Time To Abide By Referee’s Decision On Lynas

Some people just don’t know when to abide by the referee’s decision and get on with the game.

Despite the fact the residents’ appeal against the Lynas Rare Earth Plant has been dismissed, despite the fact that the mining company has agreed to the extra safety measures imposed by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and despite the fact today’s Parliamentary Selected Committee report will give the operation the all-clear, the most militant opponents are still not accepting the verdict.

The Kuantan residents led by PKR MP Fuziah Salleh say they will do whatever they can to further stall the project and will even resort to the Australian courts.

This is set to exasperate the Government, which has done everything in its powers to review and then re-review the proposed operation that could earn RM5 billion per year.

It set up the PSC which staged months of public hearings involving independent experts from around the world, leading PSC Chairman Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin to declare it “the safest rare earth plant in the world.”

The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry imposed two additional conditions to the five that had already been met by Lynas as part of its Temporary Operating Licence.

Lynas will now have to install a back-up system to trap the low-level radioactive elements produced and will also have to install extra back-up for the sprinkler system to ensure dust remains supressed.

The experts are now wondering what more they can possibly do to convince their most sceptical opponents.

But the fact is, as many observers of this long-running saga now know, it isn’t about convincing anyone. Many Lynas opponents will never change their views no matter what eminent scientists say.

What chance the local PKR MP Fuziah Salleh uses Lynas as her re-election effort? Given Pakatan’s total lack of readiness for the coming election, playing role of environmental campaigner could be her best campaign weapon as she vies for another term as an MP.

Opposed Kuantan residents won’t change their minds because they have been led astray by professional agitators including professional environmental activists flown in from Australia and a misinformation campaign that has led many residents to believe the facility is a nuclear reactor.

It is nothing of the sort. It is a mineral processing facility involving radiation levels that are the same as those emitted by a cathode ray television.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told protesters in February that a Pakatan government will close the plant if it wins GE13 despite the fact that would mean the biggest government compensation pay-out in history to a company that has already invested hundreds of millions in this country.

As is now common with Anwar, naturally he hadn’t actually thought through the financial ramifications of his promise when he spoke. In Anwar’s world, such vacuous populism is what substitutes for proper, responsible leadership.

PAS meanwhile gagged its own scientist, Dr Che Rosli Che Mat, when he dared to say the plant is safe. Dr Che Rosli has a PhD in Nuclear Physics and is better qualified to give such a verdict than any other politician on either side of politics.

DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng was invited to sit down with Lynas and have the operation explained to him in detail but he made as much political capital out of the offer as he could before theatrically rejecting it.

Last month Lynas Corporation chairman Nicholas Curtis took to the Australian press to accuse Malaysia of moving the goalposts. He said having made a 30-40 year investment in this country, the rules are being changed with more and more hurdles placed in front of his company.

His words must have made painful reading for those in the Prime Minister’s department who have spent the past four years telling the world that this is a country that welcomes foreign investment.

But thankfully, all this will be forgotten if we now get on with making Malaysia one of the most important producers of rare earth metals in the world. In the process we will be striking a blow for the security of our tech industries that rely on these materials which are now overwhelmingly controlled by China.

With the Lynas end-game upon us, it’s time for everyone to calm down, accept the referee’s decision and play by the rules.

Source: The Choice

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Lynas Injunction Application Hearing On July 19

KUALA LUMPUR – The High Court postponed to July 19 the inter-partes injunction hearing by Lynas Corporation Limited and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd to restrain ‘Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas’ (SMSL), an anti-Lynas group and its two directors from further publishing defamatory article on Lynas.

SMSL’s counsel Datuk Bastian Pius Vendargon told reporters that Lynas had served its affidavit pertaining to the injunction hearing to the defendants yesterday.

He said the defendants needed time to file its affidavit-reply and the court fixed July 19 to hear the inter-partes injuction.

He also said that both parties had submitted written submissions on the injunction to the court.

On April 19, Lynas Corporation of Sydney, Australia, and Lynas Malaysia filed the suit against SMSL Sdn Bhd and its two directors, Tan Bun Teet and Lim Sow Teow, over a defamatory article published on its blogsite, on March 22.

In the suit Lynas also sought for the defendants to remove the article from its blogsite until the disposal of the suit. – Bernama

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Europe Vows Closer Union At G20 Summit

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Under pressure from financial markets and anxious world leaders, Europe agreed yesterday to move towards a more integrated banking system to stem a debt crisis that threatens the survival of the euro.

At a Group of 20 summit of the world’s leading industrialised and developing economies in this Mexican resort, Germany and its big euro zone partners took the unusual step of spelling out in detail measures to complete the economic and monetary union they launched to great fanfare 13 years ago.

