Australia Great Barrier Reef dredge dumping plan approved

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The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral structure and home to rich marine life

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Australian authorities have approved a project to dump dredged sediment in the Great Barrier Reef marine park as part of a project to create one of the world's biggest coal ports.

The decision was made by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Scientists had urged it not to back the project, saying the sediment could smother or poison coral.

Several companies want to use the Abbot Point port to export coal reserves from the Galilee Basin area.

Abbot Point lies south of Townsville on the Queensland coast.

Late last year, the government approved an application for the coal terminal to be expanded. The dredging is needed to allow ships into the port.

'Strict controls'

The approved disposal site for the dredged sediment is located approximately 25km (16 miles) east-north-east of the port, GBRMPA said in a statement.

"It's important to note the seafloor of the approved disposal area consists of sand, silt and clay and does not contain coral reefs or seagrass beds," it said.

The disposal operation would be "subject to strict environmental conditions", it added.

Authority Chairman Dr Russell Reichelt said the decision reflected "the agency's view that port development along the Great Barrier Reef coastline should be limited to existing ports".

"As a deepwater port that has been in operation for nearly 30 years, Abbot Point is better placed than other ports along the Great Barrier Reef coastline to undertake expansion as the capital and maintenance dredging required will be significantly less than what would be required in other areas."

Earlier this month, 233 scientists signed a letter to GBRMPA urging it to reject the plan, and environmental groups condemned the decision.

"This go-ahead for dumping is one more body blow for the reef, which further threatens marine life, its World Heritage status and Australia's tourism and fishing industries," Greenpeace Reef Campaigner Louise Matthiesson said in a statement.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral structure, rich in marine life. It stretches for more than 2,600km (1,680 miles) along Australia's eastern coast.

Last year UNESCO warned that it could be placed on the World Heritage list of sites in danger, unless action was taken to improve water quality.

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India’s prime minister to step down after elections

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© AFP

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2014-01-03

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said he would step down after this year’s elections, throwing his support behind Rahul Gandhi as the country’s next leader if the ruling party stays in power.

In only his third news conference in a decade, Singh said that Gandhi – the 43-year-old heir to India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty – has the best credentials to become the next head of Congress and prime minister.

Singh, 81, has presided over India for a decade at the head of coalition governments led by the Congress party and was widely expected to step down.

Gandhi will have his work cut out if he’s chosen to lead the Congress party into the election with corruption scandals, stubborn inflation and decade-low growth eroding support, opinion polls show.

“In a few months’ time, after the general election, I will hand the baton over to a new prime minister,” Singh said at a rare news conference, adding that a “new generation” would guide the world’s biggest democracy.

“Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be nominated as the candidate and I hope our party will take that decision at an appropriate time,” he said.

The Congress is due to hold a top-level meeting on January 17 and is expected to announce its candidate soon afterwards. The election is due by May.

Up against Hindu nationalist

Whoever gets the nod will face off in the election against Narendra Modi, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who is ahead in the opinion polls.

Modi is campaigning on a platform to revive an economy growing at its slowest in a decade and end the red tape and corruption that have bedevilled the Congress-led coalition.

The Congress fared badly in elections in four large states towards the end of last year, largely due to voters’ anger over corruption.

Compared with the relatively untested Gandhi, Modi has years of experience as the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat where he has built a reputation as a business-savvy and investor-friendly administrator.

But he has been unable to fully shake off allegations over anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which at least 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

Modi denies wrongdoing and a Supreme Court investigation found no evidence to prosecute him.

Singh was scathing about Modi, saying he would be bad for India.

“I sincerely believe that it would be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as the prime minister,” said the softly-spoken Singh.

Farewell news conference

Singh rejected a suggestion that he had been a weak prime minister and again referred to Modi.

“If by strong prime minister you mean that you preside over the mass massacre of innocent citizens in the streets ... I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs. Least of all in its prime minister,” Singh said.

In what was seen as his farewell news conference, the prime minister took a conciliatory tone on a dispute with the United States over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York.

