Steve Meacham
December 9, 2010
MARK these dates in your calendar right now.
June 6, 2012: Transit of Venus, ideally seen from Sydney between 8.16am and 2.44pm.
July 31, 2018: Favourable opposition of Mars - when the red planet will be just 57.6 million kilometres away from the Sydney Tower, the nearest it has been since 2003.
And of course the big one. July 22, 2028: Total eclipse of the Sun. Nick Lomb says for Sydneysiders, ''this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a fully eclipsed Sun from their own backyards'' (cloud permitting).
The curator of astronomy at the Sydney Observatory, Lomb has just launched his 2011 Australian Sky Guide - the 21st edition since he wrote the first version in 1990.
However this year is different. The latest edition, ''featuring new, improved sky maps [and] a new dreamtime astronomy story'', is in colour for the first time and in a wider format, Lomb says, ''making it more readable and attractive than it has been''.
Lomb himself has changed orbit this year. He's landed not on Mars but in Melbourne.
Having retired last December from the Sydney Observatory, Lomb now edits the guide from Victoria where his wife has family. Is the heavenly perspective from Melbourne any different? ''No,'' he says. ''It's possibly more cloudy, though Melbourne people would kill me for saying that. And everything takes place 25 minutes later because it is west of Sydney.''
How does his guide change each year? ''The stars remain the same, always appearing on the same day. But the planets are very different,'' Lomb says.
''There's always new information from the satellites going round Jupiter and Saturn. And a new spacecraft has gone past Mercury. In 2011 there will be two eclipses of the moon. Then in 2012 there's going to be a huge event - the Transit of Venus.'' So what is the celestial highlight of the past 21 years, as seen from Sydney Observatory? Three stand out, he says.
''In 1994, the comet called Shoemaker-Levy 9 - the ninth comet discovered by the American astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and their colleague David Levy - crashed into the planet Jupiter.''
The crash had been predicted and scientists knew the impact would reveal vital information about the giant planet's make-up, particularly as viewed via the Hubble Space Telescope and the Galileo spacecraft.
''We had observation sessions at Sydney Observatory,'' Lomb says. ''But we didn't know if the effect of the collision was going to be visible. The excitement after the first impact, when we saw this dark blob appear on the planet's surface through the small telescope at the observatory, was amazing.'' Another awe-inspiring memory spread over several days in 2003 ''when the planet Mars was the closest it has been to us for 50,000 years''.
''Again, that created huge excitement and it was a pleasure to watch it with the many thousands of people who came to the observatory at night,'' Lomb says. Finally, he says, no one could forget ''the 2004 transit of Venus, the first time it had been visible since 1882 - so something no living person had ever seen before''. ''We were very fortunate with the weather. It was a beautiful, clear afternoon in Sydney, and we had a great view.''
Thursday, December 9, 2010
'Remarkable' impact of aspirin on cancer: study
Glenda Kwek
December 7, 2010
Australian experts have hailed as "remarkable" and "significant" a study that found taking aspirin daily cuts your risk of getting cancer, but cautioned the drug should not be regarded as a "magic bullet".
The British study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, analysed eight trials involving 25,570 patients, and found a daily dose of aspirin of less than 75 milligrams - about a quarter of an aspirin tablet - reduced cancer deaths by an average of 21 per cent during the studies and 34 per cent after five years.
"It's fairly interesting that such a widespread - and these days relatively cheap drug - should have such a measurable impact on deaths from cancer, said Cancer Council of Australia's chief executive Professor Ian Olver.
"So it's a remarkable finding given the fact that it can be easily and cheaply implemented across the population."
The director of St Vincent's Clinical School, Professor Allan Spigelman, called the study "strong and "robust" because of its large sample size and use of multiple trials, and said it built on earlier work about the protective benefits of aspirin on bowel cancer.
He cautioned that the reduced cancer risk should be kept in perspective by looking at the number of deaths prevented.
"If say 100,000 people were to take this low dose aspirin for five years, it would prevent 56 cancer deaths. So that needs to be kept in perspective."
Professor Spigelman said that research on the impact of aspirin on cancer - which has sometimes been called a "wonder drug" because its varied medical uses - had not reached the point where "you might sprinkle in the water like fluorine" as it could cause adverse effects for some patients.
