AAP Internet Bulletin 1030 Saturday Dec 26, 1998

AAP General News (Australia)
12-26-1998
AAP Internet Bulletin 1030 Saturday Dec 26, 1998





[I][Balloon Quest]

Balloonists in shark infested waters

Three adventurers trying to make the first nonstop round-the-world flight in a balloon
abandoned their quest yesterday, ditching in the shark-infested waters off Honolulu.

Coast Guard helicopters hoisted them from the water in good condition and high spirits.

The men British mogul Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett and Per
Lindstrand of Sweden quit seven days into their journey after they lost the high-altitude,
high-speed winds they needed to carry them eastward across the Pacific to North America.

They got caught in a low-pressure "trough" and feared they would be stuck there for a week.

"We weren't let down by any of our training or our equipment. But we were let down by the
weather," Lindstrand said.

"It was a ridiculous way to spend your Christmas Day but it was certainly exciting,"
Branson said in a thank-you call to the operations control room in London.

They lowered the 83-metre, combination helium and hot-air balloon and let it hit the
Pacific Ocean about 16 km north of the island of Oahu, where the craft bounced across the
water for kilometres because the explosive bolts that were supposed to cut the balloon loose
from the crew capsule had been frozen by the cold and didn't work.

The men, wearing their survival suits, were in the water no more than 10 minutes before
they were hoisted in baskets aboard two Coast Guard helicopters, Fossett said.

The craft was not immediately recovered, but Fossett said plans were under way to salvage
at least the capsule and the equipment aboard.

All three balloonists have made a total of 11 attempts at a nonstop flight around globe,
some of which ended in near tragedy.





[A][TOLL NATIONAL]

Holiday season road toll climbs to 35

Two people were killed on the nation's roads on Christmas Day, taking the national road
toll for the Christmas-New Year holiday period to 35.

A man died when his motorcycle hit a steel light pole in Melbourne's south-east yesterday
morning.

A police spokesman said the man, aged in his 20s, was critically injured when his bike ran
off the road in the suburb of Mordialloc and hit the pole on the centre median strip.

He died at the scene soon after the smash, which happened at 11.55 am.

Also in Victoria, a 27-year-old man died when hit by a car while lying on a road at coastal
Ocean Grove, south-west of Melbourne, at about 1.45 am.

Meanwhile, a 19-year-old Gulgong man who received serious head injuries in a car accident
in Dubbo on December 18 died yesterday.

New South Wales has recorded the most fatalities since last Friday, with 10 deaths on the
state's roads.

Queensland and Victoria have each had seven deaths, Western Australia four, and South
Australia and Tasmania have three road deaths each.

There has also been one death in the ACT.

Only the Northern Territory remains fatality-free.





[T][YACHTING SYDHOB][YACHT]

Sayonara Sydney to Hobart favourite

Mighty American maxi Sayonara looks set to continue the recent overseas domination of line
honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, but a local boat seems likely to uphold Australian
honour in the battle for overall victory.

World maxi champion Sayonara has only been beaten once since it was launched in 1995 and is
a red hot favourite to take line honours for the second time in the 630 nautical mile event
starting today.

If the speedy 80-footer beats the local boats home it will be the fourth time this decade
and the third time in four years a foreign yacht has got to Hobart first.

New Zealand Endeavour trumped the locals in 1992, Sayonara triumphed in 1995 and German's
Morning Glory set a race record of two days, 14 hours, seven minutes and 10 seconds the
following year.

Sayonara apart, only last year's line honours victor and Sydney maxi Brindabella and new
Victorian maxi Wild Thing were given single figure odds by the bookmakers.

The tussle for overall handicap honours appears much more open with at least seven
Australian entries considered a chance.

While some respected yachting identities including Syd Fischer believe Sayonara could
become the sixth yacht to do the line honours and handicap double, most experts believe this
year's visitors will struggle to emulate the 1997 overall win of Hong Kong's Beau Geste.

The major local contenders include Australia's three 1998 Kenwood Cup representatives,
Ragamuffin, Quest and ABN AMRO Challenge.

Other Australian boats tipped to vie for overall honours include the new Sydney 40-footer
Sledgehammer, Victorian 36-footer Chutzpah, Sword Of Orion and 1996 handicap winner Ausmaid.

