Asian Correspondent: Global Feed

Philippines to seek lifting of ban in tuna fishing

46 — Friday September 3, 2010, 03:30:26pm +08:00

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Friday said the country will ask the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) to lift the two-year ban on tuna fishing in two identified pockets of international waters.

In a message delivered by former Senator Mar Roxas, Aquino said the Philippines will push for the opening portions of the high seas to Philippine tuna catchers or give the country “preferential treatment.”

The ban, which took effect January this year, prohibits the use of fish aggregating devices in catching yellowfin tuna and other tuna-like fish species.

It covers more than 306,000 square miles of open seas south of Micronesia and north of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea where over 38 Philippine-flag purse seine fishing ships are operating.

Member countries violating the ban will be de-listed from the WCPFC.

The ban however exempts handline tuna catching, a traditional Filipino fishing method.

Fishing inside the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of member countries of the WCPFC is also allowed provided a vessel monitoring system is observed and observers from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) are allowed on board.

The ban has already directly affected close to 1,500 workers employed by fishing companies who were laid off following compliance to the WCPFC circular.

BFAR director Malcolm Sarmiento said they will submit the Philippine position during the meeting of the WCPFC in December in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Sarmiento said the ban is impractical.

“The measure is not achieving it purpose,” as Sarmiento reasoned out that banning tuna fishing in areas of the species’ migratory path will not solve the rapid depletion of tuna stocks.

He said the practical way of conserving tuna stock is to limit the capacity of catch by each member countries of the WCPFC.

“We will seek for a thorough review of the ban. (And we believe the) logic of the measure will be put to test,” the fisheries chief said.

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Pakistan replaces suspected trio for rest of tour

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:37:32pm +08:00

The three Pakistan cricketers at the center of fixing allegations were dropped for the rest of the team's England tour on Thursday, shortly before they appeared for questioning by investigators of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Team manager Yawar Saeed said bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir and test captain Salman Butt will not play in the remaining Twenty20 and one-day international matches.

He insisted they had not been suspended.

Saeed said that 13 players will be available for the two Twenty20 matches before three replacements arrive to bolster the squad for the five-match one-day series.

"The T20 squad will remain what it is here this morning, i.e. 13 people," Saeed said in Taunton, where Pakistan was playing a warmup game against English county side Somerset. "When we play the one-day internationals, we will be asking for replacements to make the squad up to 16."

Saeed, who had earlier said the trio would continue playing unless police laid criminal charges against them, did not say who the replacements would be.

The England and Wales Cricket Board welcomed the decision by Pakistan not to include the three players in its limited-overs squads.

"We can assure cricket fans across the country that the matches will be played in the most competitive spirit long associated with contests between England and Pakistan," EBC chairman Giles Clarke said.

Asif, Amir and Butt were at the Pakistan High Commission in London on Thursday for questioning by a Pakistan Cricket Board investigation.

Butt, Asif and Aamer had to be given a police escort as they entered the building in Knightsbridge. About 10 police officers guided the trio into the building amid a throng of reporters and TV crews.

All three refused to answer questions after arriving in a car with blacked out windows.

British newspaper the News of the World alleged Sunday that Amir and Asif were paid to deliberately bowl no-balls in the opening day of the fourth test against England at Lord's last week.

Butt and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal were also implicated in the story.

Asif, Amir and Butt had their mobile phones confiscated by police, who also searched hotel rooms and questioned players on Saturday as part of an investigation also involving the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit.

Shahid Afridi is leading the team in its limited-overs matches, starting with a game against Somerset.

"Obviously, if they have done something bad, you need to give them a punishment," Afridi said. "But I think we are still waiting for the results.

"It will be a really tough series and I think everyone is trying to focus on the cricket now. We are ready to play some good cricket."

The spot-fixing allegations are the latest blow to cricket in Pakistan, which has not hosted any international matches since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team and match officials in March 2009.

Clarke, who is also chairman of the ICC's Pakistan Task Team, said he hoped the incident did not slow Pakistan's reintegration into world cricket.

"I look forward to working with Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the PCB, and everybody involved in Pakistan cricket in taking forward cricket in Pakistan so that a plan exists for the whole of Pakistan cricket, given all the many and varied issues which it's up against," Clarke added.

Clarke said last month that plans were being made for an ICC World XI to play a match in Pakistan.

Associated Press

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Delhi's games preparations still face problems

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:33:47pm +08:00

With just 30 days to go before the official opening of the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, organizers continue to struggle with basic preparations like safety certificates for structures and the wherewithal to fight a potential epidemic.

A fourth missed deadline for construction work and a spurt in cases of dengue fever — a mosquito-borne virus — are the latest setbacks to threaten an event already plagued by allegations official of poor building practices and bogus building approvals .

The venues, which were scheduled to be ready by August 31, are now unlikely to completed until September 15, just a day before athletes and officials start arriving for the games Oct. 3-14 games.

Despite the setbacks, chief organizer Suresh Kalmadi is confident the infrastructure will be ready for the games.

"We are getting all the required certificates pertaining to completion, safety and fire and sending them to the Commonwealth Games Federation," Kalmadi said at a media conference Thursday.

But Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has expressed less confidence of late.

"The rains have spoilt our plans. Let us hope we do not get more showers, or else we will be in big trouble," she said this week.

The prolonged monsoon has not just delayed the completion of venues, but has also brought the threat of dengue as mosquitoes have been spotted at water logged areas near venues and the games village.

There have been over a thousand reported cases of dengue at government hospitals in New Delhi and many more in private medical centers.

Health secretary Sujata Rao fears the virus has the potential to become an epidemic.

"This fever has a four-year cycle and unfortunately this is the year it is due to spread more," Rao said. "However, it has not been as life threatening as during previous years."

Some participating countries have issued health warnings for their athletes, while as many as 24 have written to the organizing committee enquiring about its status.

"The central, state and municipality is fighting dengue on a war-footing," said Kalmadi. "There are over 1,800 doctors on the job and the government is trying to ensure the threat comes down by mid-September."

Concerns over the potential success of the games are not limited to the organizational front.

Top sprinters Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell of Jamaica, Olympic swimming champion Stephanie Rice and cyclist Chris Hoy are among the top names to have withdrawn from the games.

But Kalmadi, whose organizing team has been mired in graft allegations, said: "There will be enough stars to make this an attractive event."

As for Indian athletes, there has been no home advantage as they have not been close to the venues except for some farcical test events that were devoid of good competition.

Kalmadi was confident Indians would do well as "the camps were going on well, even though at distant cities."

Commonwealth Games chief Mike Fennell said on a recent visit to New Delhi that he was satisfied with security assurances, but traffic snarls posed a threat.

"I hope something is done about the traffic. It needs to be systematized so that things run smoothly during the games," he said.

Among other challenges are the sale of tickets and merchandise, the launch of which also missed deadlines.

"The ticket sales will pick up in the coming days. As for the merchandise, we have just launched it on Thursday after a delay," Kalmadi said.

Associated Press

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China orders action to cool food prices

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:26:45pm +08:00

China has ordered local leaders to cool a surge in politically sensitive food prices by raising vegetable production amid rising tensions in poor countries over surging food costs.

Mayors were told to make sure local markets have a week's supply of vegetables, said a Cabinet announcement on Friday. It said state banks were told to lend to producers to increase output amid shortages blamed on summer flooding and drought in some areas.

"Making sure of vegetable supplies and price stability is an important task for now and in the future," the Cabinet statement said. "Local governments should manage inflation expectations well and realize the importance and urgency of this."

China's food price inflation spiked to 6.8 percent in July over a year earlier, pushing overall inflation to 3.3 percent, its highest level this year, according to government figures.

Elsewhere, a jump in food prices triggered deadly riots in Mozambique this week and the poor in Asia, the Middle East and Africa are under strain after global prices jumped 6 percent in the past two months alone.

No unrest has been reported in China but food prices are politically sensitive in an economy where the poor majority spend up to half their incomes to eat.

Beijing has repeatedly emphasized the importance of ensuring adequate food supplies this year and has threatened to punish merchants who profiteer.

China also suffered a spike in food costs earlier when vegetable prices jumped 14.9 percent in April and fruit prices soared 16.4 percent.

Beijing has repeatedly said it is confident of meeting its 3 percent inflation target for 2010. But private sector analysts expect overall August inflation to rise above 3.5 percent, driven partly by food costs.

Associated Press

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Asia stocks rise on slight improvement in US data

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:17:53pm +08:00

Most Asian stock markets climbed Friday as investors took heart from a slight improvement in U.S. economic indicators amid lingering worries over the pace of the global economic recovery.

