Daily Archives: October 25, 2014

Charlestown Labor candidate and now MP-elect Jodie Harrison at the Charlestown Public School polling booth. Picture: Liam Driver Source: News Corp Australia

Newcastle Labor candidate and now MP-elect Tim Crakanthorp holds his daughter Avalon after voting at the Hamilton South Public School. Picture: Liam Driver Source: News Corp Australia

Voting at The Junction Public School polling booth in Newcastle. Picture: Liam Driver Source: News Corp Australia

LABOR tonight declared victory in two ICAC-triggered NSW state by-elections in the Hunter Valley. 

Opposition Leader John Robertson said Newcastle and Charlestown had returned to ALP hands as was widely expected after being lost in the anti-Labor general-election landslide of 2011.

The ruling Coalition did not field candidates.

The seats were vacated in August after the resignations of Liberals Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell who admitted to the Independent Commission Against Corruption that they had taken banned donations.

Voters in the two seats will have to go to the polls again in March for the state’s general election.

The result takes Labor’s lower house tally from 21 to 23. That is still well short of the 47 seats needed to form government.

Incoming Labor MP for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said the traditionally safe Labor area would never be taken for granted again.

“Today we showed the Liberals that Newcastle is a Labor town,” he told a crowd of Labor supporters at the Premier Hotel in Broadmeadow.

Mr Owen and Mr Cornwell quit the NSW parliament in August after making admissions to ICAC about banned donations they had received.

Mr Crakanthorp, a Newcastle City councillor, and Lake Macquarie mayor Jodie Harrison had been expected to pick up both seats.

The Liberals did not run candidates in what NSW party director Tony Nutt describes as an act of “atonement”.

Mr Crakanthorp said earlier today he hoped his victory in Newcastle would give Labor momentum for the March general election.

“It’s about trying to engage people and convince them that Labor is back,” he told reporters outside Hamilton South Public School before casting his vote.

Ms Harrison, standing in Charlestown, said she was focused on restoring trust and integrity in NSW politics.

“I’ll be working very hard between now and March to be re-elected,” she said.

source: theaustralian.com.au

Decision time: Voters arrive at Stockton Public School to vote in the Newcastle byelection. Photo: Max Mason-Hubers

 

Early results had Labor candidates ahead in two Hunter byelections called after the political donations scandal claimed the scalps of two sitting MPs.

In a city still reeling from the effects of the ICAC investigation, politics and trust remain wildly opposed, with a host of independents seeking to make headway amid the major parties’ problems.

The ICAC investigations into property developer donations saw two Liberal MPs – Tim Owen in Newcastle and Andrew Cornwell in Charlestown – resign, and also put the region’s two other Liberal MPs on the crossbenches.

In early counts, Labor’s Tim Crakanthorp was ahead in Newcastle, but high-profile businesswoman and independent Karen Howard was challenging strongly with Greens candidate Michael Osborne not far behind.

In Charlestown, Lake Macquarie mayor and Labor candidate Jodie Harrison appeared to be cruising to victory.

Palmer United-backed independents were polling poorly in early counts in both seats.

The full measure of the ICAC-inflicted damage to the major parties will be digested in the final counts.

But even the most hopeful pundit would be hard pressed to see too much upside in Labor wins for Opposition leader John Robertson, who practically became part of the furniture in the city during the campaign.

Two Labor victories will give them 23 seats. Labor would still need another 24 seats to fall their way to form government in March.

Independents, including two backed heavily by Palmer United Party’s Clive Palmer, joined Greens and minor party candidates to cash in on the major party malaise.

In the past fortnight, the political big guns have left none of the city’s doors unknocked. Mr Palmer and PUP’s Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus, and the Greens’ Adam Bandt, Lee Rhiannon and John Kaye have been regular visitors.

Kay Sneddon was among the thousands of Novocastrians who yesterday dodged their way through the paper-ladened party hacks clogging community hall entrances.

“I think it’s a waste of money,” she said.

“We haven’t had a representative since June. I think we should wait just a few more months (for the March state election).”

Adamstown’s Rosa Volpe “just picked”.

“I have no idea who anyone is,” she said.

Chris Bosworth headed in with his children Ava and Angus. He said he saw no point in electing someone for a few months, or just 12 parliamentary sitting days.

“I’m getting it out of the way so I can play golf,” he said.

“I still haven’t decided. I’m thinking I might just tick my name off and not vote. I’ve never done it before, but this is a waste of time.”

Premier Mike Baird has been the only notable absentee in Newcastle over the past month, saying his decision not to stand candidates in Newcastle and Charlestown was “atonement” for his misbehaving MPs.

Newcastle voters will go to the polls again in three weeks to vote for a new lord mayor and then back up again in March for the full state election.

source: smh.com.au

Προβλήματα σε 10 δήμους από την νεροποντή που έπληξε η Αττική την Παρασκευή. Στα 250 με 300 τα αυτοκίνητα που παρασύρθηκαν από τα νερά. Πόσα σπίτια έχουν καταστραφεί. Πάνω από 850 οι κλήσεις στην ΠΥ

Καταγραφή των ζημιών κάνουν από το πρωί του Σαββάτου τα συνεργεία των Δήμων και των συναρμόδιων υπηρεσιών στο Περιστέρι, τη Νίκαια και τις υπόλοιπες περιοχές που επλήγησαν από την ισχυρή βροχόπτωση την Παρασκευή. Παράλληλα, σύμφωνα με τον γγ Πολιτικής Προστασίας Σεραφείμ Τσόκα, δεν υπάρχουν αγνοούμενοι στο γκαράζ του σούπερ μάρκετ στο Ίλιον που πλημμύρισε.