Sayonara's owner and skipper Larry Ellison was adamant unforeseen damage to his classy
craft was probably the major obstacle separating it from a line honours win.





[T][CRICKET ENGLAND][CRIK]

Taylor plans no mercy for England XI

Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor wants to crush any remaining English pride before
the masses on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne today.

Although boasting a two-nil advantage and with the Ashes secure, Taylor is wary of an
underperforming and indecisive England outfit.

The tourists today delayed naming a side for the fourth Test until match morning, confused
at the state of the MCG wicket.

England will wait and see whether a healthy green grass coverage on the pitch is shaved
down before deciding its team.

The grassy state of the MCG wicket for today's opening day could prompt Australia to
include rookie paceman Matthew Nicholson to partner Glenn McGrath and Damien Fleming.

McGrath yesterday passed a fitness test after missing training yesterday with a virus.

Nicholson has played just seven first class games and Taylor said a decision on his
inclusion would be made as a predicted crowd of more than 70,000 get settled in their seats
this morning.

Versatile seamer-spinner Colin Miller is Australia's other option to carry the drinks
against an England side fighting for survival in the five match Ashes series.

Taylor wants to snuff any chance of an England fightback.

"The next two weeks for them is a chance to retain some pride and give us a bit of a run
for our money and try and shock us into a Test loss," Taylor said.

Today's teams:

Australia: Mark Taylor (capt), Steve Waugh (vice capt), Michael Slater, Justin Langer, Mark
Waugh, Darren Lehmann, Ian Healy, Damien Fleming, Matthew Nicholson, Stuart MacGill, Glenn
McGrath, Colin Miller (12th man to be named).

England: To be named later today.





[A][BUSHFIRES VIC][VIC]

Vic bushfires continue to rage

Fire fighters continued to battle a large bushfire that swept through a remote section of
Victoria's Wilsons Promontory wilderness park yesterday.

The fire has burnt out 300 hectares in a north-east pocket of the park and may stretch to
600 hectares after lightning started two more fires nearby last night, the Department of
Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) said today.

More than 50 fire fighters mounted a major assault on the fire overnight and were
backburning land between the fire front and the coast to remove fuel, DNRE central fire
coordinator Fabian Crowe said.

Mr Crowe said fire crews across the state were preparing for another high-risk fire day
after forecasts of more storm and lightning activity around Victoria.

Lightning sparked a fire that burnt 200 hectares of land in the Little Desert, north-east
of Bordertown in western Victoria overnight, and Victorian crews were being sent to tackle
another fire coming across the South Australian border in the Big Desert.

Crews were also preparing to fight a fire that was spotted overnight in a remote part of
Victoria Valley in the Grampians mountain range in north-western Victoria, Mr Crowe said.

Mr Crowe said the Wilsons Promontory fire was confined to an isolated area of the park and
did not pose a risk to holidaymakers, whose numbers traditionally swelled on Boxing Day.

"It is still going but we worked all night on it and we are quite chuffed by the success of
the operation we mounted - there have been no evacuations and no cause for alarm and people
are still being allowed into the park," he said.

South westerly winds were helping to push the fire towards the coast but ground crews,
assisted by aerial bombing units, were not expecting forecast rain to offer great assistance.

People with queries about access to Wilsons Promontory can contact the DNRE on 131963.





[F][JAPAN UNEMPLOYMENT]

Japanese jobless rate at record high

Japan's unemployment rate hit a record high of 4.4 per cent in November as companies
struggling in the country's worst recession in decades trimmed their work forces and suffered
from a wave of bankruptcies, the government says.

The total number of workers shrank by 480,000 from a year ago to 64.81 million, marking the
10th consecutive month of on-year declines, said the statistics bureau of the Management and
Coordination Agency. The total number of jobless stood at 2.91 million.

The November rate tops the previous record of 4.3 per cent, set in recent months. Worst hit
were workers at medium-sized companies, where employment fell by 1.4 per cent from levels a
year earlier.

The jobless rate - the highest since the government started measuring it in the 1950s -
also set another record: it was the first time Japan's unemployment rate equaled that of the
United States, where the jobless rate also stood at 4.4 per cent in November, an agency
official said.

The new unemployment figure comes as Japan is grappling with its deepest recession since
the end of World War II. Bankruptcy debts have hit record highs, domestic consumption is
stagnant and the financial system is weighed down by massive bad debts.

