Fiji plea for inclusion
By The Canberra Times
6 July 2010
Canberra Times
English
(c) 2010 The Canberra Times
Fiji coup leader Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama says his country wants to be part of the Pacific Islands Forum again, but Australia and New Zealand have not acknowledged the military government's efforts for reform. Commodore Bainimarama said his government remained open to dialogue, though the Forum Ministerial Action Group has been banned from visiting the country for saying that the situation in Fiji has worsened, the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reported. ''It is most unfortunate that some of the foreign countries are turning a blind eye in terms of development and the reforms that this government is carrying out,'' Commodore Bainimarama said.
MP slates extremists Preachers of Islamic extremism should be barred from Australia, a federal MP says. Michael Johnson, a lower house independent, has also called for a debate on banning the burqa. He said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and his former boss, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, needed to repudiate the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global Islamic group which wants Australian Muslims to reject democracy. ''Join together and repudiate the extremism of this global movement and ... guarantee that none of its international preachers ever receive a visa to step on to Australian soil again,'' Mr Johnson said in a statement. The release was issued in response to an article in The Australian which reported Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders urging participants in a western Sydney conference to join the struggle for a transnational Islamic state.
