Observer & Busness 27 Mar 2012 - Oman Daily Observer

Gillard surprised by
Labor election rout
SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Julia
Gillard says she was surprised at the scale of
her ruling Labor party’s defeat in state elections,
widely seen as a dire warning for her
fragile government.
Labor, which has ruled for 20 of the past
22 years in northern Queensland, suffered an
unprecedented rout at weekend elections, taking
so few seats that its ofcial party status in
the state is under threat.
Premier Anna Bligh, who rose to prominence
for her handling of the twin ooding
and cyclone disasters in northern Australia
last year, narrowly held on to her own seat but
resigned on Sunday due to the scale of Labor’s
loss.
Gillard said the “expectations were that
Labor was going to be defeated and soundly
defeated” but the “dimensions of this defeat
took me by a bit of surprise,” describing it as a
“deep disappointment.”
When Labor came to power nationally
in 2007 it also controlled all the state parliaments,
but since then the four major east and
west coast states have fallen to the Liberals,
complicating passage of its policies and reforms.
After the Queensland vote, Labor is expected
to have just seven seats in the state to
the conservative Liberal National Party’s 78.
“For the federal government, while elections
turn on their own issues and own questions,
inevitably there will be discussions
about what are the implications,” Gillard said
on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in Seoul.
“Since I rst became prime minister... I’ve
never underestimated the degree of (the) challenge
for federal Labor and I don’t underestimate
it now.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do for the
people of Queensland and with the people of
Queensland.”
Gillard said next year’s national election
would be decided on its own issues including
sweeping taxation reforms to the powerful
mining industry and a levy on pollution for
major emitters.
“The (Queensland) ght was overwhelmingly
on state issues, there was clearly a major
‘it’s time’ factor after Labor having government
for so long,” she said.
“People will make their decisions (in 2013),
for us it’s about... knuckling down, getting on
with the job,” she said. — AFP
Man who shot Florida teen
fears for safety: supporters
SANFORD, Florida — The
neighbourhood watch volunteer
who sparked a national
uproar by shooting an unarmed
teenager to death has
wept with remorse over the
killing and now fears for his
own life, a friend of the gunman
and a legal adviser say.
Supporters of the boy and
his family staged more protest
rallies and prayer vigils across
the country, many dressed in
“hoodies,” or hooded sweatshirts,
like the one Trayvon
Martin, 17, was wearing when
he was gunned down last
month.
His admitted assailant,
George Zimmerman, 28, remained
in seclusion after
receiving death threats and
learning of a $10,000 bounty
offered by a group called the
New Black Panther Party, said
lawyer Craig Sonner, who
added he would represent
Zimmerman if charges were
led.
Zimmerman, a white Hispanic,
has said he acted in
self-defence when he shot
Martin, who was black, in a
gated community in Sanford,
Florida, near Orlando, despite
an apparent lack of evidence
the teenager posed any threat.
The boy’s February 26
death, which drew little attention
at rst, has grown into a
rallying cry for African-Americans
pointing to his shooting
and the decision by authorities
not to prosecute Zimmerman
as a blatant case of racial injustice.
The shooting also has provoked
a heated debate over
TOURISTS enjoy the cherry blossoms in full bloom around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the cherry trees, which were originally a gift
from Japan and were planted around the National Mall. — AFP
Mexican poll favourite
extends lead over rival
MEXICO CITY — Mexican presidential front runner Enrique
Pena Nieto has extended his big lead over ruling party candidate
Josena Vazquez Mota with barely three months to go
until the election, an opinion poll shows.
The voter survey by polling rm Buendia & Laredo for
newspaper El Universal showed backing for Pena Nieto, a
member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or
PRI, at 42.5 per cent, up from about 39 per cent in a poll in
February.
By contrast, support for Vazquez Mota, who is running for
President Felipe Calderon’s conservative National Action Party,
or PAN, fell to 23.7 per cent from some 25 per cent.
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost
the 2006 presidential contest to Calderon, was at 16.9 per cent,
compared with just under 16 per cent in the last survey.
The latest poll comes just a few days before the ofcial start
of campaigning on Friday. The election takes place on July 1.
The PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades until 2000,
is hoping the telegenic Pena Nieto can return the party to of-
ce, 12 years after it was ousted by the PAN.
