Sembalun, Indonesia: Hundreds of tourists stranded on Mount Rinjani on the Indonesian island of Lombok by an earthquake that killed 16 people and triggered landslides are making their way off the mountain, shaken by their experience but mostly unharmed, an official said on Monday.
By late afternoon, more than 250 people had reached a relief post in Sembalun village and a team of rescuers has reached hundreds more near the mountain's crater lake, a local military official, Arifianto, told Indonesian TV. Last month Mount Agung spews ash and smoke in Karangasem, Bali. Photo: AP He said some suffered light injuries and were traumatised, but most were in good condition. The magnitude 6.4 earthquake early on Sunday killed 16 people, including an Indonesian student who was among the Mount Rinjani climbers. The shallow quake set off landslides on the mountain that's carpeted in boulders and rocks, blocking usual paths out. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency had said more than 680 people were stranded on Rinjani, an active volcano, based on figures from its entry gates where visitors are registered. Most are foreign - from 26 countries, including more than 330 from Thailand. https://www.watoday.com.au/world/asia/mount-rinjan-earthquake-leaves-hundreds-stranded-on-mountain-20180731-p4zuj1.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
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7/30/2018 0 Comments 4 Key Moving Mistakes to AvoidIt is often said that moving or relocating is a stressful and chaotic process. But with my own moving experience, I can say that this statement is overused and much hyped. If you plan everything properly and take help of professionals for moving and cleaning chores, you will not face any troubles in the entire process. Not only it would be easy to focus on essential areas like preparing the documents, your professional commitments, finding the new house etc. Here are the four critical moving mistakes people while moving and then complain of the stress and chaos caused to them. Find them here
https://www.betterremovalistsperth.com.au/4-key-moving-mistakes-avoid/ A man who was struck and killed by a car in Victorias north-east was on the road after being assaulted by three teens.
The death, which was previously believed to be an accident, is now being investigated by the Homicide Squad. The 43-year-old man was struck and killed by a vehicle on Poplar Avenue, Shepparton, near Yorkshire Crescent shortly before 11pm on Friday. The woman driving the vehicle stopped to assist him, but he died at the scene. Police now believe the Shepparton man was assaulted following a fight with two men and a woman, believed to be in their late teens, that ended with him on the road. The teens fled the area before police arrived. Homicide Squad detectives took over the investigation from the Major Collision Unit on Sunday. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via www.crimestoppersvic.com.au. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/victoria/man-assaulted-before-being-struck-and-killed-by-a-car-in-shepparton-20180730-p4zuce.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed The Lions are through to their third straight Super Rugby final after powering over the top of the NSW Waratahs 44-26 in Johannesburg.
The South African team recovered from a slow start in their semi-final to earn another shot at the Crusaders after going down to the New Zealand powerhouse in last year's decider. Things didn't go to script early for the Lions on Saturday as the Waratahs defied their underdog status to snatch a 14-0 lead after just 10 minutes on the back of 80 per cent possession to silence the home crowd. But the team that belted the Waratahs 29-0 in Sydney back in April was never going to simply fold and hand them their first ticket to a final since 2014. More to come AAP https://www.watoday.com.au/sport/lions-end-waratahs-super-rugby-season-20180729-p4zu81.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed Best of Fairfax cartoons July 28, 2018
Skip to sections navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer Advertisement 15 ImagesBest of Fairfax cartoons July 28, 201827 July 2018 10:40pm1/15 Illustration: Michael Leunig 2/15 Illustration: David Pope 3/15 Illustration: Matt Golding 4/15 Illustration: Matt Golding Advertisement 5/15 Illustration: Matt Golding 6/15 Illustration: Alan Moir 7/15 Illustration: Ron Tandberg 8/15 Illustration: Simon Letch 9/15 Illustration: John Shakespeare 10/15 Illustration: Jim Pavlidis 11/15 Illustration: John ShakespearePhoto: 12/15 Illustration: Simon Letch 13/15 Illustration: Matt Golding 14/15 Illustration: Matt Golding Advertisement 15/15 Illustration: Matt Golding https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/best-of-fairfax-cartoons-july-28-2018-20180727-h138wx.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed Khan has presented himself as a populist antidote to all that.
