AAP Internet Bulletin 1930 Saturday Dec 26, 1998

AAP General News (Australia)
12-26-1998
AAP Internet Bulletin 1930 Saturday Dec 26, 1998

[I][BALLOON QUEST]

Fosset discouraged, Branson unbowed

After three failed attempts this year to float around the world in a balloon, American
millionaire Steve Fossett sounded a little discouraged.

"I think it's time to go sailing," Fossett said today after he and two other adventurers
abandoned their effort to make the first nonstop around-the-world balloon flight.

British mogul Richard Branson, however, said he was undeterred.

"We've finally cracked everything in the technology," he said. "We'll buck up ourselves and
start again."

Fossett, Branson, and Per Lindstrand of Sweden, who have made a total of 11 attempts at a
nonstop flight around globe, were in good condition when Coast Guard helicopters lifted them
out of the Pacific Ocean about 16km off Kahuku Point at the northeast tip of Oahu.

"We're glad to be alive," Branson said. "We thought we were going to make it all the way,
but we hit a brick wall of bad weather."

They were seven days into their journey - about the halfway point - when they ditched.

The 83 metres combination helium and hot-air balloon bounced in high seas because bolts
that were supposed to cut the balloon loose from the crew capsule had been frozen by the cold
and didn't work.

Fossett, who was forced to ditch in the Pacific during an attempt to circle the globe
earlier this year, described the landing as "pretty smooth," despite the bouncing.

His colleague Lindstrand begged to differ: "This was the worst. It was horrendous."





[T][YACHT SYDHOB][YACHT]

Brindabella 300m ahead of Sayonara

Flying maxi yacht Brindabella charged down the New South Wales south coast at record pace
today, but stormy conditions ahead threatened to make it a rough first night at sea for the
Sydney to Hobart fleet.

While American maxi Sayonara shaded Brindabella out of Sydney Heads, the 1997 line honours
victor had forged ahead by around 500 metres before the boats reached Wollongong.

Brindabella was reported 300 metres ahead of Sayonara just off Nowra on the NSW south
coast, with fellow maxis Marchioness and Wild Thing their closest rivals.

The big boats relished the 25-knot noreaster but the Bureau of Meteorology's afternoon
forecast made it clear conditions would sharply deteriorate overnight.

The bureau issued a storm warning for coastal waters south of Merimbula on the NSW far
south coast.

It forecast scattered showers and thunderstorms ahead of a southerly change.

West to south-westerly winds of 30-40 knots were expected to batter the south coast late
tonight with 25-35 knot winds hammering the Illawarra coast early tomorrow morning.

The fleet was likely to meet swells of up to three metres after the change with seas rising
up to four metres.

Competing yachts reported seeing a buildup of clouds as they made their way down the NSW
south coast late this afternoon.

Happily, the early hours of the race did not contain any major casualties and no
retirements were reported.





[A][TOLL NATIONAL][FED]

Road toll rises to 40

The nation's Christmas-New Year road toll has climbed to 40 with the death today of four
people, including a policeman in Victoria.

He was on duty when his car ran off the road and hit a tree near Benalla in Victoria's
north-east at 9.50am (AEDT).

In a similar accident, a man was killed when his car hit a tree on the West Gate Freeway in
Melbourne's Altona North at 7am.

The deaths take Victoria's road toll to nine for the Christmas-New Year period.

New South Wales has recorded the most fatalities with 12 deaths on the state's roads.

The latest involved a 30-year-old man who died after he was thrown from his convertible car
as it rolled in Sydney's north-west overnight.

Queensland's toll has risen to eight after the death today of a man injured when a car
crashed into a tree in the Gold Coast hinterland five days ago.

Western Australia has four, and South Australia and Tasmania have three road deaths each.

There's been one death in the ACT.

The Northern Territory remains fatality-free.





[S][CRICKET ENGLAND]

Rain washes out play at the MCG

Rain has washed out the opening day's play of the fourth Ashes Test at the MCG today
without a ball being bowled.

