AAP Internet Bulletin 1815 Wednesday Dec 30, 1998

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-1998
AAP Internet Bulletin 1815 Wednesday Dec 30, 1998





[A][YEMEN KIDNAP AUST][FED]

Aussie killed in Yemen gun battle

Britain had asked Yemeni authorities not to launch the military operation to rescue
hostages that led to the death of an Australian tourist in a shootout, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said today.

Expressing the government's sadness at the 35-year-old Sydney man's death, Mr Downer said
Australian authorities were yet to determine the exact circumstances in which the man and
three Britons were killed.

The four were killed when Yemeni security forces stormed the hideout of the Islamic
militant group Islamic Jihad, which had kidnapped 16 foreign tourists.

A 33-year-old Sydney woman, Catherine Spence, who had also been held hostage has been
released and is now in the Yemen capital, Aden, where she has met with an Australian consular
official from Saudi Arabia.

Mr Downer said the Yemeni authorities would brief British and Australian officials tomorrow
on what happened in the hostage drama.

"The British ambassador asked the Yemeni authorities not to launch a military-style
operation against the captors of the hostages," he told reporters.

"But we understand that the Yemeni authorities thought that lives were in danger and given
that lives were in danger, they had to take some decisive action.

"The actual circumstances of the action they took we're not aware of yet but we'll find out
in the next day or so."

Mr Downer said the Australian government was saddened and horrified about the death of the
man, and warned Australians to avoid Yemen unless they had essential business there.

"All Australians with non-essential business should defer travel to Yemen and those
Australian tourists who are in Yemen would be well advised to get out of the country," he
said.

"Those Australians who have to be in Yemen for one reason or another should confine
themselves to the major towns. Travel outside the major towns obviously is somewhat
hazardous."

Mr Downer said the kidnapping of the man and woman, whom he understood had been travelling
together, was part of a pattern of kidnapping that had taken place in Yemen for a long time.

But he said there was no evidence that the abduction of the group of 16 people, who had
been travelling as part of a holiday arranged by a British travel company, had any link to
recent US-British attacks on Iraq or wanted Saudi millionaire Ossama Bin Laden.





[A][SYDHOB SOLO][FED]

Death yacht towed to wharf

Crippled Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race entrant Business Post Naiad was towed to a private
wharf at Eden today with the bodies of two of her crew still aboard.

A colleague of the two dead men - one believed to be the yacht's owner and skipper Bruce
Guy - was formally identifying the bodies today, Eden police Inspector Rick Mawdsley said.

Police took extensive photographs of the bodies and the yacht at the Greenseas wharf as
evidence for a NSW coronial inquiry into four deaths and two presumed deaths during the Sydney
to Hobart race.

"The bodies were in situ as the crew had secured them before they abandoned ship,"
Inspector Mawdsley told AAP.

"The crew had secured one below deck and one above deck so that they wouldn't be lost."

He said the bodies will be taken, along with bodies of two crewmen from the wrecked yacht
Winston Churchill, to Sydney for post mortem examination.

Sydney-based police launch Nemesis towed Business Post Naiad from where it had been
drifting since the weekend, 120 nautical miles east of Eden.

Seven surviving crew members were rescued on Monday morning hours after the yacht was
disabled by mountainous seas.

"The yacht was extensively damaged, including its mast, decks and cabin," Inspector
Mawdsley said.

The last yacht was expected to be towed into the port about midnight, harbour master Pat
Saunders said.





[T][CRICKET AUST][CRIK]

Warne 'soap opera' returns to SCG

Shane Warne's "soap opera" will return to centre stage when a stunned Australia confronts
England in the Ashes decider starting on Saturday at the SCG.

The most successful spinner in cricket history said he felt his career was starting again
after being recalled today to Australia's side for the fifth Test in place of paceman Matthew
Nicholson.

Warne admitted there were times he feared his stunning 313 Test wicket career was over
after shoulder surgery in April, but he is now back in the fray with Australia protecting a
2-1 lead after dominating the first three Tests of the Ashes series.

The predicted spin friendly conditions prompted selectors to pick a tweaking trio of Stuart
MacGill, Colin Miller and Warne.

Despite unconvincing returns for Victoria in four matches this summer, Warne said his right
shoulder was ready for the challenge of Test cricket.

"There's no drama in my shoulder anymore, it feels good, I'm ready," he said today.

"I have got to the stage now where if (Australian captain Mark Taylor) Tub wants me to bowl
as many overs as possible, I can."

Warne has not played international cricket for eight months but has maintained a record of
grabbing as many headlines as wickets.