"He has no direct corruption scandal attributed to his person, which is rare in Pakistan, particularly with politicians," said Raza Rumi, a prominent Pakistani journalist who is a political analyst at Cornell's Institute of Public Affairs. But it is not simply Khan's clean image that explains his success this time around. Supporters of Imran Khan celebrate reports of his victory in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Photo: AP Evidence is mounting of extensive political manipulation by the country's military authorities. Rights advocates and Khan's political rivals accuse the military of selectively targeting Khan's opponents, and muzzling the press when it has been critical. The leader of what had been Pakistan's pre-eminent political party, three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was imprisoned less than two weeks ago. A year before, Supreme Court justices ousted him from office in a ruling that was widely seen as having been made under pressure by the army. Many members of Sharif's party - the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) - have defected, in what others have described as a targeted campaign by the security services to effectively behead the organisation. Volunteers rush an injured person to a hospital following a suicide attack on an election rally in Peshawar, Pakistan, earlier this month. Photo: AP If the pattern of Khan's political career to this point has been to underperform despite his advantages, in this election he may finally have too many advantages to fail. Khan speaks in a deep voice and comes across as confident and relaxed, down-to-earth but also perhaps a touch remote. And he insists that he is not in the army's pocket - even as he expresses his support for the military. "I think a democratic government rules from moral authority," Khan said in an interview with The New York Times this northern spring. "And if you don't have moral authority, then those who have the physical authority assert themselves. In my opinion, it is the Pakistan Army and not an enemy army. I will carry the army with me." Pakistan's military has directly ruled for much of this nation's history and seriously meddled in political affairs for much of the rest. Many analysts are sceptical about Khan's claims of independence. "He is their puppet," said Christine Fair, a political scientist at Georgetown University. "He is where he is now because of the army and ISI" - Pakistan's military intelligence service - "which have engaged in massive prepoll shenanigans and will continue the day of the elections and after to ensure an Imran Khan-led coalition." How will Khan then govern? Imran Khan speaks after casting his vote in Islamabad. Photo: AP Pakistan is a pivotal nation, the world's sixth most populous, nuclear-armed and a geopolitical hot spot because of its longstanding enmity with India and its support for militant proxies including the Afghan Taliban. Khan has said he would like to make peace with India. And though he criticised some of the Taliban's violence, he has also publicly defended the group and its aims. He has taken a hard line against the US, bitterly complaining about drone strikes in Pakistan and calling the war on terrorism "madness". "His foreign policy is centrally anti-American," said Omar Waraich, deputy South Asia director at Amnesty International. Villagers wade through floodwaters in Rajanpur, Pakistan, in 2015. Photo: AP Domestically, he is likely to be overwhelmed. Pakistan's economy keeps sliding, and many public assets are in crisis, including the electricity grid and water supply. Imran Khan with the World Cup after Pakistan defeated England at the MCG in 1992. Photo: Fairfax Media Though Khan's personal credentials for governing are still an unknown, his party has governed the vast but sparsely populated province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2013. While its record there is mixed, it has been credited with improving government services. Khan, 65, has had an enchanting life, though not always a consistent one. Born to a privileged family, educated at Oxford, a lover to many beautiful and famous women and a superstar athlete considered one of the best in cricket's history, his experiences could not be more different than those of most Pakistanis. He reached heroic status in 1992, captaining Pakistan's cricket team to a World Cup final victory over England, the former colonial power. It was an immense moment of national pride, and Khan was at the centre of it. He was also 39 and nursing a shoulder injury. A few years later, he went through a soul-searching conversion. He raised millions of dollars to build a cancer hospital for the poor (his mother had died of cancer) and he started to become more deeply interested in Islam. He moved away from the limelight and dating celebrities, saying that kind of life had never been very satisfying. "It looks from the outside very glamorous, great, but actually it's not," he told a British newspaper. "It's these transitory relationships. They're pretty empty." In 1996, he founded his Movement for Justice, or Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). His party struggled in obscurity for years, barely winning any seats in Pakistan's legislature, and for a time, Khan the superstar became Khan the joke. A Pakistani newspaper ridiculed him as "Im the Dim"; others called him "Imran Khan't". The PML-N and the PPP, founded by the Bhutto family, proved better organised. They had established vast patronage networks throughout the country. In many areas, landlords and tribal chiefs still command enormous sway. Such grandees, if given the right incentives, can deliver huge blocks of votes, which Khan's scrappy political outfit struggled against. Shahbaz Sharif, brother of Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who now heads the Pakistan Muslim League, addresses a news conference in Lahore. Photo: AP But even during these years, Khan