The government does not expect a quick recovery. Taichi Sakaiya, the head of the Economic
Planning Agency, said today that the employment situation would probably worsen before it gets
better.

"There's strong pressure for the jobless rate to rise," he said.

The Labor Ministry said today that the ratio of job offers to job seekers, an indicator of
demand for labour, fell to a new record low of 0.47 in November, indicating that there were
only 47 jobs being offered for every 100 workers seeking employment.

The new job offers ratio showed there were 85 new jobs for every 100 people newly seeking
work. A year ago, the ratio stood at 1.16.





[A][IMMIGRANTS]

Five boat people in detention

Five illegal immigrants are in detention in Darwin after they were found in a Northern
Territory national park which they walked into after their vessel ran aground.

A Customs spokesman said yesterday that four men and one woman had been found wandering
near Black Point on the Cobourg Peninsula, north east of Darwin, late on Thursday by a person
driving a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

The person took the five people, whose nationality is not yet known, to the local park
ranger station which then reported the incident to Customs.

The spokesman said the Northern Territory police had launched a search and rescue operation
in the park because they believed more people may have come ashore from the vessel.

But the spokesman said that while the vessel had been located, no more people had been
found.

"Communication with the people was very difficult but they had, by drawings, explained to
him (the ranger) that they came ashore from a vessel that ran aground," he said.

"These five people have been taken to Darwin and they are been held in immigration
detention."





[A][ASYLUM][FED]

Govt under fire for moving detainees

The immigration department has come under fire over a decision to send asylum seeks
arriving in Sydney to the remote Port Hedland detention centre in Western Australia.

A department spokeswoman said the decision to transfer protected visa applicants to WA's
far north Kimberley region had been made following a 60 per cent increase in unauthorised
arrivals at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport.

The department had consulted with the commonwealth ombudsman to ensure detainees were not
disadvantaged by the move.

"The department has been determined to ensure that detainees are not disadvantaged through
the relocations and we're working to maintain timeliness benchmarks for processing of
applications," the spokeswoman told AAP.

"The department is also ensuring that access to lawyers and legal officers is facilitated
when required by the detainee."

She could not say how many detainees had been transferred since the policy came into force
this month.

The move has outraged Amnesty International and refugee lawyers who say detainees will be
disadvantaged by Port Hedland's distance from major centres and its lack of adequate legal
facilities.

Law Council of Australia president Fabian Dixon told The Canberra Times the move made it
"virtually impossible" for lawyers to thoroughly peruse their clients' cases.

Amnesty International national refugee coordinator Des Hogan echoed Mr Dixon's concerns,
saying many asylum seekers arrived disoriented and traumatised by their experiences.

Transfer to Port Hedland would only increase their sense of confusion and disorientation,
making them less able to deal with the complex bureaucratic hurdles of the refugee process, Mr
Hogan told the newspaper.





[A][LIGHTNING][VIC]

Lightning strike death mars birthday

A double family celebration turned to tragedy after a young mother was killed by lightning
on the eve of Christmas and her daughter's fourth birthday.

Alyce Rivalland turned four years old on Christmas Day, a day the family were supposed to
be enjoying not trying to cope with the shock loss of their mother.

Dawn Rivalland, 32, was struck and killed by lightning at a south-eastern Victorian beach
on Thursday.

Police said Alyce, her one-year-old sister, their father Eric and his parents were with Mrs
Rivalland on the water's edge at Cleeland Bight, Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island, when the
tragedy occurred about 6pm.

They were leaving the secluded beach, known as Safety Beach by locals, and were heading
back to their holiday house when they were all struck by lightning and momentarily knocked
unconscious.

Mr Rivalland awoke and found his wife lying face down in the sand.

Despite his resuscitation attempts she died almost immediately.

The couple had just celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary.

Other family members escaped serious injury and were taken to hospital but later released,
police said.

The family returned to their home in Upwey, eastern Melbourne yesterday.

Mrs Rivalland's was the second death from lightning strike in a fortnight after a young
Perth jockey was killed by a bolt of lightning while doing trackwork on December 15.





[A][WIK WUTHATHI BLACK][QLD]

Native title referendum call

A One Nation parliamentarian has called for a referendum on native title following reports
a claim was lodged on a non-existent island in the Torres Strait.

