The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Twitter counters the "Sun King" Murdoch in heated Aussie election
- More than 60 dead as Iraqis mark end to lethal Ramadan
- Chinese human trafficking ring busted in Spain, France
| Twitter counters the "Sun King" Murdoch in heated Aussie election Posted: SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is battling not only jaded voters in a bitter election race, but the rancour of Rupert Murdoch, whose newspapers have depicted Rudd as everything from a Nazi colonel to a thief stealing the nation's savings. The Australian-born Murdoch's crusade to oust Rudd in the September 7 general election has given rise to a heated social media campaign inside a campaign, as Twitter, Facebook and other digital platforms become the weapons used by some to try to outflank Murdoch's "old media". As the campaign kicked off last week, Murdoch's best-selling Daily Telegraph tabloid urged readers to "Kick This Mob Out" over a picture of Rudd at Parliament House. In another front page from Murdoch's News Corp stable, Rudd and top lieutenants were shown as the hapless Nazi guards from the 1960s "Hogan's Heroes" television show, while another greeted a high-profile recruit to Rudd and Labor's centre-left cause with the headline "Send in the Clown". In the finely poised western Sydney seat of Parramatta, Julie Owens a member of parliament for Rudd's Labour party, says the influence of the Murdoch press is hurting, with the billionaire's papers having adopted an even more confrontational stance than in past years. "People aren't as aware of what we have done, and they can't judge us as a government," says Owens. "They can only judge us as a reality TV show - who is evil, who is bad, who is hard done by - and that's what the news has become." Exactly what Murdoch's motivations are have been much debated. Many people think Murdoch is using his 70 percent grip on big-city newspaper sales to protect the dominance of his prized cable TV investments from emerging digital media threats, chiefly a publicly funded $34 billion super broadband network championed by Rudd. Murdoch lent credence to that theory, taking to Twitter to criticise "Oz politics!" and question how the cross-continent broadband - which the conservative opposition wants to scale back in cost and scope - could be paid for in Australia's AAA-rated but slowing economy. "News Corp hates the government's National Broadband Network (NBN). The company has formed a view that it poses a threat to the business model of by far its most important asset in Australia, the Foxtel cable TV monopoly," wrote columnist Paul Sheehan for the rival Fairfax newspaper group. Telecommunications analysts don't doubt Labor's NBN, rolling fibre cable into almost every home, threatens Murdoch's most important Australian asset, Foxtel, jointly owned with phone giant Telstra and near unchallenged in pay TV. "Broadband, in general, undermines the business model that Foxtel and others have, where you have to buy a package of programmes that you don't want, and 90 percent of which is rubbish," said telecommunications analyst Paul Budde. But the 82-year-old, who has earned the nickname the "Sun king", also appears to be favouring conservative politics as he has done in Britain and the United States, while reinvigorating an Australian political war that dates back as far as 1975 and the dismissal of then Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam. Back then, Murdoch oversaw coverage that was seemingly so one-sided in favour of opposition conservatives, and controversial, that his own journalists went on strike. Rudd has also fought battles with Murdoch's papers over ultimately false accusations of political favours supposedly done in 2009 for a car dealer friend, and again over ill-fated attempts to tighten Australian media regulation following phone hacking scandals in Britain. THE SOCIAL NETWORK Rudd has responded to the Murdoch push against him with a heavy reliance on social media, including announcing the start of the election campaign over Twitter, where he regularly messages and posts photos. Labor has recruited three digital media heavyweights from U.S. President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign team, including British spoof video expert Matthew McGregor and Tom McMahon, dubbed Obama's "digital attack dog". McGregor has helped create slick "What we do now" videos, calling for volunteers and telling digital savvy voters that "right now, it's 50/50" and "stopping Tony Abbott starts now". Abbot is the opposition leader hoping to replace Rudd as prime minister. Although all parties are using social media extensively, Ed Husic, Rudd's broadband minister, says the new platforms were helping counter the impact of the Murdoch media. "Social media has been transformational, it's enormously positive. It's allowed MPs to talk about issues of importance to them and their communities that it has been difficult to do so previously," Husic said while campaigning in his western Sydney electorate. Which approach works best may be decided on September 7, but a week into the campaign, support for Labor is