But gains were modest across the region as investors took a wait-and-see stance ahead of closely-watched U.S. employment figures due out Friday. The jobless rate for August is expected to rise to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index rose 26.15 points, or 0.3 percent, to 9,088.99 and South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.2 percent to 1,777.58. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained less than 0.1 percent to 4,533.50.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.1 percent to 20,882.14. Markets in New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan also advanced. But the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.9 percent to 2,633.34.

In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average added 50.63 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,320.10.

Sentiment on Wall Street turned upbeat after the National Association of Realtors said Thursday that the number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase homes rose 5.2 percent in July after hitting a record low in June.

A fall in new claims for U.S. unemployment aid last week also helped lift sentiment. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of American people requesting jobless benefits fell by 6,000 the previous week to a seasonally adjusted 472,000.

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, also fell by 2,500 to 485,500, the first drop after four straight increases. But even with the declines, U.S. jobless claims are still at much higher levels than they would be in a healthy economy.

When economic output is growing rapidly and employers are hiring, such claims generally drop below 400,000.

In currencies, the dollar fell to 84.18 yen in Tokyo from 84.26 yen in New York late Thursday. The euro slipped to $1.2819 from $1.2820.

Benchmark oil for October delivery was down 34 cents at $74.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.11 to settle at $75.02 a barrel on Thursday.

Associated Press

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US, SKorea to hold further naval drills

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:13:34pm +08:00

South Korea and the United States will hold joint anti-submarine exercises in another show of force against North Korea, officials said Friday, as Pyongyang renewed threats against the drills.

The exercises will be the second in a series of joint maneuvers the allies planned to conduct in response to the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March that they blame on the North. The two sides staged large-scale joint naval drills in July followed by South Korea's own naval drills last month.

The drills, set to run from Sunday through Thursday off the Korean peninsula's west coast, will involve about 17,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, seven ships and two submarines as well as aircraft, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. military in Seoul.

The exercises are "designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea, while improving overall alliance anti-submarine warfare capabilities," the U.S. military in Seoul said in a statement.

The announcement of the planned drills comes as China plans to stage live-ammunition exercises in the Yellow Sea. The Beihai Fleet of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy will conduct exercises from Wednesday to Saturday in the sea off the southeast coast of the city of Qingdao, China's official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday, citing the defense ministry.

An international team of investigators concluded in May that a North Korean torpedo sank the 1,200-ton South Korean warship Cheonan in late March near the Koreas' western maritime border, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking, has threatened to retaliate against South Korea and the U.S. over the drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion.

The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea in what it says is a deterrent against any possible aggression from North Korea and says it has no intention of invading the North.

"Our military and people will deal a merciless blow if warmongers stage reckless provocation," North Korea's government-run website, Uriminzokkiri, said in a commentary Friday.

North Korea often makes such threats, though the joint maneuvers in July and South Korea's independent exercises took place without incident.

The two Koreas officially remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Associated Press

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Gates: Afghans should lead corruption fight

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:10:45pm +08:00

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that while the fight against corruption must be led by Afghans, the U.S. is working on new ways to prevent millions of American dollars flowing into the nation from underwriting bribery and graft.

Gates spoke to reporters in the Afghan capital with President Hamid Karzai, who complained about the tactics of two Western-backed anti-corruption units that recently arrested one of his top aides on suspicion of bribery, likening them to heavy-handed Soviet tactics.

The U.S. views the arrest of Mohammed Zia Salehi as a test of Karzai's willingness to take on graft in his government.

Salehi was arrested by Afghan police after allegedly being wiretapped discussing a bribe. He called Karzai from his jail cell in July and was freed hours later.

Soon afterward Karzai blasted the work of the U.S.-backed corruption investigators involved in that case and review how they operate.

"The key here is that the fight against corruption needs to be Afghan-led," Gates said. "This is a sovereign country."

Gates said two units, the Major Crimes Task Force and the Sensitive Investigative Unit, should operate under Afghan law. But he was clear that the U.S. will keep backing investigations into cronyism and illicit activities.

Gates said U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, were developing new guidelines for how U.S. funds are handed out for development and other projects.

Karzai pledged to work against corruption, which is undermining trust in his government and making it difficult to maintain international support for the war.

Gates also said that if Taliban insurgents believe American forces will walk out of Afghanistan next July, they will be disappointed. Gates says U.S. forces will remain after the July 2011 date that President Barack Obama has set for the beginning of a pullout, if security permits.

American public opinion is turning strongly against the war with the majority of Americans now saying they doubt it is worth fighting.

"It is important to be honest about this," Gates said. "The United States is spending over $100 billion a year in this fight in Afghanistan. America's sons and daughters are being killed. The American people need to know that 15 years from now we are not going to still be fighting this fight."

Gates is the most senior U.S. official to meet with Karzai since the president's decision to intervene in the Salehi case and review the anti-corruption units. Those actions were widely interpreted in the U.S. as undermining efforts to clean up his government and as a slap in the face to his U.S. backers.

Karzai said his motives have been mischaracterized and he is trying to build credibility of the Afghan government to police itself.

Earlier Thursday, Petraeus said the sometimes strained relationship between the U.S. and Karzai is solid. Petraeus acknowledged "friction" over the Salehi case, which he said had been resolved. The general said he had heard Karzai assure Obama that he would back the work of U.S.-mentored anti-corruption investigators.

"President Karzai is the first to note that more has to be done" about corruption overall, Petraeus said.

"It's a relationship in which there is candor," Petraeus said. "We do not always come at every issue from the same perspective but I think that's a reflection of the strength of the relationship."

Associated Press

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Karzai: Afghan govt will back Kabul Bank

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:04:51pm +08:00

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reassured nervous customers at the troubled Kabul Bank on Thursday, saying every penny of their deposits would be guaranteed by the government.

Larger than usual crowds gathered to withdraw funds from Afghanistan's largest bank Wednesday and Thursday after two top executives resigned amid allegations of mismanagement and unorthodox real estate loans.

"The Kabul Bank is safe," Karzai said in a news conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal echoed that message, saying that fears about the stability of Kabul Bank had not sparked a "crisis" at Kabul Bank.

"We are 100 percent sure that Kabul Bank is safe," Zakhilwal said. "I, as finance minister, am giving you my guarantee that your money is safe — if it's one Afghani, one dollar, one euro, up to millions. ... Kabul Bank is not in danger."

Afghan television stations broadcast remarks Wednesday night from the central bank governor, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, who insisted that Kabul Bank was solvent and had enough liquidity to meet demands. On Thursday, the Afghanistan Banks Association issued a statement of support for the bank, and Zakhilwal sought to reassure customers that their deposits were safe.

"The government of Afghanistan guarantees that every penny that they have deposited will be paid back to them if they request it," he said. "But what we are requesting of the Afghan people is not to rush because rush is not good for them, and it's not good for the banking system. We guarantee the money."

Some customers went anyway.

Nazifa Amiri, who works for a foreign aid agency in Kabul, said problems with the bank would have an especially devastating effect on poor Afghans like herself.

"I need this money to feed my children, plus we have the festival coming up," said Amiri, referring to next week's celebration of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Amiri successfully drew her monthly salary of $390 from the bank's branch in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. However, Defense Ministry employee Mohammad Zami said he had been rebuffed when attempting to withdraw dollars from his account at the same branch, with managers saying more currency was on its way.

"I don't have a lot of money in it, but this is supposed to be a trustworthy bank to serve the Afghan people. It's not good to see it tied up in politics," Zami said.

A branch manager, who declined to give his name because staff had been ordered not to speak to media, said dollar stocks ran out about one hour after opening, although supplies of Afghan currency were sufficient to meet demand.

Shah Masood Azha, a businessman in the southern city of Kandahar, said residents remained worried about the safety of their accounts.

"This is a result of poor oversight, and the government needs to have many more checks and balances," Azha said.

Problems at the bank could have wide-ranging political repercussions since it handles the pay for Afghan teachers, soldiers and police in this unstable, impoverished nation beset by the stubborn Taliban insurgency, widespread drug trafficking and plundering of aid money.

The Finance Ministry issued a statement assuring government employees that they would continue to be able to deposit and withdraw their salaries at Kabul Bank. The statement added that the replacement of top executives would improve management and services and was "part of the life cycle of a business."

The bank's woes also tie into the web of corruption and personal connections that has soured many Afghans on their government.

Gen. David Petraeus, top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was asked about Kabul Bank's woes at a round-table with reporters on Thursday.

"I'm not really the guy in the financial sector here in Afghanistan but financial issues can have security issues and therefore we keep an eye on them," Petraeus said. "In this case our assessment is that the governor of the central bank has taken prudent measures. He has announced what it is that he has been doing to reassure depositors ... Our sense is that he and the minister of finance have taken a very prudent course," that should reassure depositors. "I think this will be OK."

