Canada installs eight new radiation scanners

Canada installed eight new radiation scanners at Montreal ports to prevent terrorist attacks. The scanners, which will check about 1,200 containers that come into the port each day for radioactive substances that can be used in terrorist attacks. The same equipment has been in place in other Canadian ports like Vancouver and Halifax. A total of 36 will be installed across the country, with each costing up to 198,000.

The radiation detection program was a key part of the former Liberal government’s $172-million plan to beef up marine security after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Critics of such instalment said, smuggling of drugs and contraband are far greater problems at Canadian ports rather then radioactive substances. This ctitic gets support from the history as Canada’s spy agency hardly ever collected enough details to categorize any terrorist threat as a “specific” one leading up to the 1985 Air-India bombing.

Newmont responces well

The world’s second-largest gold producer Newmont, is facing community oppositions at several mining sites in the US, Peru, Indonesia and Ghana because of causing pollution in the areas, degradation of habitats and for community resettlement concern.

In Peru, a non-governmental organization named GRUFIDES opposed Newmont’s Yanacocha gold mine, claiming the company has “not fulfilling its commitments to respect the human rights of communities affected by its projects.” In 2006, Yanacocha was the target of Peruvian protesters, who battled police with rocks while demanding jobs. The clash eventually ended with one protester dead and two Newmont workers kidnapped. In Indonesia, despite the recent exoneration of President Director Richard Ness, the country’s largest environmental NGO Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia has launched a civil suit against Newmont over alleged pollution at Buyat Bay. This is the forth such lawsuit to hit the company in Indonesia. In Ghana, more than 10,000 poor farmers had been displaced to make way for Newmont’s Ahafo gold mine, and another 10,000 were likely to be displaced when the mine expanded to the north. The construction of the company’s Akyem gold mine in Ghana’s Ajenjua Bepo Forest Reserve is currently on hold because Newmont has been unable to secure an environmental permit.

Greenpeace is also very vocal about Newmont’s operations. At the New York Hard Assets Investment Conference, Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of, Chairman and Chief Scientist at Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. and life-long environmentalist, spoke about the environmental and social impact Newmont’s operations are having on local communities in Peru, Indonesia and Ghana. “Since my entry into the global environmental movement in 1971, mining has contributed significantly to a more sustainable world economy, and key beneficiaries of this progress are mining workers, families and communities,” said Moore. Moore also said, a key challenge facing mining companies in third world countries is corruption among environmental groups and local governments compounded by yellow journalism. Greenspirit Strategies partnered with Newmont as a leader in mining sustainability to dispel such false reports.

Newmont in his history reacts quickly on such issues. In April 2007, Newmont asked its shareholders for approval of a resolution that would require the firm to report on its social and environmental issues – the first time a U.S. mining company called on its shareholders to vote for a social resolution. About 92% of shareholders voted in favour of the resolution. The shareholder resolution requests Newmont appoint a team of independent directors to prepare a report outlining opposition to its mining operations and steps to reduce the opposition. The vote was hailed by the Christian Brothers Investment Services, Inc. and other religious investors. In Peru, Newmont has allocated approximately $1.5m under a community development program agreement with the Combayo community. The company has built aqueducts, commenced reforestation and brought in cattle to better the breading in the area. The company expects equity gold sales of between 775,000 and 825,000 ounces from Yanacocha this year. In Indonesia, Newmont has enacted numerous social programs for the community that include, support for schools where students can learn computer science, and support for the fishing industry where fishermen are offered aid and equipment. Ongoing reclamation is in place at the now defunct Mesel Gold Mine on Sulawesi Island and at the 45%-owned Batu Hijau on the remote island of Sumbawa in the West Sumbawa province. Equity gold and copper sales at Batu Hijau are expected to remain stable in 2007 at 230,000-250,000 ounces of gold and 210-230 million pounds of copper and remain at these levels through 2009. Under the current mine plan, the mine life is predicted to last until 2034. In Ghana, Newmont is building new homes for the displaced communities, which include running water and electricity if requested. Ghana is suffering from ongoing power shortages due to seasonal effects on hydroelectric power. The company has also developed a liaison program to here complaints and issues from the community, as well as requests for jobs at its Ahafo, Ntotoroso and Akyem mines. Ahafo is currently mining 120,000 tonnes per day, and processing 22,000 tonnes per day. About 203,000 ounces were produced in 2006, with 500,000 ounces expected this year.