Some side-effects include irritation of the stomach leading to ulcers and internal bleeding.
"It has to be personalised," Professor Olver said. "[The study] hasn't defined which age group is best to take the aspirin nor has it defined how long you have to take the aspirin for.
"And I think the caution is that any individual who wanted to try this should really check with their doctor that they don't have any underlying medical condition or aren't on other medication that is incompatible with aspirin."
But Professor Peter Rothwell of John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, who led the study, said aspirin's risks were beginning to be "drowned out" by its benefits in reducing the risk of cancer and the risk of heart attacks.
"Previous guidelines have rightly cautioned that in healthy middle-aged people the small risk of bleeding on aspirin partly offsets the benefit from prevention of strokes and heart attacks, but the reductions in deaths due to several common cancers will now alter this balance for many people," he said, adding that he started taking aspirin regularly two years ago.
Professor Olver also highlighted a crucial statistic that should not be forgotten in light of such an "interesting and exciting study" - that one-third of cancer deaths could be prevented by lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, having a healthy diet, exercising, cutting down on alcohol consumption and getting protection from the sun.
- with Reuters
December 7, 2010
Australian experts have hailed as "remarkable" and "significant" a study that found taking aspirin daily cuts your risk of getting cancer, but cautioned the drug should not be regarded as a "magic bullet".
The British study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, analysed eight trials involving 25,570 patients, and found a daily dose of aspirin of less than 75 milligrams - about a quarter of an aspirin tablet - reduced cancer deaths by an average of 21 per cent during the studies and 34 per cent after five years.
"It's fairly interesting that such a widespread - and these days relatively cheap drug - should have such a measurable impact on deaths from cancer, said Cancer Council of Australia's chief executive Professor Ian Olver.
"So it's a remarkable finding given the fact that it can be easily and cheaply implemented across the population."
The director of St Vincent's Clinical School, Professor Allan Spigelman, called the study "strong and "robust" because of its large sample size and use of multiple trials, and said it built on earlier work about the protective benefits of aspirin on bowel cancer.
He cautioned that the reduced cancer risk should be kept in perspective by looking at the number of deaths prevented.
"If say 100,000 people were to take this low dose aspirin for five years, it would prevent 56 cancer deaths. So that needs to be kept in perspective."
Professor Spigelman said that research on the impact of aspirin on cancer - which has sometimes been called a "wonder drug" because its varied medical uses - had not reached the point where "you might sprinkle in the water like fluorine" as it could cause adverse effects for some patients.
Some side-effects include irritation of the stomach leading to ulcers and internal bleeding.
"It has to be personalised," Professor Olver said. "[The study] hasn't defined which age group is best to take the aspirin nor has it defined how long you have to take the aspirin for.
"And I think the caution is that any individual who wanted to try this should really check with their doctor that they don't have any underlying medical condition or aren't on other medication that is incompatible with aspirin."
But Professor Peter Rothwell of John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, who led the study, said aspirin's risks were beginning to be "drowned out" by its benefits in reducing the risk of cancer and the risk of heart attacks.
"Previous guidelines have rightly cautioned that in healthy middle-aged people the small risk of bleeding on aspirin partly offsets the benefit from prevention of strokes and heart attacks, but the reductions in deaths due to several common cancers will now alter this balance for many people," he said, adding that he started taking aspirin regularly two years ago.
Professor Olver also highlighted a crucial statistic that should not be forgotten in light of such an "interesting and exciting study" - that one-third of cancer deaths could be prevented by lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, having a healthy diet, exercising, cutting down on alcohol consumption and getting protection from the sun.
- with Reuters
Not quite Doctor Who, but sonic screwdriver a new twist for science
Richard Gray
December 6, 2010
LONDON: Engineers have developed a device that can move and manipulating objects using only ultrasonic sound waves.
They say the technology could eventually lead to devices that can undo screws, assemble electronics and put together delicate components.
The news will no doubt delight fans of Doctor Who who have dreamed of owning a sonic screwdriver after watching their hero use the tool to get himself out of many sticky situations.
But while the doctor's device can perform a multitude of tasks from cutting, burning, welding, sending signals, controlling the Tardis and healing wounds, the researchers warn their real life sonic screwdriver will have more limited capabilities.