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that while the United States was providing technical assistance to the Afghan government, it was taking no steps to recapitalize Kabul Bank.

Sherkhan Farnood, former chairman of Kabul Bank, and Khalilullah Ferozi, former chief executive officer, resigned because, under new reforms, only banking professionals can hold the top operating positions at banks. The bank is being run by Masood Ghazi, a former official at the central bank. The bank said top executives at some of Afghanistan's other 16 private banks might have to step aside as well to conform with the reforms.

Farnood, a world class poker player, and Ferozi each own 28 percent of the bank's shares. President Hamid Karzai's brother, Mahmood Karzai, is the bank's third largest shareholder with 7 percent.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Kabul Bank's losses could exceed $300 million — and that the figure is more than the bank's assets. The Washington Post reported that the central bank had ordered the newly resigned chairman to hand over $160 million in real estate holdings in Dubai purchased for relatives and friends of the political elite.

Zakhilwal challenged claims that the bank was on a shaky foundation. Kabul Bank has more than $1 billion in deposits. He said the property pledged as collateral for loans at the bank is "way more — in fact twice as much — as the loans that they have given out."

Associated Press

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Afghan president says airstrike killed civilians

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:02:43pm +08:00

NATO said an airstrike in northern Afghanistan killed about a dozen insurgents, but President Hamid Karzai said the victims were campaign workers seeking votes in this month's parliamentary elections.

NATO said its airstrike on a car in northern Takhar province's normally quiet Rustaq district killed or wounded as many as 12 insurgents on Thursday, including a Taliban commander and a local head of an allied insurgent group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, responsible for attacks in Kabul and elsewhere.

However Karzai — who repeatedly warns that civilian casualties undermine anti-insurgency efforts — said the airstrike had killed 10 campaign workers instead.

"The rationale for the airstrike still needs to be fully investigated," the president said at a joint news conference in Kabul with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Gates said he had not heard about civilian casualties, but said the attack had hit its intended target and promised an investigation.

"I am able to confirm that a very senior official of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was the target and was killed," Gates said.

Earlier, Takhar Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said the car in which candidate Abdul Wahid Khorasani had been riding was fired on by helicopters following an initial pass by fighter jets. He called the incident an obvious mistake, saying there were no Uzbek militants, foreigners or members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the convoy.

"There aren't even any Taliban in this area," Taqwa said. "They were all working on Mr. Khorasani's campaign."

Reached by phone at a hospital in Kabul, Khorasani said windows of the six vehicles in the convoy had been plastered with his campaign posters and all those traveling with him had been members of his extended family, including a man named Amanullah, who had been allied with a local Uzbek warlord and recently returned from a lengthy visit to neighboring Pakistan.

Khorasani said Amanullah had been among the 10 people killed in the attack, which he said also left seven wounded.

Khorasani, who said he received minor injuries, suggested the attack may have been prompted by false information fed to the Americans by a political rival, and called for a thorough investigation.

"I ask the international community and the Afghan government — investigate and find out who was the spy who gave you this bad information," he said.

A local politician with knowledge of the incident, but who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the attack was likely linked to rivalries among ethnic Uzbek politicians in the province.

Afghan politicians have in the past been accused of deliberately feeding false information to foreign forces in hopes of prompting attacks and eliminating rivals. Political violence is on the rise ahead of the Sept. 18 polls, with at least three candidates and five campaign workers killed.

An alliance spokesman said it was aware of the claims that civilians were killed and would conduct a thorough investigation.

"What I can say is these vehicles were nowhere near a populated area and we're confident this strike hit only the targeted vehicle after days of tracking the occupants' activity," said Maj. Gen. David Garza, the deputy chief of staff for joint operations in Afghanistan.

Another NATO spokesman said the vehicle hit had stopped at least twice prior to the attack, during which men armed with rifles were observed exiting it before re-entering.

"We stand by the information in the release, and it is important to note that there was considerable time spent watching and waiting prior to the engagement," James Judge said.

Also Thursday, two American troops died in fighting, while NATO and local officials said coalition and Afghan forces killed dozens of insurgents in a series of ground and air engagements.

NATO said one U.S. service member was killed in the country's east and the other in the south — regions where fighting between the coalition and Taliban insurgents has been at its most intense. No other details were given in keeping with standard NATO procedure.

The deaths bring to three the number of U.S. service members killed in September and follow a spike in casualties during the last two weeks of August.

Associated Press

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Australian attacked by shark in Solomon Islands

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 02:00:41pm +08:00

An Australian man was attacked by a shark in the waters off a remote island resort in the Solomon Islands, officials said Friday.

The 34-year-old from New South Wales state suffered lacerations to the face and neck in the Thursday attack, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement. He was in stable condition at a hospital in the capital Honiara.

The nation of 600,000 people is scattered across 992 small islands in the central Pacific. Solomon Islanders mostly live on subsistence agriculture and fishing.

Associated Press

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FBI: 6 accused in forced labor of 400 Thai workers

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:57:53pm +08:00

Six recruiters were accused Thursday of luring 400 laborers from Thailand to the United States and forcing them to work, according to a federal indictment that the FBI called the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.

The indictment alleges that the scheme was orchestrated by four employees of labor recruiting company Global Horizons Manpower Inc. and two Thailand-based recruiters. It said the recruiters lured the workers with false promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports, failed to honor their employment contracts and threatened to deport them.

Once the Thai laborers arrived in the United States starting in May 2004, they were put to work and have since been sent to sites in states including Hawaii, Washington, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, according to attorneys and advocates.

Many laborers were initially taken to farms in Hawaii and Washington, where work conditions were the worst, said Chancee Martorell, executive director for the Los Angeles-based Thai Community Development Center, which represents 263 Thai workers who were brought to the U.S. by Global Horizons.

A woman who answered the phone at Global Horizons' Los Angeles office refused to take a message seeking comment Thursday.

The six defendants include Global Horizons President and CEO Mordechai Orian, 45; Director of International Relations Pranee Tubchumpol, 44; Hawaii regional supervisor Shane Germann, 41; and onsite field supervisor Sam Wongsesanit, 39. The Thailand recruiters were identified as Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai.

They face maximum sentences ranging from five years to 70 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.

Orian wasn't home when the FBI attempted to arrest him in Los Angeles on Thursday, but his surrender is being negotiated, said FBI Special Agent Tom Simon. Orian's attorney, Alan Diamante, didn't return a phone message seeking comment.

Two were arrested Thursday morning in Los Angeles and Fargo, N.D., said Simon. Another Global Horizons employee was expected to turn himself in, and the United States will work with Thailand's government to apprehend the remaining two suspects.

"In the old days, they used to keep slaves in their places with whips and chains. Today it's done with economic threats and intimidation," Simon said.

Honolulu immigration attorney Melissa Vincenty said the indictment against Global Horizons is a major blow to labor trafficking nationwide.

"Global was the big fish in all of this. It's a pretty big case, with hundreds and hundreds of workers," said Vincenty, who represents 56 of the Thai laborers. "They're all over the United States."

Associated Press

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Lawmaker: Australian leaders trying to buy power

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:53:45pm +08:00

A key independent lawmaker accused the leaders of Australia's two main political parties of attempting to buy power Friday as they battle to form the nation's first minority government since World War II.

Bob Katter is one of a trio of lawmakers with the power to make either the center-left Labor Party or the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition Australia's next government, after Aug. 21 election failed to deliver either side a majority.

He likened the leaders' wooing of independents to prostitution.

His criticism followed Thursday's decision by a fourth independent, Andrew Wilkie, to support Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Labor Party, rebuffing a 1 billion Australian dollar ($910 million) offer for a new local hospital from opposition leader local Tony Abbott if his Liberal Party-led coalition formed government.

Gillard offered Wilkie an immediate AU$100 million for a hospital upgrade plus a potential AU$240 million for further construction at the hospital.

"We've established that they're out there buying support. It's simply a matter of how bad you are at buying — how naughty," Katter told reporters of Gillard and Abbott. "This is not really good."

"If one person gets a thousand million, how many do three people get who can hand over the government of Australia?" Katter added.

Katter said he was "very disappointed" by Wilkie's negotiations, but said laughingly that his trio, which is negotiating as a bloc, might consider increasing their demands.

"There's a famous old saying ... we know what you are, it's just a matter of how expensive you are," Katter told reporters, suggesting that Wilkie was a political prostitute.

Wilkie's support gives Labor control of 74 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives — two short of a majority and one more than Abbott's coalition.

Labor has governed for the past three years and remains the caretaker government until the power struggle is resolved or Australians return to the polls.

Wilkie explained that he chose Labor because it was the party best able to form stable, competent and ethical government.

