This programme is being acted upon, and according to Sakhalin Governor Alexander Khoroshavin, companies from China and South Korea are expected to come before the end of this year. They are apparently taking advantage of an improved business environment in the Kurils.

We have an assessment from Deputy Director of the Russian Academy's Far East Institute Professor Andrei Ostrovsky:

"Economically, the Kurils are victims of their remoteness and unending territorial disputes with Japan. Chinese and South Korean investment in them will result in an improved infrastructure, creating conditions for further economic development.

In its Far East, including the Kurils, Russia is seeking foreign cooperation in improving transport, stepping up food production, introducing latest technologies and upgrading cybersecurity.

These and other matters are to be discussed at the next Asia-Pacific summit in the Russian port of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan."

Dr Konstantin Asmolov of the Academy's Korean Studies Centre pours some cold water on this optimism:

"The required investment will come, but not at once. The actual pace of the process will depend on good will and international politics.

Large-scale multilateral projects usually take time to pick up. The division of the Korean Peninsula, for instance, continues to hold up plans for a Trans-Korean railroad.

The latest announcements about expected Chinese and South Korean investment will remain just music before concrete economic agreements have been signed."

Any investment from Japan will apparently have to wait until that country drops its claims to Russia's South Kurils and allows economic realism to prevail.

With China, Russia is creating a common investment fund worth $4bn. Two thirds of the investment from it will go to fund projects on Russian territory.

Strategic partnership between Russia and China will dominate a scheduled Beijing visit by Vladimir Putin, his first foreign trip since he took office last Monday.

Voice of Russia

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Moscow (Voice of Russia) May 15, 2012 - The capacity of the Nord Stream gas pipeline can be increased. According to the operator company Nord Stream AG, opportunities for building another one or even two legs of the main pipeline under the Baltic Sea will be considered before the end of this year.

Experts have been given a task to prepare a feasibility study for the next project which will extend the routes of Russian gas to Europe.

The idea of extending Nord Stream sprang up last year. At the end of December Alexey Miller, the head of the Russian Gazprom company which is the main shareholder of the Nord Stream international project, shared the plans of the holding to raise the volume of gas going to Europe under the Baltic Sea to 110bn cubic metres a year.

This could considerably strengthen the energy security of the EU for the next 50 years, analyst Dmitry Lutiagin says.

"The consumption of gas on the European market is expected to grow by 10-15% annually. Europe will need gas but it has no gas of its own. In the fields where they traditionally extract gas the resources have depleted.

For this reason, Europeans will in any case depend on the import of Russian gas, shale gas from the US and pipeline gas from North Africa.

However, the situation in North Africa and the Middle East is not quite favourable and Russia is a reliable partner which regularly sends the required volumes of gas to Europe."

Meanwhile, there is the so-called Third Energy Package which seems to have been compiled so as to put obstacles on the way of Russian gas to Europe, President of the Union of Oil and Gas Industrialists Gennady Shmal says.

For this reason, the Nord Stream holding should carefully weigh its benefits.

"The legs that branch off Nord Stream on the territory of Germany fall under the requirements of the Third Energy Package. This means that the legs may only be used at 50% of their capacity.

The remaining 50% are due to be reserved for any suppliers that actually do not exist. As a result, the recoupment of the invested money will take much longer."

The first leg of the Nord Stream is functioning at present. Its project capacity is 27bn of cubic metres of gas a year. The construction of the second leg has been completed and it will be launched this autumn.

After that, the capacity of the pipeline lying under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and other European countries will reach 55bn of cubic metres a year.

In addition, next year Gazprom is planning to lay another pipeline for gas deliveries to Europe. The South Stream pipeline with a capacity of over 60bn cubic metres of gas a year will lie under the Black Sea to the countries of Central and Southern Europe. The agreement of the countries whose territory will be crossed by the pipeline has been received.

Voice of Russia

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Zug, Switzerland (UPI) May 14, 2012 - The Russian-led ownership consortium of Nord Stream says it's conducting a feasibility study for the potential construction of two additional pipelines.

