AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Breakfast, Aug 19

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2001
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Breakfast, Aug 19
Breakfast Round-Up: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 0430

POLLNT (DARWIN)

Northern Territory Labor leader CLARE MARTIN may become the party's new national heroine
after yesterday's boilover election result.

While the election outcome is still too close to call, Labor is within a whisker of
victory for the first time since self-government in 1974.

The ALP gains were made largely on the back of preferences from independent candidates,
who took most of the nine per cent swing in primary votes away from the Country Liberal
Party.

The swing has evaporated the CLP's 10-seat margin in the 25-seat Legislative Assembly,
shocking both Ms MARTIN and Chief Minister DENIS BURKE.

Both say it could be days before it's clear if Labor's won the 13 seats it needs to govern alone.



BOAT (MELBOURNE)

Indonesian news media say two small children have died after a boat carrying some 140
asylum seekers, reportedly bound for Australia, ran aground off the coast of Java.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK says the reports are in the Indonesian
media today, but so far Australia doesn't have independent confirmation of them.

He says the boat had engine failure, ran aground and the Indonesian navy went out to
pick them up, but there are reports two children drowned.



PHIL FIRE (MANILA)

At least 78 people, most of them members of the God's Flock Christian sect, died in
a fire that ripped through a Philippine hotel.

Officials say the group from several rural provinces was staying at the budget, six-storey
Manor Hotel in Quezon City while attending a conference for born-again Christians in Manila.

At least 38 people were also injured in the blaze.

Many of the victims, including children, died of suffocation in their rooms, unable
to escape due to barred windows and a shortage of fire exits.

Police say the fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical fault, started on
the third floor of the hotel and spread quickly to several other floors.



GUNMAN (ADELAIDE)

Northern Territory police say they haven't ruled out the possibility that more than
one person was involved in the ambush of British tourists PETER FALCONIO and JOANNE LEES
near Barrow Creek.

Mr FALCONIO hasn't been seen since he was shot beside his campervan on July 14 by a
man who attempted to abduct Ms LEES.

Northern Territory Police Crime Commander COL HARDMAN has told the Adelaide Advertiser
police are keeping an open mind about the crime.

He also says police are close to identifying the man believed to be involved in Mr
FALCONIO's abduction.



AFGHAN (KABUL)

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have rejected any extension of visas for Western diplomats
in Kabul to see eight foreign aid workers -- including two Australians -- accused of promoting
Christianity.

The news points to a deepening of the confrontation over the arrests of the aid workers.

It follows a United Nations warning that the Taliban are violating international law.

The Pakistan-based Afghan news agency AIP quotes Taliban Foreign Minister WAKIL AHMED
MUTTAWAKIL as saying the foreign diplomats have completed their mission and there's no
need to extend their visas.



KATTER (BRISBANE)

Former National party MP BOB KATTER'S re-election campaign has been given a boost with
local party members yesterday deciding not to field a candidate against him in the federal
election.

In a tight vote amongst more than 30 delegates at the National's Kennedy Divisional
Council, it was resolved not to contest the vast northern Queensland seat.

Mr KATTER, who deserted the Nationals last month after a 25-year state and federal
career with the party, is expected to run as an Independent in Kennedy.

National Party State President TERRY BOLGER, who chaired the four-hour meeting in Townsville,
says he respects the decision.



MENINGOCOCCAL (BRISBANE)

Queensland Health is calling for calm after being inundated with vaccination inquiries
against the deadly meningococcal disease.

The disease has claimed the lives of two teenagers in the past fortnight.

Extra staff have been put on a hotline that's taken more than 400 phonecalls.

The calls follow a spate of cases including two from the same exclusive school in Brisbane's
northern suburbs.

Since Friday some 1,200 staff and students at St Joseph's Nudgee School have been vaccinated
against the Group C strain of the disease with another 600 expected to be treated.



INDUSTRIAL (CANBERRA)

Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD says the election of a Labor government would lead to a
roll back of all the Coalition's hard won industrial relations reforms.

Mr HOWARD says Australian workplace agreements would disappear, union thugs would return
to building sites and union bosses would be back around the Cabinet table.

Mr HOWARD made his predictions addressing the Annual General Meeting of the South Australian
Liberal Party state council in Adelaide yesterday.

He says the government still faces a tremendous challenge to win the election but is
doing better.

Meanwhile, Deputy Opposition leader SIMON CREAN denies anything of the sort would happen.



PASSPORTS (MELBOURNE)

Passports sold for $100,000 by Nauru are reportedly being used by criminals to change
identities for illegal immigration to travel to Australia.

The Sunday Herald Sun says international authorities believe the passports are being
used in people smuggling and prostitution rackets.

It says a spokesman for Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK has confirmed Australia's
boosted its monitoring of Nauruan passports, detecting people of concern trying to enter
the country.

The spokesman says the passports -- the sale of which has been privatised -- are accepted
but if the person is not Nauru-born they're subject to increased checks.

The report says Canadian authorities have warned that the passports are being used
by Chinese and Russian criminals to enter Canada.



US FIRES AUST (LOS ANGELES)

Australian firefighters could be called in to help battle the wildfires raging through
the western United States.

US firefighting agencies have sent in 1,000 army and marine troops to help the 22,000
firefighters already battling fires in 10 western states.

Bushland in Oregon, Washington, Arizona is the worst hit.

The Forest Service says if the fires worsen experienced firefighters from Australia
and New Zealand could be brought in.



BRIEFLY...........



A six year-old girl is in hospital after falling from a tree in Morayfield, north of Brisbane,
and impaling her head on a fence post.



An advance taskforce says NATO won't send troops to Macedonia to collect weapons from
ethnic Albanian guerrillas unless a shaky truce with government forces stabilises.



Tens of thousands of homes have been without power as gale force winds buffeted Sydney
and eastern New South Wales yesterday.



Australia will organise and fund a three-day peacekeeping seminar for interested Pacific
Island countries to fine tune their peacekeeping performance.



IN SPORT...........



CRICKET AUST (LEEDS, ENGLAND)

Bad light has stopped play for the second time on the third day of the fourth Ashes
cricket Test between Australia and England at Headingley.

Australia was one for 69 in its second innings with an overall lead of 207.

MICHAEL SLATER was bowled by DARREN GOUGH for 16.

Paceman GLENN MCGRATH earlier took seven for 76 to help dismiss England for 309 in
its first innings.

ALEC STEWART top scored with 76 not out for England.



TRI AUST (PERTH)

Australia has drawn 14-14 with South Africa after Wallaby five eighth STEVEN LARKHAM
missed a last minute field goal attempt in their Tri-Nations rugby match at Subiaco Oval.

Australia still maintains a slender advantage in the three-nation tournament but New
Zealand has an extra game in hand.

Springbok lock MARK ANDREWS scored the visitors only try just before halftime while
Australian centre NATHAN GREY crossed late in the second half.



BRIEFLY IN SPORT.......



Parramatta has wrapped up its first minor premiership since 1986 with an 18-4 National
Rugby League win over the Wests Tigers at Parramatta Stadium.




ENDS BREAKFAST ROUNDUP.....


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