Australia announces a sweet budget

The 2007-2008 budget is dominated by electoral bribes to particular citizenries, with a wide array of cash handouts, tax cuts and slush funds to many corners. The new budget announced $31.5 billion tax cuts and it is spread to all levels of the population. Average wage earners will be $16 a week better off as a result of the tax cuts, with about eighty percent of taxpayers shelling out thirty-cents in the dollar or less. The biggest savings from July 2007 are for those earning between $30,000 and $40,000 – their pay packets will expand by $21 a week. The government’s generosity has been made possible by a larger-than-expected surplus for the current fiscal year, which has been swollen by corporate tax revenues and a mineral boom caused by China’s thirst for Australian iron ore, coal and natural gas.

The budget also tried to counter Labor’s Education Revolution with $AU9 billion for universities and literacy and trade training; the Treasurer Mr. Costello has put $AU5 billion into a new fund for the nation’s universities. There is also a new three and a half billion dollar plan to improve literacy and numeracy across the education system. From next year the parents of underperforming children will receive $700 vouchers for extra tuition. Schools with high achievement records will get funding bonuses of $50,000. For families, the child care benefit will be lifted by 10-percent, and there’s something for farmers too, $205-million extra in drought assistance.

At the same time, the budget was designed to accelerate the two-decade-long process of cutting public and social services—health, education, child care, housing, welfare—to make way for “market-based” and “user pays” programs that further boost corporate profits, enrich the wealthiest layers of society and shift the burden of social provision onto individuals. Elderly citizens will receive $500 to pay utility bills; people caring for ill or infirm relatives will receive one-off “thank you” payments of $600 and/or $1,000; medium-income earners who have paid extra into superannuation schemes (to pay for their own retirement) will receive up to $1,500 more in a government co-contribution; and parents will receive up to $20 a week more to help pay soaring child-care fees.

With Australia suffering severe water shortages due to ongoing drought, and global warming shaping up as a key election issue, Treasurer Mr. Costello announced cash payments of up to A$8,000 to convert homes to solar power.

Tax returns are now simplified, with the Tax Office providing basic individual returns which taxpayers can then lodge or add to.

Can Indonesia do it?

Neighboring yet not so friendly Indonesia and Singapore signed a long waited and desired extradition treaty in April 2007. Indonesia in particular expects a lot done with help of this treaty including bringing back fugitive corruptors and retrieving the ill-gotten money that has been passed on to Singapore during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998.

Signing of this treaty has been described as a breakthrough of President Susilo Bambang Yudhonono by the Indonesian media as the country has been trying to conclude an extradition treaty with Singapore for over three decades. The Susilo government is viewed as successful in convincing Singapore of its seriousness to crack down on corruption and money laundering. The treaty signed on the resort island of Bali covers 31 crimes including corruption, banking offences and terrorism as well as its funding.

People’s Consultative Assembly and House of Representatives were the only two of many quarters who called for an imminent implementation of the agreement. Hope for the use of the extradition treaty momentum to arrest fugitive corruptors was also raised by many quarters. As long as the treaty is based on cooperation, all can be optimistic that it will be an effective means to force corrupters who had fled from Indonesia to return and surely an expression of optimism is present and all expects that the treaty eventually comes handy to both the countries. Political experts said, if implemented well, the extradition will benefit not only Indonesia but Singapore as well; the pact would improve Singapore’s credibility because by the agreement it would look cleaner and more credible in the eyes of the law and to the international community.

Singapore is for long an alleged money laundering center for corrupt businesspeople including wealthy Indonesians. One-third of the tycoons in the Singaporean banking and real estate sectors are actually from Indonesia, whose assets are deemed to amount to $87 billion; some of these are even Indonesia’s most notorious fugitives. Tempo magazine reported in October 2007 that for a long time Singapore had been a refuge for ‘problem’ business people from Indonesia. It quoted data from the Indonesian embassy in Singapore that some 200 debtors who owned money to the state were hiding in this tiny nation since the fall of the Soeharto administration in 1998. According to Tempo, the number of rich people in Singapore in 2005 grew by 13.4 percent to 55,000, with a total wealth of around US$260 billion. About one-third, or 18,000, of them are Indonesian citizens.

Success of the treaty remains in the hand of political experts and related ministries. For the start, Indonesia can recover funds deposited in Singapore by those who were convicted by its courts while the amount of funds hidden by fugitives yet to be convicted is still being calculated.

The defence pact will remain in force for 25 years.