He described Abbott's offer as "reckless" because the opposition leader did not explain where the AU$1 billion would come from.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb said the offer was not a bargaining chip, and that the investment would still be made if his coalition can form government without Wilkie's support.

Katter on Friday delivered Gillard and Abbott a list of his 20 demands that he said "don't require money from government." They oppose Labor's policy of introducing taxes on carbon gas emissions and on mining companies' profits.

But Katter said the list did not reveal a preference for the conservatives, saying he would be naive to expect either side to fulfill all his demands.

Katter and his colleagues Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott have ruled out announcing decisions before next week.

Australian has not had a minority government since 1943.

Associated Press

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Indonesian volcano spews new burst of ash

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:45:46pm +08:00

An Indonesian volcano sent a new, powerful burst of hot ash high into the air early Friday, violently shaking homes and trees along the slopes and sending panicked villagers scurrying back to safety.

"This was a big one!" said 37-year-old Anto Sembiring, who fled his coffee shop not far from the crater's mouth, joining hundreds of others gathered near Mount Sinabung's base. "It shot up at least 3,000 meters (yards)."

The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and visibility was limited to just a few yards (meters).

Mount Sinabung erupted for the first time in four centuries on Sunday and Monday, catching many scientists off guard and forcing at least 30,000 people living along its fertile slopes in North Sumatra province to be evacuated.

In recent days, as the mountain quieted, many had returned home to tend to their dust-covered crops and to reopen small businesses, despite warnings by vulcanologists that the alert level was still high.

The eruption Friday, which started at around 4:45 a.m., as many people were sleeping, appeared to be the strongest yet, said Surono, who heads the nation's volcano alert center, adding that the tremor could be felt five miles (eight kilometers) away.

"Everything around us was shaking," said Sembiring, the coffee shop owner, adding that he and many others ignored vulcanologists' warnings ahead of the blast that activity was increasing.

"When it blew, we all ran as fast as we could," he said. "Everyone was panicking."

Mount Sinabung last erupted in 1600, and government vulcanologists acknowledged they had made no efforts before the mountain started rumbling last week to sample gases or look out for rising magma or other signs of seismic activity.

They were too busy with more than 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a seismically charged region because of its location on the so-called "Ring of Fire" — a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

They said from now on they will be watching it very closely.

There are fears that current activity could foreshadow a much more destructive explosion in a few weeks or months, though it is possible, too, that the mountain will go back to sleep after letting off steam.

The archipelagic nation has recorded some of the largest eruptions in history.

The 1815 explosion of Mount Tambora buried the inhabitants of Sumbawa Island under searing ash, gas and rock, killing an estimated 88,000 people.

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa could be heard 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away and blackened skies region-wide for months. At least 36,000 people were killed in the blast and the tsunami that followed.

Associated Press

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Dolphins caught, not killed, in Japan cove

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:44:20pm +08:00

Dolphins have been herded into a cove as part of an annual hunt in the Japanese seaside town made famous by an Oscar-winning documentary about their slaughter, conservationist group Sea Shepherd said Friday. A town official said none were killed.

The dolphin hunt at Taiji, documented in "The Cove," begins Sept. 1 every year. The boats returned empty Wednesday. But on Thursday, some dolphins were corralled into the inlet, according to anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd and a fishing official in Taiji.

The official in charge of media queries at the Taiji fishing organization said a handful of dolphins were kept for aquariums, but the rest were set free Friday morning. He declined to give details.

He said the criticism the town has received from the West was unfair because residents were merely trying to make a living, and the rocky landscape made it difficult to go into farming or livestock.

Sea Shepherd said it has been monitoring Taiji with a small crew of Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and Japanese this week.

Ric O'Barry, who stars in "The Cove," has gathered about 100 people in Tokyo, including supporters from abroad, to protest the dolphin slaughter. He took a petition with 1.7 million signatures from 155 nations to the U.S. Embassy on Thursday.

"The dolphins need defenders at the cove today and tomorrow," said Michael Dalton of Sea Shepherd in a statement from Taiji. "If you came to Japan to save dolphins, the place to be is Taiji and the time to be here is now."

O'Barry, 70, the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s "Flipper" TV show, has received threats from a violent nationalist group and skipped going to Taiji this year, a trip he makes every year to try to save the dolphins.

He said he had been advised by Japanese authorities not to go to Taiji, and repeatedly stressed that he does not want confrontation.

He was flanked by police, as well as supporters, when he went to the U.S. Embassy. But some of his supporters said they are headed to Taiji.

Nationalist groups say criticism of dolphin hunting is a denigration of Japanese culture.

The Japanese government allows a hunt of about 20,000 dolphins a year, and argues that killing them — and whales — is no different from raising cows or pigs for slaughter. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat and, even in Taiji, it is not consumed regularly.

The government is also critical of Sea Shepherd, which has harrassed Japanese whaling ships. In July, a Tokyo court convicted New Zealander Peter Bethune, a former Sea Shepherd activist, of obstructing a Japanese whaling mission in the Antarctic Ocean, assault, trespassing and other charges. He was not sent to prison and was deported.

"The Cove," which won this year's Academy Award for best documentary, depicts a handful of fishermen from the town of Taiji who scare dolphins into a cove and kill them slowly, piercing them repeatedly until the waters turn red with blood. Other Japanese towns that hunt dolphins kill them at sea.

Taiji, which has a population of 3,500 people, defends the dolphin killing as tradition and a livelihood. Most of the dolphins are generally eaten as meat after a handful of the best looking are sold off to aquariums.

"I'm not losing hope. Our voice is being heard in Taiji," said O'Barry, who has campaigned for four decades to save dolphins not only from slaughter but also from captivity.

The film's Japanese debut became a free-speech fight. It opened in some theaters in June after earlier screenings were canceled when cinemas received a flood of angry phone calls and threats by far-right nationalists.

Louie Psihoyos, the director of "The Cove," said he doesn't agree with blindly sticking with tradition.

"In America we had a much longer tradition of slavery, but that was banned," Psihoyos told The Associated Press. "My message to Japan is to see the movie for yourself with an open mind."

Associated Press

...

French 'Spiderman' in Sydney court over climb

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:40:09pm +08:00

A French skyscraper climber nicknamed "Spiderman" pleaded not guilty Friday to charges related to his bare-handed climb up a 57-story building in downtown Sydney.

Alain Robert, known for climbing some of the world's tallest and best-known buildings without ropes or other equipment, was arrested Monday at the top of the Lumiere building.

He was charged with risking the safety of another by climbing a building or structure, and unlawful entry of an enclosed area. If convicted on both charges, he could face up to three months in jail and fines of 1,650 Australian dollars ($1,497).

Outside Sydney District Court, Robert said he never meant to disrespect Australian law and denied that his climb had put any lives at risk.

"I was not endangering people," Robert said. "There was no point for me to plead guilty."

Many of his past climbs have resulted in arrests and fines. Last year, Robert was fined AU$750 for climbing the 41-story Royal Bank of Scotland building in Sydney.

The 48-year-old has climbed more than 70 skyscrapers around the world, including the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, according to his website.

The hearing was adjourned until Oct. 15.

Associated Press

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US Coast Guard boards RP fishing vessel off Palau

46 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:39:56pm +08:00

Philippine authorities today confirmed receiving reports that two fishing vessels from the country were boarded by the United States Coast Guard in the international waters north of the Republic of Palau and were found to have no international fishing license.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) assistant director Benjamin Tabios on Friday said they received an e-mail from the US Coast Guard about the incident which could affect the tuna industry in the Philippines.

A two-year ban on tuna fishing in international waters was put into effect starting January this year by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) due to rapidly declining tuna stock.

A three-month ban on tuna fishing using fish aggregating devices is also in effect every year from July to September.

Member countries of the WCPFC, however, are allowed to fish within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone provided fishing vessels using this method must have observers on board and must subscribe to the vessel monitoring system (VMS) and equipped with proper licenses.

The Philippines is a member country of the WCPFC.

Tabios said the two fishing vessels, a purse seiner and a carrier, were accosted outside the pocket of high seas within the Western and Central Pacific where the two-year ban is in effect.

Still, the government will look into the report, according to the fisheries official.

Tabios said they already sent notice of the hearing to the owners and operators of the Filipino fishing vessels, reportedly based in Mati, Davao Oriental.

He said they would file appropriate administrative charges against the owners and operators of the fishing vessel if found guilty of violating Philippine fishing laws.

Tabios declined to give the name of the fishing boats as well as their owners.

“We are still conducting investigation and we have yet to receive a reply from the boat owners,” Tabios said.

The incident was disclosed before the media during the 12th National Tuna Congress in General Santos city.

Ironically, President Benigno Aquino III, in his keynote address delivered by former Senator Mar Roxas, warned fishermen against violating international agreements and Philippine fishing laws.

...