Among the commitments in a draft G20 communique was a pledge to consider concrete steps towards a “more integrated financial architecture” in Europe that would include common banking supervision and firm guarantees to repay bank depositors.

The United States, the International Monetary Fund and European Commission have been urging EU member states to press ahead with a banking union to break the vicious link between deeply indebted governments bailing out illiquid financial institutions, worsening the sovereign debt problems and deepening the euro-zone crisis.

While that term did not appear in the declaration, the wording did suggest that Germany, which has rejected initiatives that might expose it to the cost of rescuing banks outside its borders, was growing more open to the idea of closer banking cooperation.

US President Barack Obama, concerned that Europe’s debt crisis could deteriorate further and upend his re-election hopes, met with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who as the leader of Europe’s biggest economy is under intense pressure to commit German resources to underpin the euro zone and prevent a catastrophic breakup.

Obama’s spokesman said the US president was encouraged by the talks, which touched on steps to “increase European integration”.

EU President Jose Manuel Barroso showed frustration over the pressure which is piling on Europe to act fast. He said G20 members must understand it will take time for the 17 euro zone democracies to agree on how to build a full financial, fiscal and political union and asked fellow G20 members to stop lecturing.

“We certainly are coming here to receive lessons from nobody,” he said.

Boosting growth

Protected by Mexican navy vessels and troops who patrolled sun-baked beaches and highways, leaders from the G20 countries representing more than 80 per cent of world output agreed to prioritize boosting growth and job creation, hit hard by the focus on sharp budget cutbacks, which has contributed to an accelerating slowdown in the global economy.

The World Bank last week lowered its forecast for global growth in 2012 to 2.5 per cent and said developing nations faced a long period of financial market volatility and weaker growth.

In its strongest signal in three years that it would act to strengthen the recovery, the G20 said in their draft communique that countries without heavy debts problems were ready to act together to spur growth, if the economy slows a lot more.

The United States has pressed Germany as well as China to stimulate spending in order to help the world economy.

Rising violence in Syria and the near-collapse of a United Nations-brokered peace plan was also in focus as US President Barack Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two super powers have clashed over arming Syria and UN sanctions.

Obama and Putin agreed that the violence in Syria has to end but offered no new solutions and showed no signs of reaching a deal on tougher sanctions against Damascus.

Relief rally fleeting

Europe’s battle against a debt crisis that has led Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek EU/IMF rescues, and forced Spain to seek aid for its banks, dominated the opening discussion of G20 leaders on the global economy.

A narrow victory for the conservative New Democracy party in the Greek election on Sunday eased concerns the heavily indebted country could exit the euro zone soon. But it did little to calm financial markets, which fear a euro zone breakup has only been delayed and will drag Spain and Italy into the maelstrom.

“The win in Greece does not really resolve anything,” said Boris Schlossberg, managing director at investment advisory firm BK Asset Management in New York. “It’s still going to be tough for Greece.”

Fitch Ratings agency said the Greek result had lowered the risk of a disorderly default and the scenario of a euro zone exit, but it also warned that any new government in Athens was likely to be fragile.

After an initial relief rally, the euro fell against the dollar. Spanish bond yields hit a new euro-era high above 7 per cent.

Merkel, speaking to reporters after landing on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula in the middle of the night, welcomed the Greek result but said she could not accept any loosening of the austerity measures and deep structural reforms Athens has agreed to as a condition of its two EU/IMF bailouts totalling €240 billion (RM936.9 billion).

“The Greek government will and must deliver on the commitments it has agreed to,” she said.

That puts her on a collision course with the winner of the Greek vote, conservative Antonis Samaras, who campaigned pledging to renegotiate elements of the rescue and reiterated that stance yesterday, saying “amendments” were needed to relieve “crippling unemployment and huge hardships” for Greeks.

Greece will ask to spread €11.7 billion in austerity cuts over four years instead of two, a New Democracy party source told Reuters in Athens.

German frustration with Greece’s failure to deliver on its reform pledges has risen in recent months, as has Greek anger at the tough austerity prescribed by Berlin and its partners.

In a twist of fate, Greece’s football team will battle Germany on June 22 in the quarter-finals of the European championships.

David Mackie, an economist at JP Morgan, said he expected European governments would ultimately be forced to agree to an “aggressive restructuring” of the loans they have already provided to Greece to return the country to a sustainable path.

Extra IMF firepower

Merkel has been pushing fellow European leaders to agree a road map toward closer fiscal integration that would involve ceding sovereignty over budgets to Brussels and giving more power to the European Parliament.

By sketching out what the bloc might look like in five to 10 years, she hopes to win back the confidence of markets.

But her counterparts, notably new French President Francois Hollande who arrived here later yesterday after his Socialist Party won control of the French parliament in weekend elections, have doubts about transferring fiscal powers. It appears unlikely that Europe will deliver a “grand bargain” at a separate summit of EU leaders on June 28-29.

