-06-09

   • F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Lightning II, GlobalSecurity.org

   • F-35 Lightning II, Lockheed Martin

      

2. The Start of a Beautiful Friendship? Amol Titus, Jakarta Post, 2006-11-24

   The growing friendship between two of the world’s largest democracies and torchbearers of diversity, India and Indonesia, has largely gone unnoticed.

    

3. War on Terror Costs Us $20bn, Brendan Nicholson, Age,2006-11-25

   Fighting the war on terrorism has cost the Australian community more than $20 billion since September 2001. The money is being spent on everything from training special forces to deal with weapons of mass destruction to a $74 million system enabling police and ASIO to tap phone calls.

   • Australian Domestic Security: The Role of Defence, Strategic Insight 31, ASPI*, 2006-11-08
     * Subscription required.

      

4. Illusion of Protection: The Unavoidable Limitations of Safeguards on Nuclear Materials and the Export of Uranium to China, ACF and the Medical Association for Prevention of War, 2006-11-05

   This timely and detailed study outlines the reasons why exporting Australian uranium to other nations, particularly those with nuclear weapons programs, is a dangerous It offers 11 core recommendations to the government and industry, beginning with “Australia should stop its contribution to the global nuclear chain by phasing out mining and export of uranium.” The final chapter looks in detail at China.

   • Executive Summary, Illusion Of Protection: The Unavoidable Limitations of Safeguards on Nuclear Materials and the Export of Uranium to China, ACF and the Medical Association for Prevention of War, 2006-11-05 [PDF]

      

5. Out Today: The Wheat Scandal that Has Plagued Australia, Leonie Wood and Michelle Grattan, Age, 2006-11-27

   Commissioner Terence Cole provides forensic accounts of the knowledge and actions of certain public servants who dealt with AWB and its Iraq wheat sales in his report into the $290 million oil-for-food scandal, to be tabled in Parliament today.

   • Report of the Cole Inquiry into the UN Oil-For-Food Programme, 2006-11-27

   • Inquiry into Certain Australian Companies in Relation to the UN Oil-For-Food Programme, Attorney-General’s Department, 2006-11-24

      

6. Survey to Upgrade Barrier Reef Detail, Christopher Jay, AFR*, 2006-11-24

   Galvanised by massive illegal fishing activities, problems with smuggling and defence requirements, the federal government has commissioned a detailed survey of the shallow, reef-filled waters of Torres Strait and the Great Barrier Reef. The Torres Strait job is part of the Fisheries Protection Survey and Charting Project. Seven new or updated charts will result.
   * Subscription required.

   • Contract Surveying in the Torres Strait and Northern Great Barrier Reef, Media Release CPA 265/06, Department of Defence, 2006-09-29 [MS Word]

      

7. Rapid Tests for Bird Flu Are Flawed, Studies Show, Donald G. McNeil Jr, IHT, 2006-11-24

   Avian flu is extremely hard to detect with standard tests, but waiting for laboratory confirmation of an outbreak would cause dangerous treatment delays, according to new studies of two flu outbreaks. The studies, published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, were of family clusters of flu cases in Turkey and Indonesia.

   • Three Indonesian Clusters of H5N1 Virus Infection in 2005, I. Nyoman Kandun, et al, New England Journal of Medecine, Vol. 355: 2186-2194, 2006-11-23

   • South Korea Begins Slaughtering Poultry to Stem Spread of Bird Flu Virus, AP, IHT, 2006-11-26

      

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