attracted a passionate following. "Who will save Pakistan?" his supporters would cheer at his rallies. "Imran Khan! Imran Khan!" Many conservative Muslim Pakistanis now forgive him for his decadent past. "How he behaved before, that's his business," said Tanveer Haider, a Pakistani crane operator working in the Middle East who flew home this week so he could vote for the PTI. "I care about what he will do for this country. Of all the politicians, he will do the most." Analysts say Pakistan is desperate for change, and that is what Khan represents. "The vast section of urban Pakistanis, not all, are kind of tired of the two parties," Rumi said. "They feel that we need to move beyond them and he's a way out." Imran Khan with his then wife Jemima and Princess Diana in 1997, outside the cancer hospital he built and named after his mother. Photo: Alamy For all the fawning that Khan has enjoyed, he has also taken his lumps and shown a fair bit of resilience - particularly when it comes to the consuming attention given to his private life. His first wife was Jemima Goldsmith, a British heiress with some Jewish heritage. Soon enough, Khan was accused by some Pakistanis of being controlled by a Zionist conspiracy, which he laughed off. His second wife recently published a memoir that included allegations of lurid indiscretions in Khan's private life; he has let that roll off his back as well. His third and current wife is known as a spiritual healer; already many Pakistanis are quietly talking about the rituals Khan and his wife are believed to practice. Trying to sum up what Khan stands for, Ashutosh Varshney, the director of the Centre for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University, said: "Imran is a maddening medley of an incredible sporting talent, an incorrigible international playboy and a vengefully ambitious politician. He can't bring democracy to Pakistan - for democracy to institutionalise, the army must step back as a minimum condition." "No democracy can work that way," Varshney added, "elections or no elections." MAJOR PLAYERS Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League (N) Shahbaz Sharif took over as chief of the beleaguered centre-right former ruling Pakistan Muslim League party after the Supreme Court last July ousted his elder brother and then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif from office on charges of corruption stemming from the leaked Panama papers. Shahbaz was twice chief minister in Punjab province, where 60 per cent of Pakistan's 200 million people live. Nawaz Sharif, who is now in jail appealing a 10-year prison term for corruption, has had a tumultuous relationship with Pakistan's powerful military despite entering politics at the military's behest. Shahbaz Sharif, by contrast, has maintained balanced ties with the military. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Photo: AP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 29, is the son of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. His PPP's political strength lies in southern Sindh province. Since his mother's assassination by Taliban militants in 2007, the party's fortunes have dwindled. Benazir Bhutto served as prime minister twice and had returned to Pakistan in an attempt to return to power when she was attacked and killed. The Bhutto family has been dogged by tragedy. The party's founder, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was ousted in a military coup and hanged by military dictator Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, served as Pakistan's president for five years until 2013. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Alliance Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a pro-Taliban, anti-US radical Islamic leader, heads the alliance of radical religious groups that ruled Pakistan's north-west from 2002 to 2007 following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. In the past, the MMA had made political gains by opposing US involvement in Afghanistan. It was dormant for 10 years until leaders of right-wing religious parties decided to revive it and allow it to participate in this election. Mohammed Ahmed Ludhianvi, Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat Party Mohammed Ahmed Ludhianvi. Photo: AP A viciously anti-Shiite leader, Mohammed Ahmed Ludhianvi heads this offshoot of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a radical religious party that reviles Shiite Muslims as heretics and has been accused of violent attacks against them. ASWJ is not registered with the elections oversight body but its candidates are running for seats as independents both for the provincial legislatures and the National Assembly. According to party spokesman Oneeb Farooqi, it fielded 170 candidates. The Pakistani government recently asked authorities to unfreeze Ludhianvi's bank accounts and assets and remove the ban on ASWJ, drawing criticism from rights groups and analysts who question the government's seriousness in tackling extremism. Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Tehreek Labbeik Party Khadim Hussain Rizvi. Photo: AP Rizvi has made enforcement of the blasphemy law a central plank in his party's campaign. The law calls for an automatic death penalty for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. Frenzied mobs have gone on rampages and killed people at the mere suggestion that an act of blasphemy has been committed. Critics say the law is used to incite violence and also to settle individual grudges. New York Times, AP https://www.watoday.com.au/world/asia/in-a-divided-pakistan-imran-khan-is-on-the-front-foot-for-now-20180726-p4zttd.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed US President Donald Trump has reached an agreement with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker aimed at averting a transatlantic trade war, easing tensions stoked by Mr Trump's threat to impose tariffs on car imports.