Professor Bruce Drinkwater, an ultrasonics engineer at the University of Bristol, said: "We have developed a device that allows us to use ultrasonic forces to move small objects like biological cells around to sort them or to assemble them.
"We are using quite low forces to do this because we don't want to damage the objects we are moving, but the technology is definitely real and there is potential to turn it into something like Dr Who's sonic screwdriver.
"If we can increase the ultrasonic force and create a rotational force, then we could potentially undo screws. Essentially what you are doing is using the ultrasonic sound wave to twirl the air around to create a miniature tornado."
Professor Drinkwater and his colleagues have created a prototype device, which they have called sonotweezers, that uses ultrasound to move around particular sizes of cells.
Tiny crystals are made to vibrate by passing an electrical current through them, producing an ultrasonic shock wave in the air around them. This shock wave generates a force that can be used to push the cells. The size of the shock wave can be tuned to move cells of different size and so separate diseased cells from healthy ones.
Their device can also be used to separate dangerous material such as anthrax from other powder.
Other researchers are already working on creating rotational motion with ultrasound to be used to assemble delicate electronic components.
Professor Drinkwater said: ''Ultrasonic technology is already making its mark in the medical and manufacturing arenas with some exciting results."
Telegraph, London
December 6, 2010
LONDON: Engineers have developed a device that can move and manipulating objects using only ultrasonic sound waves.
They say the technology could eventually lead to devices that can undo screws, assemble electronics and put together delicate components.
The news will no doubt delight fans of Doctor Who who have dreamed of owning a sonic screwdriver after watching their hero use the tool to get himself out of many sticky situations.
But while the doctor's device can perform a multitude of tasks from cutting, burning, welding, sending signals, controlling the Tardis and healing wounds, the researchers warn their real life sonic screwdriver will have more limited capabilities.
Professor Bruce Drinkwater, an ultrasonics engineer at the University of Bristol, said: "We have developed a device that allows us to use ultrasonic forces to move small objects like biological cells around to sort them or to assemble them.
"We are using quite low forces to do this because we don't want to damage the objects we are moving, but the technology is definitely real and there is potential to turn it into something like Dr Who's sonic screwdriver.
"If we can increase the ultrasonic force and create a rotational force, then we could potentially undo screws. Essentially what you are doing is using the ultrasonic sound wave to twirl the air around to create a miniature tornado."
Professor Drinkwater and his colleagues have created a prototype device, which they have called sonotweezers, that uses ultrasound to move around particular sizes of cells.
Tiny crystals are made to vibrate by passing an electrical current through them, producing an ultrasonic shock wave in the air around them. This shock wave generates a force that can be used to push the cells. The size of the shock wave can be tuned to move cells of different size and so separate diseased cells from healthy ones.
Their device can also be used to separate dangerous material such as anthrax from other powder.
Other researchers are already working on creating rotational motion with ultrasound to be used to assemble delicate electronic components.
Professor Drinkwater said: ''Ultrasonic technology is already making its mark in the medical and manufacturing arenas with some exciting results."
Telegraph, London
Leave your taboos at the gate
Heather Brooke
December 9, 2010
IN WHAT may prove a particularly incendiary cable, US diplomats describe a world of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll behind the official pieties of Saudi Arabian royalty.
Jeddah consulate officials described an underground Halloween party, thrown last year by a member of the royal family, which broke all the country's Islamic taboos.
Liquor and prostitutes were present in abundance behind the heavily guarded villa gates, according to leaked dispatches.
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The party was thrown by a wealthy, unidentified prince from the large Al-Thunayan family.
''Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party's well-stocked bar. The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using sadiqi, a locally made moonshine,'' the cable said. ''It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact 'working girls', not uncommon for such parties.''
The dispatch from the US partygoers, signed by the consul in Jeddah, Martin Quinn, added: ''Though not witnessed directly at this event, cocaine and hashish use is common in these social circles.''
The underground party scene is ''thriving and throbbing'' thanks to the protection of Saudi royalty, the dispatch said.
But it is only available behind closed doors and for the very rich. More than 150 Saudi men and women, most in their 20s and 30s, were at the party. The patronage of royalty meant the feared religious police kept a distance. Admission was controlled through a strict guest list.
''The scene resembled a nightclub anywhere outside the kingdom: plentiful alcohol, young couples dancing, a DJ at the turntables and everyone in costume.''
The bar featured well-known brands of liquor, the original contents reportedly replaced with sadiqi.
The cable said it was easy for would-be partygoers to find a patron out of more than 10,000 princes in the kingdom.
Guardian News & Media
December 9, 2010
IN WHAT may prove a particularly incendiary cable, US diplomats describe a world of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll behind the official pieties of Saudi Arabian royalty.
Jeddah consulate officials described an underground Halloween party, thrown last year by a member of the royal family, which broke all the country's Islamic taboos.
Liquor and prostitutes were present in abundance behind the heavily guarded villa gates, according to leaked dispatches.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The party was thrown by a wealthy, unidentified prince from the large Al-Thunayan family.
''Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party's well-stocked bar. The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using sadiqi, a locally made moonshine,'' the cable said. ''It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact 'working girls', not uncommon for such parties.''
The dispatch from the US partygoers, signed by the consul in Jeddah, Martin Quinn, added: ''Though not witnessed directly at this event, cocaine and hashish use is common in these social circles.''
The underground party scene is ''thriving and throbbing'' thanks to the protection of Saudi royalty, the dispatch said.
But it is only available behind closed doors and for the very rich. More than 150 Saudi men and women, most in their 20s and 30s, were at the party. The patronage of royalty meant the feared religious police kept a distance. Admission was controlled through a strict guest list.
''The scene resembled a nightclub anywhere outside the kingdom: plentiful alcohol, young couples dancing, a DJ at the turntables and everyone in costume.''
The bar featured well-known brands of liquor, the original contents reportedly replaced with sadiqi.
The cable said it was easy for would-be partygoers to find a patron out of more than 10,000 princes in the kingdom.
Guardian News & Media
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
PM can't say what law WikiLeaks has broken
December 7, 2010 - 11:28AM
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has again been unable to name any Australian laws broken by the controversial WikiLeaks website or its founder Julian Assange.
Western governments are increasingly calling for Mr Assange to be stopped as WikiLeaks continues to publish more than 250,000 confidential documents from the United States State Department.
But asked directly what Australian laws had been broken by either WikiLeaks or Mr Assange, Ms Gillard said the Australian Federal Police were investigating.
"The foundation stone of it is an illegal act," Ms Gillard told reporters today.
But the "foundation stone" was the leaking of the documents to the website, not the publishing of the cables.
"It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken," Ms Gillard said.
It is widely assumed the man responsible for the leaks is a US soldier who is already in prison for previous leaks.
"It's grossly irresponsible and anybody who looks at the pages of today's newspaper and sees that things like critical infrastructure lists are being put on WikiLeaks ... would understand how grossly irresponsible this is," Ms Gillard said.
A classified cable listing infrastructure critical to the US was published by the site on Monday.
The list included some Australian-based infrastructure including the already widely known undersea telecommunications cable - the Southern Cross Cable.
Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis accused Ms Gillard of being "clumsy" with her language on the issue of illegality.
"As far as I can see, he [Mr Assange] hasn't broken any Australian law," he told Sky News.
"Nor does it appear he has broken any American laws."
Senator Brandis, a Queen's Counsel, called for any debate about the publishing of the cables to have a well-defined understanding of the difference between something which appeared to be morally wrong and an act that was illegal.
"As far as I can see, nothing Mr Assange has done does break the law," he said.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said yesterday that he believed the release of the cables could threaten the lives of people providing information to intelligence and law enforcement officials.
The federal police were not only looking at whether any Australian law had been breached by Mr Assange, but would help US law enforcement authorities in their investigations, he said.
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said yesterday the government had a responsibility to look after Mr Assange as an Australian citizen.
"He's been convicted of nothing," Mr Brown told reporters in Hobart.
Mr Brown said leaking the information was not a crime.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told Barrie Cassidy on the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday that if Mr Assange had broken the law he should be prosecuted.
AAP with smh.com.au
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has again been unable to name any Australian laws broken by the controversial WikiLeaks website or its founder Julian Assange.