95 snakes found in burst bag at Malaysia airport

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:33:37pm +08:00

A Malaysian man pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling after his bag bursting with 95 live boa constrictors broke open on a luggage conveyer belt at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, an official said Friday.

Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 52, who was previously convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States, was charged Wednesday in a district court with exporting the endangered boas without a permit, said Shamsuddin Osman, an official with Malaysia's wildlife department.

The offense that carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison and a fine, Shamsuddin said.

Wong was arrested Aug. 26 after airport authorities found the boa constrictors, together with a few other snakes and a turtle, when his bag broke open on a luggage conveyor belt. Wong was transiting from Malaysia's northern Penang state to Indonesia's capital Jakarta.

The court will reconvene Monday pending Wong's appointment of a lawyer, Shamsuddin said.

He said the criminal charges involve the boas only, because the other animals are not listed as endangered. All of the animals are alive and under the care of wildlife officials, Shamsuddin said.

A decade ago, Wong was sentenced to almost six years in prison in the U.S. for running an animal-smuggling ring that prosecutors said imported and sold more than 300 protected reptiles native to Asia and Africa from 1996 until Wong's arrest in Mexico in 1998. It is unclear whether he served the full term.

Activists say the illegal wildlife trade used to flourish in Malaysia until the country recently stepped up efforts to crack down on it. In July, Parliament passed a new law to punish poachers and smugglers more severely, but the act has not yet taken effect.

Associated Press

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Japan approves economic sanctions against Iran

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 01:25:49pm +08:00

Japan approved fresh economic sanctions against Iran on Friday after the United Nations asked Tokyo to tighten restrictions against Tehran over its controversial nuclear enrichment program, an official said.

The measures approved by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan include an asset freeze on 88 entities, 15 banks and 24 individuals, trade ministry official Hideaki Fujisawa said. Japan had previously frozen assets on 75 entities and 41 individuals.

The individuals are also banned from entering Japan, Fujisawa said.

The United Nations approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran in early June over accusations that Tehran is seeking to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies its nuclear program is militaristic in nature and says it has a right to conduct uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.

Along with the U.N., the United States and European Union recently imposed separate penalties against Iran.

Japan's latest sanctions came after the United Nations asked Tokyo to take punitive measures against Iran, Fujisawa said.

While Japan's new sanctions called for tighter supervision of bilateral financial transactions, the measures stopped short of curtailing Japan's crude oil imports from Iran. Iran is the third-biggest crude oil supplier to Japan.

Associated Press

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Thousands of trucks stuck in China traffic jam

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 12:58:37pm +08:00

Thousands of coal trucks were backed up for miles on a northern China highway Friday, the latest in a series of monster jams that have plagued the overloaded road since construction began on a parallel route earlier this summer.

Trucks loaded high with coal from Inner Mongolia inched along bumper-to-bumper on the Beijing-Tibet highway as police redirected traffic and reminded drivers to stay alert, an official with Jining traffic police in Inner Monglia said Friday. Like many Chinese bureaucrats, he refused to give his name.

State television broadcaster CCTV reported that about 10,000 trucks were stuck in the jam for at least 75 miles (120 kilometers) on Thursday, turning a stretch of road connecting the coal-rich city of Ordos to Jining in Inner Mongolia into a virtual parking lot.

The traffic jams are part of continuing congestion along the Beijing-Tibet highway that began escalating in mid-August — fueled by road construction on the nearby Beijing-Xinjiang highway and the opening up of coal mines in the northwest.

Last month, some trucks were stuck for up to five days on the Beijing-Tibet road with drivers on the worst-hit stretches passing the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized vehicles, playing cards, and sleeping on the asphalt.

China is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, surpassing Japan in size last month, and it relies on coal to meet two-thirds of its energy needs.

Associated Press

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The art of demystifying wine

5412 — Friday September 3, 2010, 12:16:02pm +08:00

In my previous blog, I touched on the successes and the challenges that [yellow tail] faces in Asia as these countries emerge as wine drinking nations. Now, I’d like to expand further on the brand strategy and reasons for the success of [yellow tail] in Asia.

The overall idea behind [yellow tail]’s brand positioning is to address the stresses people often feel when buying, drinking and sharing wine. It encourages people to forget the hard and fast rules, and to be more relaxed about enjoying wine simply for how it tastes. This is particularly relevant in many Asian markets where the consumer can be overwhelmed by both the complicated variety of wine choices available to them from all different regions from around the world.

The concept underlines the [yellow tail] philosophy of making wine according to what people like to drink. This idea encourages consumers to enjoy what they like, when they like it and with whatever they like. Fancy a Shiraz with a spicy noodle dish or a Chardonnay with some Peking Duck? Why not?

The decision to market the brand in this thought-provoking and light-hearted manner follows market research commissioned by Casella Wines. Our research found that many people still feel intimidated by the subject of wine. Consumers revealed feelings of intimidation by the social conventions surrounding wine and in particular the perceived language of wine and the snobbery associated with choosing the right drop. Although a global study, this concept holds remarkably true for Asia and it is the breaking of these conventions that has allowed consumers to experiment and feel comfortable enjoying [yellow tail]. This strategy removes the common entry barriers to wine products and encourages consumers to choose our products in a crowded marketplace.

[yellow tail] has redefined the experience of buying, drinking and sharing wine. It makes the enjoyment of great wine accessible by producing a range of wines designed to be great tasting, fresh and approachable and most importantly, free from stuffy wine rules. The nature of [yellow tail]’s flavour profiles make them the perfect accompaniment to a very diverse range of cuisines.

[yellow tail] encourages you to play by your rules and to enjoy wine in only one way - the way you like. If you want to drink the whole glass at once “Gan bei” style, then go right ahead. So until next time – Gan Bei!

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Happs winemaker Mark Warren heads to Japan

5639 — Friday September 3, 2010, 12:00:43pm +08:00

Happs & Three Hills winemaker Mark Warren visited Japan to promote Happs and Three Hills. Here’s what he had to say about it…

My wife, Danielle and I went to Japan over the week August 5th – 13th to do some promotional work with our Japanese wine importer Vinos Yamazaki . The week was well organized with a hectic schedule of promotional activities. But perhaps more important than the promotional activities was the opportunity to make a personal connection with the staff and management of Vinos Yamazaki and see firsthand where we might be able to improve what we do to support their marketing and sales efforts. My overwhelming impression of Vinos Yamazaki is they are a very well run professional business. There is not one aspect that I thought could be improved or I would change. In fact I would go as far as to say they are everything I wish the liquor trade was in Australia. The Australian off premise trade could learn a lot from this organization. They work tirelessly to promote wine to consumers that are relatively uneducated about wine and they do it very well.

The staff and management are amazing. The principal Yuko and her sister Atko obviously have a very good relationship with all the staff. Yuko has also written and published a book on new world wine for Japanese consumers. All of their staff are sent to English speaking classes and a sommeliers school. The sommeliers school is run by Mr Satou who is a well-known Japanese wine journalist and he has high expectations of those completing his course. The staff are all very enthusiastic and keen to absorb and impart knowledge about wine. They have a high number of staff per store, therefore customer service is excellent. The staff appear especially interested in Australian wine and ask a lot of questions. Several have been on student exchange in Australia so it’s a country they are fond of.

Vinos Yamazaki currently has 10 stores with more coming. Given that several stores have only opened in the last few years, and the older stores have all been beautifully retrofitted, it appears Vinos Yamazaki are an expanding enterprise. Their history is in sake' but it takes up a very small amount of space in the stores as it is a very competitive market and margins are low, which allows them to be much more focused on wine. In addition to the 10 stores they have a wine club with 5000 members and they wholesale to 500 restaurants. Collectively they have the capacity to sell a lot of wine. As an example the biggest selling wine they stock is a Cava which turns over 10 000 cases per year.

They are very consumer focused (something they learnt from selling sake’) and if their consumers like a wine then they stock it. Typically new wines will be trialed through their wine club, and the feedback from members determines whether it becomes a permanent stock line in stores. They plan to trial Happs White Fuchsia in this way.

They always have two wines open in the stores for customers to try. The staff are proactive at getting customers to try the wines they have open, and they enthusiastically describe the wine and convey its story.

The stores are typically small, therefore they can only carry a limited number of stock lines. Their literature states 500 different wines and this is not much when they are looking at wines from every wine producing country and wine region in the world. Of these 500 we have seven lines in store (5 Happs and 2 Three Hills). They also only represent five Australian wineries with three being from Western Australia. The wines were all very prominently displayed, at least for our visit anyway. Although there are some cheaper Vin de Pays our price point for Happs is quite competitive compared to others in the store. Thus we are in an excellent position to satisfy whatever demand there is for Australian wine.