The Queensland Land Tribunal has found an island near Cape York claimed by the Wuthathi
people as a site of "past occupation" did not exist and that it was mistakenly gazetted as
available under the state's Native Title Act 1991.

One Nation member for Whitsunday, Harry Black, said: "These claims are just going through.
We've got to have a referendum to let people say what they really think of the situation."

Mr Black told ABC radio a royal commission should also be held into the "land rights
industry".

The non-existent island, identified as Lot 1 on ABL 26, was included in a claim the
Wuthathi people lodged over a group of ten islands listed as available under native title
legislation.

Queensland Land Commissioner Graeme Neate said the land tribunal had searched for the
island by boat but could not find it.

"We have no doubt at the time of the hearing (of the native title claim) there was no
island at or in the immediate vicinity of the location," he said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Senator John Herron has refused to
comment on the issue, saying it was not his responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Wuthathi people's legal representative said the absence of the island did
not affect the overall claim.

Cape York Land Council solicitor Louise Goodchild said under state law, native title claims
had to be based on land deemed claimable and gazetted by the Queensland government.





[A][YACHT ALONE][FED]

French solo yachtswoman still at sea

French solo sailor Isabelle Autissier's arrival at Tasmania for emergency repairs to her
yacht has been delayed another day after an overnight buffetting by 30 knot winds.

Around Alone race director Mark Schrader said the 42-year-old yachtswoman was still 200
nautical miles south-west of Tasmania yesterday and had no hope of reaching Adventure Bay,
south of Hobart, before today.

"Conditions have moderated substantially since (Thursday) night. She's going along
reasonably well," Mr Shrader said.

"The wind is right down from the 30 knots (Thursday) night."

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has monitored Ms Autissier's progress since her
mainsail was damaged last week and readied for a possible second rescue in four years of the
around-the-world sailor from the Southern Ocean.

Ms Autissier had expected to reach Tasmania by yesterday afternoon.

In a message to her shore crew, she revealed that her mainsail has been further damaged on
Tuesday.

"The repair may take longer than the three hours first predicted because another piece of
(sail) track broke off the day before (Thursday)," she told her crew.

"Also we don't have certain fittings that have been specially machined for the track so
we'll have to improvise."

While 290 nautical miles out on Thursday, Ms Autissier had expected 10-to-15 knots winds
until she reached land "which will help in manoeuvring but not in speed".





[I][AFGHANISTAN BINLADEN]

Bin Laden renews call to attack US

Osama bin Laden, accused of masterminding the bombings of two US embassies, renewed his
call for attacks on the United States and Israel, a US television network reported.

"We are confident that the Muslim nation would rid Islamic countries of the Americans and
the Jews," bin Laden, speaking through an interpreter, told ABC News yesterday.

ABC broadcast brief excerpts from an interview with the Saudi millionaire, which it said
was conducted on Wednesday night in a tent in the wilderness of Afghanistan under heavy
security. Bin Laden, bearded and wearing a loose robe, appeared healthy and alert.

He stopped short of denying that he tried to develop chemical and nuclear weapons,
according to ABC.

"If I seek to acquire such weapons, this is a religious duty. How we use them is up to us,"
he said.

Bin Laden, who has been living in exile in Afghanistan, denied he was involved in the
August bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania but supported the attacks and said he
knew some of the suspects who have been charged, according to ABC.

"These are true men whom we respect and hold in the highest esteem," he said.

A US court has indicted bin Laden for the two bombings, which killed 224 people and injured
hundreds of others, and Washington has demanded he be extradited.

Bin Laden said he was not in his camps when US missiles struck on August 21, in retaliation
for the bombings. The United States said the camps were used for training terrorists, but the
Taliban religious army, which controls most of Afghanistan, said the 26 people killed were
merely religious students.

Bin Laden said he survived an assassination plot ordered and financed by a Saudi prince,
ABC reported, without giving the date of the plot or identifying the prince.





[I][YUGOSLAVIA KOSOVO]

Opponents vow to fight on in Kosovo

Following a Serb offensive against a Kosovo rebel stronghold, both sides are vowing to keep
fighting, dealing a new setback to an already shaky US-brokered cease-fire agreement.

The attack by Serb troops and tanks against six villages north of Pristina was continuing
today, sending hundreds fleeing into snow-covered hills. An Associated Press Television News
crew saw the body of one man killed by an artillery shell in the village of Glavnik and ethnic
Albanians say several others were injured.

The attack began after US and NATO officials warned both sides against violence, which
could threaten the fragile October 12 agreement. The deal ended most of the fighting between
government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels seeking independence from Yugoslavia's main
republic, Serbia.

Yugoslav army soldiers backed by tanks and artillery struck at rebel-infested villages near
Podujevo, 30 kilometres north of the provincial capital Pristina, purportedly searching for
gunmen who killed a Serb policeman three days before.

Hysni Fazliu, a spokesman for the party of leading ethnic Albanian politician Ibrahim
Rugova, said rebels resisted the attack in a "fierce battle."

"Both sides have been looking for trouble and found it," said William Walker, the American
head of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe's verification force monitoring
the October accord. He expressed frustration at the apparent lack of will for a peaceful
settlement.

The OSCE reported heavy gunfire in the Podujevo area.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana told BBC television that the Serb offensive was in
"clear violation of the commitments" undertaken in October by Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic to end eight months of fighting and avoid NATO airstrikes.

"We remain fully vigilant and ready to act," Solana said.





[I][CHINA DISSIDENTS]

Chinese dissident faces death penalty

A dissident charged with endangering state security could face a death sentence for
allegedly telling US government-funded Radio Free Asia about farmers' protests.

Zhang Shanguang, who earlier spent seven years in jail for labour rights campaigning, will
go on trial tomorrow in Huaihua city in the southern province of Hunan, an official of the
court confirmed yesterday.

The official refused to detail the charges or give his name. But Human Rights in China, a
New York-based group, said today that Zhang was accused of "illegally providing intelligence
to overseas enemy organisations and people."

According to China's criminal code, conviction generally is punished with a jail term but
the court can apply the death penalty if it deems that national interests were seriously
endangered.

Human Rights in China said the charge was related to interviews Zhang allegedly gave to
Radio Free Asia, which has irked Chinese officials with reports on human rights abuses and
other issues.

The group said Zhang had told the network about a demonstration by 70 to 80 farmers in
Hunan province's Xupu county and about another protest by farmers angered by excessive taxes
that turned violent and resulted in deaths.

Human Rights in China said it got its information from "reliable sources" but its claim
about Radio Free Asia could not immediately be verified.

The Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, a Hong Kong-based
group which also reported Zhang's impending trial, said the 45-year-old told overseas media
and human rights groups about protests by unemployed workers. But the group did not mention
Radio Free Asia.

Zhang's wife, Hou Xuezhu, could not immediately be reached for comment and his lawyer, Chen
Hanwen, refused to answer questions.





[I][XMAS JERUSALEM][MID]

Jerusalem's faith crossroad

Cold winter sunshine splashed the yellow stones of Jerusalem's walled Old City at the
intersection of the Via Dolorosa and El-Wad Street, a jostling, noisy crossroad of faiths.

While Christians celebrated Christmas yesterday, Muslims were marking the first
prayer-and-rest day of their holy month of Ramadan, and Jews were preparing to usher in the
Sabbath at sundown.

The Old City street corner scene on this day, with its vegetable vendors, police and
souvenir sellers, was also a snapshot of the three great religions that have deep and
indelible roots here.

Under the watchful eyes of armed guards, pale young students in skullcaps streamed out of a
yeshiva, or Jewish seminary, blinking in the sudden burst of bright sunlight.

Just outside the yeshiva's doorway, a bearded Islamic cleric appealed for donations for
charity, and Muslim passers-by dropped coins onto a well-worn prayer rug at his feet.

Only steps away, Christian pilgrims clustered around a tour guide as he gestured toward the
spot marked by a stain on the curving stone wall where Christian tradition says Simon was
made to help Jesus carry his cross.

Shopkeeper Hassan Nashishibi, a Palestinian Muslim, beckoned tourists toward his store,
filled with crucifixes and olive-wood Nativity scenes.

"Wow," marveled Georges Pereda, a visitor from Paris, as he surveyed the scene. "Muslims,
Jews, Christians everyone is here."

Jerusalem particularly its Old City, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967
Mideast war has always embodied soaring spirituality and relentless realpolitik.

Its crowded confines are home to dozens of holy sites, many of them focal points for the
larger tensions that tear at Israel and the Palestinian lands.

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 1030

1998 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.