ipl may have to appreciate sovereign risk

This wouldn't have helped IPL's cause today ...

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Riot hits Nauru, NZ ponders action
BY MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Monday, 10 March 2008


The main police station in the South Pacific nation of Nauru has been gutted by fire after rioters attacked it over the weekend, and authorities fear more violence ahead.

Rioters objecting to the export of phosphate burnt the station on Saturday, prompting local authorities to deputize a hundred people, including teenagers, to protect other buildings.

A New Zealand Government spokesman said they were discussing the situation with their Australian counterparts in the event Nauru called for assistance.

When similar riots broke out in the Solomon Islands and Tonga in 2006, New Zealand forces were flown in along with other Pacific units.

Nauru is the world's smallest republic, only 21-square kilometre in area and with just 12,000 people. It has been stripped down to a bleak landscape of bleached coral pinnacles.

A New Zealander, Albert Ellis, discovered its high grade phosphate in 1900 and in what amounted to colonial robbery, saw much of it mined and turned into super phosphate for the farms of Australia and New Zealand. Nauru won independence from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, becoming the world’s smallest republic in 1968.

Nauruans became the world’s richest people on a per capita basis but over three decades saw most of their money disappear in poor investments and corruption.

The bulk of the phosphate ran out around 10 years ago but mineable quantities are known to exist in previously mined areas. The Government of Nauru created a new company, Ronphos Corporation, to reopen the mines.

The first shipment was being loaded up last week, prompting public concern.

World phosphate prices have nearly doubled in recent years.

AAP reported that Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs believes there is a chance of further violence and has warned Australians in Nauru to stay indoors at night.

No people have been harmed in the disturbance.

The Howard government in Australia turned Nauru into an offshore detention centre for asylum seekers under its so-called “Pacific Solution”.

The centre has been closed but some Australian police remain.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4433454a12.html