Σύμφωνα με τον κ. Τσόκα, προβλήματα έχουν σημειωθεί σε 10 δήμους, ενώ έχουν παρασυρθεί από τα νερά 250 με 300 αυτοκίνητα. Επίσης, ζημιές υπάρχουν σε σπίτια και ήδη βρίσκεται σε εξέλιξη η διαδικασία καταγραφής τους. Όπως, είπε μέσα σε μιάμιση ώρα έπεσαν 14 εκατοστά νερού, ενώ αν έβρεχε όλη ημέρα υπό κανονικές συνθήκες το ύψος της βροχής θα έφθανε τα 5 εκατοστά.

H Τζαμπαρί στη διάρκεια της δίκης της

Η παγκόσμια εκστρατεία για να μην εκτελεστεί η θανατική ποινή στην περίπτωση της 26χρονης ιρανής Ρεϊανέχ Τζαμπαρί δεν απέδωσε καρπούς. Τα ξημερώματα του Σαββάτου, η νεαρή που καταδικάστηκε σε θάνατο, επειδή μαχαίρωσε τον επίδοξο βιαστή της, οδηγήθηκε στην κρεμάλα.

Στη διάρκεια της δικής της, η Τζαμπαρί υποστήριξε ότι σκότωσε βρισκόμενη σε αυτοάμυνα. Μάλιστα, στο δικαστήριο υποστήριξε ότι εκείνη μαχαίρωσε τον δράστη και ότι κάποιο άλλο άτομο τού έδωσε το τελειωτικό χτύπημα.

Οι δικαστές δεν πείστηκαν με τα επιχειρήματά της και την καταδίκασαν σε θάνατο. Μάλιστα, το Ανώτατο Δικαστήριο του Ιράν επικύρωσε τη θανατική ποινή.

Στη νεαρή είχε δοθεί 10ήμερη προθεσμία, ώστε να πείσει τους συγγενείς του θύματος να την συγχωρέσουν. Ούτε αυτό απέδωσε καρπούς.

Πηγή:in.gr

Scathing of the US … Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a 40-minute diatribe against the West during a speech in Sochi. Photo: Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of endangering global security by imposing a “unilateral diktat” on the rest of the world and shifted blame for the Ukraine crisis onto the West.

In a 40-minute diatribe against the West that was reminiscent of the Cold War and underlined the depth of the rift between Moscow and the West, Putin also denied trying to rebuild the Soviet empire at the expense of Russia’s neighbours.

“We did not start this,” Putin told an informal group of experts on Russia that includes many Western specialists critical of him, warning that Washington was trying to “remake the whole world” based on its own interests.

“Statements that Russia is trying to reinstate some sort of empire, that it is encroaching on the sovereignty of its neighbours, are groundless,” the former KGB spy declared in a speech delivered standing at a podium, without a smile, in a ski resort in mountains above the Black Sea city of Sochi.

Listing a series of conflicts in which he faulted US actions, including Libya, Syria and Iraq, Putin asked whether Washington’s policies had strengthened peace and democracy.

“No,” he declared. “The unilateral diktat and the imposing of schemes (on others) have exactly the opposite effect.”

Putin, 62, has stepped up anti-Western rhetoric since returning to the Kremlin as president in 2012, helping push up his popularity ratings since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March.

Even so, the speech was one of the most hostile Putin has delivered against the West and it appeared partly intended to show Russian voters he will stand up to the rest of the world and defend their interests.

The criticisms of a world order dominated by Washington, more than two decades after the Cold War, recalled a 2007 speech in Munich in which Putin shocked the West by lambasting Washington’s “unipolar” world view. The speech prompted many Western leaders to reassess their view of Putin.

Shifting the blame

The annual meetings of what is known as the Valdai Club have rarely featured such open, direct and tough language in their debates on Russian policy.

Critics say the meetings have become a showcase for Kremlin policy, with the session attended by Putin shown live on state television and little discussion of Russia’s record on human rights and democracy, which is criticised in the West.

Putin rejected criticism over the Ukraine crisis, in which Moscow has sided with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and threw the West’s criticisms of Moscow back in its face.

Repeating accusations that Western governments helped pro-Western groups stage a coup d’etat that ousted a pro-Moscow president in Kiev in February, Putin said: “No one wanted to listen to us and no one wanted to talk to us.”

“Instead of a difficult but, I underline, civilised dialogue they brought about a state coup. They pushed the country into chaos, economic and social collapse, and civil war with huge losses,” he said.

Dismissing US and European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow as a mistake, he said: “Russia will not be posturing, get offended, ask someone for anything. Russia is self-sufficient.”

He made only passing references to the decline of Russia’s $US2 trillion ($2.27 trillion) economy, which is in danger of sliding into recession as its currency tumbles along with the price of oil, its main export item.

But he said in a question and answer session after his speech that Russia would not burn though its gold and foreign currency reserves thoughtlessly to prop up the economy.

Putin has increasingly sought to shift blame for the economic crisis onto global problems, the sanctions and the oil price. He and other Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have also used increasingly tough language to blame the West for the Ukraine crisis.

A ceasefire has been in force in Ukraine since September 5, but it has been violated daily and the West says Moscow continues to have troops and weapons in east Ukraine. Russia denies this.

source: smh.com.au