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NEWCASTLE is now officially endorsed as a city of the United Nations with a historic signing of an agreement in Geneva at the weekend.

Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes and Newcastle university vice-chancellor Caroline McMillen joined UN assistant secretary-general Nikhil Seth on Saturday at the UN headquarters, signing Newcastle up as the 15th city in the world to house an international training centre for global authorities and leaders.

The centre, which will attract UN delegations from throughout the world, will focus on advancing environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and enhancing urban government and economic development throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

It will also allow Newcastle to fly the UN flag over government buildings, putting it among the likes of Atlanta, Edinburgh, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur.

‘‘This is a significant moment in history for Newcastle,’’ Cr Nelmes said from Geneva on Sunday.

‘‘Becoming a UN city, home to the Asia-Pacific training and research arm of the UN, is both a great opportunity and recognition of the importance of collaboration and partnerships for our future growth and prosperity.’’

Specifically, the training centre will focus its efforts on minimising the risk of man-made or natural disasters around the world.

A delegation working in that area is already booked to visit Newcastle next year.

Cr Nelmes addressed a UN network forum on Friday, Geneva time, noting the transformation Newcastle was undergoing and its ideals and goals which were already in line with those of the UN.

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The UN recently updated its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which Cr Nelmes said mirrored much of what Newcastle was aiming for.

Newcastle was transitioning to a diversified economy, she said, from the traditional mining, steel and manufacturing base to one focused on ‘‘clean and sustainable energy, health and medical research and services, and the creative industries’’. She noted the work already being done at the university by associate professor Graham Brewer ‘‘which varies from the inclusion of Indigenous training and capacity … and engaging the Pacific Island community through to local projects which address long-onset disaster risk preparedness regarding the future of jobs in our regions’’.

‘‘There is an opportunity for our city with a $460million redevelopment program that will take place over the coming years,’’ Cr Nelmes told the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

‘‘The partnerships that I have mentioned will all play a role in the planning and delivery. Our role in local government is to ensure that the long-held planning principles that protect the heritage nature of our city centre are protected whilst also ensuring that economic growth is sustained and inclusive.

‘‘One of the most important factors is involving the community in the process. It is an exciting time,’’ she said.

Professor McMillen also described the signing as a ‘‘proud moment for the University of Newcastle, our city and region’’. The agreement will build on the academic strengths of the university and ‘‘make a real difference to communities around the world coping with the aftermath of disaster’’.
■ Cities endorsed by the United Nations as global training and research centres

Geneva, Switzerland (HQ)

Edinburgh, Scotland

Atlanta, United States

Merida, Mexico

Shanghai, China

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Durban, South Africa

Jeju, South Korea

Flanders, Belgium

Plock, Poland

Maghreb, Algeria

Curitiba, Brazil

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

El Salvador, El Salvador

Quito, Ecuador

Newcastle, Australia

■ What is UNITAR and what does it mean for Newcastle?

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research is the principal training arm of the United Nations, working in every region of the world.
It aims to empower individuals, governments and organisations through knowledge and learning to effectively overcome contemporary global challenges.
In Newcastle, the training centre will focus on research into ways of reducing global disaster risk.
Such disasters include floods and earthquakes, famine, climate change and industrial downturns. Under the agreement, Newcastle will become an official UN city and will be able to fly the UN flag above City Hall.

source:theherald.com.au

A Russian plane that crashed in Egypt broke up ‘in the air’ strewing fragments across a wide area, an expert says, as investigators probed the disaster that killed all 224 people on board.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi urged patience to determine the cause of Saturday’s crash, after the Islamic State jihadist group claimed it brought down the A-321 in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula.

‘The disintegration happened in the air and the fragments are strewn over a large area,’ said Viktor Sorochenko, a senior official with Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee, quoted by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.Sorochenko, who is heading an international panel of experts, said it was ‘too early to draw conclusions’ about what caused the Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg flight to go down.