Western governments are increasingly calling for Mr Assange to be stopped as WikiLeaks continues to publish more than 250,000 confidential documents from the United States State Department.
But asked directly what Australian laws had been broken by either WikiLeaks or Mr Assange, Ms Gillard said the Australian Federal Police were investigating.
"The foundation stone of it is an illegal act," Ms Gillard told reporters today.
But the "foundation stone" was the leaking of the documents to the website, not the publishing of the cables.
"It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken," Ms Gillard said.
It is widely assumed the man responsible for the leaks is a US soldier who is already in prison for previous leaks.
"It's grossly irresponsible and anybody who looks at the pages of today's newspaper and sees that things like critical infrastructure lists are being put on WikiLeaks ... would understand how grossly irresponsible this is," Ms Gillard said.
A classified cable listing infrastructure critical to the US was published by the site on Monday.
The list included some Australian-based infrastructure including the already widely known undersea telecommunications cable - the Southern Cross Cable.
Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis accused Ms Gillard of being "clumsy" with her language on the issue of illegality.
"As far as I can see, he [Mr Assange] hasn't broken any Australian law," he told Sky News.
"Nor does it appear he has broken any American laws."
Senator Brandis, a Queen's Counsel, called for any debate about the publishing of the cables to have a well-defined understanding of the difference between something which appeared to be morally wrong and an act that was illegal.
"As far as I can see, nothing Mr Assange has done does break the law," he said.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said yesterday that he believed the release of the cables could threaten the lives of people providing information to intelligence and law enforcement officials.
The federal police were not only looking at whether any Australian law had been breached by Mr Assange, but would help US law enforcement authorities in their investigations, he said.
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said yesterday the government had a responsibility to look after Mr Assange as an Australian citizen.
"He's been convicted of nothing," Mr Brown told reporters in Hobart.
Mr Brown said leaking the information was not a crime.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told Barrie Cassidy on the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday that if Mr Assange had broken the law he should be prosecuted.
AAP with smh.com.au
Brazil angers US and Israel with its pro-Palestine move
Adrian Blomfield
December 7, 2010
JERUSALEM: Brazil has been accused of undermining the Middle East peace process after it formally recognised Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in his last month as Brazil's President, caused anger in Israel and the US by officially acknowledging Palestinian sovereignty over territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
By breaking ranks with his South American allies, Mr Lula da Silva appeared to be consolidating his legacy as the leader that turned Brazil into a major force on the world stage. But the move was denounced by Israel as a unilateral attempt to bypass the peace process that would ''harm trust'' between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships.
US politicians condemned Brazil's ''severely misguided'' and ''regrettable'' decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
Brazil's decision ''is regrettable and will only serve to undermine peace and security in the Middle East,'' said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Ms Ros-Lehtinen will chair the panel from January when the new Congress sits. She said ''responsible nations'' should wait until Palestinians return to direct talks with Israel and recognise its ''right to exist as a Jewish state'', before taking such a step.
A Democrat, Eliot Engel, chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing relations with Latin America, condemned Brazil's move.
''Brazil's decision to recognise Palestine is severely misguided and represents a last gasp by a Lula-led foreign policy which was already substantially off track,'' Mr Engel said. ''Brazil is sending a message to the Palestinians that they need not make peace to gain recognition as a sovereign state.''
Mr Lula da Silva's decision, announced in a public letter to Mahmoud Abbas, his Palestinian counterpart, is the latest evidence of Brazil's growing interest in the politics of the Middle East.
In recent years, Brazil has been involved in unofficial ''back channel'' negotiations between Israel and Syria. In March, Mr Lula da Silva also became the first Brazilian leader officially to visit the Holy Land.
The trip was not without its controversies. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, refused to meet Mr Lula da Silva after he laid a wreath at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's grave and then turned down an invitation to lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism.
Mr Lula da Silva's bid to reach out to Iran, which he visited in May after hosting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has also raised concerns in the US and Israel. Brazil and Turkey voted against a UN Security Council resolution in June imposing new sanctions on Iran's nuclear program after the two countries negotiated a deal to swap enriched uranium for fuel to power a reactor for medical isotopes.