The five shareholders of Nord Stream -- Russia's Gazprom, Germany's Wintershall Holding and E.ON Ruhrgas, the Dutch firm N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie and France's GDF Suez -- issued a statement Friday from its Swiss headquarters in which it announced a study on the possibility has been initiated.

The first of Nord Stream's two parallel pipelines shipping Russian gas to western Europe via the Baltic Sea became operational in November. The second has been laid and is expected to come online late this year.

Together, the 750-mile pipelines are expected to provide 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to European users, allowing Russia to bypass Ukraine as a transiting country for some of its gas production.

Now Nord Stream says it's looking at potentially doubling its capacity through the construction of up two more pipelines -- a move it says would greatly enhance Europe's energy security by further reducing its dependence on the fractious relationship between Russia and Ukraine.

"Over the next eight months, Nord Stream will make an assessment of various criteria of up to two potential additional pipelines, including technical solutions, route alternatives, environment and financing," the statement said.

"The feasibility study is intended to assist the shareholders in evaluating possible solutions to meet the need for the EU to increase its imports of natural gas over the coming decades and to secure gas deliveries under existing contracts."

The study, the company said, will "evaluate the potential for further infrastructure with an operating life of at least 50 years" and is being spurred by a conviction Europe's demand for cleaner-burning fossil fuels will rise in the coming decades as it implements its greenhouse gas reduction directives.

Also, Nord Stream said, it is anticipating "the decline of indigenous production in the North Sea."

Dmitry Lutiagin, the deputy director of the analytical department of the Alor-Invest group, told the Voice of Russia majority owner Gazprom is determined to take advantage of Europe's growing appetite for natural gas.

"The consumption of gas on the European market is expected to grow by 10-15 percent annually. Europe will need gas but it has no gas of its own," he said. "In the fields where they traditionally extract gas the resources have depleted. For this reason, Europeans will in any case depend on the import of Russian gas, shale gas from the U.S. and pipeline gas from North Africa."

Unrest in North Africa and the Middle East has made those resources unreliable, whereas Russia "is a reliable partner which regularly sends the required volumes of gas to Europe," Lutiagin added.

Complicating matters for a Nord Stream future expansion, however, are the requirements of the European Union's Third Energy Package, which in part are aimed at decoupling the vertically-integrated business models of state-owned companies such as Gazprom that control both the production and distribution networks of energy.

While Nord Stream's first two lines were exempted from the EU requirements, any expansion likely wouldn't be, necessitating the involvement of third parties.

That's opposed by Gazprom, which calls such requirements inefficient.

"It means about 50 percent of the capacity should be allocated to third parties," Alexey Golubnichiy, the deputy head of Gazprom's subsidiary Gazprom Export, told RT Television. "I still have questions what this third party will be since all of the gas is coming from Russia."

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Manila (AFP) May 14, 2012 - The Philippines and China will both impose fishing bans in the South China Sea where the two countries have been involved in a tense territorial standoff.

China had already announced its annual ban, which it says is aimed at curbing over-fishing, and includes the waters around the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

The Philippines Monday refused to recognise China's measure, which runs from May 16 to August 1, as it encompasses waters it considers as its own.

But Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said President Benigno Aquino welcomed the chance to replenish fish stocks and that the Philippines would issue its own ban.

"We do not recognise China's fishing ban in as much as portions of the ban encompass our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)," del Rosario said in a statement.

"However, the president has decided that in view of the accelerated depletion of our marine resources, it would be advisable for us to issue our own fishing ban for a period of time to replenish our fish stock."

The standoff at the Scarborough Shoal began when China blocked an attempt by the Philippines on April 8 to arrest Chinese fishermen who were allegedly taking government-protected marine species from the area.

The two nations have since stationed non-military vessels at the shoal in an effort to assert their sovereignty over the area.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said that no dates or exact areas had yet been set for the Philippine fishing ban.

But he added that Philippine ships at the shoal, which sits about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the main Philippine island of Luzon, would remain in the area.

China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, says it has imposed the fishing ban every year since 1999 to protect "maritime biological resources".

