Senator Obama's statement on the US Visit of President Arroyo
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama released the following statement on the visit of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the United States: "I welcome the visit this week of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her delegation to the United States. President Arroyo's visit is an opportunity to strengthen our historic alliance, and to discuss a host of issues of mutual interest. "I wish first to express my sympathies through President Arroyo to the victims and families of typhoon Fengshen, which has just hit the southern portion of the Philippines, leaving tremendous devastation in its wake. I urge the U.S. government to provide emergency support to alleviate the suffering caused by this catastrophic natural disaster. "The bond between the United States and the Philippines is strong and enduring. The Philippines has been an important ally of the United States through World War II, the Cold War, and now the fight against terrorism and extremism. The 1954 Manila Pact formed a cornerstone of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia during the Cold War, and the Philippines continues to be one of only two U.S. treaty allies in Southeast Asia today. After the events of September 11, 2001, the Philippines has worked closely with the United States to root out Al Qaeda and its affiliates in the region. "Annual joint military exercises, named "Balikatan," or "Shoulder-to-Shoulder," have been a model of cooperation, and form the core of U.S.-Philippine military-to-military activities to support the Philippines with its ongoing defense reform efforts. I support these continuing programs, including upgrading and enhancing the military's equipment and training. "The agenda for President Arroyo's visit is full. Together, we must address many challenges going forward, including the future of ASEAN, the continuing tragedy in Burma, implementation of recently-authorized Millennium Challenge Account assistance, and alleviation of the effects of the global food crisis on the Philippines. We should deal with these challenges with confidence in the foundation of our common interests and the shared values on which our relationship is based. "President Arroyo will also come to offer her appreciation for the United States Senate's passage of the Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007 in April. This legislation would offer Filipino veterans the benefits they rightfully deserve for their heroic service during World War II. Filipino and American troops fought bravely together under some of the most trying conditions suffered by any forces during that conflict. Filipinos displayed great courage alongside American soldiers at Bataan and Corregidor, only to be denied their just benefits by our government. I join President Arroyo in urging my colleagues in Congress to honor the heroic service of Filipino World War II veterans by finally turning this important legislation into law. "The most important part of our bilateral relationship is the deep and abiding people-to-people bond that our two nations share. I grew up in Hawaii, where Filipinos have had an enormous positive impact on the culture and the economy. Across the United States, generations of Filipino immigrants have enriched our society and contributed to building a more vibrant United States of America. The continuing bond they have with the land of their heritage resonates in the strong families and communities they have woven into the fabric of American society. As dedicated citizens, Filipino Americans--4 million strong-- embody our nation's highest ideals. "The Philippines has a proud legacy as Asia's first democracy, a legacy that should be honored and cherished but never taken for granted by the American people. I have great hope for the Philippines and admiration for its people. I extend a warm welcome to President Arroyo on her visit to the United States, and I look forward to working with her and her country in years to come as the Philippine people work together with us toward a better and more secure future for our two nations, for Asia, and for the world." (pasted from: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=123219
4 DAYS AFTER CYCLONE
22,000 dead in Burma & 41,000 still missing; death toll expected to rise
YANGON – More than 22,000 people were killed in Myanmar's devastating cyclone and 41,000 are still missing four days after the storm slammed into the country's southern coast, the government said Tuesday.
Aid workers were racing to deliver food and water to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta region, which was submerged by floodwaters, leaving scenes of utter devastation with homeless survivors running low on food and water.
Witnesses described horrific images of rice fields littered with corpses, and there were fears the death toll could rise much further.
Save the Children, one of the few relief agencies allowed to operate in the secretive and impoverished country, said it expected the toll to climb as high as 50,000.
"If at this stage, only four days in, the government are telling us the numbers are already reaching over 20,000 and there are 40,000 people missing, I think it could well go higher," spokesman Dan Collinson told AFP.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it went as high as 50,000," he said.
US President George W. Bush urged Myanmar's military rulers to allow in international help, saying he was prepared to send navy ships to help the recovery.
"We want to do a lot more," he said. "Our message is to the military rulers: let the United States come to help you, help the people."
