An Australian state yesterday approved millions of dollars in compensation for members of the "stolen generation" of Aborigines, weeks after the federal government rejected similar demands.
Tasmanian state Premier Paul Lennon said that a total of 106 claimants would share in up to A$5 million (US$4.38 million) set aside for indigenous children forcibly taken from their parents.
"No amount of money can make up for Aboriginal children being removed from their families simply on the basis of race," Lennon told reporters in Hobart, capital of the island state south of the Australian mainland.
"But the payments I announce today to those whose lives have been so deeply affected by this flawed policy of separation are a symbolic recognition of the pain, suffering and dislocation they have experienced," he said.
Thousands of Aboriginal children were taken from their parents as children over four decades up to the 1970s and put into institutions or foster care with white families as part of an attempt to force assimilation.
Two weeks ago the Australian government rejected Aboriginal demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for victims of what became known as the "stolen generation."
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to apologize for the widely-criticized policy, something his predecessor John Howard refused to do before being ousted in November polls.
But Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin ruled out backing the apology with the establishment of a fund of A$1 billion (US$870 million), as demanded by some Aboriginal leaders.
"What we will be doing is putting the funding into health and education services, and providing additional support for services needed for counseling, to enable people to find their relatives," she told national radio.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not