Australia PM Julia Gillard announces child abuse probe

BY   ASARE   SAMUEL  ANSAH

PICTURE  BY  ASARE   SAMUEL  ANSAH

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// Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard: “Child abuse is always wrong, always heartbreaking”

 

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a national inquiry into institutional responses to the sexual abuse of children.

The move followed pressure from lawmakers amid police claims the Roman Catholic Church had concealed evidence of paedophile priests.

The inquiry will look at religious groups, NGOs and state-care providers as well as government agencies.

Ms Gillard said a Royal Commission was the best way to investigate the claims.

Late last week, the state of New South Wales announced an inquiry after a top policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, accused the church of trying to silence investigations into allegations of abuse.

Chief Inspector Fox, who had investigated several cases of sexual assault over 35 years, had called for a Royal Commission in an open letter.

“I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church,” he wrote.

A separate parliamentary inquiry into church sex abuse began last month in Victoria.

‘Ill-founded and inconsistent”

Ms Gillard said the allegations that had come to light were “heartbreaking”, concerning “insidious, evil acts to which no child should be subject”.

“The individuals concerned deserve the most thorough of investigations into the wrongs that have been committed against them,” she said in a statement.

Ms Gillard said there would be discussions with relevant state leaders on how the national inquiry would relate to existing probes.

The terms of reference for the inquiry, and the proposed commissioner, would be announced in coming weeks.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said he would support a wide-ranging commission, but said the investigation should not focus solely on the Catholic Church.

In a statement, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, representing Australian bishops, said it supported the announcement of a Royal Commission.

It said the church deeply regretted the suffering and trauma endured by children who had been in the church’s care, but said that “talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts”.

Abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests has been a major issue in Australia recent years.

In September, the Roman Catholic Church in the Australian state of Victoria confirmed that more than 600 children had been sexually abused by its priests since the 1930s.

During a visit to Australia in July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI met some of the victims and made a public apology for the abuse.

Japan economy contracts as global slowdown hits exports

BY  ASARE   SAMUEL  ANSAH

BUSINESS  NEWS

Japanese car makers have seen their sales in China slide after the anti-Japan protests

 

Japan’s economy contracted in the July to September quarter, as a global economic slowdown and anti-Japan protests in China hurt its exports, while domestic consumption remained subdued.

Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 3.5% from a year earlier.

Compared with the previous three months, the economy contracted 0.9%.

The weak data is likely to put pressure on the government to boost stimulus measures to spur growth.

“There are risks from both domestic and external factors,” said Tatsushi Shikano, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo.

“As such, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will stand ready to ease monetary policy again, and it would not surprise me if the BOJ eased again by the end of this year.”

Heading for recession?

Japan’s economy, the world’s third-largest, has been trying to recover from last year’s earthquake and tsunami, which caused widespread destruction in the country.

However, its recovery has been hampered by a combination of factors.

A slowdown in key markets, such as the US and eurozone has hurt demand for its exports, one of the biggest drivers of Japanese growth.

Slowing growth and anti-Japan protests in China – Japan’s biggest trading partner – have further impacted its export sector.

To add to its woes, the debt crisis in the eurozone and weak recovery in the US have seen many investors flock to safe-haven assets such as the yen, resulting in the Japanese currency strengthening against the US dollar and the euro.

The yen has risen 5% against the US dollar since March this year and 8.5% against the euro during that period.

That makes Japanese goods more expensive for American and European consumers, hurting the earnings of the country’s exporters.

To make matters worse, attempts by policymakers to boost domestic demand have had little effect. Private consumption fell 0.5% in the July to September quarter, from the previous three months.

Analysts said that given these factors the economy was likely to shrink further in the current quarter and enter a technical recession.

“The decline in exports seems large. Consumption and capital expenditure were also weak, showing that both external and domestic demand are weak,” said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.

“Economic data deteriorated sharply from September, and this means Japan is already in recession,” he added.

Focus on yen

Faced with slowing external and domestic demand, Japan’s central bank has taken various steps to try and spur growth.

Japanese Yen v US Dollar

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Earlier this month, the BOJ extended its asset purchase programme by 11 trillion yen ($138bn; £86bn). Under the programme, the central bank buys bonds to keep long-term borrowing costs down.

It also said that it will offer unlimited loans to banks to encourage lending in an effort to boost domestic consumption.

However, analysts said the measures were unlikely to have a major effect, not least because firms were holding back expansion plans in the wake of an uncertain economic environment.

“There is very little demand for credit. In fact Japanese firms are holding back on capital expenditure,” Junko Nishioka, the chief economist of RBS Securities in Tokyo, told the BBC.

Ms Nishioka added that policymakers instead needed to focus on measures that will help weaken the yen, as the uncertain global economic environment was likely to see the Japanese currency, which is seen by some as a safe-haven asset in such times, remain strong.

Argentina to seek international help over ship seizure

BY   ASARE    SAMUEL  ANSAH

 

PICTURE  BY  ASARE   SAMUEL  ANSAH

Port officials are reportedly in a stand-off with the ship’s crew over plans to move it to another berth

 

Argentina says it will ask the International Sea Tribunal, based in Germany, to intervene in the dispute over its navy ship impounded in Ghana.

Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said Ghana must free the Libertad by Tuesday if it wants to avoid such an action.

The ship was stopped from leaving Ghana last month following a local court order obtained by a US hedge fund.

The fund, NML Capital, argues it is owed $370m (£231m) as a result of Argentina’s debt default a decade ago.

It is seeking $20m in return for the release of the ship, a three-masted training vessel.

Argentina has vowed not to bow to what it calls “blackmail by vulture funds”.

Holding out

The Libertad has been detained in the main seaport town of Tema since 2 October. Only a skeleton crew remain after more than 300 sailors flew home about three weeks later.

Sailors on board the Libertad reportedly pulled guns on Ghanaian officials last week after they tried to board the vessel to move it to another berth.

Water and electricity had reportedly been shut off to the ship a few days earlier in response to Argentina’s refusal to let officials move the ship to a less busy part of the port.

NML Capital is a subsidiary of US hedge fund Elliot Capital Management, one of Argentina’s former creditors.

In 2001 and 2002, Argentina defaulted on more than $100bn of debt.

Most of these loans were subsequently restructured, giving creditors about 30% of their money back.

However, some creditors including Elliot chose to hold out, pursuing the Argentine government through the courts.

Wheelie bin murderer Karen Otmani gets life term

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Otmani hid Mr Corey’s body in her bedroom for 11 days, the court heard

A woman who killed her lover and hid his body in a wheelie bin for 11 days has been jailed for life.

Karen Otmani, 42, was found guilty of murdering Shaun Corey by a jury at the Old Bailey on Friday.

After doping his beer, Otmani tied him to her bed before smothering the 42-year-old at her home in Forest Hill, south London, on 4 June last year.

Otmani, of Stanstead Road, was told she would have to serve a minimum term of 17 years.

The body inside the green bin, which the mother-of-two hid in her bedroom, was discovered by police during a search of the property, the court heard.

Freezer ‘too small’

Sentencing, Judge Gerald Gordon told Otmani: “For reasons best known to yourself, you formed the intention to kill your on-off partner.

“You concealed his body for a significant period, causing extra suffering for his family.”

The court heard Otmani, originally from Dumfries in Scotland, had been talking about getting rid of Mr Corey and had asked another boyfriend to experiment with some “blue liquid” to see if it would knock him out.

But the man “did not take it seriously”, prosecutor Bobbie Cheema said during the trial.

The court heard the victim was heard arguing with Otmani, also known as Tammy Cameron and Karen Boyce, in her bedroom before the pair were joined by Bernard Beddoe, 60, whom she called uncle.

Beddoe helped the killer put the body in the bin, the court heard.

‘Good guy’

Beddoe of Brockley, south London, was found guilty of assisting an offender. He was remanded for reports to 7 December.

The killer’s new boyfriend Keith Jones called the police after he was told during a visit “He’s in there”.

Mr Corey’s body was found after police were called

The court heard Otmani had measured her freezer but found it “too small”.

The jury heard that during the police interview Otmani said: “He freaked me out and I killed him.”

In a statement, Mr Corey’s family said that justice had been achieved, but would not bring him back.

“Shaun will be dearly missed and was loved by all his family and friends,” they said.

“Shaun was an all round good guy whose only mistake in life was befriending and trying to help the wrong person.”

They thanked the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, family members and victim and witness support “for all their help during this very difficult time”.