The PAN has struggled to generate enough jobs for the
country’s growing population, and has been mired in a bloody
struggle with drug cartels, whose turf wars and clashes with
security forces have claimed 50,000 lives in ve years.
Calderon, who is not allowed to run for a second six-year
term in ofce, staked his reputation on bringing the drug gangs
to heel, but the bloodshed has hurt his party’s chances of retaining
the presidency. — Reuters
“Stand Your Ground” laws
enacted in Florida and other
states and cited by Sanford police
as the reason Zimmerman
has not been arrested. Florida’s
law allows people to use
deadly force in self-defence.
President Barack Obama
weighed in on the situation
on Friday, calling the shooting
a “tragedy” and saying,
“If I had a son, he’d look like
Trayvon.”
A long-time friend of Zimmerman,
Joe Oliver, 53, a
former television news reporter
who is himself black, came
to Zimmerman’s defence on
Sunday, denying his friend
was a racist and saying Zimmerman
cried for days over
the shooting.
“He’s a caring human being,”
Oliver said. — Reuters
10
PACIFIC/AMERICAS
OMAN DAILY Observer
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2012
SANTIAGO — A major
quake hit central Chile on
Sunday, rattling buildings and
temporarily triggering a coastal
evacuation on fears of a tsunami,
but there was no serious
damage and big mines in the
world’s top copper producer
were operating normally.
Residents in Chile’s capital,
Santiago, ed their homes
as the tremor rattled television
sets, kitchen cabinets and
tables, and a mayor in the
town of Parral in south-central
Chile told local radio a
74-year-old woman died of a
heart attack due to the quake.
There were no reports of serious
casualties.
The 7.1 magnitude quake
struck 27 km north-northwest
of the town of Talca at a depth
of 35 km at 7:37 pm local
time (1037 pm GMT), the US
Geological Survey said, revising
down an initial magnitude
of 7.2.
‘Lost’ Lempicka set
to fetch millions
NEW YORK — A newly rediscovered
painting by the pioneering
female artist Tamara
de Lempicka is expected to
fetch nearly $5 million when
it is auctioned at Sotheby’s in
May.
Nu adosse 1 was featured
in De Lempicka’s rst major
exhibition in 1925 in Milan,
after which its whereabouts
went virtually unknown —
until a few months ago.
The artist’s catalogue raisonne,
published in 1999, listed
the painting with the designation
“location unknown.”
The consignor, a West
Coast construction company
owner, had the 1925 work
in his home for a decade before
an art consultant recommended
contacting the
auction house, according to
Sotheby’s.
The owner “had no inkling
of what it was,” said Simon
Shaw, Sotheby’s head of Im-
CHILEAN reghters remain on a street as a building is inspected in downtown Santiago after the earthquake. — AFP
Major quake rattles Chile; no serious damage
pressionist and modern art,
explaining that Lempicka was
Polish and sometimes signed
her work Lempinski, as was
the case with Nu adosse 1.
The auction house was able
to verify the work’s authenticity
in large part because Lempicka’s
1925 exhibition had
been photographed.
“It’s rare that you can actually
prove that a picture is
this great, long lost work as a
result of a gallery installation
photograph, as in this case,”
Shaw said.
Shaw said the piece was a
classic Lempicka, noting its
Art Deco aesthetic and depiction
of 1920s-era female sexuality,
which is so endemic to
her work.
“It’s very clean, elegant
and glamorous, and epitomises
her work,” he said.
Prices for works by Lempicka
have soared in recent
years. — Reuters
The tremor struck 219 km
from Santiago, home to about
a third of Chile’s population
of 17.2 million people.
It was one of the strongest
quakes to hit Chile since
a massive 8.8 temblor devastated
the south-central region
in early 2010, which triggered
tsunamis, killed about 500
people and hammered roads
and infrastructure.
The government lifted a
preventive evacuation order
just before midnight, after
about 7,000 people were ordered
to evacuate the Maule
region’s coast due to signs the
sea had retreated a bit, Chilean
Health Minister Jaime
Manalich said. No tsunami
alert was issued.
“Fortunately, save for
one person who died due to
a heart problem, there are no
fatalities and fortunately the
country’s infrastructure, both
public and private, resisted
WASHINGTON — The wife
of a US Army sergeant accused
of killing 17 Afghan civilians
this month said she does not
think her husband could have
carried out the massacre as he
was like a child himself and
would not have harmed children.