Vietnam, which also claims part of the South China Sea, has complained that the Chinese fishing ban violates its EEZ, and has lodged a formal protest.

The Philippines also said Monday it will lose out on about 2,000 Chinese tourists a year because of the dispute after Chinese travel agencies suspended trips.

Philippine Tourism Undersecretary Maria Victoria Jasmin said tour groups booked for May had been cancelled, reportedly on the request of Chinese tourism authorities.

"The effect was immediate but we hope it will be temporary," she told AFP.

China is the fourth largest tourist market for the Philippines, with the average Chinese tourist staying about three days and spending $100-200 a day.

strs-mm/jms

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Moscow, Russia (Voice of Russia) May 14, 2012 - Gazprom announced that it was considering gas deliveries to Japan via pipeline. Russia's gas giant said in a statement on Thursday, "The sides touched upon a possibility of working on a project for pipeline gas supplies from Russia to Japan." Reuters reported that Gazprom also raised the prospect in a meeting with a Japanese parliamentary delegation in Moscow.

Sakhalin-2, Gazprom's far east consortium with Shell, Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi, has already been shipping liquefied natural gas to Japan. Russia has considered ways to increase fuel sales to its neighbor, where demand for non-nuclear energy increased in the wake of the Fukushima disaster last year.

Japan's northern island of Hokkaido is just over 40 km from Sakhalin, or a one to two-day trip by LNG tanker, making Russia best suited to export gas to Japan, the world's largest LNG importer.

Gazprom has also been involved in painstaking and protracted talks with ExxonMobil about gas sales from Sakhalin-1 project, with the Russian company insisting the gas from the project is needed to satisfy domestic needs first, Reuters said.

Russia has also been in talks about building a gas pipeline to China, but the deal has failed to materialize so far, due to differences over pricing terms.

And along the lines of Gazprom.

The Russian gas monopoly stated that its gas output fell 5.2% year-on-year in April. Troika Dialog analysts noted this has been the worst month for the gas company in the past ten years. Moreover, the last days indicate a decline of over 8% year-on-year, which spells trouble for May as well.

BRIC states now the main factor to drive growth in global car production
The economic hardships faced by the European Union and the U.S. tend to turn to the main car producer's market orientation. Global production of cars this year is expected to grow by around 7% against 2011.

This is largely due to the continuing demand seen in China and India, the recovery of the U.S. market, and increased worldwide demand for premium brands, outlined experts at PwC in an updated review of the global and Russian automobile markets.

The economic hardships faced by the EU will likely cause a drop in production of light vehicles in 2012 across the region. The lingering uncertainty over the debt crisis and the impact of austerity measures could hold back market growth, they claimed.

In Q1 2012, sales of new light vehicles grew by 21% in quantitative terms and 51% in monetary terms against Q1 2011. The positive dynamics are related to factors such as increased consumer confidence and the stronger ruble, noted the report.

Expert analysis pointed to the BRIC countries as the main factor behind growth in global car production. Europe continues to face economic difficulties, causing output of light vehicles to drop. In Russia, meanwhile, car production is on the up and up.

Source: Voice of Russia

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Khartoum (AFP) May 13, 2012 - A Chinese envoy was in Khartoum for talks on Sunday after his country backed a UN resolution that aims to halt border fighting between Sudan and South Sudan.

Zhong Jianhua arrived in the Sudanese capital on Saturday and was expected to leave on Sunday night after talks with government officials, a Chinese official told AFP.

"I think mostly it's about the current situation between the two Sudans," said the official, who did not wish to be identified.

From Khartoum, Zhong will head to Addis Ababa and then to the South Sudanese capital Juba, the official added.

Zhong was to hold talks later on Sunday with Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti, the spokesman for Khartoum's foreign ministry said.

China backed a unanimous May 2 UN Security Council resolution ordering Sudan and South Sudan to halt weeks of border fighting which raised fears of all-out war.

Despite the ceasefire call, Sudan's army said last week there had been renewed combat along the disputed frontier, while the South said it again came under Sudanese air attack.