The two sides agreed to expand European imports of US liquified natural gas and soybeans and lower industrial tariffs on both sides, Mr Trump said. The US and European Union will "hold off on other tariffs" while negotiations proceed, Mr Juncker said. Donald Trump warned at a cabinet meeting last week that he would move forward with 25 per cent auto tariffs if the meeting with Mr Juncker didn't go well. Photo: AP "We had a big day, very big," Mr Trump said at a joint statement with Mr Juncker at the White House on Wednesday, US time. He hailed "a new phase" of trade relations. The two leaders also said they would work toward "zero" tariffs on industrial goods, according to Mr Trump. He added that they would try to "resolve" steel and aluminium tariffs he imposed earlier this year and retaliatory duties the EU levied in response. https://www.watoday.com.au/business/the-economy/eu-offers-trade-concessions-in-talks-with-trump-wall-street-journal-20180726-p4ztnh.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed 7/24/2018 0 Comments What's on TV: Thursday, August 2Tony Robinson: Britain's Ancient Tracks
SBS, 7.30pm Do you sometimes wish Australians were as proud of their ancient history as the British are? I do. It's certainly both entertaining and educational to travel with Tony Robinson as he walks the paths that have crisscrossed Britain since pre-Roman times, unearthing (sometimes literally) fascinating relics of his country's past dating right back to Neolithic times. Tony Robinson presents Britain's Ancient Tracks. Photo: Supplied He starts on the Icknield Way, a track the origins of which are so thoroughly buried in time no one even knows what the name means any more, introducing us to both an abundance of history and some very quirky characters. MH https://www.watoday.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/whats-on-tv-thursday-august-2-20180725-h133pj.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed At a time of mounting uncertainty in Europe, Portugal has defied critics who have insisted on austerity as the answer to the Continent's economic and financial crisis. While countries from Greece to Ireland and for a stretch, Portugal itself toed the line, Lisbon resisted, helping to stoke a revival that drove economic growth last year to its highest level in a decade.
The city of Porto, in Portugal. Portugal has defied critics who insisted on austerity as the way out of economic and financial crisis. Photo: New York Times The renewal is visible just about everywhere. Hotels, restaurants and shops have opened in droves, fuelledby a tourism surge that has helped cut unemployment in half. In the Beato district of Lisbon, a mega-campusfor startups rises from the rubble of a derelict military factory. Bosch, Google and Mercedes-Benz recently opened offices and digital research centres, collectively employing thousands. Foreign investment in aerospace, construction and other sectors is at a record high. And traditional Portuguese industries, including textiles and paper mills, are putting money into innovation, driving a boom in exports. "What happened in Portugal shows that too much austerity deepens a recession, and creates a vicious circle," Prime Minister Antnio Costa said in an interview. "We devised an alternative to austerity, focusing on higher growth, and more and better jobs." Voters ushered Costa, a centre-left leader, into power in late 2015 after he promised to reverse cuts to their income, which the previous government had approved to reduce Portugal's high deficit under the terms of an international bailout of 78 billion euros ($123 billion). Costa formed an unusual alliance with Communist and radical-left parties, which had been shut out of power since the end of Portugal's dictatorship in 1974. They united with the goal of beating back austerity, while balancing the books to meet eurozone rules. Storefronts in the city of Porto, Portugal. Hotels, restaurants and shops have opened in droves, fuelled by a tourism surge. Photo: New York Times The government raised public sector salaries, the minimum wage and pensions and even restored the amount of vacation days to pre-bailoutlevels over objections from creditors like Germany and the International Monetary Fund. Incentives to stimulate business included development subsidies, tax credits and funding for small and midsize companies. Costa made up for the give-backswith cuts in infrastructure and other spending, whittling the annual budget deficit to less than 1 per cent of its gross domestic product, compared with 4.4 per cent when he took office. The government is on track to achieve a surplus by 2020, a year ahead of schedule, ending a quarter-century of deficits. European officials are now admitting that Portugal may have found a better response to the crisis. Recently, they rewarded Lisbon by elevating the country's finance minister, Mrio Centeno, who helped engineer the changes, to president of the Eurogroup, the influential collective of eurozone finance ministers. The economic about-face had a remarkable effect on Portugal's collective psyche. While discouragement lingers in Greece after a decade of spending cuts, Portugal's recovery has pivoted around restoring confidence to get people and businesses motivated again. Loading "The actual stimulus spending was very small," said Joo Borges de Assuno, a professor at the Catlica Lisbon School of Business and Economics. "But the country's mindset became completely different, and from an economic perspective, that's more impactful than the actual change in policy." Yet Portugal's success is still vulnerable. Growth