slipping, especially in Sydney's crucial western outer fringes, where the slowing economy, jobs and immigration are flashpoint issues. The conservative opposition led by Abbott has picked up two points since the campaign began in earnest, according to the latest opinion poll from Neilsen in Fairfax newspapers, mirroring other major surveys. However, there is also a sense that neither the political parties, nor those like Murdoch agitating on the sidelines, are getting through to many voters, by new media or old, with some analysts tipping a record protest vote despite Australia's compulsory voting system. "I don't like Rudd, to be honest. But frankly people out here are sick to death of politics and we don't trust any of them anymore," said Jim Baker, 86, grabbing a bite at a fast-food restaurant near hard-scrabble western Blacktown. "I have the Telegraph here, but I don't take much notice of the front. I just flick the pages until I'm past the first eight pages or so, past the politics." (Editing by Lincoln Feast and Robert Birsel) |
| More than 60 dead as Iraqis mark end to lethal Ramadan Posted: BAGHDAD (AFP) - Car bombs ripped through Baghdad cafes and markets while blasts and shootings struck elsewhere, killing 61 people as Iraq marked the end of its deadliest Ramadan holy month in years. The attacks were the latest in spiralling violence which authorities have failed to stem, with the worst bloodshed in five years raising worries of a return to the all-out Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands in past years. The latest violence comes just weeks after brazen assaults, claimed by an Al-Qaeda front group, on prisons near Baghdad that freed hundreds of militants and which analysts warn could boost armed groups. The United States condemned the perpetrators of Saturday's attacks as "enemies of Islam and a shared enemy of the United States, Iraq, and the international community", in an unusually detailed statement.  ©afp.com / Ali al-Saadi Iraqis enjoy an attraction at a theme park in Baghdad during the Eid al-Fitr holiday on August 10, 2013 The State Department said the "cowardly" attacks had been "aimed at families celebrating the Eid al-Fitr" holiday that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reiterated the $10 million award offered for Al-Qaeda in Iraq's purported leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is believed to be sheltering in Syria. "He has taken personal credit for a series of terrorist attacks in Iraq since 2011, and most recently claimed credit for the operations against the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, the suicide bombing assault on the Ministry of Justice, among other attacks against Iraqi security forces and Iraqi citizens," Psaki said. "The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information that helps authorities kill or capture Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This reward is second only to information leading to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of Al-Qaeda's network," she added.  ©afp.com / Ali al-Saadi Iraqi men inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Karrada commercial district, on August 6, 2013 The State Department response came after a week in which the United States had closed embassies and missions across the Arab world following intelligence reports of a possible Al-Qaeda strike. Saturday's violence followed major security operations against militants that officials hailed as having resulted in the killing and capture of many. Overall, 16 car bombs and a series of shootings and other blasts killed at least 61 people and wounded nearly 300 across the country Saturday, security and medical officials said. A spate of vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in eight different neighbourhoods of Baghdad, in apparently coordinated strikes. The blasts hit public markets, cafes, and restaurants, killing 37 people overall, while violence earlier on Saturday killed two others in the capital, according to security and medical officials  ©afp.com / Ahmad al-Rubaye Iraqis visit graves of loved ones at a cemetery during the first day of Eid Al-Fitr holiday on August 8, 2013 in Baghdad At Baghdad's Al-Kindi hospital, medics treated a man, apparently a soldier, whose face, chest and arms were covered in blood. Medics sprinted into the hospital pushing people on stretchers, one of them a blanket-swathed man whose eyes were closed. Another man ran behind the stretcher, weeping as it was wheeled into the hospital. Outside, long lines of cars inched along Baghdad roads, held up by increased security measures that came too late for the dozens of victims. Also on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police checkpoint in Tuz Khurmatu, north of the capital, killing nine people. A car bomb in Kirkuk, also north of Baghdad, killed an engineer. Two car bombs in the southern city of Nasiriyah killed four, while a car bomb in the shrine city of Karbala left five others dead. Elsewhere, three people were killed and five others wounded in separate attacks in Babil and Nineveh provinces. More than 800 people died in attacks during the dawn-to-dusk