Phuket Gazette World News: NYPD rookie kills 14-year-old; Aussie PM calls Sept 7 election; Al Qaeda threat leaves US embassies closed; Spain and Britain spar over Gibraltar

– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called a September 7 general election on Sunday, barely six weeks after he toppled former leader Julia Gillard in a party-room vote, ending a turbulent three years in power for the minority Labor government.

Rudd, who was dumped by his centre-left party in June 2010, has generated a spike in public support since he returned but conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott is still the favourite to win power.

Rudd’s Labor government could fall with the loss of just one of the 150 seats in parliament. His government currently holds 71 seats, the opposition 72, with one Green and six independent cross benchers.

Abbott’s opposition has promised to scrap an unpopular 30 percent tax on coal and iron ore mine profits, as well as a A$24.15/tonne carbon tax, if he wins power.

Rudd returned as prime minister on June 26 after he toppled Gillard, with a third of Gillard’s cabinet also stepping down.

His party has been in power since late 2007 and helped Australia’s A$1.4 trillion economy avoid recession following the 2008 global financial crisis, aided by a prolonged mining boom fuelled by resources demand from China and India.

However, a budget update on Friday showed Australia’s economic growth is slowing as the mining investment boom ends, with unemployment rising and the manufacturing sector in particular shedding jobs.

AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver said the election campaign could usher in a quieter period in the economy because Australians usually restrain spending during elections.

“It would be good for confidence to see an end to minority government and to get the election out of the way,” Oliver said, adding a victory for the pro-business opposition parties could also boost business confidence.

Hell of a fight

Rudd announced the election date in an email to his supporters, telling them “it’s on”, after visiting Governor-General Quentin Bryce, who is Australia’ head of state, to dissolve the current parliament.

“We’ve got one hell of a fight on our hands,” Rudd said.

The latest polls show Rudd has lifted Labor’s support to give the government a chance of victory, although the respected Newspoll in late July still had Rudd’s Labor Party trailing the opposition by four percentage points, 48 percent to 52 percent.

Analyst Nick Economou said polls have not swung back to Rudd enough to put Labor in a winning position, particularly in marginal seats in the outer suburbs of Australia’s major cities.

“Rudd has undertaken a risky strategy. The polls indicate that Labor has achieved the recovery of previously strong Labor voters. But I’m not sure that Labor’s message is resonating in key marginal seats,” Monash University’s Economou told Reuters.

I can’t see that he can win

Online bookmaker Sportsbet.com, which takes bets in each of the 150 electorates, said current projections had Rudd winning 65 seats and Abbott’s conservatives 82.

Gillard introduced the price on carbon and the mining tax, and strengthened Australia’s defence ties with the United States, although her government was hamstrung by a lack of a parliamentary majority and party infighting.

Abbott has built a strong lead in opinion polls with his campaign to abolish the carbon tax, which he has blamed for pushing up electricity prices and for job losses.

He has also won support for his strong stance against asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat, with refugee policy set to play a leading role in the election.

Since returning to office, Rudd has announced Australia’s toughest measures to deter asylum seekers, announcing anyone who arrives by boat will be sent to either Papua New Guinea or Nauru in the Pacific for processing and resettlement.

The election date means Rudd will miss the G20 summit in St Petersburg on September 5-6, even though Australia will take over as chair of the G20 for the coming year.

PHUKET: A police officer shot an armed 14-year-old boy in New York City early on Sunday after he did not drop his gun when ordered, police said.

After hearing gunshots, two officers came across the boy, whom police identified as Shaaliver Douse, chasing another male down a street in the South Bronx, shooting after him with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun as he ran, police said.

The uniformed officers identified themselves as police and ordered Douse to drop his gun, police said. He did not do so, and one of the officers shot a single round, hitting Douse in his lower left jaw, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Both police officers, who joined the force in January, were taken to a hospital to be treated for tinnitus and trauma.

PHUKET: Spain is studying retaliatory measures against the British territory of Gibraltar in an escalating dispute over fishing grounds, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said in an interview published on Sunday.

“The party is over,” Garcia-Margallo told ABC newspaper, referring to years of softer policy on Gibraltar under the previous Socialist government.

The minister said Spain was mulling a 50-euro border-crossing fee and tax investigations of thousands of Gibraltarians who own property in Spain. A border fee would affect tourists and Gibraltarians who cross the border for work.

Spain was also considering closing airspace to planes heading for the airport in Gibraltar and changing rules to wring taxes from on-line gaming companies based in Gibraltar, he said.

Spain disputes Britain’s three centuries of sovereignty over Gibraltar, a territory on the southern tip of Spain that is home to close to 30,000 people with an economy dominated by off-shore banking, Internet gambling operations and tourism.

Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo issued a statement attacking Garcia-Margallo’s reported comments. The British Foreign Office said it would seek explanations from Spain regarding the measures it might impose.

“The statements … are the most backward-looking and threatening since before the frontier closed and are clearly reminiscent of the politics and tactics on Gibraltar deployed by the fascist regime led by Franco in the ’50s and ’60s,” Picardo said in a statement. He called the Spanish foreign minister’s words “belligerent rantings.”

The 1.2-km frontier between Spain and Gibraltar was closed for most of the 1970s and the first part of the 1980s due to the dispute over the status of the territory.

Under the previous Socialist government Spain softened its stance, discussing other issues without bringing up sovereignty while agreeing to give Gibraltar a voice in any talks with Britain over its status.

But the centre-right government of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has taken a harder line regarding its claim on the territory.

The latest tensions between Spain and the British territory began 10 days ago after Gibraltar boats be

— Phuket Gazette Editors

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