The White House later announced it was offering an additional $3 million in aid, building on its initial offer of $250,000.
A Pentagon spokesman said the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship with 1,800 marines aboard, and three other naval vessels were off the coast of Thailand and could be redirected to Myanmar if asked to do so.
But the junta insisted foreign aid experts would have to negotiate before being allowed to operate here, and many agencies said they were still waiting for visas to allow their staff into the country.
The government also said it would proceed this weekend with a constitutional referendum as part of its slow-moving "road map" to democracy, except in the areas hardest hit by the disaster.
Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition, the National League for Democracy (NLD), reacted angrily, saying it was "extremely unacceptable" for them to go ahead with the referendum and urging the ruling junta to provide meaningful assistance to those in need.
"We haven't seen effective assistance to storm victims, even though the authorities have declared (regions) as disaster zones," the NLD said.
The European Union's special envoy to Myanmar, Piero Fassino, also urged a postponement of the referendum.
In the government's first news conference since tropical cyclone Nargis barreled into the Irrawaddy region Saturday with winds at 190 km an hour, it said that most of the delta town of Bogalay, 90 km southwest of Rangoon (Yangon), had been washed away.
"Ninety-five percent of the houses in Bogalay were destroyed," Social Welfare Minister Maung Maung Swe told reporters. "Many people were killed in a 12-foot (3.5-meter) tidal wave."
State television said 21,793 people were killed and 40,695 were missing in Irrawaddy division, while 671 were killed and 359 people were missing in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.
Satellite images from US space agency NASA showed virtually the entire coastal plain of the country, once known as Burma and now one of the world's poorest nations, under water.
Christian relief organization World Vision, also allowed to work inside Myanmar, said its teams had flown over the most affected regions and witnessed horrific scenes on the ground.
"They saw the dead bodies from the helicopters, so it's quite overwhelming," Kyi Minn, an adviser to World Vision's office in Yangon.
"The impact of the disaster could be worse than the (2004 Asian) tsunami because it is compounded by the limited availability of resources on top of the transport constraints," he said.
Video footage of the disaster zone showed flattened villages, smashed bridges, and survivors forced to live out in the open and trying to dry their sodden clothes and blankets.
Aid groups were rushing to bring food, water, clothing and shelter into the country, whose military rulers have long turned their back on the outside world and ignored calls to move towards democracy.
In Geneva, the United Nations said it had a disaster-assessment team in neighboring Thailand still awaiting entry visas -- while the government underlined that foreign relief experts would not be allowed in automatically.
"For expert teams from overseas to come here, they have to negotiate with the foreign ministry and our senior authorities," Maung Maung Swe said.
Relief officials said fears were mounting over the spread of disease, and that they faced major logistical problems in getting aid to badly hit regions that are both remote and densely populated.
"Getting it out to the affected populations will be a major challenge, given that there is widespread flooding," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bangkok.
"The urgent need is for shelter and for water. Without clean drinking water, the risk of disease spreading is the most serious concern."
The UN's World Food Program said it had begun distributing 800 tons of food to hardest-hit areas, but that many coastal regions remained cut off due to flooding and road damage.
Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, the regime's information minister, said the country was "greatly thankful" for the offers of help that have been pouring in.
But Myanmar faced criticism over its apparent lack of preparation for the disaster, with US First Lady Laura Bush saying the government had not done enough to warn citizens the storm was approaching.
Indian meteorologists said they warned Myanmar 48 hours before the storm hit, while the UN's disaster reduction agency said it was clear many people had no time to evacuate.
"Looking at the number of deaths, it leads us to think that an early warning system had not been put in place," a UN agency spokeswoman said.
Kevin Rudd goes global (28/03/08)
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has touched down in Washington, the first leg of his marathon tour of the United States, Europe and China.
Mr Rudd flew into Andrews Airforce Base, just outside the US capital, and was driven by motorcade to the 180-year-old Blair House where he is staying.
On the first official day of his visit tomorrow, Mr Rudd will meet US President George W Bush in the Oval Office of the White House.