It appears that wine is very much a special occasion drink in Japan and most of the consumers we met had not drunk Australian wine. Approximately 1/3 of the market is sake, 1/3 is beer and 1/3 is spirits. So wine really is a very small part of the market. Having said that Japan is becoming a very westernized culture and its plain to see the wine market expanding. The Vinos Yamazaki stores do not sell beer (beer is sold in convenience stores) nor do they sell spirits. They focus on wine and high end sake’.

The Japanese consumers seem very serious about wine and Vinos Yamazaki work tirelessly to educate. Apart from the in store tastings they hold seminars to educate interested consumers. Their stores are generally too small to accommodate this so it is usually done off site. Depending on the store and the customers, this can be done quite differently. In Shizuoka this was very formal, quite technical and very much like a university lecture. In Numazu this was done as a wine and food matching at a restaurant and in Yaraku-cho it was more of a sit down formal tasting.

They also conducted two embassy functions while we were in Japan. The Australian embassy is very supportive and this is not something they are able to do with producers from other countries. Store customers and wine club members were invited and the first event sold out in four days. It was a very formal function and we had the pleasure of entering down a flight of stairs waving Australian flags. Japanese media and the ambassador were in attendance. The events appeared to go well. Lee, our distribution representative reported back that the Embassy functions were very successful and they got lots of orders the following day.

We also did lots of in-store tasting presentations. We did one or two at each of the Vinos Yamazaki stores and they made me wear an Akubra. The Happs and Three Hills wines appeared to be very well received at all functions. Both staff and customers were very complimentary about the wines. The Japanese are extremely polite so I wouldn’t imagine they would give you anything but positive feedback. The Three Hills Shiraz was the stand out with Mr Satou (wine journalist) regularly in attendance to give it his endorsement. The normal price of the Three Hills Shiraz is 6000 Yen (approximately $70). Like in Australia, this is an expensive wine, however at least the staff are enthusiastic about the wine and prepared to hand sell. Everyone loved the wine but of course not everyone was prepared to part with 6000 Yen. The other interesting wine was Fuchsia – as it does here, it polarizes people with respect to the level of sweetness. However the feedback from Vinos Yamazaki is that it is a great product for consumers new to wine and we certainly encountered many of them.

Packaging and presentation in Japan is VERY important. You can see this across many Japanese retail industries. As such they really like wine bottles signed by the winemaker. Every customer who purchased Happs or Three Hills whilst we were there I wrote a message on the bottle and signed. Every other bottle in store I wrote ‘Enjoy’ and signed my name. Next time I’ll learn to write enjoy in Japanese. Customers seem to really like the personalized touch of bottles being signed. Interestingly there are very few signed bottles in store perhaps indicating these wines do indeed get sold.

Vinos Yamazaki have lots of photos around the stores with Yuko and her staff meeting the producers at the wineries and vineyards. It illustrates how they have searched the world for the brands they import. They also have a Perspex holder in front of every wine, which contains an information card. The card has a photo of the producer and a flag from the country of origin and information about the wine and producer translated into Japanese. It was very common to see customers take this card when purchasing wine.

Interestingly there are no gold medals displayed on bottles in store BUT third party endorsements are critical! There presentations about Happs and Three Hills always involved the Robert Parker review of the 1999 Three Hills Shiraz. It also involved the review by Mr Satou of the 2004 Three Hills Shiraz and that Nicole Kidman once came to the winery (which was to my surprise!) Whilst no medals are on the bottles, wine show results are very important to the story the staff tell. Of particular significance is success in Asian based wine shows. An example is one of the wines they import from NSW won the trophy for Best Australian Wine at the Japanese Wine Challenge. This wine was the best of 350 Australian wines entered, which hardly rates it as the ‘Best Australian Wine’. However it is a big selling point!

The importance of show success was also highlighted when we did a joint presentation with Western Range and Woodside. Our wines presented very well, I spoke at length and Mr Satou gave the wine a glowing endorsement. Yet the one Woodside wine presented on the night easily outsold the Three Hills wine even though they were similarly priced. I believe this was because the wine had won a trophy at an international wine show and this was a big part of their presentation. I think it’s time that Happs looks at entering these international wine shows, particularly the Asian based shows.

Additionally the Japanese are very aware of reviews by Australian wine journalists. I was asked if I personally knew James Halliday, Huon Hooke and company, and was even asked if I knew Ray Jordan! All that to day, I think it is fair to say they are very aware and actually seek out third party endorsements to support their sales and marketing efforts. It was also interesting that the Japanese cuisine and summer time climate very much suit crisp dry white wines but sake’ is culturally engrained for drinking in this environment. Thus crisp dry whites must compete directly with sake’ where as red wine is finding its own niche. The combination of red wine having a unique niche and the perceived health benefits of red wine means Japan, like the rest of Asia, favors red wine.

In all I think Vinos Yamazaki is a very professional, interesting and diverse business that is expanding exponentially. We are very lucky to have the relationship we have with them and I hope we can maintain and strengthen it over time.

Mark Warren

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China introduces ID check for mobile phone owners

4785 — Friday September 3, 2010, 12:00:00pm +08:00

I've recently blogged about Singapore, Vietnam and China and their attempts to limit the usage of the internet in young people, and this week China has stepped its efforts up a notch by introducing regulations which require the submission of ID in order to purchase an internet account or mobile phone SIM.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The measure went into effect Wednesday, with customer-service representatives at mobile operators China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. telling customers that new users would need to provide proof of their identity when signing up for new phone numbers. State media said all existing users will eventually need to register as well.

Being China, the move throws up considerable personal freedom and privacy issues as the article discusses:

The government says that anonymity enables rampant spam and telecom fraud, which are indeed pervasive problems in China. But the anonymity has also enabled people to share politically sensitive information—from text-message jokes poking fun at top leaders to photographs of public demonstrations—freedoms not available Chinese enjoyed before cellphones the advent of cellphones' arrival.

China now has more than 814 million mobile subscriber accounts—far more than any other country—and adds an average of more than five million a month. For many Chinese users, cellphones are a key means of expression, communication and getting news.

Given China's record of hacking into the emails accounts of anti-government movements the cause for concern is a very valid one. With Twitter and Facebook amongst the many sites banned in the country, mobile users (12 percent of whom are reported to access the web via their handset) face the potential of further clamp downs and a significant loss in privacy.

Only time will tell how the move affects the country beyond the initial promise of reduced fraud.

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Korean arms sale caught up in US domestic politics

70 — Friday September 3, 2010, 11:26:43am +08:00

It seemed like a perfect match. The Korean army would make a few bucks to help cover some of the costs of modernizing its military by selling 850,000 Korean War era rifles in the USA while American hunters and collectors would have access to a trove of vintage weapons. It was a win-win situation that the Obama administration approved last year.

... at least until it disapproved of the sale this May.

The Korean government can not resell the American-made weapons to a third country without Washington's approval. Yonhap reports that the American government may destroy the weapons, presumably after paying the Koreans for them. It does not indicate if the funds for such a purchase would come from the budget of the Pentagon or the State Department.

Here is a bit of cuteness which seems to indicate that there is either nobody in the Obama administration who can officially speak with reporters who knows enough about the issue to talk competently about it, or that the issue has caught them flat-footed:

Asked why the M1s pose a threat, the State Department spokesman referred questions to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF representatives said they would look into the question Monday afternoon, but on Wednesday they referred questions to the Justice Department. DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd referred questions back to the State Department.

My best guess is that a political appointee somewhere in the administration put a monkey wrench in the sale based on his or her personal views on the right to own firearms and nobody has figured out what they can give as the official reason for the reversal. Such things happen in governments all the time.

The cuteness continues:

The White House referred questions on the issue to the Pentagon, which referred questions to the U.S. Embassy in South Korea, which deferred back to the State Department.

It appears that it is not just American reporters who are getting the run-around from Washington. The Korean government is bewildered as well:

A Korean government official said, "It's difficult to understand why the U.S. opposes the deal now, when we already shipped tens of thousands of these firearms to the U.S. in the early 1990s. We are trying to grasp the real underlying cause of this reversal through diplomatic channels."

Good luck with that.

...

Face of the day

44 — Friday September 3, 2010, 10:47:40am +08:00

Comedian Seo Gyeong-seok announced that he is getting married. He was apparently obliged to do this.

...

A change

4785 — Friday September 3, 2010, 10:18:11am +08:00

Posting on this blog has been light of late for a fairly significant reason.

I've taken a new job as a Bangkok-based in-house social media consultant with travel technology firm Amadeus.

Although I am no longer writing for a living, it remains business as usual for this blog with no change in focus while posting frequency will return to its usual levels over the next week or so.