Russian officials say they need to comb through an area of about 16 square kilometres in the Sinai Peninsula.Investigators have recovered the plane’s ‘black box’ flight recorder and the Egyptian government said its contents were being analysed.

‘In such cases, leave it to specialists to determine the cause of the plane crash because it is a subject of an extensive and complicated technical study,’ Sisi said.

The crash site in the Wadi al-Zolomat area of North Sinai was littered with blackened parts of the plane, as the smell of burnt metal lingered in the air, an AFP correspondent said.

There were no bodies visible but soldiers guarded dozen of bags as well as black, red and orange suitcases of passengers from flight KGL 9268.

Nearby lay a tiny red jacket, probably of a child, underlining the horror of the tragedy that killed 17 children.Officers involved in search efforts said rescue crews had recovered 168 bodies so far, including that of a three-year-old girl found eight kilometres from the main wreckage.

Flags were flying at half mast in Russia on Sunday and entertainment television programs were cancelled as part of a national day of mourning for the victims.

Cairo said there were 214 Russian and three Ukranian passengers on board, and seven crew members.Cairo and Moscow downplayed the claim from the Islamic State’s branch in Egypt that it brought down the aircraft flown by Kogalymavia airline, operating under the name Metrojet.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed the militants could not down a plane at the 9000-metre altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at, while Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim ‘cannot be considered accurate’.

Germany’s Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France all said they would halt flights over Sinai until the reasons behind the crash were clarified.

The IS affiliate waging an insurgency in the Sinai claimed it brought down the plane in revenge for Russian air strikes against the group in Syria.But experts rejected the idea.

To reach a plane at that altitude ‘you would need hard-to-use missiles, so it seems unlikely,’ said Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of France’s BEA aviation investigation agency.

‘This requires trained people and equipment that IS does not have, to my knowledge.’Experts said a surface-to-air missile could have struck the aircraft if it had been descending, and that a bomb on board could not yet be ruled out, but technical or human error was more likely.

Kogalymavia defended the pilot, Valery Nemov, who it said had more than 12,000 hours of flying experience, including 3860 hours on an Airbus A321. –

source:skynews.com.au

Βρετανικά δημοσιεύματα συνεχίζουν να φέρνουν τον Ζοσέ Μουρίνιο σε δεινή θέση αναφορικά με το μέλλον του στον πάγκο της Τσέλσι. Σύμφωνα τουλάχιστον με τη Mirror, ο Ρόμαν Αμπράμοβιτς είναι έτοιμος να απολύσει για δεύτερη φορά τον Πορτογάλο προπονητή μετά την έκτη φετινή ήττα των «μπλε», με 3-1 από τη Λίβερπουλ το Σάββατο.

Mάλιστα δεν αποκλείεται αυτό να συμβεί ακόμη και πριν από τον αγώνα της Τετάρτης με τη Ντιναμό Κιέβου για το Champions League.

Ωστόσο ο Ζοσέ Μουρίνιο δήλωσε πως δεν ανησυχεί για τη θέση του και εξακολουθεί να νιώθει τη στήριξη της διοίκησης της Τσέλσι.

Ο Πορτογάλος είχε υπογράψει το καλοκαίρι νέο τετραετές συμβόλαιο έναντι 9,5 εκατ. λιρών το χρόνο και βάσει της συμφωνίας που έχει κάνει, εφόσον απολυθεί θα πρέπει να εισπράξει ως αποζημίωση το ετήσιο συμβόλαιό του.

Πηγή:in.gr

Δεν είναι η πρώτη φορά που ο Κώστας Μανωλάς έχει μπει στο στόχαστρο μεγάλων ομάδων. Σύμφωνα με δημοσίευμα του βρετανικού Τύπου Αρσεναλ και Τότεναμ εξετάζουν την περίπτωση του διεθνή αμυντικού.