Brazil's foreign ministry defended the move to recognise Palestinian sovereignty, saying it still believed a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinian leadership was ''essential''.
More than 100 states, mostly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, have recognised Palestinian statehood, and Brazil becomes the last of the BRIC group of emerging powers - Brazil, Russia, India and China - to do so.
But Israel fears that other South American countries could now follow suit and there was speculation that Peru may do so in the next few days.
Telegraph, London; Bloomberg
December 7, 2010
JERUSALEM: Brazil has been accused of undermining the Middle East peace process after it formally recognised Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in his last month as Brazil's President, caused anger in Israel and the US by officially acknowledging Palestinian sovereignty over territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
By breaking ranks with his South American allies, Mr Lula da Silva appeared to be consolidating his legacy as the leader that turned Brazil into a major force on the world stage. But the move was denounced by Israel as a unilateral attempt to bypass the peace process that would ''harm trust'' between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships.
US politicians condemned Brazil's ''severely misguided'' and ''regrettable'' decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
Brazil's decision ''is regrettable and will only serve to undermine peace and security in the Middle East,'' said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Ms Ros-Lehtinen will chair the panel from January when the new Congress sits. She said ''responsible nations'' should wait until Palestinians return to direct talks with Israel and recognise its ''right to exist as a Jewish state'', before taking such a step.
A Democrat, Eliot Engel, chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing relations with Latin America, condemned Brazil's move.
''Brazil's decision to recognise Palestine is severely misguided and represents a last gasp by a Lula-led foreign policy which was already substantially off track,'' Mr Engel said. ''Brazil is sending a message to the Palestinians that they need not make peace to gain recognition as a sovereign state.''
Mr Lula da Silva's decision, announced in a public letter to Mahmoud Abbas, his Palestinian counterpart, is the latest evidence of Brazil's growing interest in the politics of the Middle East.
In recent years, Brazil has been involved in unofficial ''back channel'' negotiations between Israel and Syria. In March, Mr Lula da Silva also became the first Brazilian leader officially to visit the Holy Land.
The trip was not without its controversies. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, refused to meet Mr Lula da Silva after he laid a wreath at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's grave and then turned down an invitation to lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism.
Mr Lula da Silva's bid to reach out to Iran, which he visited in May after hosting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has also raised concerns in the US and Israel. Brazil and Turkey voted against a UN Security Council resolution in June imposing new sanctions on Iran's nuclear program after the two countries negotiated a deal to swap enriched uranium for fuel to power a reactor for medical isotopes.
Brazil's foreign ministry defended the move to recognise Palestinian sovereignty, saying it still believed a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinian leadership was ''essential''.
More than 100 states, mostly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, have recognised Palestinian statehood, and Brazil becomes the last of the BRIC group of emerging powers - Brazil, Russia, India and China - to do so.
But Israel fears that other South American countries could now follow suit and there was speculation that Peru may do so in the next few days.
Telegraph, London; Bloomberg
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
China preparing for collapse of N. Korea regime, cables say
John Garnaut BEIJING
December 1, 2010
A SERIES of leaked US diplomatic cables is prompting the world to confront the dilemma of which country or army should stabilise North Korea and secure its nuclear facilities in the event of regime collapse.
Beijing sees the isolated nation as a buffer against the US military presence in the region and has declined to engage the US in contingency discussions, Chinese and American analysts have said.
In February, South Korea's then-vice foreign minister, Chun Yong-woo, relayed to US diplomats that China "would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the US in a 'benign alliance'", citing conversations with two senior Chinese officials, according to secret US State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Mr Chun added a key rider to this formula: ''As long as Korea was not hostile towards China.''
Since then, China has raised its rhetorical and diplomatic support for North Korea despite its neighbour being blamed for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors, and last week's artillery assault that killed four South Koreans.
China's solidarity with Pyongyang has prodded Seoul further into the embrace of the US.
A separate cable from the US embassy in Seoul in January last year says the South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, asked the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, whether China had any contingency plans for regime collapse.
''Hu apparently pretended not to hear Lee,'' it said.
The vice-dean of Peking University's school of international studies, Jia Qingguo, said the lack of a US-China dialogue was creating ''worrying'' uncertainties. ''Who is going to take control of the situation and what about the nuclear facilities?'' he said.