The UN resolution said the two countries must resume by this Wednesday stalled African Union-led talks, which were held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, to settle issues unresolved after South Sudan separated last July under a peace deal that ended 22 years of civil war.

The issues include oil payments, the status of each country's citizens resident in the other, disputed border areas and the contested Abyei region.

Analysts say China has been balancing its support between old ally Sudan and newly-independent South Sudan, which was the source of five percent of its oil until a shutdown in January.

South Sudan separated with about 75 percent of the former united Sudan's oil production, but Juba still depended on the north's pipeline and Red Sea port to export its crude.

The protracted dispute over fees for use of that infrastructure was at the heart of tensions which brought the two countries to the brink of all-out war and led South Sudan to halt its crude production.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir visited Beijing in April and received an $8-billion loan for infrastructure development in the impoverished country.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Moscow, Russia (Voice of Russia) May 14, 2012 - Russia's President- elect Vladimir Putin hopes that Rosneft-Statoil joint venture will ensure the development of a number of resource exploration-related spheres, including shipbuilding.

He stated this during a meeting with Statoil's head Helge Lund in Moscow on May 5.

Putin also praised multilateral partnership between the two companies and is sure that it will rapidly develop. He also promised support of joint projects by Russia's government.

Helge Lund has confirmed readiness for long-term strategic cooperation.

The total amount of investments in the joint projects will account for 65-100 mln dollars.

Source: Voice of Russia

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST United Nations (AFP) May 10, 2012 - Tiny Pacific nations which are most at threat from rising seas have vowed to dump diesel and other dirty expensive fuels blamed for causing global warming and replace them with clean sources.

Using coconut biofuel and solar panels, Tokelau -- which consists of three island dots half way between New Zealand and Hawaii -- plans to become self-sufficient in energy this year.

The leaders of other so-called small island states around the world made commitments at a meeting this week organized by the UN Development Program and the Barbados government.

The Cook Islands and Tuvalu in the Pacific are aiming to get all of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean is aiming for 60 percent from renewables by 2020.

And East Timor's government vowed that no family in its capital, Dili, would be using firewood for cooking by 2015 and said half the country's electricity would be from renewable sources by the end of the decade.

"I know we set ambitious targets, but it is actually exciting," Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna told AFP.

"We don't see those targets as being difficult. It is very inspiring and that is what is motivating us to get going."

Puna said about 15 percent of the New Zealand-dependency country's budget is spent on importing diesel oil. He has called it a "crippling dependence".

He wants those tens of millions of dollars spent on health and social services and education for the approximately 20,000 inhabitants of 15 islands spread over 2.2 million square kilometers (850,000 square miles) in the Pacific.

The government plans to start converting to solar panels and wind turbines. Already nearly all houses have solar water heaters.

Work will start on Rakahanga in the northern group of islands next year with help from Japan. New Zealand is to fund the energy revolution in the southern islands.

Puna said the energy change was proposed while campaigning for a 2010 election. "We didn't realize, it but we were tapping into a reservoir of environmental consciousness among our people. The reaction has been fantastic.

"Somewhere in our makeup we are environmentally conscious people, because we have learned to live off the land and off the sea, that is our heritage, that is our tradition and we are just tapping into that again."

In North America and many European countries there has been resistance to wind turbines sprouting up on land and sea.

"There may well be some in the Cook islands," said Puna. "But I think once people realize and see the benefits from these instruments there will not be too many problems."

UN studies show that oil imports account for up to 30 percent of gross domestic product in some Pacific countries, with prices bolstered by the huge distances it has to be carried.

Ministers at this week's meeting complained in a statement that despite their "significant actions" to help ease global climate change, international action has been "slow and grossly inadequate," given the increasing threat to island nations from rising seas.

Their declaration -- adopted ahead of next month's UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro -- called for the new energy sources to be made "accessible, affordable and adaptable," so all threatened island states can take steps to adapt.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Vienna (AFP) May 10, 2012 - OPEC revised its 2012 world oil demand outlook slightly upwards on Thursday citing a stable US economy and the shutdown of nuclear plants in Japan, which boosted demand.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries predicted 2012 demand at 88.67 million barrels per day (bpd), up 0.90 million bpd from 2011, in its latest monthly report.