Η «Sunday People» αναφέρει πως οι δύο Λονδρέζικες ομάδες επιθυμούν διακαώς την απόκτηση του Μανωλά και αναμένεται να κινηθούν επίσημα για την απόκτησή του. Όπως γράφει χαρακτηριστικά, Αρσεναλ και Τότεναμ τον παρακολουθούν εδώ και καιρό και δεν θα αργήσουν να καταθέσουν πρόταση.

Ο Μανωλάς πάντως δεν θα αποχωρήσει εύκολα από τη Ρόμα, καθώς οι ιθύνοντες της ιταλικής ομάδας υπολογίζουν πολύ στον Ελληνα αμυντικό και δεν επιθυμούν να τον πουλήσουν.

Πηγή:in.gr

Four major Greek banks must find up to 14.4 billion euros ($15.8 billion) to survive potential economic shocks, the European Central Bank said, releasing the results of an in-depth financial health check.

Weakened after years of recession, Greece’s banks took a further battering this year when the government pushed the country to the brink of a euro exit in a standoff with Berlin and Brussels over the terms of Greece’s international bailout.

While less than anticipated under the new aid package — Greece’s third since 2010 — the big four banks now have until Friday to explain how they will plug the capital hole on their balance sheets.

Greece’s Alpha Bank, Eurobank, the National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank were all submitted to a health check by the ECB known as a “comprehensive assessment”.

The health check comprises an asset quality review and a forward-looking stress test aimed at assessing “the specific recapitalisation needs of the individual banks” under Greece’s current economic adjustment programme.

“Overall, the stress test identified a capital shortfall across the four participating banks of 4.4 billion euros, under the baseline scenario, and 14.4 billion euros under the adverse scenario,” the ECB said.

That is less than the 25 billion euros earmarked for the recapitalisation of the four major banks in the 86 billion euro bailout package agreed between Greece and its creditors this summer.

Piraeus was the weakest, with an anticipated shortfall of nearly five billion euros in an adverse scenario.

The banks have until November 6 to submit plans showing how they plan to cover their shortfalls, as part of a recapitalisation process to be completed before the end of the year.

Raising fresh capital would “result in the creation of prudential buffers at the four Greek banks, which will improve the resilience of their balance sheets and their capacity to withstand (a) potential adverse macroeconomic shock,” the ECB added.

Any capital increase would be the third for Greece’s banks since the country got its first international bailout in 2010, and come ahead of new more stringent rules for European banks come into force in January.

On Friday, the Greek government submitted draft legislation to parliament paving the way for the recapitalisation process to begin on Monday.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Saturday praised the results of the stress tests and said he was “optimistic” over the process.

An ECB official said in a conference call: “Private investors’ contributions are expected to play a significant role in the capital-raising process by means of taking common shares.”

But if the private sector response is not sufficient, “the banks will enter into resolution,” the Greek finance ministry said earlier.

Analysts say Piraeus is the most exposed to bad loans because it has been a top lender to small and medium-sized Greek businesses that have particularly suffered under years of recession.

The bank on Saturday said it took bad loan provisions of 2.121 billion euros in the January-to-September period, down from 3.197 billion euros in the same period last year.

It reported a net loss of 635 million euros in the period, down 61 percent from last year.

The National Bank of Greece, meanwhile, reported a net loss of 1.614 billion euros for the second quarter, with provisions for bad loans in Greece soaring to 2.3 billion euros from 323 million in the first quarter.

Eurobank noted in a press release that it was ranked “as the Greek bank with the lowest, and fully manageable, capital needs under the… adverse scenario (reflecting) the soundness of the strategy we have been consistently implementing.”

source:au.finance.yahoo.com

Muslim children should not be forced to sing the Australian anthem and “de-radicalisation” is an agenda of forced assimilation, hundreds of Islamic men, women and children were told this morning.

More than 500 people flocked to a forum in south-western Sydney addressing the “criminalisation” of the Islamic community in Australia.

Organised by the controversial group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) – the organisation that former prime minister Tony Abbott wanted banned – the conference includes eight speakers.