His troublesome year culminated when the 29-year-old apologised three weeks ago for taking
money from an illegal Indian bookmaker during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka in 1994.

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









[F][STOCKS TELCOS]

Internet, telecoms stocks surge

Australian telecommunication and internet stocks soared in end of year trading today with
investors seeking exposure to the sector after spectacular rises in technology stocks in the
United States.

Traders said these stocks were flavour of the month right now, with no signs that investors
are likely to ease off plunging funds into a potential growth area.

As well, news of the explosion in value of online-related stocks in the United States had
stirred up interest, they said.

With investors right now excited about all stocks related to the internet, internet broker
E-Trade led today's rises, while some telecommunications stocks including carrier Cable &
Wireless Optus reached record highs.

After hitting a high of $3.10, E-Trade Australia stacked on 52 cents, or around 20 per
cent, to close at $2.92.

New management appointments were expected to be made soon in the company, which was also
lifting interest, one analyst said.

World Wide Web content provider LibertyOne also was keenly sought, jumping as much as 50
cents at one stage to hit a record $3.99.

It eased towards the end of trade to close at $3.68, a gain of 19 cents or 5.44 per cent.

The group debuted on the stock market on December 14 at $3.50 a share, a 75 per cent
premium to its issue price of $2.00 a share.

"Internet stocks in the United states have been going gang busters and there seems to have
been a transfer in sentiment over here," one industry analyst said.

"But it's interesting that those stocks are not trading on valuation but on sentiment or
revenue multiples rather than earning multiples," he said.

Smaller telecommunications companies also made gains, with traders noting that they offered
a profitable entry into a growth sector.

Newly listed telecommunications reseller Telco Australia Ltd jumped seven cents, or 15.56
per cent, to 52 cents. It hit a high of 56 cents with 1.7 million shares traded.

The company, which resells AAPT Ltd products, Connect.com Internet services and One.Tel
mobile phone services, raised $3 million through the issue of 15 million shares at 20 cents
each in its oversubscribed public float.

It listed at only 40 cents on December 7.

Telecommunications company AAPT added 10 cents, or 2.44 per cent, to a record closing high
of $4.20 while fellow telco Cable & Wireless Optus rose 15 cents, or 4.70 per cent to $3.34.

Optus closed at a new high as investors sought to top up their portfolios in the stock
ahead of it upweighting to 50 per cent from 16 per cent on the all ordinaries index on January
1, analysts said.

Another stock to gain was Golden Hills Mining - soon to be known as Davnet Ltd - a telecoms
and data network provider - which soared another 10 cents, or 66.67 per cent, to 25 cents.

The stock, which returned to trading yesterday after a restructure, also topped the day's
turnover with 26.34 million shares worth $5.46 million exchanged.

Analysts warned that despite the news about internet stocks soaring in the United States,
the companies concerned were yet to produce results that were in line with their share prices.

"Everyone is writing about telco stocks and people, just like gamblers are jumping on
board,

" telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said.

"The hype is driving all of these stocks and it's just unrealistic," he said.

Most of the companies were still yet to deliver profits and "when the market start
adjusting they'll tumble".

On Monday, San Francisco based discount broker Charles Schwab Corp reached $US25.51 billion
in market capitalisation, meaning it was meant more than Merrill Lynch's capitalisation of
$US25.36 billion.

And America Online recently was valued more than Disney in terms of market value.

Internet stocks overnight on the Nasdaq market in the United States retraced recent gains,
but companies like America Online only gave up a small amount of the gains made the previous
night.





[A][BAMBOO][FED]

Epic raft voyage proves theory

An epic voyage on a bamboo raft resembling those built more than 60,000 years ago had
demonstrated how ancestors of the Aborigines arrived on the continent from the north, project
spokesmen said today.

The 16-metre Nale Tasih left the Indonesia island of Timor on December 17 headed for Darwin
to prove theories this was how forerunners to the Aborigines came to Australia.

Bad weather forced the raft's five man crew to abandon ship just short of Darwin late
yesterday and they were brought into port on the supply vessel Pacific Spear.

Project media officer Richard Creswick said today: "Without a doubt the voyage was a
success. The fact the raft did not make land fall at Darwin does not matter."

He said the voyage had proven beyond all doubt this was how Aboriginal ancestors arrived on
the continent.

"There was no land bridge. They had to come by sea along this route," he said.

Crew member Peter Rogers, 50, of Cooroy, Queensland, agreed.

"Research shows the first people to come across from Indonesia did so between 60,000 and
100,000 years ago," Mr Rogers said.