This represented a minor hike from its previous estimate in April which stood at 88.64 million bpd.

"Given the stabilisation of the US economy and the shutdown of Japanese nuclear power plants, world oil demand growth has -- at least for the short-term -- stopped its declining trend and is showing some growth," OPEC said.

Demand outside the OECD developed countries was higher while those such as India and Saudi Arabia were consuming more than expected, it added.

However, Europe's economic worries continued to hurt demand, OPEC said, warning that high oil prices in the US could also have a dampening effect on the approaching summer driving season.

"The most important sector (in the US), transportation, continues to consume less oil than it did last year, due mainly to the country's economic activity and high retail prices," the report said.

With economic developments and fuel prices uncertain, "the outlook for US oil consumption for the entire year remains rather pessimistic," it added.

World oil demand could also be impacted by events in Japan, which switched off its last working reactor on Saturday amid a debate over whether the country should retain nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster last year.

"Should Japan restart its nuclear plants, the country's high oil-usage would slow down dramatically," OPEC said.

The 12-member cartel, which accounts for about a third of global oil supply, pumped some 31.62 million bpd in April, up 0.32 million bpd from March, with members Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Angola hiking production.

Iran on the other hand saw output drop, OPEC said, citing secondary sources.

On Thursday, oil prices slipped as a sharper-than-expected US stockpile gain further spooked nervous investors already shaken by worries over the eurozone in the wake of French and Greek elections, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, dipped 12 cents to $96.69 per barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for June shed 39 cents to $112.81.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Masinloc, Philippines (AFP) May 12, 2012 - For years Filipino and Chinese fishermen peacefully shared the rich harvests around a tiny South China Sea shoal, but today threats, harassment and fear have replaced ocean comradery.

While Filipino fishermen still ply their trade at Scarborough Shoal about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the Philippine coastal town of Masinloc, they say rifle-brandishing Chinese personnel on rubber boats are intimidating them.

Shortly after returning from two weeks at the shoal, crewmen from a 15-metre (50-foot)-long outrigger, said the Chinese shadowed them whenever they sought to fish inside the shoal.

"They sent their rubber boats to follow us and circle our vessel. They didn't make threats but it was dangerous because sometimes we almost collided," boat mechanic Glenn Valle, 40, told AFP.

"We were afraid because all the boats were moving and they were sticking close to us, close enough to touch our outriggers."

Fishing boat captain Zaldy Gordones, 34, said each Chinese rubber vessel carried about eight men in grey camouflage uniforms with rifles and long-lensed cameras, which they used to photograph the Filipinos.

The rubber boats were deployed by Chinese surveillance ships that have been posted near the mouth of Scarborough for more than a month to assert China's claim over the rocky outcroppings, according to the Filipinos.

The Philippines says the shoal is part of its territory because it falls within its exclusive economic zone.

But China claims as its historical territory virtually all of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop huge oil and gas reserves as well as being home to important fishing grounds.

The nearest major Chinese landmass to Scarborough Shoal is 1,200 kilometres northwest of the shoal, according to Filipino navy maps, but China insists it discovered the area first and thus has legal claim to it.

The rival claims flared into a major diplomatic dispute on April 8 when Philippine authorities accused Chinese fishermen of taking endangered species, such as clams and corals, from the area.

Philippine efforts to arrest the fishermen were thwarted when two Chinese surveillance vessels arrived at the scene.

Since then, non-military ships from both countries have been deployed there in a war of nerves between the two governments that has severely tested their diplomatic relations.

Fishermen from Masinloc have been making the journey to the shoal for two decades, a trip that can take eight to 14 hours depending on sailing conditions.

The waters around the shoal are renowned for the rich bounties of fish, which congregate around the rocky outcroppings.

