The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Australia's Howard a surprise 9-11 witness
- French first lady says will keep baby out of view
- New Orleans holds up as Lee loses strength
| Australia's Howard a surprise 9-11 witness Posted: 04 Sep 2011 09:03 PM PDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's former Prime Minister John Howard, a surprise witness to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, believes former U.S. President George W. Bush deserves more praise for his response and for stopping further attacks.
Howard was in Washington when hijacked airliners crashed into the towers of New York's World Trade Center, the U.S. Defense headquarters the Pentagon, and into a field in Pennsylvania. Among the thousands killed were 22 Australians. In an interview to mark a decade since the attacks, Howard said he has no regrets about joining the war in Afghanistan, cautions against an premature withdrawal of troops, and said history will vindicate Bush's response to the new threats. "History will vindicate his great success in keeping America free from a further terrorist attack," Howard told Reuters from his office overlooking Sydney Harbour. "The decisions I believed were right. I still believe they were right, and I believe history will vindicate them." The events of Sept. 11 came at the half-way mark of Howard's term as prime minister, and had a profound impact on his next six years in office, propelling national security to the equal top political issue alongside economic management. The attacks helped cement a close personal and political alliance between Howard and Bush, who named Howard a "man of steel" for his steadfast support of the United States, and fundamentally re-shaped the Australia-U.S. military alliance, which had been the bedrock of Australia's security for 50 years. AFGHANISTAN IS BEING WON The attacks also led Australia into the war in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. The war in Afghanistan is now stretching into its 10th year, with 29 Australian soldiers killed. Howard said he had no regrets about committing troops to the war in Afghanistan. But he cautioned against any premature withdrawal of allied forces because of falling public support for the war. In Australia, latest polls show 64 percent believe Australian forces should be withdrawn, compared with 47 percent 12 months ago. "It was certainly worth fighting and I do believe it can be won. Slow though the progress seems to be, it is being won," he said. "It would be a big error for the allies to pull out prematurely," he said. "Pakistan is more unstable than it was 10 years ago. If we left behind an ambiguous situation in Afghanistan, the impact of that on the terrorist cause in Pakistan, which is a nuclear-armed country, could be quite dramatic." POLITICAL ALLIANCES The day before the attacks, on Sept. 10, 2001, Howard met Bush for the first time. They spent four hours together, including talks over lunch at the White House, starting what became a strong political alliance and personal friendship. "We didn't talk about terrorism. Nobody knew this terrible event was just around the corner," Howard said. The trip had been timed to mark the 50th anniversary of the ANZUS military alliance, which commits Australia, New Zealand and the United States to come to the support of each other if their countries are attacked. Howard believed the ANZUS alliance needed attention because it had lost some of its significance with the end of the Cold War, and with one of the partners, New Zealand, an inactive partner since 1985. On Sept. 11, Howard was in his Washington hotel, only a few blocks from the Whitehouse, when the first attack happened. When he spoke to reporters a short time later, sirens could be heard outside. "While we were doing the news conference, the third plane, Flight 77, drove into the Pentagon. We pulled back the curtains and we saw the smoke rising," he said. "We knew then, beyond any argument, that this was a concerted terrorist attack on the United States." The remainder of Howard's U.S. programme was immediately cancelled. The following day, Howard and his party were the only visitors in the US House of Representatives as it held an emergency debate on the tragedy. He received a standing ovation from lawmakers for his gesture of support. Howard then attended a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, and spoke by telephone to then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan about the market implications of the attacks. AUSTRALIA COMMITS TO MILITARY RESPONSE By this time, Howard was already forming the view that Australia would be involved in any military response against those responsible. "I just knew instinctively that if an international effort were needed, Australia should and would be part of it and would be a very early and willing part of it," he said. Late on Sept. 12, the U.S. military flew Howard and his official entourage to Hawaii on Air Force Two. At the time, all commercial flights into and out of U.S. airspace were cancelled. From Hawaii, Howard flew back to Australia on a Qantas jet, which had been given special permission to fly out of the United States, making it the first commercial flight back in the air in the United States after the attacks. As he flew across the Pacific Ocean, Howard resolved to invoke the ANZUS alliance for the first time, committing Australia to support the U.S. Howard said potential concerns from other nations, such as China, were secondary considerations. "It was so fundamental, and so obviously an occasion where we had to be and should be a 100 percent ally of our close friend, it didn't really enter my mind for a moment, that identifying with the United States fully at that time would hurt relations with other countries," he said. "And in any event, my thinking was that we had an obligation to give them full support." Howard went on to win national elections in November 2001, and again in 2004, before he lost his seat in an election loss in 2007, ending his 11 and a half years in power. (Editing by Robert Birsel) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| French first lady says will keep baby out of view Posted: 04 Sep 2011 09:03 PM PDT PARIS (Reuters) - French first lady Carla Bruni said on Sunday she will keep the baby she is expecting with President Nicolas Sarkozy strictly out of view and not allow any photographs to be shown publicly. Bruni, who is due to give birth in the autumn, said she did not know whether she was expecting a boy or a girl, but her main aim was to protect the infant from the glare of publicity.