He then has meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
pasted from:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/kevin-rudd-goes-global/2008/03/28/1206207358862.html
Agence France-Presse DHARAMSHALA, India - The Dalai Lama on Tuesday appealed for calm in Tibet and "good relations" with China, but offered to quit as head of the exile movement if violence in the region worsens. The Nobel Peace laureate, 72, said Tibetans and Chinese needed to live "side by side," urged his countrymen not to resort to violence and reiterated he was not pushing for his remote Himalayan homeland to split from China. "We must build good relations with the Chinese," the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader told reporters in Dharamshala in northern India, the base of the Tibetan government-in-exile. "We should not develop anti-Chinese feelings. We must live together side by side." "Don't commit violence, it is not good. Violence is against human nature, violence is almost suicide. Even if 1,000 Tibetans sacrifice their lives, it will not help," he said, stressing that "independence is out of the question." But he said he was not in a position to tell Tibetans living under Chinese rule to "do this or do not do that." "This movement is beyond our control," he said of the unrest in Tibet, which saw protests escalate into rioting and prompted a major Chinese security clampdown. "If things are getting out of control, then the option is to completely resign... resignation is the only option," he told reporters. He also said Chinese officials were welcome to visit him and investigate their charges that his India-based exile movement was behind the anti-Chinese unrest that erupted in Tibet last week. "Come here, please investigate the facts. The Chinese can come look at everything," he said. China blamed Tibetan "mobs" for the deaths of 13 people in violent anti-Chinese rioting on Friday, while Tibetan exile groups have said around 100 people, possibly many more, were killed as China quashed the protests. Earlier Tuesday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing will only hold talks with the Dalai Lama if he gives up independence ambitions, and also blamed him for the unrest. Tibet's spiritual leader has consistently denied Chinese charges that he is a separatist, and insists that he only wants a high degree of autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule. But his "Middle Way" policy -- espousing non-violence and autonomy -- has left him facing increasing criticism from younger, more radical exiled Tibetans. "I admitted it failed to bring positive results inside Tibet," the Dalai Lama said of the policy, but said demands for complete independence were unrealistic. "I ask them how to get independence. I have no answer," he said of the radical exiles. (pasted from: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=112475)
World (as of 3/18/2008 6:40 PM)
Dalai Lama appeals for Tibet calm, offers to quit
Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month
By CHARLES J. HANLE
The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.
Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more — by 2017.
Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars, with Iraq generally accounting for three-quarters of the costs.
Variations in such estimates stem from the sliding scales of assumptions, scenarios and budget items that are counted. But whatever the estimate, the cost will be huge, the auditors of the Government Accountability Office say.
In a Jan. 30 report to Congress, the GAO observed that the U.S. will be committing "significant" future resources to the wars, "requiring decision makers to consider difficult trade-offs as the nation faces an increasing long-range fiscal challenge."
These numbers don't include the war's cost to the rest of the world. In Iraq itself, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion — with its devastating air bombardments — and the looting and arson that followed, severely damaged electricity and other utilities, the oil industry, countless factories, hospitals, schools and other underpinnings of an economy.
No one has tried to calculate the economic damage done to Iraq, said spokesman Niels Buenemann of the International Monetary Fund, which closely tracks national economies. But millions of Iraqis have been left without jobs, and hundreds of thousands of professionals, managers and other middle-class citizens have fled the country.
In their book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," Stiglitz, of Columbia University, and Bilmes, of Harvard, report the two wars will have cost the U.S. budget $845 billion in 2007 dollars by next Sept. 30, end of fiscal year 2008, assuming Congress fully funds Bush administration requests. That counts not just military operations, but embassy costs, reconstruction and other war-related expenses.
That total far surpasses the $670 billion in 2007 dollars the Congressional Research Service says was the U.S. price tag for the 12-year Vietnam War.
Although American military and Iraqi civilian casualties have declined in recent months, the rate of spending has shot up. A fully funded 2008 war budget will be 155 percent higher than 2004's, the CBO reports.
