NEWS,30.04.2012.

 

Obama and Clinton join forces for presidential campaign

Former United States President Bill Clinton gave a rousing endorsement of fellow Democrat Barack Obama in his first 2012 campaign appearance with the president today, and helped him raise more than $2 million.A white-haired and svelte Clinton, 65, pounded the podium and pointed at the crowd while addressing about 500 Obama supporters outside the Virginia home of his friend and Democratic adviser Terry McAuliffe."I think he's done a good job," he told the crowd in his signature raspy voice, warmly introducing the man who beat his wife, Hillary Clinton, to win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and then made her US secretary of state. "We are going the right direction under President Obama's leadership."Clinton's support could be pivotal for Obama's efforts to raise money and to sell voters on his economic plans, which Republicans have denounced as fiscally reckless and rooted in populism instead of good business sense.Clinton oversaw one of the most prosperous times in recent American history and managed to balance the federal budget, something Democrats are keen to remind voters before the November 6 election.When he took the backyard podium, Obama, 50, noted Clinton's "remarkable" economic record in his two White House terms and referred frequently to the political powerhouse standing behind him, who stands to be a huge fundraising force in the final months of the presidential campaign."I didn't run for president simply to get back to where we were in 2007. I didn't run for president simply to restore the status quo before the financial crisis. I ran for president because we had lost our way since Bill Clinton was done being president," Obama said.The state of the US economy is expected to be the pivotal issue for voters in November.With unemployment still relatively high and growth showing signs of slowing, Obama is under pressure to defend his string of big budget deficits and prove the soundness of his proposals to keep spending on infrastructure, clean energy and education and to raise taxes on the very rich.Neither Obama nor Clinton referred to George W. Bush, the Republican who served two presidential terms in between their tenures, nor the presumptive Republican nominee for this year's White House race, Mitt Romney, by name in their outdoor remarks.But Clinton said Obama's likely White House opponent this year wanted to revert to the policies that plunged the United States into crisis, but "on steroids, which will get you the same consequences as before, on steroids."Clinton applauded Obama's efforts in healthcare, clean energy promotion and student loan reform, and argued that US employment levels were rebounding quickly from the financial and mortgage crises that took hold before Obama took office."Look, the man's not Houdini, all he can do is beat the clock. He's beating the clock," he said, comparing the pace of US recovery to Japan's extended weakness after its own crisis. "The last thing you want to do is to turn around and embrace the policies that got us into trouble in the first place."Fresh from the previous night's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, where he took several digs at Romney, Obama was clearly in good humor at the Virginia event.Turning to foreign policy, Obama said he and Hillary Clinton had "spent the last three and a half years cleaning up other folks' messes," and made fun of Romney's recent comment that Russia was the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe.""I'm suddenly thinking, 'What? Maybe I didn't check the calendar this morning. I didn't know we were back in 1975,'" he said. The comment echoed Vice President Joe Biden's criticism last week of Romney as being stuck in a Cold War mindset.Clinton had not appeared with Obama this election cycle. But last week the Obama campaign released a video of Clinton praising Obama for approving the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May.Tickets to Sunday's outdoor reception cost $1,000 and up, and Obama and Clinton later addressed a more exclusive dinner at McAuliffe's home for 80 people who paid $20,000 each.The money went to a fund supporting Obama's re-election, the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic parties.

Aus billionaire to build Titanic II

Sydney - One of Australia's richest men, Clive Palmer, on Monday unveiled plans to build a 21st century version of the doomed Titanic in China, with its first voyage from England to New York set for 2016.Palmer, a self-made mining billionaire, said he had commissioned state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to construct Titanic II with the same dimensions as its predecessor."It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," Palmer said in a statement."Titanic II will sail in the northern hemisphere and her maiden voyage from England to North America is scheduled for late 2016."He added that he had invited the Chinese navy to escort the Titanic II to New York.The announcement comes just weeks after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic, which went down on April 15 1912 after striking an iceberg on its first voyage, from Southampton to New York.Palmer said the new ship would be a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original, which sank with the loss of 1 514 passengers and crew."These people produced work that is still marvelled at more than 100 years later and we want that spirit to go on for another 100 years," he said.Titanic was commissioned by White Star Line and was the largest liner in the world at the time.Palmer said he has established his own shipping company, Blue Star Line, with the new vessel having the same specifications as its predecessor - 270m long, 53m high and weighing some 40 000 tonnes.It will have 840 rooms and nine decks with design work in conjunction with an historical research team underway. No figure was given on how much it would cost.The only changes to the original would be below the water line including welding and not riveting, a bulbous bow for greater fuel efficiency, diesel generation and enlarged rudder and bow thrusters for increased manoeuvrability."Titanic II will be the ultimate in comfort and luxury with on-board gymnasiums and swimming pools, libraries, high class restaurants and luxury cabins," Palmer said.The ship would also include an exhibition room which will be located in the space of the original's coal boilers which will showcase his home state of Queensland.Palmer is estimated to be Australia's fifth richest person, worth more than Aus$5bn, thanks to his vast coal and other mining assets in Queensland and Western Australia.He has also branched out into tourism and owns the luxury Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast, while recently saying he wants to move into the media industry, a sector dominated byFairfax and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.His decision to commission a Chinese shipbuilding yard, which will also construct other luxury liners for the tycoon, reinforces his ties to the country, which is a key buyer of his coal and iron ore."The Chinese are renowned for building commercial cargo and container ships," he said."China currently produces around 2 to 3% of the world's luxury ships but is looking to challenge the Europeans who have around 75% of this market."The Chinese ship building industry with our assistance wants to be a major player in this market."The original Titanic was built in Belfast.

