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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of May 21, 1999
SYDNEY The central Reserve Bank estimates the 2000 Olympic Games will add $938 million - about 1% of GDP - to the economy in the third quarter of 2000.Week of April 23, 1999
FIVE-POWER DEFENSE ARRANGEMENT After being canceled last year, defense exercises involving Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are underway. The last round of war games was called off when Malaysia suddenly withdrew from the naval and air exercises scheduled for September to October 1998, citing economic difficulties.Week of March 19, 1999
A near-capacity crowd of 104,000 people turned up for the unofficial March 6 opening of the main stadium for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Meanwhile, Daimler-Chrysler is threatening to abandon its involvement in the Sydney Olym pics and end its 35 years of financial support for the Games unless the scandal-tainted International Olympics Committee cleans up its act.Week of March 12, 1999
Tourist arrivals in Australia were down 17% from Southeast Asia and 16% from Northeast Asia for 1998. The biggest falls were from Malaysia and Indonesia, with Singapore the only Asian country to record an increase.Week of March 5, 1999
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer wants the United States, Japan and Portugal to set up a contact group on East Timor. The Australians, seeking to pre-empt possible chaos in a place so near their coast, want to insure as smoo th a transition as possible to either independence or autonomy for the territory.
NATURAL DISASTERS
Asia is hit by more natural disasters every year than anywhere else in the world, the U.N.'s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific said at a convention in Bangkok. Six of the world's 10 largest disasters last year occurred in Asia. They included floods in China and Bangladesh and the forest fires in Indonesia that generated the "haze" that affected much of the southeast. ESCAP estimates that last year 27,000 people died an d more than $38 billion was lost to such man-made and natural phenomena.Week of February 19, 1999
QUEENSLAND The far-right One Nation party was once again in turmoil as three of its 10 state MPs resigned and the other seven threatened to quit unless Pauline Hanson and other leaders allowed party elections. Matters cam e to a head when a draft document was put before the party that would let Hanson and two aides rule unelected and unchallenged for at least the next two years.Week of January 22, 1999
CANBERRA The government has changed its policy and now supports full independence for East Timor. Previously the Australians backed a program that would eventually bring about autonomy in the troubled territory. Jakarta i mmediately responded that discussion of independence is not on its agenda.News from Australia in 1998
News from Australia in 1997
News from Australia in 1996
News from Australia in 1995