While coastal areas have been largely depleted, the Filipinos know they can return from a trip to the shoal with boats packed with anchovies, tuna and scad.

Despite the rival claims, boats from the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other countries all regularly visited the shoal, which is also a refuge during bad weather, according to Masinloc residents.

The fishermen used hand signals to communicate, said boat mechanic Valle, recalling how they would ask Chinese crew for help.

"If we wanted to ask for water, we just held up a container and made a drinking motion and they would give us water," Valle said, adding the Vietnamese were even more generous.

"They gave us rice and noodles even if we didn't give them anything."

Masinloc's local fisheries officer, Jerry Escape, said stories were common of fishermen from different countries bartering food, water and cigarettes with each other.

"There has been no ill-treatment of any fishermen reported," he said.

But Chinese fishermen also had a reputation for taking marine species that were protected under Philippine law such as sea turtles, corals and giant clams, according to Masinloc people.

"For our fishermen, there are things that are prohibited but for the Chinese, nothing is prohibited. They take what they want," said Nestor Daet, 55, local head of a volunteer environment protection group, Sea Guardians.

Masinloc fishermen were warned to avoid the shoal to keep from getting caught in any possible crossfire immediately after the stand-off began.

But there was no ban and Masinloc coastguard deputy officer Norman Banug said he now even encouraged them to go back out there.

"If (the Chinese) see no Filipinos fishing there, they will think they can take over that area," he said.

Filipinos protest at China embassy over 'bullying'
Manila (AFP) May 11, 2012 - Hundreds of Filipinos demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy in the Philippines on Friday over an escalating territorial row, with the protesters denouncing China's rulers as arrogant bullies.

Waving national flags, the protesters called for Chinese ships to pull away from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea where both nations have had ships stationed for more than a month in an effort to assert their sovereignty.

"Our protest is directed at the overbearing actions and stance of the government in Beijing, which behaves like an arrogant overlord, even in the homes of its neighbours," said rally organiser Loida Nicholas Lewis.

During the peaceful, hour-long rally by about 300 people, the protesters carried placards that read: "China stop bullying the Philippines", "Make Peace Not War", and "China, Stop Poaching in Philippine Waters".

Organisers of the protest in Manila said similar rallies were planned at other Chinese embassies around the world on Friday, including in the United States and Canada.

The territorial row centres on Scarborough Shoal, a tiny rocky outcrop in the South China Sea about 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the Philippines' main island of Luzon.

The Philippines says the shoal is part of its territory because it falls within its exclusive economic zone.

But China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop huge oil and gas reserves, as its historical territory, even waters close to the coasts of other Asian countries.

The nearest major Chinese landmass to Scarborough Shoal is 1,200 kilometres northwest of the shoal, according to Filipino navy maps.

Editorials in newspapers controlled by the ruling Communist Party have repeatedly warned that China is prepared to go to war against the Philippines to end the stand-off.

Chinese authorities also this week ordered tour operators to suspend trips to the Philippines, in what Filipinos have widely interpreted as a form of economic blackmail.

Protesters at Friday's Manila rally said China's actions over Scarborough Shoal should send a worrying signal to other Asian countries about their giant neighbour.

"We just want the international community to understand that if, today, they can do it to the Philippines, they can also bully the other claimants too," said one of the co-organisers of the rally, Jackson Gan.

Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia also claim parts of the South China Sea.

The rival claims have for decades made the waters one of Asia's potential military flashpoints.

More than 70 Vietnamese sailors were killed in 1988 when China and Vietnam battled for control of the Spratlys, an archipelago south of Scarborough Shoal.

China's foreign ministry reacted angrily to the Manila protest, accusing the Philippine government of encouraging it.

"It is a wrong action that complicates and magnifies the situation," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

"We once again urge the Philippine side... not to take action that will escalate the situation."

Philippine President Benigno Aquino's spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, told reporters the government did not have a hand in organising the protest.

"It was a decision taken by private citizens who feel out of patriotism that they have to speak on the issue," Lacierda said, adding they were exercising their constitutional right to free expression and peaceful assembly.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:28:58 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D