Author: Publisher

{New Zealand’s postal service is set to reduce the frequency of its basic deliveries, as customers increasingly turn to electronic communication.}

In an agreement with the government, six-day-a-week deliveries in urban areas may drop to just three days starting in June 2015.

Services in rural areas, where customers tend to rely more on mail, will be maintained at five days.

The postal service said the move was needed for its financial viability.

“The change in delivery frequency at some point is inevitable given the ongoing and rapid decline in letter mail volumes,” the New Zealand Post said in a statement.

It added that while parcel volumes “have increased by nearly three million since 2006”, letter volumes over the same period dropped by at least 30%.

It was not immediately clear how many jobs would be lost as a result of the planned cut in deliveries.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adam said in a statement that postal volume decline in New Zealand was at 8% per annum.

She said that if changes were not made to the government’s agreement with the service, “then significant and ongoing government subsidisation” may be required.

The set minimum standards apply to basic standard postal services and do not include others like express mail or courier post, she added.

BBC

The change is scheduled to take place in June 2015.

{{The US has defended its drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, saying it takes “extraordinary care” to ensure they comply with international law.}}

The unmanned raids targeting terror suspects were a “course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life”, the White House said.

It follows allegations by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of the unlawful killing of civilians.

Pakistan’s PM on Tuesday urged the US to end drone attacks in his country.

Speaking at the start of a visit to the US, Nawaz Sharif said the attacks violated his country’s sovereignty.

He added that the raids were a “major irritant” in relations with Washington.

Drone warfare has become common in the US pursuit of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Few details are known about these covert operations, which are directed remotely from control rooms, often on other continents.

More on: BBC

{Amnesty International raises a serious accusation, saying deadly US drone attacks in Pakistan are conducted with German help. Experts fear things are actually a lot worse}

The US defends its drone attacks as “precise and effective.” But now a report by Amnesty International about the deadly US drone attacks raises serious questions about civilian deaths. It also suggests German intelligence helped provide the US with targeting data.

Even for experts on the issue it’s difficult to determine whether the allegations about German involvement are true. German Greens Member of Parliament Hans-Christian Ströbele said that whenever he requested information on the matter from the government in the past he only ever got evasive answers. “They did, however, say that they do provide information, but not for shoot-to-kill operations. But the government cannot be sure that the information it provides doesn’t also get used for such operations.”
Marcel Dickow of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) confirmed to DW that it is practically impossible to check whether intelligence provided by a country’s secret service is in fact correct. It is in the very nature of such data that the information is classified and will remain so.

According the report, Amnesty found out about the German involvement in the drone strikes from former Pakistani intelligence members.

Dickow still thinks the NGO did the right thing. “Amnesty used that information – and I think they were justified in doing that – in order to show that there is a hidden war, a war that raises many questions with regards to international law. And with regards to Germany being – in part – responsible in light of the international cooperation of intelligence agencies.”

International law says that it is illegal for a country to use lethal weapons against another country it is not at war with, said Reiner Braun, head of the German wing of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). He said that the possibility that German intelligence had a part in the US breaking international law illustrates the worldwide extent of spying as revealed through the NSA leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

DW

{Beijing is seeking to tame the spikes in its infamous smog by preparing emergency measures such as factory shutdowns and traffic limits to kick in when air pollution levels are especially heavy. }

The city government said Tuesday the strictest emergency measures will take effect when the pollution index for fine particulate matter, PM2.5, is forecast to exceed 300 micrograms per cubic meter for three days running.

Private vehicles will be allowed to operate only on alternating days, depending on the last number of their license plates. Factory emissions will be cut 30 percent by suspending or limiting production, and construction sites must halt excavation and demolition work. Classes will be suspended, a measure likely to cause inconvenience in a city where most parents both work.

The measures require precise pollution forecasting and timely public notification to be effective, and there was obvious skepticism in the questions asked by Chinese reporters at a briefing announcing the emergency measures.

They apply only to industries and individuals in Beijing, despite the fact that as much as 60 percent of the city’s air pollution wafts in from neighboring provinces, such as Hebei to the south.

AP