Head of UN mission urges peace in Syria

The head of the UN observer mission in Syria on Sunday called on President Bashar al-Assad and the country's opposition to stop fighting and allow a tenuous cease-fire to take hold.Major General Robert Mood spoke after arriving in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to take charge of an advance team of 16 UN monitors trying to salvage an international peace plan to end the country's 13-month-old crisis.Under the plan, a cease-fire is supposed to lead to talks between Assad and the opposition on a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 9 000 people.On Sunday, Syrian troops killed at least 28 civilians, including 14 in a village in the central Hama province, said an activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Opposition fighters shot dead three Syrian soldiers in a clash and four soldiers were killed while handling explosives, the group said.The Observatory also said several explosions were heard in Damascus, but provided no details.Mood told reporters that the 300 observers the UN has authorised for the mission "cannot solve all the problems" in Syria, asking for co-operation from forces loyal to Assad as well as rebels seeking to end his rule."We want to have combined efforts focusing on the welfare of the Syrian people," he said, "true cessation of violence in all its forms".The cease-fire began unravelling almost as soon as it went into effect 12 April. The regime has kept up its attacks on opposition strongholds, while rebel fighters have continued to ambush government security forces. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military has failed to withdraw tanks and soldiers from city streets.Despite the violence, the truce still enjoys the support of the international community, largely because it views the plan as the last chance to prevent the country from falling into civil war — and because it does not want to intervene militarily.Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that while he is still hopeful, "unfortunately, I am also aware how much this plan is at risk"."That's why it's especially important for this mission to expand quickly," Kellenberger told the Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag. He met with Syrian leaders earlier this month.Most analysts say the plan has little chance of succeeding, though it could temporarily bring down the level of daily violence.That has largely been the case in Homs, Syria's third largest city, which has emerged as the heart of the uprising. Regime forces pounded parts of Homs for months, leaving large swaths of the city in ruins, before two UN monitors moved into an upscale hotel there last week.Since then, the level of violence has dropped, although gunbattles still frequently break out. "The shooting has not stopped in Homs," local activist Tarek Badrakhan said on Sunday.An amateur video posted online on Saturday showed the observers walking through a heavily damaged neighbourhood, where residents collected a body lying in the street and put it in the back of a pickup truck.Mood, a Norwegian, was appointed head of the observer mission by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. One hundred monitors should be in the country by mid-May, said mission spokesman Neeraj Singh. It is unclear when or if the full contingent of 300 monitors will deploy to Syria.Mood brings a wealth of Middle East experience to the job, including stints with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon in 1989-1990 and as the head of a UN peacekeeping mission known as UNTSO from 2009 to 2011. That mission was the UN's first-ever peacekeeping operation, starting after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to monitor a cease-fire. It now watches cease-fires around the Middle East.The Syrian state news agency said observers visited the embattled Homs neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh on Sunday but provided no further information.The Observatory, an activist group monitoring the situation in Syria, said government snipers shot and killed two people in the neighbourhood of Joret al-Shayah, which borders Khaldiyeh.The group said an additional 26 civilians were killed by troops across Syria, including 14 in the village of Hamadi Omar in the central Hama province and a child in the southern province of Deir el-Zour.Ban has blamed the regime for widespread violations of the truce - prompting Syria to fire back that his comments were "outrageous" and accuse him of bias.The spat has further stoked concerns among the Syrian opposition and its Western supporters that Assad is merely playing for time to avoid compliance with a plan that - if fully implemented - would likely sweep him out of office.