The cables also reveal senior South Korean officials commenting that the North's economic and political situation is dire. They cited intelligence reports of a bomb scare on a Kim Jong-il train, unrest in the country's north, and the secret defection of high-ranking officials to the South.
Mr Chun, now national security adviser to Mr Lee, was reported to have said the regime would collapse when Mr Kim dies.
Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Peking University, said the regime would not last long and China would inevitably support South Korean-led reunification, partly because it had no choice.
''If China dispatched troops across the Yalu River what would be the result? They will outrage South Koreans, raise unbelievable concerns from Japan, and US-China policy could change very tremendously,'' he said.
''I don't think China has any real intention of falling into a new Cold War; it's totally against China's interests. You can say Beijing foreign policy is not so smart sometimes but it will not always be stupid.''
Cai Jian, a North Korea expert at Fudan University, said China was conducting internal ''response planning'' even if those plans were not being communicated to the US. He said China's ''baseline'' was that there would be no ''hostile regime'' and no US military presence in North Korea.
''If South Korea keeps its pro-US policy then China has to maintain stability through North Korea,'' he said.
The WikiLeaks cables also revealed a Chinese diplomat slamming North Korea's nuclear activities as a ''threat to the whole world's security'' and a senior Russian diplomat deriding North Korea's ballistic missile test as ''a piece of junk that miraculously flew'' and a South Korean minister slamming China's top North Korea negotiator as an old-school communist not up to the job.
with Sanghee Liu
December 1, 2010
A SERIES of leaked US diplomatic cables is prompting the world to confront the dilemma of which country or army should stabilise North Korea and secure its nuclear facilities in the event of regime collapse.
Beijing sees the isolated nation as a buffer against the US military presence in the region and has declined to engage the US in contingency discussions, Chinese and American analysts have said.
In February, South Korea's then-vice foreign minister, Chun Yong-woo, relayed to US diplomats that China "would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the US in a 'benign alliance'", citing conversations with two senior Chinese officials, according to secret US State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Mr Chun added a key rider to this formula: ''As long as Korea was not hostile towards China.''
Since then, China has raised its rhetorical and diplomatic support for North Korea despite its neighbour being blamed for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors, and last week's artillery assault that killed four South Koreans.
China's solidarity with Pyongyang has prodded Seoul further into the embrace of the US.
A separate cable from the US embassy in Seoul in January last year says the South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, asked the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, whether China had any contingency plans for regime collapse.
''Hu apparently pretended not to hear Lee,'' it said.
The vice-dean of Peking University's school of international studies, Jia Qingguo, said the lack of a US-China dialogue was creating ''worrying'' uncertainties. ''Who is going to take control of the situation and what about the nuclear facilities?'' he said.
The cables also reveal senior South Korean officials commenting that the North's economic and political situation is dire. They cited intelligence reports of a bomb scare on a Kim Jong-il train, unrest in the country's north, and the secret defection of high-ranking officials to the South.
Mr Chun, now national security adviser to Mr Lee, was reported to have said the regime would collapse when Mr Kim dies.
Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Peking University, said the regime would not last long and China would inevitably support South Korean-led reunification, partly because it had no choice.
''If China dispatched troops across the Yalu River what would be the result? They will outrage South Koreans, raise unbelievable concerns from Japan, and US-China policy could change very tremendously,'' he said.
''I don't think China has any real intention of falling into a new Cold War; it's totally against China's interests. You can say Beijing foreign policy is not so smart sometimes but it will not always be stupid.''
Cai Jian, a North Korea expert at Fudan University, said China was conducting internal ''response planning'' even if those plans were not being communicated to the US. He said China's ''baseline'' was that there would be no ''hostile regime'' and no US military presence in North Korea.
''If South Korea keeps its pro-US policy then China has to maintain stability through North Korea,'' he said.
The WikiLeaks cables also revealed a Chinese diplomat slamming North Korea's nuclear activities as a ''threat to the whole world's security'' and a senior Russian diplomat deriding North Korea's ballistic missile test as ''a piece of junk that miraculously flew'' and a South Korean minister slamming China's top North Korea negotiator as an old-school communist not up to the job.
with Sanghee Liu
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