Among them is Ismail al-Wahwah, the Sydney-based leader of HuT, who was filmed in two sermons last year describing Jews as the “hidden evil” and calling for a “jihad against the Jews”.

The conference hall, at The Bellevue function centre in Bankstown, was packed out.

It began on Sunday morning with a recitation from the Koran and the screening of a short video depicting the fictional path of a young Muslim from skipping an Anzac Day ceremony to their home being raided by police.

The first speaker, Uthman Badar, asked why Muslim children should be “forced” to sing the Australian anthem, which presents a “disputed view of history”.

Deradicalisation, the HuT spokesman said, was an “agenda of forced assimilation … justified by exaggerated fears of a security threat”.

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It was a “myth” that terrorism was a Muslim phenomenon, Mr Badar said.

Inside a glossy, 36-page booklet, distributed at the forum, one section tutors the community in how to respond when ASIO comes knocking.

Titled Don’t be Spooked: How to Deal with Spies, it cautions against befriending people with unexplained pasts.

“They appear out of the abyss, with pasts that either cannot be explained or do not make sense,” the article reads.

“Keep your guard up in such cases.”

It also warns against interacting with unknown people online – these, too, could be spooks.

And it reminds Muslims that they are under no obligation to meet anyone from ASIO unless they have a warrant.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to hide! Why the need to meet with an agency that treats the entire community as possessors of knowledge of criminal activities or similar?” it states.

“Even if the spooks turn up on your door step (again, not an uncommon occurrence), politely decline their request to talk and insist on your legal right not to.”

source:theherald.com.au

The cold case of the woman dubbed ‘Angel’ has haunted University of Wollongong facial anthropologist Dr Susan Hayes.

So when police this week publicly identified the woman whose skeletal remains were discovered in Belanglo State Forest in 2010 as Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson, Dr Hayes felt a sense of peace.
Now Karlie – and her daughter Khandalyce whose remains were mysteriously found near a suitcase in South Australia just three months ago – could finally return home to Alice Springs.

Dr Hayes – currently on an archaelogical dig on a remote Indonesian island – said the identification would also allow her to analyse her unique facial approximation technique.

‘’From what I saw (of Karlie’s photo) I think there are some aspects that worked well and others that could have been done differently,’’ she said.
‘’… But although the identification of ‘Angel’ is going to be very helpful at an academic level, the most helpful thing is that Karlie and her little daughter will finally get to go home.’’
A year to the day after Karlie’s remains were found, Dr Hayes had stood in the Glebe morgue with the young woman’s skull in her hands.

Dr Susan Hayes with the replica skull she uses to teach facial anthropology. Pictures: GRAHAM TIDY

Unable to discover her identify through traditional methods, police had turned to Dr Hayes to give a face to the woman they had dubbed ‘Angel’ – due to the word ‘Angelic’ found on her T-shirt.

Dr Hayes painstakingly built up the layers of flesh, muscle and then skin using computer imaging techniques and CT scans. It was a technique she had used many times – but this time it was different.
‘’All cases stand out, and all skulls are unique. But Karlie is more special than most because she died such a short time ago,’’ she said.
‘’Most of my research is with people who have only very distant relatives living today – or absolutely none at all.’’
This has included working with historical remains from a few hundred years ago, to putting a face to an 18,000 year old ancient species of hominid discovered in 2003 known as the ‘Hobbit’.

‘’Working with Karlie in 2011 meant many things to me, both personally and professionally, and she still does,’’ Dr Hayes said.
‘’When the NSW police requested my assistance this meant that my research findings would actually have the potential to be of help to Australian people.

‘’Working with Karlie also meant that I would be putting my research right on the line … it is only with forensic cases that I can see how effective my methods actually are.

‘’Working with historical, archaeological and palaeontological remains … I have no way of knowing how accurate the results are.’’

source:illawarramercury.com.au

Koala numbers in south-west Victoria are soaring, with conservationists saying local gum trees are housing more than 100,000 of the furry marsupials.

