Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived yesterday for his first official visit to Australia, where he will attempt to ease tensions between the two countries over a surge in asylum seekers using Indonesia as a launch point for Australian shores.
Yudhoyono grinned as he stepped off the plane and spotted a cluster of well-wishers waving Indonesian flags, stopping to shake hands with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
Bryce later bestowed upon the president Australia’s highest civilian honor for his commitment to improving bilateral ties.
Talks between Yudhoyono and Australian officials are expected to turn more serious during his three-day visit, however, with the issue of asylum seekers high on the agenda. Yudhoyono is also expected to highlight the issue during his address to parliament today.
The Australian government has come under increasing pressure domestically to find a solution to the surge in asylum seekers finding their way by boat into Australian waters over the past year.
The countries have also been at odds over the 1975 killing of five Australian-based journalists during a covert attack by Indonesian forces on East Timor. Yudhoyono has warned an Australian investigation launched last September could severely strain relations.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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