is cooling from 2.7 per cent last year, as Costa keeps public investment at a 40-year low to cut the deficit. While he restored public sector salaries to previous levels, they have barely budged since before the crisis. Social precariousness lingers, worsened by the spread of low-paying part-time contracts. And the minimum wage of 580 euros a month, although up, remains one of the lowest in the eurozone. Portugal's unions are now threatening strikes to press the government to increase wages and unlock more public spending to reduce inequality. No place for triumphalism: the Praa do Comrcio arch in Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal's recovery is real but fragile as growth is stalling and wages are stagnant. Photo: New York Times Costa insists that the government must keep cutting the deficit to offset the biggest threat to Portugal: its enormous debt, still one of the eurozone's largest. Portuguese banks are saddled with bad loans from the earlier crisis, and the country remains vulnerable to any financial market turmoil that might be stirred up by problems in nearby Italy. "We didn't go from the dark side to the bright side of the moon," the prime minister said. "There's still a lot to do." "But when we started this process, a lot of people said that what we wanted to achieve was impossible," he added. "We showed that there is an alternative." To cement the growth cycle, the government is putting what little investment it makes into targeted initiatives like tax breaks for foreign companies and training for the unemployed. An hour and a half east of Lisbon, in vora, a 2-hectare factory built by the French airplane-parts maker Mecachrome rises from rolling plains fringed with cork trees. Lured in 2016 by government incentives and European Union loans, it invested 30 million euros in a vast aerospace park where bulldozers are flattening fields to make way for roads and businesses. A Mecachrome aeronautics factory in vora, Portugal. Photo: New York Times Robots forge precision parts for Airbus, Boeing and other industry giants. Most of the 150 technicians were recruited nearby by an unemployment agency that started an intensive retraining program with the government. Christian Santos, Mecachrome's director in Portugal, said he plans to hire 150 more workers and to make millions in additional investments in the next three years. "Things are happening in Portugal," he said. "There's an enthusiastic mojo here." New York Times Most Viewed in World Loading Morning & Afternoon NewsletterDelivered MonFri. https://www.watoday.com.au/world/europe/how-portugal-spent-its-way-to-recovery-20180723-p4zt1y.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed Lawyer Rudy Giuliani said no campaign funding was involved in the discussion between Trump and Cohen, who has distanced himself from Trump in recent months as the FBI investigates Cohen's business dealings. If campaign funds were used, that could run afoul of federal election law, legal experts say.
In a tweet on Saturday, a lawyer for Cohen, Lanny Davis called Trump and Giuliani's strategy "flawed" and the president's Twitter statement against Cohen "false." "Rudy claims the tape is 'exculpatory.' Why so angry?" Davis added. Before the election, the Trump campaign denied any knowledge of payment to McDougal, but the taped conversation could undermine those denials. The existence of the audio recording was first reported by the New York Times, which said Trump and Cohen discussed a potential payment to McDougal. Giuliani confirmed the conversation to Reuters and that it took place in September 2016 but said it involved reimbursing the parent company of the National Enquirer tabloid for McDougal's story rights. The payment was never made, he said. Giuliani also denied Trump had an affair with McDougal. He said the tape would show that Trump makes clear that if there is going to be a payment, it should be done by cheque, which would be easily traced. Giuliani said the FBI seized the recording this year during a raid on Cohen's office. A representative for McDougal has not responded to requests for comment. The White House had also declined comment. McDougal has said she began a nearly year-long affair with Trump in 2006 shortly after his wife, Melania, gave birth. She sold her story for $150,000 in August 2016 but it was never published by the National Enquirer, a practice known as "catch and kill" to prevent a potentially damaging story from becoming public. David Pecker, the chairman of parent company American Media Inc (AMI), is Trump's friend. Giuliani said the discussion of payment did not mean McDougals claim of an affair was true and characterised it as an attempt to resolve false allegations that were "personally damaging" to Trump. Under US election law, presidential candidates must disclose campaign contributions, which are defined as things of value given to a campaign in order to influence an election. Giuliani said the proposed payment was a personal matter and not subject to campaign finance law. The New Yorker magazine reported in February that Trump had an affair with McDougal at the same time he had a relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels and that the National Enquirer prevented McDougal's story being made public. The White House has said Trump denies having sex with Daniels. Reuters Most Viewed in World Loading Morning & Afternoon NewsletterDelivered MonFri. https://www.watoday.com.au/world/north-america/trump-says-cohen-taping-him-totally-unheard-of-and-perhaps-illegal-20180722-p4zsvl.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed |