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 13 Feb Aussie PM apologises to Aborigines
Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (pictured) today apologized to the Aborigine community for a policy of forcibly removing children from their parents which was practised by the previous administrations until the late 1960’s.Rudd said "Sorry" three times in a speech broadcast on big screens set-up all over the country.
Rudd said it was proper to offer a formal apology to members of the Stolen Generation and other Indigenous Australians who suffered humiliation and degradation by previous Australian Parliaments. Thousands of Aborigine children were forcibly taken from their families and sent to live with white foster parents in a move calculated to wean them from their cultural influences.
13 Feb Spielberg gives China a cold shoulder
Steven Spielberg, the renowned Hollywood film director has resigned as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing after accusing China of not doing enough to pressure Sudan over the Darfur region where an estimated 200,000 people have died. Around 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes in the five-year conflict.
In a statement, Spielberg said he had made "repeated efforts" to encourage the Chinese government to bring its influence to bear on Sudan to end the "continuing human suffering" in the conflict-strewn western Darfur region.
China, which has invested heavily in the Sudan oil sector is accused by critics of providing diplomatic cover for Khartoum as it prevaricates on international efforts to send peacekeepers into Darfur. China says it will never submit to groups using pressure on the government.
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