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Meet Cambodia's anonymous blog author 'Details are Sketchy'

75 — Friday September 3, 2010, 09:45:33am +08:00

"The good thing about a blog is that it can be anonymous and you still can be contacted," says Gary Kawaguchi, a digital media trainer at Royal University of Phnom Penh, Department of Media and Communications.

Here's an email interview with Details are Sketchy (DAS) the blogger, who started blogging anonymously in June 2006. The prominent blogger prolifically weighs in on issues ranging from arts to politics to the World Bank's controversial issues.

Tharum Bun: How long have you been in Cambodia?

DAS: More than 10 years. I arrived in early 1998.

Q: Why did you start blogging?

DAS: When I started writing, there wasn't much thought-provoking blogging about Cambodia. I wanted to try and provoke some informed debate. And also, I wanted to learn more about this 'blog' thingy that all the cool kids were talking about.

Q: Why do you choose to blog about Cambodia?

DAS: Cambodia is where I live. And, again, I wanted to try and raise the quality of the online conversation.

Q: In your blog, you seem to prefer talking about the opinions of local bloggers more than expats or tourists. Why is this?

DAS: My guide has always been to write about things that exists online -- basically, i just riff off other people's idea. The Cambodia Daily was the lone exception. For a while I would read the Cambodia Daily for material, and comment about the news in that paper. But then my schedule changed, and I wouldn't get the paper until after lunch, so I had to look elsewhere. All along, I wanted to try and create a place for debate and informed comment on Cambodia. So in commenting on posts by other bloggers, I was hoping to lure them into the conversation. I wanted to pump the Cambodian bloggers, and hopefully help contribute to the growth of Cambodian blogs in general. I commented on and linked to bloggers like ThaRum, Lux Mean, Kalyan (Keo), Dee Dee (the other Kalyann), Mongkol, Vireak, Kounila Keo (KK) and others in the hopes that people reading me would read them too, and that maybe those readers of other blogs might come and read me. I am not too sure how well that worked out, though. Few Cambodians ever commented regularly on my site. In the end, I think I probably made them more nervous then curious.

Q: What do you think about blogging scene here in this country?

DAS: The blogging scene here is still small, but like the country itself, it's extremely vibrant. I think it was a Global Voices post that said Cambodia had a comparable number of English-language bloggers as did its neighbors Thailand and Vietnam, even though those countries have populations much, much larger. That's amazing. And I think it speaks to the determination of the younger generation.

Q: How is it like being an anonymous blogger?

DAS: Well, it means I don't have to worry about someone hitting me on the head with a coconut. But also, I think -- or at least I hope -- the ideas that were put forth on the blog were evaluated on their merits, good or bad. It was not possible to attack the author.

Q: Some of your blog readers say that your blog lacks accuracy, and it’s largely guesswork and gossip. How do you respond to this?

DAS: Please respond in comments. They are open to everyone, and they do not require any identifying information. I am certainly not perfect. I do get things wrong. When I know about it, I always make corrections. At the same time, it's a blog. Not a newspaper. Most of the material there is opinion. Feel free disagree. That is the whole idea.

Q: The Cambodia Daily publisher intends to file a lawsuit against you. What do you think?

DAS: Really? ROFLMAO [Rolling on Floor Laughing My Ass Off].

Q: A little about about yourself. Are you a man or a woman? Which country are you from?

DAS: The United States.

...

Bye pirates, hello Northeast Passage

47 — Friday September 3, 2010, 08:46:26am +08:00

Climate change may have delivered a solution to the risk faced by ships and crew passing through the waters of Gulf of Aden. A cargo ship bearing Hong Kong flag carrying 41,000 tons of iron ore will become part of maritime history as it sails from Norway to China through Russia's arctic passage instead of the pirate-infested Somalian waters.

Although Nordic Barents is not the first ship to pass through the Arctic wasteland, it becomes the first foreign-registered vessel allowed by Russia to make a voyage between two non-Russian ports. The ship's owner aims to prove that the route would become a viable alternative to the longer southern route from Europe to Asia. Nordic Barents is scheduled to leave the small Norwegian port of Kirkenes and head towards the Chinese port of Dalian. If the trip proves successful, the route enters one more step in competing against the Suez Canal sea route.

The first ship to do so was Russian-owned Baltica, which transported 70,000 tons of gas condensate from Murmansk, Russia to Ningbo, China only last week. The successful voyage marks a successful commercial conquest over the famed Northeast Passage. At the most dangerous stretch of the journey – the Vilkitsky Strait – sailors onboard the Baltica threw flowers into the water in memory of all the men who have died in pursuit of a quicker trade route in the past. For centuries, explorers and cargo shop owners have been looking for that elusive northern route between Europe and Asia.

In 1553, Sir Hugh Willoughby was commissioned by the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands to explore the trade path. However, his expedition hit a major snag as his ship got stuck in ice resulting in the crew freezing to death. Dutch adventurer William Barents also suffered a similar fate in 1597. He, at least, had the Barents Sea named in his honor.

With receding ice levels and a warmer climate, present-day navigators could achieve what historic explorers couldn't. Shorter trips -- Baltica's voyage of 13,000 kilometers is certainly much shorter than the 22,000-kilometer journey through the Suez Canal -- which also means fuel savings and a reduced carbon footprint.

But not not every ship can pass through this frigid zone. Bulk carriers need to be ice-strengthened, and apply necessary precaution to protect sensitive equipment on board. Russian ice-breakers need to escort them in case of breakdown or the crew falling sick amid extreme weather conditions. Also, this path is only available for a few weeks a year at the moment. As climate change further alters the ecological landscape, the Northeast Passage may be available for longer stretches of time. Until that happens, Russia needs a bit more convincing by ship owners that crossing its northern territories not only saves fuel and cuts travel time. Ship owners need to be assured that goods transported using this alternate route can safely arrive at its destination.

Should the Northeast Passage become a viable alternative to the Suez and Cape of Good Hope, pirates terrorizing Gulf of Aden can expect fewer potential victims.

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Boireann: Granite Belt star, exquisite quality

45 — Friday September 3, 2010, 08:32:24am +08:00

There is always a lot of fun associated with a Boireann tasting: you know there is a gem of a wine to be discovered every year, and maybe not the same lineage as the previous year.

To new readers Boireann is the meticulous handicraft of Peter and Therese Stark who make their wine totally on their special site, a vineyard 5km off the main highway Brisbane-Wallangarra at the Summit if travelling south to NSW. Their vineyard is almost four times the elevation of the Lower Hunter Valley.

That means rows of grapes each side of the small road into the property, a small tasting area to visit and buy and adjoining is controlled storage where all the bottles are hand laid out in bays before packing up for visiting buyers.

Behind the cellars is Peter's vintage area and a temperature-controlled barrel shed. It's all very simple because what you see is what you get: all grown under your eyes, spending time in barrel from April until February, then bottled under screw cap before the next vintage and rested until sale in the third quarter of the year. That means 2009 reds are now on offer.

Each side of the road way are multiple varieties: cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, shiraz, barbera, nebbiolo, tannat, pinot noir, mourvedre, petit verdot, there was grenache but Peter chopped it off to replace with a brunello clone of sangiovese. And two rows of viognier to co-ferment with shiraz.

There is a first impression which will stay with you forever after tasting a Boireann. The wines are muscular, so Peter has that knack of extracting the last vestige of flavour and varietal intensity in each wine. The wines will be deeper flavoured and fruit concentrated, and therefore with greater backbone than their equivalents elsewhere around the area.

That really means you buy wine in its infancy, and really need to age some to watch the flowering process. Restaurant Two in Brisbane lists the 2002 Boireann Cabernet Sauvignon - that's from a marvellous and unforgettable Granite Belt vintage, still fresh and vibrant without any sign of softening tannins - it's still tense.

So Boireann has its own sense of place - The Summit, and a special vineyard which gives it the terroir that many in the know now respect. Wines simply sell out by late in the year, then no more for another year.

Pinot Noir 2009; 90, USD 26,14%, this has amazing colour, obviously the vineyard site is conducive to vine balance so that grape ripeness is rewarding; intensly pinot in the spice direction, palate is muscular, crunchy yet fruit flavourful, power in the mouth and needing some time to settle, when it does, what a reward, will never be a simply cherry juice style like the Yarra; made to stay, stern on alcohol.

Cabernet Sauvignon 2009; 94, USD 22.75, 14.5%, has good not exceptional colour, the impressive aspect is the ripeness, it is all there in the spice/cherry spectrum, and without leafiness in a testing growing year. Well done. The palate is a trifle herbal, not green with great tannin firmness that I expect of Boireann; without it there is little structure and less ageworthiness.