Singh said the government was committed to good relations between the two countries.

“There have been recently some hiccups but I sincerely believe that these are temporary aberrations and diplomacy should be given a chance to resolve these issues that have arisen,” Singh said.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
 

Date created : 2014-01-03

Japanese PM visits controversial Yasukuni war shrine

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2013-12-26

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Thursday visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine to pay respect to the nation’s war dead in a move condemned by both China and South Korea, which accused him of glorifying the country’s militaristic past.

While Seoul blasted the visit as “anachronistic,” China summoned Tokyo’s ambassador and the United States declared itself disappointed, saying the act committed by its ally would worsen tensions with Japan’s neighbours.

The shrine is popularly believed to be the repository of around 2.5 million souls of Japan’s war dead, most of them common soldiers, but also including convicted class A war criminals.

The visit came exactly 12 months after Abe took power, a period in which he has formally met neither China’s President Xi Jinping nor Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye.

It was also the first visit by a sitting Japanese prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi went to mark the end of World War II in 2006.

Visits to the shrine by Japanese politicians have long been a point of friction with China and South Korea because of Japan’s brutal aggression during the war.

Tokyo’s relations with Beijing and Seoul are already strained by territorial rowsand disputes stemming from Japan’s wartime occupation of large parts of China and its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.

Abe insisted that his visit, which comes days after he caused consternation by giving Japan’s military its second consecutive annual budget bump, was a pledge against war and not aimed at hurting feelings in China or South Korea.

Abe said criticism that Yasukuni visits are an act of worshipping war criminals is based on a misunderstanding, and that he believes Japan must never wage war again.

“Unfortunately, a Yasukuni visit has largely turned into a political and diplomatic issue,” he said. “It is not my intention to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people.”

The foreign ministry in Tokyo said it wanted to stress Abe “visited Yasukuni Shrine in a purely personal capacity (and)... not... to pay homage to war criminals”.
But Beijing and Seoul, both victims of Japan’s 20th century aggression, said no such distinction exists.

“We can’t help deploring and expressing anger at the prime minister’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine... despite concerns and warnings by neighbouring countries,” Seoul’s Culture Minister Yoo Jin-Ryong told reporters.

“The visit... is anachronistic behaviour that fundamentally damages not only relations between the South and Japan but also stability and cooperation in Northeast Asia.”

China calls visit ‘unacceptable’

China was first to rebuke the visit, immediately summoning Japan’s ambassador to Beijing to deliver a “strong protest and severe reprimand”.

“The essence of Japanese leaders’ visits to the Yasukuni shrine is to beautify Japan’s history of militaristic aggression and colonial rule,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

Qin’s statement came after a Chinese foreign ministry official condemned Abe’s visit as “absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people”.

In a statement posted on a verified ministry microblog, Luo Zhaohui, the director-general of the ministry’s department of Asian affairs, said Japan “must bear the consequences arising from this”.

The US reacted by slapping its chief ally on the wrists.

“Japan is a valued ally and friend. Nevertheless, the United States is disappointed that

Japan’s leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan’s neighbours,” Washington said in a statement.
Although Abe did not visit the shrine during his first term as prime minister from 2006 to 2007, he later said he felt “extremely remorseful” for that.

Abe’s forthright views on history—he has previously questioned the definition of “invade” in relation to Japan’s military adventurism last century—have raised fears over the direction he wants to take the officially pacifist country.

He has spoken repeatedly of his desire to tweak the US-imposed constitution, which limits the functions of the military, and has been on a drive in recent weeks to broaden the definition of their role to allow for “collective self-defence”, which would allow Japanese troops to come to the aid of allies.

Takehiko Yamamoto, a professor of international relations at Tokyo’s Waseda University, said the visit was “an act of folly” that was certain to make a bad situation worse.

“It is perfectly possible his visit will fuel worries in Washington over a possible rise of militarism and a shift to the right in Japan,” he said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

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