fasting month of Ramadan, which began in the second week of July and ended this week. Militants struck targets ranging from cafes where Iraqis gathered after breaking their daily fast, to mosques where extended evening prayers were held during the month. The violence came just weeks after attacks on prisons near the capital in which hundreds of inmates were freed. Analysts, as well as global police organisation Interpol, have warned that the jailbreaks could lead to a rise in attacks, as the escapees were said to include senior Al-Qaeda militants. Security forces have meanwhile launched major operations, among the biggest since the December 2011 withdrawal of US forces, targeting militants in multiple provinces including Baghdad. Violence has markedly increased this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni Arab anti-government protest site that sparked clashes in which dozens died. Protests erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012, amid widespread discontent among Sunnis, who accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalising and targeting them. Analysts say Sunni anger is the main cause of the spike in violence this year. - AFP |
| Chinese human trafficking ring busted in Spain, France Posted: MADRID (AFP) - Spanish and French police said Saturday they have dismantled a human trafficking ring that smuggled Chinese migrants into Europe and the United States, charging up to 50,000 euros per person. A total of 75 suspects including two "main operatives" based in Barcelona were arrested, including 51 in Spain and 24 in France after a two-year joint investigation, a police statement said. The traffickers charged 40,000 to 50,000 euros ($53,000 to $66,000) per person to provide "false identities and transport Chinese citizens to the United States and countries such as Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Turkey," the statement said. In some cases the ring was involved in the sexual exploitation of migrants, it added.  ©afp.com Map showing the levels of human trafficking across the world. Spanish police seized 81 fake passports from Asian countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The investigation into the ring, described as "complex", began in July 2011. "The composition of this perfectly structured, hierarchical organisation, with its kingpin in China and independent cells operating in different countries, completely shut off from each other, complicated the investigation," the police statement said. The traffickers accompanied their clients all the way from China to Spain, "the last stop (serving as a) trampoline to the final destination, usually the United Kingdom or the United States," it said. The operatives, mainly from China and Malaysia, had the "complete confidence" of the ringleaders and were "thorough connaisseurs of the European airports and cities along the route of the transfers," the statement said.  ©afp.com A Spanish policeman displays the fake visa stamps seized in a raid in Barcelona, on August 10, 2013 Once their mission was accomplished they would return home immediately, "in order to make it more difficult to track them," police said. Upon the migrants' arrival in Barcelona, operatives of the trafficking ring would meet them and take them to safe houses before they embarked on the next leg of their journey. The route taken from China, as well as the travel documents used, "changed constantly according to the successes and failures of previous trips... or in order to prevent discovery of the traffickers," the statement said. The migrants were given precise instructions on how to avoid detection at customs controls, such as trying to blend in with groups of tourists.  ©afp.com Passports, stamps, printers and mobile phones seized in a human trafficking bust The two top suspects were arrested in Barcelona, while another 49 were picked up in Spanish airports including those of Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga and Mallorca, plus another 24 in France. The 81 fake passports were found in two lodgings owned by the ring in Barcelona. There police also found equipment for forging documents including portable computers, scanners, around 20 fake customs stamps and an electronic magnifier. Police also provided pictures of a firearm, cellphones and wads of cash, both euros and yuan, that were seized in the operation. The European Commission warned in a report issued in April that the problem of human trafficking was worsening across the bloc. It signalled an 18 percent increase from 2008 to 2010 in identified and presumed victims of trafficking in the then 27-nation EU, with the total reaching 23,632. More than half of the victims -- 61 percent -- were from EU nations, most often Romania and Bulgaria, with Nigeria and China as the most common countries of origin outside Europe. In a 2010 report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime described human trafficking as "one of the most lucrative illicit businesses in Europe", estimating gains through sexual exploitation and forced labour alone at around 2.5 billion euros per year. |
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