"You don't have a child for the gallery," Bruni told TF1 television in an interview. "I understand the media interest (but) for children it's not possible. I will do everything to protect this infant and I'll be absolutely rigorous. I will never show photos of this child, I will never expose this child," she said. Bruni's remarks suggested Sarkozy will shy away from using glossy magazine spreads of a newborn baby to polish his family-man image later this year as he announces a widely expected run at a second term in next year's presidential election. The conservative is expected to announce his reelection plans in early November, just after France's G20 heads of state summit in Cannes and close to the time Bruni, a former supermodel, is expected to give birth. Sarkozy's low popularity ratings have inched up during the summer as photos of him relaxing at the beach with the heavily pregnant Bruni gave him a family glow that contrasted with coverage of his erstwhile election rival on the left, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was in New York fighting sex assault charges. Bruni, 43, and also a singer-songwriter, said she learned her lesson when she let paparazzi snap photos of her son from a former relationship, Aurelien, perched on Sarkozy's shoulders on a trip to Egypt during their whirlwind courtship. Sarkozy's rapid attachment to the glamorous Bruni on the tails of his 2007 election and just a few months after his separation from his ex-wife Cecilia created a media frenzy. With many French people critical of a manner they see as too brash and flashy for a head of state, Sarkozy has been at pains in recent months to act in a more austere and presidential way. He and Bruni kept silent about the long-rumoured pregnancy until mid-July. Bruni shed no light on when Sarkozy will announce his election plans, but said she hoped he would be there for the birth of their first child together. (Reporting by Catherine Bremer) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| New Orleans holds up as Lee loses strength Posted: 04 Sep 2011 09:03 PM PDT NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Lee weakened to a tropical depression as it neared Mississippi on Sunday, and New Orleans' flood defenses held up under one of their biggest tests since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
The National Hurricane Center said the remnants of Lee were 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of McComb, Mississippi, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) around 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT on Monday). The storm was moving east-northeast at 7 mph (11 kph). The storm has temporarily shut over 60 percent of offshore oil production. Even as a tropical depression, the storm remains a rainmaker, carrying the potential to dump up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain over the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachian Mountains, forecasters said. The remnants of Lee could still bring flash flooding and tornadoes to Mississippi on Monday, and to Alabama and Tennessee on Tuesday, the Miami-based hurricane center said. In New Orleans, the storm recalled Hurricane Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of the city, killed 1,500 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage to the tourist destination. Lee has dropped up to 13 inches (33 cm) of rain on New Orleans since it developed late last week. Half the city lies below sea level and is protected by a system of levees and flood gates. Some street flooding was reported, but the city's massive pumping system kept ahead of the volume and diverted the waters into Lake Pontchartrain. Low-lying parishes around New Orleans did not fare as well, as Lee's winds drove a tidal surge over levees and onto roads. "For a while we got some false hope that we might be out of the woods, but we realized overnight we would get more rain," Lafourche Parish spokesman Brennan Matherne said. "We're getting call after call about street flooding." New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu warned residents to stay alert for flash floods and high winds expected before Lee departs. "Let's not be lulled to sleep by the breaks that we've had," Landrieu said. New Orleans' levees saw less stress because Lee's winds were too weak to drive a massive storm surge into the city, as was the case during Katrina. "The levees at this point are really not being tested because the surge is not coming into the system," said Colonel Edward Fleming of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "This is mainly a wind and a rain event." There were isolated reports of flooding in roads and homes. No injuries or deaths were reported in Louisiana. Wet conditions associated with the storm appeared to be a factor in an early morning car wreck in Mobile, Alabama, that killed one man and left several injured. In Texas, just east of Austin, Lee's gusty winds fed a 14,000-acre (5,700-hectare) wildfire that threatened 1,000 homes and caused evacuations. Wildfires have burned more than 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of Texas, which is in the grips of a historic drought. FLOODING THREAT Lee's tidal surge could spur more coastal flooding in Louisiana, as well as in Mississippi and Alabama, before drenching a large swath of the Southeast and Appalachian regions in the coming days. Storm winds have already pushed Gulf waters inland, slamming barriers in low-lying areas such as Lafourche Parish and prompting mandatory evacuations in the coastal communities of Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria. In Mississippi, local governments were taking precautions as forecasters predicted tides could be 2 feet to 4 feet (0.6 metres to 1.2 metres) above normal. As of Sunday afternoon, 6,149 customers were without power in Louisiana and 609 in Mississippi, utility Entergy Corp reported. More than 60 percent of U.S. offshore oil production, all based in the Gulf of Mexico, and over 44 percent of offshore gas production were shut as of Saturday, according to the U.S. government. Most of that output should quickly return once the storm passes. Major offshore producers like Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp and BP Plc shut down platforms and evacuated staff late last week. Shell, Exxon and Anadarko Petroleum Corp have started to return workers to offshore platforms. Low-lying refineries in Louisiana that collectively account for 12 percent of U.S. refining capacity were watching the storm closely, but reported no disruptions. In the open Atlantic on Sunday, Hurricane Katia strengthened rapidly to a Category 2 storm. Katia had top sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph), the hurricane center said, but it was too soon to gauge the potential threat to land or the U.S. East Coast from the storm, which could become a "major" hurricane with maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph) on Monday. (Additional reporting by Kristen Hays in Houston, Tom Brown in Miami, Kelli Dugan in Mobile, Alabama and Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Writing by Chris Baltimore; Editing by Xavier Briand and Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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