Staff Sergeant Robert
Bales, a decorated 38-year-old
veteran of four combat tours
in Iraq and Afghanistan, was
charged last week with 17
counts of murder for killing
eight adults and nine children
and six counts each of assault
and attempted murder for attacking
two other adults and
four children.
Karilyn Bales, speaking
publicly for the rst time
since the March 11 shootings
in Afghanistan’s Kandahar
province, told NBC’s “Today”
the earthquake’s effects well,”
President Sebastian Pinera
told reporters in Seoul, South
Korea, where he is on an
Asian tour.
The government emergency
agency, ONEMI, said
two people were injured after
the fake ceiling of a church in
Santiago collapsed, and one
person suffered injuries from
a transit accident in the Biobio
region.
Interior Minister Rodrigo
Hinzpeter said later
there could be up to 10 people
lightly injured from the
quake. Electricity supply was
restored after short disruptions
in some areas.
With the memory of the
February 2010 quake still
seared in their memories,
many Chileans were visibly
shaken up.
“I was watching television
and all of a sudden the sofa
started to move, and lamps
show she had recently spoken
to her husband twice, but did
not directly ask him if or how
he was involved.
“I just don’t think he was
involved,” she said in the interview.
“This is not him. It’s
not him.
“He seemed a bit confused
as to where he was and why he
was there,” she said.
She said Bales, who is being
held at Leavenworth mili-
started to swing from one side
to the other,” said Guilda Carrasco
in Santiago.
“It just kept moving
and didn’t stop. It was very
strong.”
Canadian tourist Rob
Huneault was enjoying the
warmth by a Santiago pool
when the quake hit.
“It started going crazy,
waves shooting out of the
pool,” he said.
Chilean state copper giant
Codelco said after the quake
that operations were normal
at its Andina mine and El
Teniente deposit, which is
nearer the epicentre.
The two mines produce
about 635,000 tonnes of copper
annually.
Global miner Anglo American
said its Los Bronces copper
mine in central Chile was
operating normally, and the
country’s top oil renery, Bio
Bio, said operations were nor-
tary prison in Kansas, was a
great father who would not
have harmed children.
“He loves children. He’s
like a big kid himself ... I have
no idea what happened ...
but he loved children, and he
would not do that. It’s heartbreaking.”
Karilyn Bales said her husband’s
latest mission seemed
more intense than his past
tours, but there was no question
that he was mentally and
physically cleared to deploy.
He did not appear to show
signs of post-traumatic stress
syndrome, and there were no
nightmares or bouts of erratic
behaviour, she said.
Still, her family was unprepared
before he went to
Afghanistan for the news that
Bales would be going overseas
for a fourth time.
mal after the tremor.
The central area is home to
some important copper mines,
but the bulk of output in Chile,
which produces about a third
of the world’s red metal, is
concentrated in the north.
Quakes of magnitude 7 or
above are capable of causing
major damage. The 2010
quake caused roughly $8 billion
in insured losses and economic
losses of at least twice
that.
In the past two years, earthquakes
have been a scourge of
the insurance industry. In addition
to Chile, quakes in Japan
and New Zealand in 2011
caused record-breaking losses
in the tens of billions of dollars.
More recently, a major earthquake
in Mexico caused limited
losses, disaster modelling agencies
said, given that it happened
well away from major population
centres. — Reuters
Wife of US soldier says he would
not have harmed children
His latest mission
seemed more
intense than his past
tours, but there was
no question that he
was mentally and
physically cleared
to deploy
“It was a big shock because
we weren’t on the schedule to
be deployed again ... he didn’t
want to miss out on any more
of his kids’ lives,” she said.
The incident in southern
Afghanistan has further
strained US-Afghan relations
after more than 10 years of
war.
If convicted, Bales could
face the death penalty and a
mandatory minimum sentence
of life imprisonment with eligibility
for parole.
A legal defence fund has
been set up for Bales, his wife
said.
“I’m waiting to hear what
actually is true,” she told
NBC. “I don’t think anything
will really change my mind
in believing that he did not do
this, that this is not what is it
appears to be.” — Reuters
PROTESTS against President Obama’s healthcare plan in front of the US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC
yesterday. The court, which has set aside six hours over three days, was hearing arguments over the
constitutionality of Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. — AFP