In Los Cabos, leaders are set to confirm they will double the IMF’s firepower. The Fund’s managing director Christine Lagarde said pledges now totalled US$456 billion (RM1.4 billion), up from the US$430 billion in April, even though some emerging nations are frustrated with the slow pace of winning more power at the global lender.

China yesterday offered to contribute US$43 billion to the IMF’s crisis-fighting reserves, adding to offers of US$10 billion each from Brazil, Russia and India. — Reuters

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Tyson To Take Tale To Broadway

NEW YORK – From the boxing ring to Broadway – Mike Tyson said Monday he’s teaming up with director Spike Lee to take his one-man show “Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth” to the New York stage.

Tyson, the former heavyweight world champion and self-styled “baddest man  on the planet,” debuted the show in Las Vegas in April, pulling few punches in  recounting the highs and highly publicized lows of his career.

Now he plans to bring the show to the Longacre Theatre for six nights only,  July 31 to August 5, in what will be a Broadway debut for both Tyson and Lee.

“I’m very vulnerable and I’m just telling you who I am and where I’m from  and how this happened,” Tyson said at a news conference at the Longacre.

Tyson, who like Lee hails from Brooklyn, gained fame in 1986 when he became  the youngest ever heavyweight world champion at the age of 20.

But fame and fortune were accompanied by turmoil, including a prison  sentence for rape, drug addiction and bursts of temper outside the ring that  made him tabloid fodder.

Late in his career his fearsome ring reputation gained a bizarre tinge when  he bit opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear in a fight.

In recent years Tyson has faced charges of cocaine possession and drunken  driving, and dealt with personal tragedy with the accidental death of his  4-year-old daughter, Exodus.

However, he has also been seen in a new light by audiences who enjoyed his  cameo role in the movie “The Hangover” and shown a gentle side in a reality  television series exploring his love of training pigeons.

“It takes courage to get in the ring,” Lee said. “But it takes courage to  get on the stage.”    Tyson, 46, said that the show would be “raw” and “filthy” but that he would  also show his vulnerable side.

In the show, Tyson runs through his life story, from his birth in Brooklyn  to a mother who was a prostitute and a father he believed was a pimp, although  he never knew for sure who his real father was.

He was a hardened criminal by the time his mother died when he was 16. It  was then that his boxing mentor, Cus d’Amato, helped him turn his back on crime  and detention centers and refocus his life around his awesome fighting talent.

He discusses his first marriage to actress Robin Givens, which unraveled in  1989, and the “demons” that gradually got the better of him.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty queen at a pageant in  Indianapolis, Indiana. He served three years of a six-year sentence before his release in 1995, steadfastly denying he raped the woman.

In 1997, he infamously bit Holyfield’s ears twice in a heavyweight title  rematch and was banished from boxing for a year.

The boxer filed for bankruptcy in 2003, the same year his second marriage  ended. He married his current wife in 2009.

Lee is the director behind such films as “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X”  and “Inside Man,” and many of his films deal with race relations in America.

He said he signed on for the project after seeing a recording of Tyson’s  Las Vegas show.

“It’s a great story and he tells it masterfully,” said Lee, who calls it a  tale of redemption that only needs some tweaking from the Vegas edition.

“He’s lifted himself off the canvas.” – AFP

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3 Killed, 10 Missing In Indonesia Landslide

JAKARTA  – Three people were killed and 10 missing on Tuesday after they were buried in a landslide caused by heavy rain in eastern Indonesia, a rescue official said.

“Heavy rains in Ambon city, Maluku province, triggered a landslide early  this morning,” Ambon city search-and-rescue chief Brory Tjokro told AFP.

“Three people were killed and two were rescued safely. Ten people are still  missing and rescuers are still looking for them.”Two houses were destroyed, Tjokro said. – AFP

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Thai South Affected By Indonesia’s Haze

BANGKOK – Thailand’s Southern Meteorological Centre (East Coast) in Songkhla province reported on Monday that the southwest monsoon covering the southern Thai region currently could bring with it haze from annual forest fires on the Sumatra Island in Indonesia.

The centre’s director Wanchai Sakudomchai, told journalists that satellite images showed there were some 163 hot spots on the Sumatra Island and the prevailing southwest monsoon wind appeared to have brought the smog to several southern Thai areas.

Songkhla, for instance, has been covered by thick haze in early morning over the past days, before gradually fading a few hours later, Thai News Agency (TNA)
reported.

Wanchai said he has instructed local officials to closely monitor satellite updates and timely warn people in areas at risk of possible impacts from either more hot spots in Indonesia or stronger southwest monsoon wind. – BERNAMA

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