Radio And Television Midday Round Up

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-1999
Radio And Television Midday Round Up
MIDDAY ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1130.

KOSOVO RAIDS (BELGRADE)

NATO planes have bombed targets in or near at least five Serbian cities and towns, marking
the 13th consecutive day of air strikes against Yugoslavia.

The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug says three missiles crashed into a residential
area in the central town of Aleksinac, injuring at least 10 civilians.

Five planes have flown about 750 Kosovo deportees out of Macedonia at the start of an
airlift to Turkey, which says it's willing to admit 20,000 victims expelled from the Yugoslav
province.

Airport sources say the first plane, a Boeing 737 jet, left with 150 people, mainly women
and children.



KOSOVO CARE DOWNER (CANBERRA)

Foreign Minister ALEXANDER DOWNER says Australian authorities have no idea where to find
two aid workers missing in Yugoslavia.

Mr DOWNER says inquiries at the Croatia-Serb border have failed to determine the
whereabouts of missing CARE Australia workers STEVE PRATT and PETER WALLACE.

Phone calls to the Yugoslav foreign ministry and the deputy prime minister's office have
also proven fruitless.

Mr DOWNER'S briefing contradicts CARE's head of overseas operations, ROBERT YALLOP, who
says the aid organisation has confidential information that both men are safe.

And, CARE Australia chairman MALCOLM FRASER says Australian authorities suspect the two aid
missing workers were taken by the army to a village.

Mr FRASER says he believes the two men are in a jail in the village.



KOSOVO AUST RUDDOCK (CANBERRA)

Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK is defending the Australian government's reluctance to
offer temporary refuge to Albanians fleeing Kosovo.

Mr RUDDOCK says Australia's experience with Chinese students fleeing the Tiananmen Square
democracy crackdown and East Timorese escaping violence reveals Australia has difficulty
sending such people home.

He says temporary outcomes have never been successful in terms of moving people.

Separately, members of Melbourne's Serbian community have protested against the NATO
airstrikes in Yugoslavia, accusing the Australian media of biased reporting on the Kosovo
crisis.

A spokesman for the protesters, Dr ALEXANDER SUVIC, says Australians are not getting the
full story and that suffering has been caused by NATO bombing.



LOCKERBIE (CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands)

Two Libyan suspects have been handed over to Scottish authorities to stand trial for the
1988 bombing of a US Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie.

Britain and the United States say they have evidence the men, allegedly Libyan secret
agents, planted the bomb which downed Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

All 259 people on board died, and another 11 were killed by falling wreckage in Lockerbie.



INDON TIMOR ANNAN (UNITED NATIONS)

United Nations Secretary-General KOFI ANNAN says violence in East Timor could derail talks
aimed at finding a political solution for the Indonesian-ruled territory.

ANNAN's spokesman says the UN chief hopes all acts of violence and intimidation will stop,
as it's important not to jeopardise the settlement of the East Timor problem.

Jailed East Timorese rebel leader XANANA GUSMAO has ordered East Timorese to resume their
resistance war against Indonesian troops, after learning pro-Indonesian militia have killed 17
East Timorese.



DRUGS (CANBERRA)

Labor is to propose what it says is a better national co-ordination on drugs later today.

Opposition Leader KIM BEAZLEY is due to release proposals under which the proceeds of crime
are easier to confiscate and services to help drug addicts better coordinated nationally.

The discussion paper on illicit drug use is the product of six months work by a shadow
ministerial committee.

Meanwhile, South Australian Premier JOHN OLSEN will take a comprehensive anti-drugs package
to the Premiers' conference in Canberra this week.

TELSTRA KELLY (CANBERRA)

Queensland National Party MPs are split over the full sale of Telstra, with an outspoken
backbencher lobbying independent senators BRIAN HARRADINE and MAL COLSTON to vote against the
plan.

DE-ANNE KELLY has outlined concerns about the impact of full privatisation on rural and
regional Australia, and is urging Senators HARRADINE and COLSTON to support no more than a
further 16.6 per cent sale.



NCA (ADELAIDE)

An inquest into the bombing of the National Crime Authority's Adelaide office five years
ago begins today.

Detective Sergeant GEOFFREY BOWEN, 36, died and lawyer PETER WALLIS suffered burns and lost
his sight in one eye when a parcel bomb exploded on the morning of March 2, 1994.

The inquiry is expected to take six weeks.

LOLITA (CANBERRA)

The controversy over Lolita appears to have generated strong ticket sales over the Easter
weekend before the film again risks being banned this week.

Members of audiences who've seen the movie remake of VLADIMIR NABOKOV'S 1955 novel at
Hoytes cinema complex in George St, Sydney, say they're bewildered by the fuss.

The Classification Review Board will review Lolita's R18+ rating on Friday in response to a
complaint from a West Australian paedophilia victim support group called Halo.



CRIMESTOPPERS (MELBOURNE)

Victoria's Opposition says criminals will celebrate state government cuts to Crime
Stoppers, the hot-line for anonymous police tip-offs.

Opposition police spokesman ANDRE HAERMEYER says Crime Stoppers operates at only 60 per
cent of normal staffing levels, and Melbourne radio says three of the seven staff have gone.

HAERMEYER says fewer police and cuts to Crime Stoppers mean criminals who should be behind
bars are robbing homes and introducing young people to drugs.



POLLNSW CLARENCE (SYDNEY)

National Party candidate STEVE CANSDELL says Liberal Party selfishness is to blame for the
New South Wales coalition's failure to win the north coast seat of Clarence.

Mr CANSDELL says the National Party should break from its coalition partner until a
satisfactory agreement on three-cornered contests is reached.

Labor Regional Development Minister Harry Woods has won the seat despite a big swing
against him.

Mr CANSDELL says people don't understand the optional preferential voting system used in
state elections, and a low flow of preferences from the Liberal Party cost him the seat.



BRIEFLY

Twenty-three people have died on Australia's roads this Easter break -- eight more than the
four-day long weekend claimed last year.

A major earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook a wide area of Papua New Guinea
last night and was centred about 290 kilometres west-south-west of Rabaul.


Toxic hazards have delayed investigations into a $1 million fire at a Brisbane spray-can paint
factory yesterday.


IN FINANCE NEWS:

At 1120 AEST, the all ordinaries index was up 23.6 points at 2997.0, after hitting a new
intra-day high of 3005.8 this morning.

The Australian dollar is currently worth 62.96 US cents, down from Thursday's close of
63.58, and at 0.5877 euros, from 0.5908.

The euro itself is worth $US1.0709, from Thursday's close of $US1.0764.

Gold in Sydney is trading at $US278.20 an ounce, down from $US280.25 on Thursday.



AND IN SPORTS NEWS:

CRICKET AUST (ST JOHN'S, Antigua)

Australia is in a commanding position after three days of the fourth and final cricket Test
against the West Indies in Antigua.

Australia is 2-209 in its second innings, an overall lead of 290, with JUSTIN LANGER on 84
and MARK WAUGH 60 in an unbroken third-wicket stand of 133.

LANGER, who also scored a half century in the first innings, added 61 for the second wicket
with MICHAEL SLATER who made 44 while GREG BLEWETT scored seven.



AFL RACISM (MELBOURNE)

St Kilda ruckman PETER EVERITT could learn today if he'll face the AFL tribunal on a racial
vilification charge.

EVERITT had a heated exchange with Melbourne's SCOTT CHISHOLM in Saturday's match at
Waverley and it's now up to either the umpire or Melbourne to lay a charge against the big
Saint.

ENDS MIDDAY ROUND-UP

AAP RTV jn

KEYWORD: MIDDAY ROUND-UP

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.