The reasons are numerous: the "surge" of additional U.S. units into Iraq; rising fuel costs; fattened bonuses to attract re-enlistments; and particularly the need to "reset," that is, repair or replace worn-out, destroyed or damaged military equipment. Almost $17 billion is appropriated this year for advanced armored vehicles to protect troops against roadside bombs.
Looking ahead, both the CBO and Stiglitz-Bilmes construct two scenarios, one in which U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan drop sharply and early — to 30,000 by late 2009 for the CBO, and to 55,000 by 2012 for Stiglitz-Bilmes — and a second in which the drawdown is more gradual.
Significantly, the two studies view different time frames, the CBO calculating possible costs met in the next 10 years, while Stiglitz and Bilmes also include costs incurred during that period but paid for later, such as equipment replaced in post-2017 budgets.
This factor figures most in the category of veterans' medical care and disability payments, where the CBO foresees $9 billion to $13 billion in costs by 2017. Stiglitz and Bilmes, meanwhile, project $422 billion to $717 billion in costs over the lifetime of soldiers who by 2017 are wounded or otherwise mentally or physically disabled by the wars.
"The CBO is only looking 10 years out on everything," Bilmes noted in an interview.
For its part, a CBO critique suggested that Bilmes and Stiglitz might be overstating the expense of treating veterans' brain injuries, a costly category.
The two economists say their calculations are conservative, because they don't encompass many "hidden" items in the U.S. budget. Their basic projections also exclude the potentially huge debt-service cost — on which CBO approximately agrees — and the cost to the U.S. economy of global oil prices that have quadrupled since 2003, an increase analysts blame partly on the Iraq upheaval.
Estimating all economic and social costs might push the U.S. war bill up toward $5 trillion by 2017, they say.
Their book already figures in the stay-or-leave debate over Iraq.
When Stiglitz testified on Feb. 28 before the congressional Joint Economic Committee, the ranking Republican, New Jersey's Rep. Jim Saxton, complained that such projections are too imprecise to help determine relative costs and benefits of the Iraq war.
Saxton said a rapid U.S. pullout could lead to full-scale civil war and Iranian domination of Iraq, "enormous costs" that he said should be weighed in any calculation.
(paste from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_costs)
Palace victim of Lacson sting operation—Enrile
By Christine F. Herrera
SENATOR Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday accused Senator Panfilo Lacson and whistleblower Rodolfo Lozada of engineering the ongoing exposé of high-level corruption in the national broadband network deal as a way of undermining the government.
“I believe this whole thing is a ‘planned affair,’ contrived by Senator Lacson and Lozada to make it appear that it was government that made Lozada leave for Hong Kong to elude the Senate hearing, but it was in fact Senator Lacson and Lozada who planned it,” Enrile told Standard Today.
“I would say the planned affair was very clever, very tricky and very mean,” he said.
Under the plot hatched by the two men, Lozada flew to Hong Kong, asked for money but did not use it, then made it appear upon returning that Malacañang had given him the money to keep him quiet, Enrile said.
The senator said it struck him as odd that Lacson knew Lozada’s every move.
“Senator Lacson even knew that Lozada was going to Hong Kong, that in fact Lozada was not going to London, and upon his return Lozada would testify and might resign as president of PhilForest,” Enrile said. “Even Lozada’s bosses did not know that.”
But what Lacson and Lozada did not anticipate was Enrile’s motion that Lozada be summoned and that a warrant for his arrest be issued.
“The Senate records would bear me out that Lacson resisted my motion for Lozada to be arrested and asked me to withdraw my motion. At that point, they had a problem,” he said.
Lacson admitted that while the Senate warrant was issued Jan. 26, he and Lozada met Jan. 29, or on the eve of Lozada’s trip to Hong Kong.
Lozada had testified that it was a “common decision or consensus” between him and Malacañang officials for him to go abroad.
In his Senate testimony, La Salle Green Hills president Felipe Belleza also admitted that Lozada and his wife went to see him as early as Jan. 6 to seek sanctuary for their children.
“It was Lacson and Lozada’s plan all along that Lacson’s witness go to Hong Kong, but they would make it appear that it was government that wanted Lozada to go abroad to prevent him from testifying before the Senate,” Enrile said.
