Seems like all my APEC posts in 'other' threads are not being "discovered"? There are some gems, believe me! The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Commission) meetings are happening as we blink in Sydney right now, with notable talents such as GW Bush, and others, attending in contemplation of how to keep control of our lovely planet........ Btw, Thailand is a member so there!!

First APEC arrest's a real sauce

Police have made their first protester arrest in Sydney's Hyde Park this afternoon after a man squirted tomato sauce on a pro-US banner.

The brand of the tomato sauce used in the attack is not known, or whether it was the product of a multi-national company.

The saucing happened after a pro-US protest group - Aussies 4 ANZUS - moved adjacent to a collection of socialist and other activist groups protesting against the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.

The Aussies 4 ANZUS group was surrounded by bicycle police. Their members then began using megaphones to taunt the anti-APEC activists.

As the anti-APEC crowd shouted insults back at the pro-US group a man approached the Aussies 4 ANZUS, reached past police and squirted tomato sauce on one of their posters.

"The bicycle police pulled him to the ground and cable tied him," said Herald photographer Andrew Meares. "There were six to eight police on his back and the media rushed in."

The man did not resist arrest and was later taken to a paddy wagon.

Police have now moved the Aussies 4 ANZUS group well away from the anti-APEC protesters and placed more officers around them.

A police spokeswoman said that a 36-year-old Queensland man was arrested at about 12:30pm.

"Witnesses have told the man squirted a substance, believed to be tomato sauce, over a police and others in the park," she said.

"The man is currently in custody assisting police with inquiries."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/first-...8783468813.html

* edit- italics added

Chaser juggernaut breaches global awareness

September 8, 2007

THURSDAY morning they were just a bunch of comedians known only to their Australian viewers and the many politicians they've left red-faced.

But by yesterday, the Chaser team's fame had spread around the world.

Footage of their fake motorcade stunt, in which black vehicles with bonnet-mounted Canadian flags were driven with embarrassing ease into APEC security zones, was shown on foreign networks such as Fox News, NBC and CBS. CNN played excerpts from old Chaser stunts. Even a television network in Lexington, Kentucky was running the story.

"A prank by a TV comedy crew has turned into an international incident and it could end up making a laughing stock of the entire [APEC] security machine," said a straight-faced newsreader on America's ABC TV network. "$160 million was spent to keep dignitaries safe, and a convoy of actors got within yards of President Bush's hotel."

The story was the fourth-most read article on the BBC website, which carried the headline, "Sydney 'ring of steel' breached".

The Vancouver Sun guffawed, "Aussie spoofsters fly Maple Leaf to undress APEC security", while London's Daily Telegraph played it straight, with "Bin Laden comic mistaken for Canada diplomat".

Eleven people, including Chas Licciardello, who was dressed as Osama bin Laden, and the Chaser's executive producer, Julian Morrow, were arrested and charged with entering a restricted area without justification under the new APEC legislation.

The NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, said the group were lucky not to have been shot.

"I'm angry, I'm very angry that this stunt happened. It was a very dangerous stunt," he said.

"The reality is they put security services in a position where they might have had to take an action no one would want. We have snipers deployed around the city. They weren't there for show; they mean business - that's what they were there for."

But most Sydneysiders appear to have taken the Chaser stunt in good humour. Almost 90 per cent of the 28,451 people who voted on an smh.com.au poll said they found it funny.

Yesterday, the team was at it again, three members replicating their colleagues' headline-grabbing stunt.

Police stopped the trio - Craig Reucassel, Chris Taylor and Dominic Knight - in the CBD as they walked down the street with black cardboard limousines strapped to their backs. The cars were decorated with Canadian flags and had paper-plate wheels.

Knight, who is also a columnist with the Herald's website, said the stunt was like re-enacting a scene from Romper Room.

"We established that APEC is safe from the scourge of cardboard motorcades," he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/apec/chaser-jug...8783496428.html

Bush slips up on APEC name

US President George W Bush has mistaken the name of the conference he's travelled halfway around the world to attend, in front of a summit of business leaders in Sydney.

Mr Bush, in Australia to attend the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit of world leaders, took to the stage at the Sydney Opera House on Friday morning and thanked Prime Minister John Howard for his introduction and for being such a "kind host" for the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) summit.

"I mean APEC summit," he said.

"I've been invited to the OPEC summit next year.

"The APEC summit."

The faux pas brought laughter from his audience inside the auditorium.

White House aides later said Bush was joking and would not, in fact, attend an OPEC summit.

Mr Bush also stumbled over his pronunciation of Jemaah Islamiah, the regional terror network.

And in another miscue, he botched the host country's name, referring to Mr Howard's visit to Iraq in 2006 as a thank you to "the Austrian troops there."

Hey, at least they brought him to see us.

It must be hard trying to remember all this stuff you're not really interested in.

Stay tuned for pictures of the world leaders in their traditional constumes/shirts representing the host country.

Budgy smugglers and lifesaver caps?

still cant figure why the thai traditional silk so resembled a chinese outfit

talk about globalisation

or perhaps it was meant to show how well chinese have integrated into thailand?

Here they are outside the Opera House resplendant in their Driza-Bone bushmans coats.

The APEC leaders had an opportunity to do something concrete about climate change, but predictably took the easy way out:

No real climate goals set at APEC

APEC leaders have thwarted Prime Minister John Howard's hopes of setting an aspirational target for greenhouse gas emission reductions in his much-vaunted Sydney declaration on climate change.

The 21 APEC leaders agreed to a watered-down promise to work towards an aspirational goal.

