Indonesian clerics call Miss World ban

ONE of Indonesia's most influential Islamic groups is urging the government to cancel the Miss World pageant, saying the exposure of skin by women in a competition violates Muslim teachings, an official says.

A top-level meeting of clerics was held earlier this month by the Indonesian Ulema Council to respond to protests from some groups over Indonesia's hosting of the event next month, even after organisers agreed to cut the bikini competition and instead outfit contestants in more conservative sarongs, council chairman Amidan Shaberah said.

"Our position is clear, we reject Indonesia being the host of Miss World," Shaberah said. "Because exposing their bodies in a contest is against Islamic teachings."

The council is an influential Islamic body that often issues fatwas, or edicts, including controversial rulings against smoking and yoga. Though not legally binding, many devoted Muslims follow such decrees because ignoring them is considered a sin.

Shaberah said the council will not officially demand that the government cancel the event, but will instead recommend that it be stopped. The pageant is scheduled to be held partly on the resort island of Bali, with the final round on Sept. 28 near the capital, Jakarta.

"We are not Sharia police, we are not law enforcers," Shaberah said, referring to authorities who enforce Islamic law. "But we suggest the government cancel it."

Adjie S. Soeratmadjie of RCTI, the official broadcaster and local organiser of the event, said the concerns were being heard and that some adjustments were being made to make the pageant more appropriate for Indonesian culture and more like other beauty contests held in the country.

"We understand the position" of the council, Soeratmadjie said. "But the show must go on ... we call on the protesters to avoid anarchy and we are sure authorities can maintain security."

He added that Miss Israel had dropped out of the competition, but declined to give the reason. Indonesia and Israel do not have diplomatic relations.

Last week, the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front pledged to stage protests across the country to prevent Indonesia from hosting the competition.

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London's mayor wants labour deal with Aust

LONDON Aug 26 PA - Britain and Australia should set up a "free labour mobility zone" to end an "outrageous and indefensible" discrimination that puts European Union workers before Commonwealth nationals, London Mayor Boris Johnson said.

He said it was time to recognise the "immense opportunities" of striking stronger links with fast-growing economies rather than within the "microclimate of economic gloom" that Europe had become because of the single currency.

He said the UK should tell Brussels to "stuff it" if it objected to the move - inspired by an Australian teacher who says she was forced to leave London.

The senior Tory, who is holidaying in Australia, was given a letter by Australian Sally Roycroft, who had been working in London schools.

Mr Johnson has written in his Daily Telegraph column, Ms Roycroft was "effectively kicked out of Britain" for not being from the EU.

"She is Australian and she has been told to bog off by the authorities in our country because it was, they said, too much of a palaver to go through the business of 'sponsoring' her to stay."

He suggests it was the consequence of joining the European Community.

But while the EU was losing influence in the world and suffering economic woes, there was big growth in those countries "snootily disregarded" in 1973.

Suggesting the proposal should form part of Prime Minister David Cameron's promised renegotiation of the UK's relationship with Brussels, Mr Johnson said: "We need to raise our eyes beyond Europe, forging and intensifying links with countries that are going to be growing in the decades ahead - countries that offer immense opportunities for British goods, people, services and capital.

"And you could not do better than by starting with Australia," he said.

"We British are more deeply connected with the Australians - culturally and emotionally - than with any other country on earth."

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UK on giant panda birth watch

THE UK's only female giant panda has been placed on 24-hour surveillance after the latest hormone tests indicate she could be pregnant.

Edinburgh Zoo's panda keepers are now monitoring Tian Tian around the clock.

Experts are not certain at this stage if Tian Tian is indeed pregnant but the latest hormone tests are said to show positive signs and she is now being closely watched for signs of labour such as restless behaviour and bleating.

She could give birth any time in the next two weeks, according to experts.

The birth itself could last only a matter of minutes due to the small size of newborn cubs which weigh approximately 100 grams.

Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: "We have now entered the window of the possible time that Tian Tian could give birth.

"Keepers are monitoring Tian Tian on a 24-hour basis. They are able to log in from their computers and phones at home just to make sure everything is ok with her, and the keeper from China has now arrived to support us. We are ready.

"About 24 hours before she gives birth she will become quite restless, start moving around, and then will sit down, her waters will break and then quite soon after that she will give birth.

"The birth process can be over quite quickly because the cub itself is very small. It could take minutes. It is down to the timing and her being comfortable. The cub is only 100 grams, so she doesn't have to strain too much to give birth.

"This is the point where things could go wrong. Her body could reabsorb the cub or cubs, or if she does give birth the cub could be stillborn. So this is actually the trickiest time for pandas.

"We will keep our fingers crossed."

Chinese panda keeper Haiping Hu, from the China Conservation and Research Centre (CCRCGP), arrived in Edinburgh on Saturday and will be on hand to assist if a cub or cubs are born during the next two weeks.

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No cover-up over Mt Penny docs: report

GETTING the job done fast, rather than right, may have led NSW bureaucrats to unwittingly withhold nearly 700 pages of documents from parliament relating to a corrupt former minister.

The NSW upper house launched an inquiry in March into whether ex-mining minister Ian Macdonald and his department were involved in a cover-up in 2009, when parliament issued a call for papers linked to the now-infamous Mount Penny coal tenement.

The missing documents were discovered when the parliamentary file was compared with exhibits tendered at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which was investigating Mr Macdonald and fellow former Labor MP Eddie Obeid.

An external investigation into the missing documents has found "no evidence of impropriety or the intentional withholding of documents by Departmental staff".

Instead, the review by Maddocks Lawyers found staffers might not have realised they were being asked to include emails among the documents they presented to parliament in 2009 because the standing orders referred to "papers" or "documents".

The Maddocks report noted that staffers were working to a tight deadline.

"As one of the persons (involved) explained, to the extent that there was an informal policy on responding to Standing Orders and other requests for information, it was simply to comply on time," the report said.

"The focus was on providing a response on time rather than on ensuring the production was complete."

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Trump calls NY attorney-general a 'hack'

DONALD Trump has defended his Trump University as a booming success for student entrepreneurs and blasted New York's attorney-general, who's called it a scam.

"We have a terrific school. It's done a fantastic job," Trump told ABC's Good Morning America. "We have a 98 per cent approval rating among students."

Trump held several TV interviews to further contest the lawsuit filed on Saturday by New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman, which alleges the real estate mogul helped run a phoney university that promises to make students rich but instead steers them into expensive and mostly useless seminars.

"This is a political hack looking to get publicity," Trump said.

His lawyer, Michael Cohen, says Schneiderman is upset the reality TV star didn't give him more campaign contributions, which he claims Schneiderman sought even while investigating Trump University.

Trump denied Schneiderman's claims that he never met with students and didn't pick instructors

"I was totally involved to a very high degree," he said. "I told people what to do, and if they had listened to me, it would have made a lot of money."

Schneiderman declined to comment on Monday.

He is suing Trump and Trump University for $US40 million ($A44.5 million), accusing them of engaging in persistent fraud, illegal and deceptive conduct and violating federal consumer protection law. He says Trump also failed to deliver promised apprenticeships.

State Education Department officials had told Trump to change the name of his enterprise years ago, saying it lacked a licence and didn't meet the legal definitions of a university. In 2011, it was renamed the Trump Entrepreneur Institute.

Schneiderman claims many of the 5000 students who paid up to $US35,000 thought they would at least meet Trump, but instead, all they got was their picture taken in front of a life-size picture of The Apprentice star.

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