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siegecrossbow

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Who to support? Australia or Hague?

In the first case of its kind, East Timor has taken Australia to compulsory conciliation in The Hague in an attempt to
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.

The hearing was triggered under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in an attempt to get Australia to agree to a permanent maritime border.

But Australia has made the case that East Timor has benefited from the revenue-sharing treaties and that the hearing is beyond the jurisdiction of the commission.

East Timor's former president Xanana Gusmao accused Australia of first taking advantage of the country in 2002, while negotiating the Timor Sea treaty at a time when 70 per cent of East Timor's infrastructure had been burnt down by pro Indonesian militias, and while the country was still struggling to establish itself.

And secondly, he said, in the lead-up to the revenue-sharing agreement of 2006 when Australian foreign intelligence agents bugged the cabinet rooms in Dilli to get the upper hand in negotiations.

"We were not aware at the time, that under the cover of an Australian program renovating Timor-Leste government offices, Australia installed listening devices to spy on the Timorese officials," he said.

"To maximise their advantage and commercial interest."

Minister of State Agio Pereira made it clear to the commission that they wanted the 2006 Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea Treaty (CMATS) to be torn up.

"The current provisional regime is near its end. CMATS is going — that is the policy of Timor-Leste," Mr Pereira said.

Australia has claimed the dispute lands beyond the jurisdiction of the Commission, because the 2006 treaty included a clause that put on hold negotiations over a permanent maritime boundary for 50 years.

East Timor benefitted from the treaties: DFAT
Gary Quinlan, from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), said their position was to urge the commission not to disregard their treaties, "simply because one party has changed its mind".

And Mr Quinlan told the commission that East Timor had benefited from the treaties.

"In addition to providing a stable revenue stream to Timor-Leste, the Timor Sea Treaties have enabled that country to benefit from Australia's considerable expertise in offshore oil field regulation which has assisted to build its own capacity in oil and gas regulation," he said.

The commission has up to a year to makes its final recommendations, but does not have the power to force Australia to adopt new boundaries.

Australia removed itself from the binding dispute resolution mechanism under the UN convention on the law of the sea in 2002, just two months before East Timor gained independence.

If East Timor wins it may be a case of a moral victory, rather than a legal one.
 

SteelBird

Colonel
A SpaceX rocket exploded at its Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday morning, destroying the rocket and the satellite it was due to launch on Saturday.
SpaceX said there were no injuries as a result of the explosion, which it described as an "anomaly." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the explosion happened while the rocket was being fueled, but that the cause of the blast is still unknown.
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Jeff Head

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A SpaceX rocket exploded at its Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday morning, destroying the rocket and the satellite it was due to launch on Saturday.

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Reports here say that there were actually two explosions. The first one, which burned for a long time, and then a second one about 20 minutes later at the same site.
 

SouthernSky

Junior Member
Uzbekistan President dead aged 78.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has died aged 78 after suffering a stroke, three diplomatic sources told Reuters on Friday, leaving no obvious successor to take over the Central Asian nation of 32 million people.

The Uzbek government did not immediately confirm the reports. Earlier on Friday it said the health of Karimov, who has been in hospital since last Saturday, had sharply deteriorated.

Long criticized by the West and human rights groups for his authoritarian style of leadership, Karimov had ruled Uzbekistan since 1989, first as the head of the local Communist Party and then as president of the newly independent republic from 1991.

"Yes, he has died," one of the diplomatic sources said when asked about Karimov's condition.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim became the first foreign leader to offer condolences over the death of Karimov, whose former Soviet republic has close ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties with Turkey.

Karimov did not designate a successor and analysts say the transition of power is likely to be decided behind closed doors by a small group of senior officials and family members.

If they fail to agree on a compromise, however, open confrontation could destabilize Uzbekistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan and has become a target for Islamist militants.

Uzbekistan is a major cotton exporter and is also rich in gold and natural gas.

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SUCCESSION

A hint at who will succeed Karimov may come with the government's announcement of his death - which one source said was expected later on Friday - and whoever it names to head the commission in charge of organizing the funeral.

The funeral appeared likely to take place in Karimov's hometown of Samarkand, where his mother and two brothers are also buried. Municipal authorities there mobilized public workers to clean the central streets late on Thursday.

A source in the government of neighboring Kazakhstan told Reuters on Friday that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev planned to cut short his visit to China and travel to Uzbekistan on Saturday, although Nazarbayev's office later denied that.

Among potential successors to Karimov are Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his deputy Rustam Azimov. Security service chief Rustam Inoyatov and Karimov's younger daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva could become kingmakers.

According to the constitution, Nigmatilla Yuldoshev, the chairman of the upper house of parliament, is supposed to take over after Karimov's death, and elections must take place within three months.

However, analysts do not consider Yuldoshev a serious player. His erstwhile counterpart in Turkmenistan, who was also supposed to become interim leader after the death of authoritarian president Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006, was quickly detained and thus eliminated from the line of succession.

Whoever succeeds Karimov will need to balance carefully between the West, Russia and China, which all vie for influence in the resource-rich Central Asian region.

Another task of the new leader will be resolving tensions with ex-Soviet neighbors Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over borders and the use of common resources such as water.

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SouthernSky

Junior Member
Kuril Islands being discussed again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was keen to resolve a territorial dispute with Japan, ahead of talks last night with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, although a solution appears far off.

Tokyo-Moscow relations are hamstrung by a row dating back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the southernmost islands in the Pacific Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

“We are not talking about some kind of exchange or some kind of sale,” Mr Putin told Bloomberg.

“We are talking about finding a solution where neither party will feel ... defeated or a loser.”

The tensions have prevented the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending wartime hostilities, hindering trade and investment ties.

Mr Putin said signing a peace treaty with Japan was a “key issue” and Moscow “would very much like to find a solution to this problem with our Japanese friends”.

Mr Abe’s visit to Russia — his second this year — comes days after the Kremlin announced Mr Putin will travel to Japan in December, his first trip to the country since 2005.

Over the years, leaders from the two nations have tried to make headway on resolving the row but a solution has proved elusive. Both sides confirmed the disputed islands would be addressed in last night’s talks, on the sidelines of an economic forum in Vladivostok.

“I’m resolved to make progress on the peace treaty and territorial issues by holding candid and thorough talks with President Putin,” Mr Abe said before he set off for Vladivostok.

Experts view rapprochement efforts as a positive development for Moscow’s trade ties with US ally Tokyo, but doubt that they will result in a resolution of their territorial dispute.

“The two parties are likely to show that they are in favour of a peace treaty but will try not to publicly express their disagreements about the Kuril islands,” Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev said. “Japan is not ready to drop its claims to the islands and Russia will by no means recognise them.”

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siegecrossbow

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A new generation of young Hong Kong politicians advocating a break from Beijing became lawmakers for the first time Monday in a result likely to rattle China.

It was the biggest poll in the city since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 failed to win concessions on political reform, leading to the emergence of a slew of new parties demanding more autonomy from Beijing.

Those parties now have a foothold in the legislature with five candidates backing independence or self-determination taking seats.

Observers branded their victory "a strong message to Beijing", which has railed against people supporting a split from China.

A record 2.2 million people voted in the city-wide election for members of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Hong Kong's lawmaking body, as fears grow Beijing is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city.

It was the highest turnout since Hong Kong was returned to China by Britain in 1997 under a handover agreement guaranteeing its freedoms for 50 years.

Many feel those liberties are already disappearing and young activists particularly have lost faith in the "one country, two systems" deal under which Hong Kong is governed.

At the forefront of the new guard in LegCo is Nathan Law, 23, leader of the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" rallies, who took more than 50,000 votes to become the council's youngest member.

Law and his new party Demosisto are calling for a referendum on independence, emphasising Hong Kongers' right to choose whether they want to split from China.

"I think Hong Kongers really wanted change," Law said, celebrating his win.

With the pro-democracy camp divided between those who back the idea of possible independence and those who are more wary of the once taboo notion, Law said he would seek unity.

"We have to be united to fight against the (Chinese) Communist Party," he told AFP.

Law has previously distanced himself from the more radical "localist" movement, which includes activists who are stridently pro-independence and have in the past advocated violence.

- 'Message to Beijing' -

Young campaigners have been galvanised by a number of incidents that have pointed to increased Beijing interference.

The most high-profile was the disappearance of five city booksellers known for salacious titles about Beijing politicians. They resurfaced in detention on the mainland.

There was also outrage after the loudest pro-independence voices in the city were banned by the government from running for LegCo.

Some localists who were allowed to stand continued to call for independence on the campaign trail.

One of them, Yau Wai-Ching of new party Youngspiration, gained a seat saying Hong Kong had "the right to discuss its sovereignty".

Another Youngspiration candidate, Baggio Leung, who has openly supported independence, also won a seat.

Political analyst Willy Lam said voters had backed the activists to "send a strong message to Beijing".

"Beijing will be very unhappy about the results and it's quite possible that they may use this as a pretext to squeeze Hong Kong even harder," he told AFP.

Political commentator Joseph Cheng said he expected Beijing to adopt a "very hawkish position", and that authorities could seek to disqualify any legislator advocating a split from China.

Hong Kong and Beijing officials have consistently slammed independence as unconstitutional.

Most established pro-democracy politicians do not support the notion of independence and there were concerns in the democratic camp that new activists would split the vote, triggering overall losses.

But although some veteran pro-democracy politicians were voted out to make way for the younger generation, the democratic camp including independence activists gained an extra three seats in the 70-strong Legco, going from 27 to 30 members.

That means the anti-establishment side can veto key bills, which need a two-thirds majority to pass.

However, the overall make-up of the LegCo remains weighted towards Beijing under a system that makes it almost impossible for the democracy camp to take a majority.

Thirty seats are elected by special interest groups representing a range of businesses and social sectors and are traditionally conservative -- 22 of those seats went to pro-Beijing candidates Monday, giving them 40 members overall.

Of 3.7 million voters, 58 percent came out to vote, up from 53 percent in 2012.
 
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