But they backed away from setting a figure or forcing developing economies to meet the same targets as richer nations.

And they endorsed the United Nations process as the best way to develop climate change arrangements after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Mr Howard, who along with US President George W Bush is the only world leader not to ratify Kyoto, had made getting an aspirational target the major focus of this weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit.

The leaders endorsed the Sydney declaration - the wording of which was hammered out by officials during months of negotiations - during a two-hour retreat at the Sydney Opera House.

Not wanting to risk questions about his leadership or the failure to get agreement on a target figure, Mr Howard invited only photographers and a camera crew to the tightly guarded Opera House forecourt as he read a prepared statement.

"The Sydney declaration has been adopted," Mr Howard said.

"I thank leaders of the APEC economies. It's a very important milestone in the march towards a sensible international agreement on climate change, which recognises the need to make progress, but also recognises that different economies bring different perspectives to addressing the challenge of climate change."

John Connor, chief executive of The Climate Institute, said the weak language in the Sydney declaration showed that the Kyoto Protocol - with its binding targets - was still the best way to deal with global warming.

"What Australia and the US are trying to do is replace the Kyoto Protocol ... they are the only developed countries on the sidelines," he told AAP.

He said it was clear from the statement that the developing world would only come on board to cut their greenhouse gas emissions when the US and Australia showed leadership by ratifying Kyoto.

"That's the only way we will get the developing countries on board," Mr Connor said.

While the APEC leaders agreed on the need for long-term non-binding targets, they gave no indication of what sort of reductions were needed.

They also committed the region to non-binding targets of a reduction in energy intensity - energy use as a proportion of a country's economy - of at least 25 per cent by 2030, and to increase forest cover by at least 20 million hectares by 2020.

Japan's foreign ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba said Japan was "particularly satisfied" with the Sydney declaration.

"(It) makes very clear the message which we wanted to launch from Sydney," he told reporters.

"(And it) will be great engine for promoting the process of negotiations in the United Nations."

But green groups slammed the declaration as a political stunt and a tragically missed opportunity.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Catherine Fitzpatrick called it the "Sydney distraction" on climate change.

"If this statement is the platform we build future climate change action on, the world is in trouble," she told AAP.

Executive director of online activist organisation GetUp, Brett Solomon, said the declaration was much weaker than had been hoped for, even as a worst case scenario.

"The agreement falls so far short of what's required in terms of action on climate change, that these leaders should hang their heads in shame," he said

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said the declaration was "very weak".

©AAP 2007

Father speaks of APEC arrest ordeal

Sunday Sep 9 11:00 AEST

By ninemsn staff

The father who was violently arrested after attempting to cross the road near an APEC motorcade has spoken about his traumatic ordeal, including the 22 hours he spent in jail.

ninemsn captured the moment when Greg McLeay was pushed to the ground by four policemen and violently arrested in front of his young son on Friday afternoon.

The 52-year-old accountant from Sydney's north shore was released on bail yesterday, after being unable to speak with his family and lawyer, The Sun-Herald reported.

Mr McLeay, who has three children, said he spent the night in a city police cell with an ice addict before facing charges of assault and resisting arrest via video link at Parramatta Bail court.

In the video footage Mr McLeay can be heard trying hard to explain to the officers that he was just attempting to protect his glasses.

He also told ninemsn reporters at the scene that he was only "walking down to have lunch".

"I crossed the road. That's all," Mr McLeay said. Police then prevented ninemsn from filming as they took Mr McLeay to a secure zone under the Westin Hotel.

Mr McLeay's wife, Sophie, told The Sun Herald she was not allowed to speak with him because of APEC.

"The children are traumatised. We spent the night sleeping together on the sofa. How does walking to yum cha with your 11-year-old son end up with 22 hours in jail and no access to a lawyer," she said.

Mr McLeay told the newspaper he had astigmatism, which made it difficult to see without his glasses.

He said the worst thing about the situation was that it had happened in front of his son.

"You want your children to grow up respecting police but how can they when they see this kind of thing?" he said.

"I was just crossing the road. Never have I felt so mortified, embarrassed and invaded. I feel violated."

During APEC, police have been given authority to arrest people and hold them until the summit is over.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=294390

Batches? We don't need no steenking batches!

No apologies for heavy APEC security

September 10, 2007

THE NSW Government makes no apology for the heavy security that transformed Sydney into a fortress during the APEC summit, Police Minister David Campbell said.

Mr Campbell said that while the weekend gathering of 21 world leaders had passed without serious incident, authorities had to be prepared for the worst.

"We make no apology for the fact police were well-prepared, well-equipped and given the powers that they need," Mr Campbell told ABC radio today.

"I have said many times police and Government were preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

"My observation is our plans and our hopes have come together and we've seen the best in people and a strong performance by police.

"We also saw what we feared, and that was people bringing iron bars."

Mr Campbell said the police would conduct an internal review of the security operation, including the tactics used at the major anti-APEC rally in central Sydney on Saturday.

There have been claims police were heavy-handed as hundreds of officers locked down the area around the rally and physically funnelled protesters down the route of the march.

Eighteen people were arrested, of whom 14 were charged, including one man for assaulting police with a metal bar. Two officers were injured.

"There's no doubt once you've had a major police operation such as this, there needs to be a debrief. That will occur and was always planned," Mr Campbell said.

"If a police officer has done the wrong thing, then they need to be taken to account for that as well."

The minister said he would be happy to consider a report from the Human Rights Monitors group, which has complained about officers removing their name badges.

An internal investigation has been launched into the issue but Mr Campbell said police had not been told to remove the badges.