When Lozada was already in Hong Kong, Enrile said, he asked for money and when he was given P500,000, Lozada did not use the money but failed to inform the Senate about it 12 days after he returned. Only then did he present the money during the hearing.
“One thing is clear here. That Senator Lacson and Lozada had been meeting several times prior to Lozada’s departure,” Enrile said.
Enrile said Lacson also knew when Lozada would return to the country, and that, in fact, he went to the airport on Feb. 5 to fetch Lozada.
Lacson admitted he was there for that purpose, but said the police got to Lozada first.
“Everything was planned. Lozada said Malacañang gave him P500,000 on Feb. 4 and [Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel] Gaite confirmed that. Lozada tricked them into giving him money. Yet, Lozada did not use the money but kept it.
“In the same breath, however, he said his boss [Environment Secretary Lito Atienza] instructed him to prematurely end his stay in Hong Kong and come home.
Look, the money was given to Lozada’s brother late afternoon of Feb. 4, yet, as early as noontime of Feb. 4, Lozada’s family was already in La Salle Green Hills. Then he arrived Feb. 5. Lacson was at the airport Feb. 5,” Enrile said.
“It is clear to me now that Lacson was aware of Lozada’s every move and the Palace was kept in the dark.”
In the last hearing, Enrile directly confronted Lacson to “lay everything on the table.”
Lacson said he was honest and transparent with his colleagues about his dealings with Lozada, and in fact admitted during the hearing that he had met Lozada as early as December.
“Yes, they had been meeting, that’s why they were able to plan all these things to undermine the government,” Enrile said. “Very clever indeed.”
In the previous hearings, Enrile had moved that Lozada be taken under the custody of the Senate so that his testimony would not be tainted or influenced by any individual or groups.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, lead chairman of the Senate joint committees on Blue Ribbon, trade and commerce and national defense, said the committee would discuss Enrile’s proposal.
As of yesterday, Lozada was still under the protection of the La Sallian brothers in La Salle Green Hills.
Cayetano said one more witness was expected to testify before the Senate panel to corroborate testimony already provided in the ongoing investigation.
Cayetano would only say the witness used to occupy a high position in the Arroyo administration.
Also yesterday, police said they would investigate charges that Lacson used a safe house—referred to as “Ping Academy”—to train witnesses to implicate the President’s husband in the 2005 jueteng scandal.
“We have to check if this is true,” said National Police Chief Avelino Razon of the accusation hurled by illegal gambling witness Demostenes Abraham Riva. He said the systematic coaching of witnesses would be “mind-boggling” if true.
“Senator Lacson was the one who was coaching us to implicate the First Gentleman in the jueteng scam, Riva said on TV Wednesday night. “We were all staying at the Ping Academy, where we were trained what to say before the Senate.”
Riva said he believed Lozada and another broadband network witness Dante Madriaga were also being coached.
Questioned by a technical working group yesterday, Madriaga repeated his allegation that ZTE Corp. of China had advanced $41 million to a Filipino group that brokered the deal, which has since been cancelled. --- With Joyce Pangco Pañares and Fel V. Maragay
(pasted from: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news1_feb29_2008)
Australians gathered in With this formal apology, the current Federal Parliament sought to heal the pain suffered by Aboriginal families whose children were forcibly taken from them and the ill-treatment by the Indigenous people as a result of state-sanctioned policies. Let me share with you excerpts from Mr Rudd's speech: Today we honour the indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. ...For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. ...To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. ...We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where the Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again... I am sharing this with CROWN readers in the hope that we, as citizens of the world, learn from each other’s mistakes, and that collectively and individually we do our bit in preventing social injustice and promoting world peace. PS: Reprinted from: http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9475/1/Australias-Prime-Minister-Kevin-Rudd-Apologizes-to-Aboriginals.html [Full text of Mr Rudd's speech can be found on: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-time-has-come--for-all-australians-to-together-build-a-truly-great-nation/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html-to-together-build-a-truly-great-nation/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html]
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Today will be remembered as one of the significant chapters in Australian history.
Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd