Australian PM unveils new cabinet

SEPTEMBER 20, 2015/LEAVE A COMMENT/EDIT

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday announced the line-up of his new cabinet almost a week after he toppled former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a party spill.

“Today I’m announcing a 21st century government and a ministry for the future,” Turnbull told reporters at a press conference in Canberra on Sunday afternoon.

“As you will have gathered, there are some very big changes in the cabinet — there are now five women in the cabinet,” he said.

An increased number, up to five from two, of women being promoted to the inner cabinet has been a shining spot of the new cabinet, showing the new prime minister’s effort to address the criticism of lack of females in the Abbott government.

Apart from Julie Bishop and Sussan Ley keeping their portfolios as foreign minister and minister for health, a number of women holding lower positions in the Abbott government have been promoted, including Marisa Payne, who stands out in the new cabinet to be the first female defense minister in Australian history.

Meanwhile, former Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Michaelia Cash is promoted as Employment Minister and Minister for Women, and former Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer is promoted as Small Business Minister and Assistant Treasurer.

Without any surprise, former Social Services Minister Scott Morrison becomes Treasurer, taking the second most important portfolio and will be responsible for managing the country’s economy.

Outgoing Treasurer Joe Hockey is expected to quit parliament. Former Western Australian Treasurer Christian Porter is named Social Services Minister.

Turnbull said the reshuffle is about “renewal” and bringing young blood into the cabinet.

“The introduction of new talent means that…others have to leave. One of the great challenges for any leader is to ensure that there is renewal,” he said.

“That…we are able to bring up new talent, new faces, into leadership positions over time, and that often means, that invariably means in fact, that very capable people have to move on stand aside so that others can come through. And that’s tough, for everybody concerned.”

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2015/LEAVE A COMMENT/EDIT

Global news sneakin

SEPTEMBER 20, 2015 | EDIT

Voting starts in Greek general elections

Greek snap parliamentary elections are in full swing. It’s a neck-and-neck race between the leading political forces – the leftist Syriza and conservative New Democracy parties. Neither promises an end to austerity.
The elections were called by the former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, after the country secured a new bailout from international lenders.

He has already cast his ballot in his working class Kypseli neighborhood of Athens.Greek voters started casting their ballots Sunday in the second general elections this year to elect a new government that will implement the latest three year bailout agreed in the summer with international creditors.Polling stations are open early in the morning. About 9.8 million citizens of 18 years and above registered to vote in the 19,457 polling stations nationwide. The number of eligible new voters stands at 108,464.The two frontrunners are former prime minister and leader of the radical-left SYRIZA party Alexis Tsipras, and Evangelos Meimarakis of the conservative New Democracy (ND) party.”Greek citizens with their participation will not allow others to make decisions for them. They will take their future in their hands and seal the transition to a new era,” Tsipras said in a statement to the press after casting his ballot.”They will give a mandate for continuity, stability and progress,” he added, pledging that a new SYRIZA-led administration would continue the battles within Greece and in Europe for people’s rights.”I believe we will have a better future for all Greeks regardless of which party they vote for,” said Meimarakis after casting his ballot.”I hope the result will vindicate Greek people’s sacrifices,” GreekPresident Prokopis Pavlopoulos said after casting his ballot.Leaders of smaller parties such as the anti-bailout Communist Party KKE’s General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the leader of the newly formed leftist Popular Union party Panagiotis Lafazanis, and Panos Kammenos, leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, also made pleas for a big turnout.The head of the centrist small Potami party Stavros Theodorakis, and Fofi Gennimata, leader of the small PASOK socialist party, which runs with the small Democratic Left party, stressed the need for consensus after the elections.Though both of the front runners and leaders of smaller parties are committed to the implementation of the bailout this time, enthusiasm and passion are lacking.SYRIZA and the ND were almost tied in all opinion surveys conducted over the past months with the leftists gaining a slight lead within the marginal error in the final stretch, according to pollsters.A few hours before the ballots open for the fifth national polls in six years, about 10 percent of voters were still undecided and pollsters expected a high abstention rate of more than 45 percent due to voter fatigue and disappointment.In the past elections in recent years, Greeks headed to the polls to choose between the pro-bailout and pro-euro forces and anti-austerity and anti-bailout parties, with SYRIZA leading the latter.In the Jan. 25 elections, SYRIZA won and formed the first left-led government in Greece’s modern history.After marathon negotiations with lenders and the closure of banks to avoid collapse of the banking system when the second bailout expired in late June, Tsipras made a U-turn and signed the third bailout to avert disorderly default and exit.Following a party rift over the bailout, the 41-year-old premier quit, triggering the snap polls. He asked voters for a second opportunity to rule with a new stable government.SYRIZA tried to woo voters this time by pledging to make the utmost effort to ease the pain of the new round of austerity policies.The ND, on the other hand, offered “stability over inconsistency and risky experiments.”In the past, the dilemmas put forward were more dramatic as SYRIZA was threatening to tear up bailouts and the country’s fate was hanging in balance, political analysts in Athens noted. This time the question is which party will better implement the same plan.Regardless of which party comes first, surveys showed that none of the two frontrunners are close to gaining an absolute majority in the next 300 member strong parliament. Therefore coalition partnerships are required.The preliminary exit polls are expected shortly after the voting ends. The official estimates will be released by the Interior Ministry late Sunday.Nepal approves new constitution amid ongoing protestsA new version of the Nepalese constitution adopted on Sunday continues the transformation from a Hindu monarchy to a secular federal democracy, AFP reports. The act has been accompanied by violent protests in the south of the country. “I announce the presented constitution of Nepal, passed by the Constituent Assembly and authenticated by the chairman of the Constituent Assembly, effective from today, 20 September 2015, before the people of Nepal,” said President Ram Baran Yadav at a ceremony in parliament in the capital Kathmandu.

2 injured as small plane hits car in Switzerland

A small plane crashed near the Swiss town of Holziken on Sunday morning, smashing into a car. The pilot and the driver of the car were injured and taken to hospital, police said.
9 Indian athletes killed, 5 injured in road accident

At least nine sportsmen were killed and five injured when the driver of the bus they were traveling in lost control. The vehicle plunged from a bridge in eastern India late on Saturday, local police reported, according to TASS. The five survivors were rushed to hospital and are said to be in critical condition. The team was traveling home to Sendhpur village after they had won a match in a local tournament of Kabbadi, a national Indian contact game.
5 hunters believed killed by militants in N. Caucasus, Russia

Rescue workers have found the bodies of five hunters in a forest in the Russian republic of Dagestan, TASS reported on Sunday. “On September 18, we got a message about the disappearance of five hunters,” a source at a local law enforcement agency told TASS. He added the bodies of the men, variously shot in the head and chest, were found on Friday evening a hundred meters from a militants’ summer camp. The men could have been killed as revenge for cooperation with police.
75 US-trained Syrian rebels entered Syria from Turkey

Seventy-five Syrian rebels, trained by the US and its allies to fight the Islamic State terrorist group, have entered northern Syria since Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. According to the monitoring group’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, the rebels crossed into Syria from Turkey with 12 vehicles equipped with machine guns. In May, the US military began training for up to 5,400 fighters a year. The head of the US military’s Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, told Congress earlier this week that only a handful of Syrian rebels, trained under the program, were still fighting in Syria.“It’s a small number. The ones that are in the fight … we’re talking four or five,” he said, according to Reuters. Austin reportedly told the Senate Armed Services Committee that at the current pace, initial training targets were unrealistic.
China launches first new light booster

The Chinese space agency has successful launched a brand new ChángZhēng-6 (CZ-6) space vehicle, reports Xinhua. The launch was performed from Tàiyuán cosmodrome in Shānxī province. The CZ-6 is a two- stage, light class booster of the Long March series of China’s launch vehicles developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The CZ-6 is the first Chinese booster to use non-toxic fuel, kerosene and oxygen. The booster is capable of delivering a payload of up to one ton payload into orbit. On its first launch the booster delivered 20 microsatellites.

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