Asia

Probe finds 'shocking' abuse in Australian military

A damning report on the Australian military today detailed 24 allegations of rape that never went to trial and other claims that Defence Minister Stephen Smith admitted would 'shock' people.

Agence France Presse

July 11, 2012

SYDNEY // A damning report on the Australian military today detailed 24 allegations of rape that never went to trial and other claims that Defence Minister Stephen Smith admitted would "shock" people.

The report was commissioned by the government last year following the so-called Skype scandal, when footage of a young male recruit having sex with an unwitting female classmate was streamed online to cadets in another room.

Some of the allegations had already been revealed through the media but Smith today released the entire 1,500-page document detailing 847 alleged incidents of sexual or other abuse dating back to the 1950s.

"It does raise very serious allegations and does raise matters that are deeply sensitive and they will shock some people," Mr Smith said of the report.

As well as the rape claims, it said that "from the 1950s through to the early 1980s, many boys aged 13, 14, 15 and 16 years of age in the defence force suffered abuse including serious sexual and other physical abuse".

Until the 1960s, boys as young as 13 were recruited into the Navy and 15-year-olds were accepted into all three services up until the early 1980s, although the minimum joining age is now 17.

It also said: "It is certain that many young females in the defence force have been subjected to serious sexual and physical assault and other serious abuse inflicted."

The report suggested paedophiles in the past joined the military to access young people in the same way they sought out positions in orphanages, schools and churches.

Documents previously released detailed "horrific" child sex assaults and brutal initiation ceremonies and painted a culture of cover-up, failure to punish perpetrators and hostility towards victims who complained.

The report said some of the accused may now hold positions in the top ranks, adding that many alleged victims never reported the abuse because of concerns they would not be believed.

The government has yet to settle on a mechanism to deal with the allegations but a full public inquiry has been suggested.

"We are not too far away from making final conclusions in this area," Mr Smith said.

Defence Force chief General David Hurley has vowed the military will cooperate fully with the government and warned that any serving personnel guilty of abuse would be brought to justice.

Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
  • The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
  • The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
  • The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
  • The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
  • The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg