World Roundup
A variety of strories from Australia and around the world are covered in tonight’s show. Federal Reserve to Buy Up to $1 Trillion in Government Bonds, Mortgage Debt www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-18-voa68.cfm U.S. central bank policy makers announced new actions Wednesday to help jump-start the nation’s ailing economy. Federal Reserve officials announced a plan to purchase up to $300 billion in long-term [...]

A variety of strories from Australia and around the world are covered in tonight’s show.

Federal Reserve to Buy Up to $1 Trillion in Government Bonds, Mortgage Debt

• www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-18-voa68.cfm

U.S. central bank policy makers announced new actions Wednesday to help jump-start the nation’s ailing economy.

Federal Reserve officials announced a plan to purchase up to $300 billion in long-term U.S. government bonds to bolster the nation’s economy.

The central bank also announced that it would purchase up to $750 billion of additional mortgage-backed securities, which lost value with the collapse of the U.S. housing market.

The hope is that by unburdening banks of these assets, they will increase lending to potential home buyers.

US Federal Reserve takes the Zimbabwe option

• www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2521004.htm
• www.mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/aud…PM2-fed.mp3

China Calls For Super Reserve Currency

• www.huffingtonpost.com/…_n_178592.html
• business.smh.com.au/business/china-muscles-up…98w4.html

BEIJING — China is calling for a new global currency to replace the dominant dollar, showing a growing assertiveness on revamping the world economy ahead of next week’s London summit on the financial crisis.

The surprise proposal by Beijing’s central bank governor reflects unease about its vast holdings of U.S. government bonds and adds to Chinese pressure to overhaul a global financial system dominated by the dollar and Western governments. Both the United States and the European Union brushed off the idea.

Police raid Wikileaks.de domain owner Theodor Reppe’s home over ‘censorship lists’

• www.news.com.au/…5014239,00.html

POLICE have raided a Wikileaks associate’s homes in Dresden and Jena after the website published a list of banned websites.
Theodor Reppe owns the German domain registration for “wikileaks.de”, one of the many URLs used by the whistleblowing website.

Stephen Conroy says leaked list of banned websites ’seems like ACMA’s blacklist’

• www.news.com.au…5014239,00.html

DESPITE his denial last week, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy claims the leaked website blacklists published on Wikleaks now closely resemble the Government watchdog’s official list.

Three lists thought to be from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) were published online over the past seven days.

Senator Conroy admitted that the latest list, dated March 18th, “seemed to be close” to ACMA’s current blacklist.

Internet filter blacklist leaked on web

• www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/19/2520591.htm

The communication regulator’s blacklist of banned internet sites has apparently been leaked, prompting an internet advocacy group to accuse the Government of making it easy to access child pornography.

The Government is planning to introduce a mandatory internet filter that will block access to a list of dangerous websites.

The list of sites – managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) – is designed to catalogue sites containing child pornography or other criminal content.

MP Galloway is banned from Canada

• news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7954923.stm
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=NezETjHGNSM

George Galloway, a British member of Parliament, has been banned from Canada on security grounds, the country’s immigration service has confirmed.

Mr Galloway, a Respect Party MP, said the ban was “idiotic” and he would look at legal action to try to overturn it.

British media reported the decision was due to his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there.

It’s official: Red Cross report says Bush Administration tortured prisoners

• rawstory.com/news/2008/…says_0316.html

US interrogators attached detainees to collars like dogs and used their leashes to slam them against walls, forced them to stand for days wearing only diapers, and tied detainees necks with towels and threw them against plywood walls, according to accounts in a secret 2007 report issued by the Red Cross to be printed in a New York magazine and leaked on Monday.

The report — issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross and kept secret for the last two years — is the first first-hand document to legally say the Bush Administration’s harsh interrogation techniques “constituted torture.” They strongly imply that CIA interrogators violated international law.

Bikie laws ‘will stand up to High Court’

• news.smh.com.au/…high-court-20090324-9845.html

NSW is considering introducing South Australia-style anti-bikie laws, after a man was killed during a vicious brawl between Hells Angels and rival Comancheros gang members at Sydney Airport on Sunday.

The South Australian laws allow the government to declare bikie gangs to be prohibited criminal groups, and police to arrest their members for criminal association.

Absurd anti-bikie laws do not stop bikies, but legalising drugs will

• www.crikey.com.au/…legalising-drugs-will.html

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees is today contemplating adopting his South Australian counterpart Mike Rann’s absurd anti-bikie laws. As I noted in Crikey on 1 April last year, these laws are largely unenforceable, cement in law the concept of guilt by association and would do nothing to lessen the problem of bikie gangs’ violence because they completely miss the point — which is that bikie gangs thrive on our refusal to decriminalise drugs.

The Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act passed through the South Australian Parliament in May last year make the anti-terrorism laws look like a freedom charter.

Source: www.truthnews.com.au