It was believed many basic rafts made the 440 nautical mile crossing from Timor after the
first successful voyage and the re-enactment raft had chosen Darwin as the destination because
some of the early travellers would have landed there, he said.

Mr Rogers said project leader Bob Hobman planned to salvage the Nale Tasih because it was
undamaged and was abandoned only because strong seas and high winds had blown it off course
near the end of the voyage.





[A][ANGOLA PLANE AUST][FED]

UN plane crash survival hope

An Australian man who was aboard a United Nations plane which crashed in the war-torn
African nation of Angola could still be alive, his family said today.

Patrick Luckman, 56, a Melbourne barrister who has spent the past four years working for
the UN, was one of 14 people on the C-130 Hercules transport plane which crashed last Saturday
soon after take-off from the central Angolan rebel stronghold of Huambo.

A spokesman for Mr Luckman's family said they were encouraged by reports that the plane had
been located and might have survivors.

"We are hoping that he has survived because there are reports that the aircraft is in
intact so there are possibilities for survivors," said the family spokesman who did not want
to be named.

A communique from the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) said "there may be
survivors in the wreck according to signals obtained through our codes".

UN spokesman Yasuhiro Ueki told Agence France-Presse that the Transafrica company which
chartered the transport plane to the UN had located the aircraft eight km southwest of
Tchicala-Tcholohango, a town formerly known as Vila Nova.

The Luckman family spokesman said they had contacted the office of Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer, asking Australia to lobby for UN relief teams to have access to the
aircraft.

"We've urged the Australian government to interfere and do their best in terms of urging
and pressuring the two warring factions to assist the UN to provide emergency relief as soon
as possible," he said from Melbourne.

"We want all the people on board to be survivors and we want them to be assisted as soon as
possible."

Mr Downer said Australia would do all it can to help Mr Luckman.





[A][TRAN][FED]

Heroin accused 'intimidated witnesses'

A man who allegedly controlled a heroin operation in Canberra was today remanded in custody
after the ACT Magistrates Court heard he had intimidated witnesses, possibly even stabbing
one.

Qui Phuong Tran, 26, was arrested on December 18 as he drove through Canberra in a Eunos
sportscar, registered to his 78-year-old mother, after a six-month police investigation into
large-scale heroin distribution in the ACT, Operation Redgum.

Tran, from Cabramatta in Sydney's west, was charged with conspiracy to commit an offence
but no drugs were found on him.

Magistrate Shane Madden remanded Tran in custody to appear on January 11, after hearing
that two witnesses feared for their safety after going to police.

"It will be alleged that between July 20, 1998, and December 18, 1998, the defendant Qui
Phuong Tran controlled an organised heroin distribution network within the ACT," Detective
Constable Graham Schmidt said.

"This group was sourced from Cabramatta and made regular trips to the ACT for the purpose
of supplying heroin."

Detective Schmidt, of the Australian Federal Police Asian crime investigation unit, said
the group consisted of Tran, two other men and a 15-year-old girl plus sub-dealers operating
primarily in Civic, the Canberra city area.

Detective Schmidt said there had been acts of intimidation with a knife.

"One person was wounded; the victim has declined to cooperate with police," he said.

Detective Schmidt said police in September searched a flat in the northside Canberra suburb
of Reid where they found a man in possession of heroin.

Two days later he approached police to give a statement about the group, which allegedly
supplied heroin to his flatmate to sell.

"He believed that the leader or boss of the group was Phuong (Tran) who was also known as
Peter," Detective Schmidt said.





[A][BURGLAR][VIC]

Elderly woman bashes burglar

A 76-year-old woman who used a metal stick to belt a burglar she found under her bed early
this morning was not a woman you would want to cross, a neighbour said today.

Violet Scales, a grandmother who lives alone, was going to bed with a cup of coffee just
before 1am today when she saw a case sticking out from underneath it, neighbour George Spencer
said.

"She went to push the case back again and noticed the flounce on the bottom of the bed was
moving," he said.

Lifting the flounce, the semi-invalid Mrs Scales saw a thick-set man cowering beneath the
bed.

Her immediate reaction was to use the metal hand-operated pick-up stick she was holding to
give him a good whack, continuing to belt him as he crawled out from beneath the bed.

"As she put it herself, it was in anger, not in fear, that he had violated her privacy," Mr
Spencer told AAP.

Mrs Scales confirmed to radio 3AW that courage had not been her motivation.

"I wasn't brave. I was angry," she said.

"It was only after he'd gone that I sat down and then I got frightened. I thought: what
would have happened if he'd have turned (on me) because he was a pretty thick-set fellow."

The burglar escaped from the bedroom and ran into the loungeroom, stole cash from her purse
then ran out the front door.

Mrs Scales was not harmed in the incident.





[I][INDON PORTUGAL]

Jakarta rejects Suharto extradition

The Indonesia government today ruled out a Portuguese politician's request for the
extradition of former President Suharto over atrocities in East Timor.

Justice Minister Muladi said there was no extradition treaty with Portugal, East Timor's
former colonial master, and that Suharto should be held accountable in Indonesia for any
wrongdoing.

"Indonesia has the greatest responsibility to try Suharto if he is involved in any crimes
or violations," Muladi said.

Indonesian state prosecutors are investigating corruption allegations against Suharto, who
quit in May after riots and student protests against his 32-year authoritarian rule.

The Portuguese attorney general's office has said that Portuguese law provided no legal
grounds to pursue the request for the extradition of Suharto.

A Portuguese politician, Nuno Correia da Silva, had based his appeal on human rights abuses
committed by the Indonesian military in East Timor during and after its 1975 invasion.
Separatist guerrillas continue to fight.

The United Nations regards Portugal as East Timor's administering power.

Correia da Silva had said this - and current attempts to extradite former Chilean dictator
General Augusto Pinochet from Britain to Spain - strengthened his case.

Indonesian troops entered East Timor in December 1975, a few months after the withdrawal of
the Portuguese colonial administration, and Jakarta unilaterally declared the territory its
27th province in 1976.

Australia formally recognises East Timor as part of Indonesia.





[I][CAMBODIA ROUGE]

Cambodian king refuses amnesty

Cambodia's king refused to approve amnesty for two leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge
today, contradicting the country's prime minister who pledged to shield them from trial.

The refusal casts doubt on the legitimacy of the deal Prime Minister Hun Sen has granted
the two Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, to defect to the government in exchange for
assurances they will not be tried for crimes against humanity.

"Taking into account the very wide and undeniable discontent of the majority of the Khmer
people, I announce to this majority that I respect them and will not renew my power of amnesty
for major Khmer Rouge criminals," said King Norodom Sihanouk.

Sihanouk, 76, who is receiving medical treatment for a brace of ailments in Beijing, made
the comments in a statement faxed to news organisations.

Sihanouk said that an international tribunal would have "the perfect right to take up the
case of genocide in Cambodia, because it concerns crimes against humanity."

"That concerns the conscience of the community of all the world's people's," the king said.

The announcement came hours after the two Khmer Rouge leaders apologised for the deaths of
a

s many as two million people during their regime in the 1970s and asked Cambodians to
forget the past.

Yet, neither of the elderly revolutionaries accepted personal responsibility for the
massacres during their rule.

Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were flown by helicopter from a former rebel stronghold to the
capital to, in effect, surrender to Hun Sen after he pledged they would not face trial for
crimes against humanity.

The Maoist revolutionaries won a civil war in 1975 and forced the population into slave
labour camps, where many died of overwork, starvation, disease and executions. Many Westerners
began to grasp the horror of the era when portrayed in the 1984 movie, The Killing Fields.

The Khmer Rouge was overthrown in 1979 by a Vietnamese invasion, but spent two decades
waging civil war. Stalemate ended in 1996 when the government began offering pardons to
leaders and guerrillas to get them to make peace. With the movement all but extinct, calls are
being heard for someone to finally be held accountable.





[T][CRICKET AUST CHASES][CRIK]

Captains at odds over Aussie weakness

Australian captain Mark Taylor says it's nonsense but England counterpart Alec Stewart
believes a major weakness in the world's best Test cricket side is its inability to chase
relatively small fourth innings totals.

Stewart was quick to remind his players of Australia's reputation in that area yesterday,
when the home side appeared to be cruising at 3-130 chasing 175 for victory before crashing to
a 12-run defeat in the fourth Test.

"We always thought 175 would be competitive because Australia in the past, great side that
they are, have often struggled batting fourth chasing totals like that," Stewart said.

Taylor disagrees, saying his team's 1997 series-clinching victory in South Africa when it
successfully chased 270 to win in Port Elizabeth proved it had the 'bottle' to cope in such
nerve-wracking situations.

However an analysis of Australian performances in chasing "gettable" but not "gimme" fourth
innings targets in recent years shows a disturbing numbers of failures.

In the last six years, chasing targets of between 100 and 270 to win, Australia has lost
six times from eight attempts.