The Lurnea 2009; 95; USD 25.50, 13.5%, 30% cabernet, 30% merlot, 20% franc, 20% petit verdot; good/great colour, such an exciting nose from the franc perfume and verdot aromatics, this must taste good, mocha oak sweetness, medium bodied, nicely textured and rounded together as a flavour experience. Similar tannin weight to the cabernet but more complex and structured, backbone and a trifle more acid to settle in.

Merlot Petit Verdot 2009; 90, USD 20 , 13.2%, 70% merlot, 30% petit verdot; when merlot does not wish to stand alone, why do so, and in a testy ripening year like 2009 when grapes can stay leafy-flavoured, this wine leaps out from the verdot portion which is not insignificant.

Estate Shiraz 2009; 94, USD 41, 13.2%, what magnificant colour, deep wine, serious, nose of spice and cedar which is hard to lose, entry is sweet and soft, spice city, rich soft, and elegant as silk. The resounding acidity points to long aging. No viognier this year as the frost go it.

Mourvedre Shiraz 2009; 92, USD 27,13.5%, 50% mourvedre, 40% shiraz, 10% tannat; great colour, stains my glass, emphatic nose of black fruits, mourvedre on the prowl and consuming the flavours of the other two varieties; monster and so is the tannin from both the mourvedre and tannat; length and crunch, keep 10-20 years.

Therese Stark has cleverly corraled the Italian varietals into the La Cima (chima phonetically), meaning "pinnacle".

La Cima Barbera 2009; 90, USD 25.50, 14%; has great colour, liberal oak and more cedary than the Piedmontese, blackberry pip fruit flavours, nice violets and typical acid cut to soften the final flavours.

La Cima Nebbiolo 2008; 92, USD 27, 13.5%; in true nebbiolo style the colour is washed, some orange with the pinks, nose still rosey and fragrant, shows some sweet complexity, this wine aged an extra year over the other releases to gain nose power and tame the tannins more, it still has plenty but a very fine example of this variety meant to tease the palate of all comers.

This year for the first time, all wines were sealed under screw cap for better buyer guarantees. Of course the down side of a screw cap focussed country is that glass bottles that hold a cork finish become rare (imported) and therefore expensive. In today's carbon credit environment locally-made glass is a good result and less miles.

Peter Stark expresses his thoughts on the 2009 season: "2009 season started with spring frosts which took most of the viognier, tannat, barbera and nebbiolo. The growing season was cool, but pretty good weather. Vintage was cool, cloudy and a few showers. Bird damage was pretty extensive. Wines are medium-bodied with a good intensity. 7/10"

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India's thirst for energy

1588 — Friday September 3, 2010, 07:29:30am +08:00

Coal surge is unabated, raising environmental concerns, writes Asia Sentinel's Siddharth Srivastava

India's quest for overseas coal continues, driven by the country's burgeoning economy and energy needs. South Africa shipped an estimated 35 percent of its thermal coal exports – 2.1 million metric tons – to India in July, almost twice June's 1.2 million tons.

India has averaged buying 34 percent of South African exports throughout 2010, making up for weak European buying in the wake of the continuing economic downturn. Earlier this year, Raymond Chirwa, CEO of Richards Bay Coal Terminal, said there has been a marked shift in coal buying by Indian power firms.

As an indication of India's thirst for coal, "Of the total exports (of 60 million tons from South Africa) in 2009, 41 percent was shipped to the Asian markets, and out of this 29 percent was for the Indian market," Chiwa said. "18 percent was exported to the Asian market during 2008, of which India accounted for 11 percent."

India's growth, beginning in the 1990s when the economy came unshackled from the license raj, has averaged 7 percent per year, slowing only slightly to 6.5 percent in 2008 in the coils of the global economic downturn. Industry now makes up 28.2 percent of gross domestic product, making it the second-biggest component of GDP and increasing the demand for fossil fuels.

Although India has the world's fourth-largest thermal coal reserves, they are being depleted at a rapid pace at the same time the industry has been hobbled by bureaucracy that has stalled the award of contracts to the mining industry. This month, India's Parliament finally amended the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act of 1957, which should speed the auction of coal blocks. The competitive bidding system would substitute the existing process of allocating coal blocks via an inter-ministerial screening committee and bring more transparency and investment.

It is sorely needed despite substantial environmental concerns. While coal consumption has soared in the construction sector – particularly steel and cement production – it is power that takes most of it. Some 70 percent of the country's electricity is being generated by coal despite new and intensive moves into renewable energy sources, which are too little and too late.

READ MORE HERE

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China census highlights growing rights awareness

32 — Friday September 3, 2010, 07:25:17am +08:00

Census takers counting China's more than 1.3 billion people already face a daunting task, and it's getting harder for the latest once-a-decade update.

After years of reforms that have reduced the government's once-pervasive involvement in most people's lives, some Chinese are proving reluctant to give up personal information and harboring suspicions about what the government plans to do with their details.

"Along with China's development, the people's awareness of legal, personal and privacy rights has been increasing," said Ji Lin, executive vice mayor of Beijing whose office is overseeing the census in the capital.

"When we were little, it wasn't this way. If the police wanted to check hukous (Chinese household registration documents), they would just walk in with barely a knock. You can't do that anymore," he said.

Accounting for a population more than four times the size of the United States is set to take place from Nov. 1 to 10. Currently, census volunteers are going door-to-door across China, taking an initial poll of how many people live in each home and recording cell phone numbers so workers can get in touch when the census officially begins.

Taking an accurate census in China is a difficult task with the millions of migrant workers who've left their official addresses in the countryside for better opportunities in the cities.

Another complicating issue are children born in violation of the country's one-child policy, many of whom are unregistered and therefore have no legal identity. They could number in the millions. The government has said it would lower or waive the hefty penalty fees required for those children to obtain identity cards, though so far it appears there hasn't been much response to the limited amnesty.

In cities like Beijing, though, workers have encountered residents reluctant to allow the volunteers into their homes or answer their questions. Recent state media reports have stressed that the census workers must maintain confidentiality, though suspicions remain.

"Some people resist it because they may worry about how the information might be used by the government to investigate their wealth, for example, how many properties they have or perhaps they don't want their 'gray income' to become public. These people are often rich or corrupt," said Liu Shanying, associate researcher with the Institute of Political Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Those concerns may be well-founded. The State Statistics Bureau will use the census to examine the real estate market in parts of several cities to determine how many homes were purchased by speculators and are sitting empty, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

Also raising privacy concerns in China was a requirement that started Wednesday for people who buy new cell phone numbers to register their personal details. Authorities say they have their sights on rampant junk messages — but some believe the government will use the new tool for monitoring its citizens.

Some ordinary Chinese cited other reasons for objections to the pre-census poll.

Guo Ying, a 31-year-old office worker in Beijing, said he would participate but questioned whether there was any point to it. He wondered whether the results would be accurate — a common concern among Chinese that official figures are often fudged to create a false sense of optimism.

"The final result might not be true and therefore it would be meaningless. Some figures are said to be found through investigation, but is that true? A lot of people have their doubts. Figures like the CPI (consumer price index), the GDP, do they reflect the real situation? Many people are skeptical," said Guo, taking a break outside the high-rise office complex where he works in IT.

The reluctance to cooperate is even as basic as not wanting to open doors to a stranger. For decades, life in China under the Communist Party centered around tight-knit government work units that were responsible for everything from housing assignments to granting permission for marriage.

Since the country embraced capitalist reforms in 1970, life here has become increasingly urbanized and Chinese are much like their counterparts in other industrialized countries: they commute, work in offices and live in anonymous apartment blocks.

"I live by myself, no way would I open the door to a stranger. Maybe I'd open the door if it were a woman, but if it were a man, definitely not. Safety first, right?" said 25-year-old real estate agent Yin Honglei.

At least one dissident was taken away by police who came knocking on the pretext that they were there to conduct a pre-census check.

Xie Zhaoping, who recently published a book criticizing a forced relocation project in Shaanxi province, was knocked to the ground, handcuffed and taken away by seven plainclothes police, wife Li Qiong told The Associated Press. They had pounded on the door and said they were there to check hukou information.

Li said some of the officers were from Shaanxi's Weinan city, where a man in the police's legal department said he did not know details about the incident. Other officers were from Beijing's Chaoyang district, where phones in the police department rang unanswered. The Beijing city police did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

China Population Census official Gu Yili brushed aside questions about concerns over improper use of census information or other potential violations of personal rights. Nearly everyone is supportive of the census because they know it's necessary for setting government policy in the years to come, she said.

"The government needs an accurate figure to make appropriate policy and people need to cooperate. It's in the best interest of ordinary people," she said, working one recent morning in a Beijing neighborhood of traditional courtyard homes, making sure volunteers were giving out copies of confidentiality agreements and putting blue nylon covers over their shoes before entering homes.

"The census is for the public," she said.

Associated Press

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