The Portland Field Naturalist Club estimates the district could be home to at least a quarter of Australia’s koalas, and possibly more, but it depends which statistics on koala numbers are used.

The latest Federal Government statistics put Australia’s koala population at just over 400,000, but the Australian Koala Foundation say the figure is much lower, at between 40,000 and 85,000.

In the Portland and Mount Eccles regions of south-west Victoria, the koalas are literally eating themselves out of house and home, destroying the natural landscape of the gum trees.

Conservationists believe the region is on track to a situation similar to that in Victoria’s Otways region, where increasing koala numbers have caused the animals to starve and led authorities to sterilise them.

They argue if stakeholders act now, they could avoid a koala welfare situation.

Doug Phillips, a conservationist with the Portland Field Naturalist Club, describes the situation as a potential ecological disaster.

“We have a massive over population, with what appears to be no natural breeding control,” Mr Phillips said.

“They [the koalas] are browsing woodlands that have been severely depleted historically.”

Resident’s perspective

Artist Brett Jarrett knows the plight of gum trees all too well.

His family moved back to Portland four years ago for serenity, but instead, Mr Jarrett spends his time shielding trees on his property from hungry koalas.

His property has two dedicated hectares of gum tree woodlands, which previously flourished with bird life and bugs.

It’s now bare and dying from koalas over-grazing and Mr Jarrett is rapidly witnessing the ecological demise around his home.

Initially he said it was joyful photographing the koalas on his property for his paintings.

“Then all of a sudden I realised I don’t have to search too hard,” he said.

He said it was concerning watching trees die.

Trees which you think are okay “just start dying, even with leaves on them,” he said.

“If you have a healthy living tree it supports so much.”

Instead of Mr Jarrett’s trees being home to reptiles, lizards and native birds, he said they now only support a few bugs.

“Other than that, that’s it, the tree serves no purpose whatsoever, to any other living thing.”

Mr Jarrett estimates his two hectares of woodlands is home to about fifteen koalas, while according to the local conservation group, the sustainable level of koalas is one per hectare.

In one tree alone, Mr Jarrett has three koalas.

“They’re not just coming for a social get-together, it’s because they’re looking for a tree that has good food on it and they’ll fight over it to claim the tree.”

Wildlife rescuer from the Mosswood wildlife rescue centre, Tracey Wilson, said the situation was close to a disaster and similar to what was happening in the Otways region.

“I think it’s a lot closer perhaps than what some people think,” Ms Wilson said.

The Portland Field Naturalist Club believes a multifaceted approach is needed to tackle the issue.

“It could include a combination of fertility control and translocation, but importantly the reinstatement of permanent habitat,” Mr Phillips said.

The conservation group have organised a meeting in coming weeks to discuss appropriate action.

source:abc.net.au

Mumbai (AFP) – A female passenger was prevented from boarding a domestic flight in India because she was showing too much leg, the budget carrier IndiGo and newspaper reports said on Thursday.

The woman travelling from the western city of Mumbai to India’s capital New Delhi was not allowed to board Monday’s flight because her dress was too short, the Indian Express reported.

An official at IndiGo, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the dress had stopped above the knee, in violation of rules issued to employees and relatives of staff.

The woman was formerly employed by the airline and was travelling on a special ticket because her sister worked for the company, the official said.

“Employees and the nominated family members are required to maintain a specific dress code, as and when they fly with the airline under the staff leisure travel privileges,” read an IndiGo statement.

“Keeping in mind this policy, the Mumbai ground staff followed the protocol to brief this passenger on the dress code policy,” it added.

The Indian national changed her attire and was allowed onto a later flight, the official said, stressing that the dress code was not for ordinary customers.

IndiGo is India’s only consistently profitable airline and commands almost 40 percent of its home market, the biggest share of any airline.

It is currently seeking to raise $460 million through an initial public offering.

source:au.news.yahoo.com