And, apart from the sixth Test loss on the last England tour when Australia made only 104
chasing 124 for victory, those failures have come on home soil.

The most heart-breaking was in Adelaide in 1992-93 when Australia failed by just one run to
make the 186 needed to beat the West Indies when a win would have given skipper Allan Border
his first series victory over the Windies.

Then there was the five-run loss to South Africa in Sydney in 1993-94 when Australia
buckled for 111 chasing 117 while, on England's last visit here four years ago, its only Test
win came when it bowled Australia out for 156 after setting it 263 for victory.

Taylor believes Australia's real problem stems from a lack of concentration in "dead" Test
matches, like the fourth Test yesterday when his team knew it had already retained the Ashes.





[T][YACHTING SYDHOB][YACHT]

Fastnet lessons helped Midnight Rambler

Lessons from the Fastnet disaster helped owner and skipper Ed Psaltis sail his little AFR
Midnight Rambler through deadly seas and claim overall handicap honours in the Sydney to
Hobart yacht race today.

After a remarkable display of seamanship, the 35-footer finished just after 0500 AEDT,
tenth in the fleet and well ahead of many larger boats.

Midnight Rambler is less than half the length of American maxi Sayonara which led the
decimated fleet home yesterday.

And, while the handicap results won't be confirmed until tomorrow, officials said there was
little doubt that Midnight Rambler would be the first small yacht to win for ten years.

Provisionally second was the Victorian Ausmaid with veteran Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin third.

Psaltis and Bob Thomas only bought Midnight Rambler, which had been one of a series called
Chutzpah, from top Melbourne sailor Bruce Taylor a month ago.

The 38-year-old veteran of 15 Sydney to Hobarts put his victory, and perhaps his survival,
down to having read the report on the 1979 Fastnet race in which 19 died.

"Unlike the others, we hit the worst when it was still daylight so we could see the waves
coming," he said.

"I then remembered reading that the only way to take on waves of that size was to take them
on at a 60 to 70 degree angle rather than pulling away, risking being swamped and rolled by
them.

"In the end, this strategy was a matter of survival as well as good race tactics."





[T][YACHTING MELHOB][YACHT]

First time skipper almost breaks record

A skipper who'd never sailed in an ocean race before led his young crew to a near-record
line honours win in the Melbourne to Hobart yacht race today.

Tim Long, a 39-year-old video and television producer, guided his 12m craft Longitude down
the west coast of Tasmania and went within two minutes of breaking the race record of one day,
23 hours and 15 minutes set by Future Shock in 1996.

The Bull 1200 yacht, making its first Melbourne to Hobart journey, finished ahead of its
sister yacht Medicine Man II and Tasmanian entry Wild Card as it headed home the 17-boat
fleet.

Long, whose crew's average age was just 24, was unaware that he was so close to the record.

"We knew it was roughly two days but looking back there was probably a thousand things we
could have done to make up those two minutes," Long said.

"I had three priorities - to get to Hobart, to get there first and to get there with
everybody still talking to each other and we achieved that."

Long said for most of the race they were going head to head with Medicine Man 11 until a
rain squall hit them last night.

"After it cleared there was no Medicine Man and we were a bit concerned for them," Long
said.

"But we made fantastic time, reaching remarkable speeds down these great big waves."

Long said he was unsure whether he would enter the race next year, admitting he didn't
really consider himself an ocean racing sailor and preferred it closer to shore.





[X][XMAS DIETERS][VIC]

Skipped meals health warning

Guilty Christmas bingers must not resort to skipping meals because they will also miss
essential vitamins and minerals, the Australian Food Council warned today.

"Consumers often think healthy living is about dieting, fasting and skipping meals after
the Christmas holiday," council deputy director Harris Boulton said in a statement.

"But the key is balancing energy intake with regular exercise."

He said a recent National Nutrition Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
revealed 75 per cent of adolescents, 66 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men fell within a
healthy weight range.

But obesity persisted as a major health risk in the community.

"Dieticians recommend that most people's diets should consist of 60 per cent complex
carbohydrates, 30 per cent of fats and 10 per cent protein," Mr Boulton said.

"In fact, energy intake from fats and carbohydrates combined with regular exercise is often
seen as vital in winning the battle of the bulge and providing the staple diet of a healthy
lifestyle."

He said skipped meals meant important food groups such as meat, dairy products, bread,
rice, cereal, fruit and vegetables were missed.

"Covering a diverse range of food groups, balanced with regular exercise, is the key to
maintaining a healthy physique and peace of mind throughout the year ahead," Mr Boulton said.

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 1815 resending

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