Umpires Steve Bucknor and Daryll Harper finally gave in to the weather at 4.15pm (AEDT)
after inspecting the sodden pitch and the action will now be extended for half an hour at the
start and the end of the remaining four days to make up the lost time.

Earlier, Angus Fraser was handed an unexpected England recall after young Surrey fast
bowler Alex Tudor was ruled out with a sore hip.

Tudor had been expected to return to the England line-up after being surprisingly
overlooked for the 205-run defeat at Adelaide having claimed five wickets on his Test debut at
Perth and was pencilled in to bat at No 7.

But he woke up today with the complaint and after a strenuous net session, he was ruled out
to allow Fraser, dropped after the first Test at Brisbane despite claiming 56 wickets in 13
Tests this year, a surprise re-entry onto the international scene.

Reserve wicketkeeper Warren Hegg was also given a shock Test debut, which will allow
captain Alec Stewart to open the batting again for the first time since the West Indies tour
and for the first time as captain.

Stewart's return as opener alongside Mike Atherton forced Mark Butcher down the order to No
6 but after losing the toss for the fourth successive Test, he had to spend the rest of the
day in the pavilion because of the bad weather.

Australia have also made two changes with Darren Lehmann replacing the out-of-form Ricky
Ponting while untried Western Australia fast bowler Matt Nicholson was given his Test debut as
a replacement for the injured Jason Gillespie.





[A][YACHT ALONE ARRIVE][FED]

Autissier expected in Tasmania

French solo sailor Isabelle Autissier was expected to arrive in Tasmania for emergency
repairs to her yacht at 6pm (AEDT).

The 42-year-old yachtswoman was contending with a thunderstorm as she sailed her damaged
yacht towards Adventure Bay on Bruny Island, near Hobart, support crew member Neville Heydan
said.

"There's a lot of lightning. It's almost like a tropical storm," Mr Heydan told AAP.

"We had hoped to do the repairs in four hours but that might be a bit optimistic."

Around Alone race director Mark Schrader said Ms Autissier had slowed to five knots this
morning as she sailed the final 80 nautical miles for repairs to her mainsail and damaged
electrical equipment.

Earlier this week she had hoped to have her yacht PRB repaired by Christmas and underway
for Auckland on the second 7,000 nautical mile leg of the Around Alone race around the world.

Yesterday, a disheartened Ms Autissier told her shore crew she did not want to know how far
she had fallen behind the race leaders.

"It really is a merry Christmas. I'm still 100 miles from the south-east tip of Tasmania
and about 150 miles from the place where I'm going to stop over," she said in a radio message.

"What had been forecast was north-westerly wind of 10-to-15 knots and not this stormy
weather at all.

"I would prefer not to know the fleet standing because they must be shooting ahead.





[A][IMMIGRANTS][NT]

42 immigrants detained in Darwin

Forty-two immigrants of unknown identity are in detention in Darwin after being found in
the Northern Territory's remote Cobourg Peninsula.

Immigration spokeswoman Bronwyn Collins said 37 foreign nationals had been found in
addition to the five illegal immigrants who were located late on Thursday evening.

"I can confirm that 42 people were located in the Cobourg Peninsula (north-east of Darwin),
and that they are now in immigration detention in Darwin," she said.

Ms Collins said a search began early yesterday involving the Northern Territory police,
fire and emergency services.

The search was initiated after four men and one woman were found wandering near Black Point
on the Cobourg Peninsula by a person driving a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

The driver took the five people to the local park ranger station which then reported the
incident to Customs.

She said the search had found a further 37 people who had been found wandering in groups in
areas near the peninsula.

She said a customs officer and a ranger in a four-wheel-drive found 29 people early
yesterday afternoon on the shore at Araru Point, to the west of Black Point.

Later in the day, a coastwatch aircraft sighted another eight people in groups along the
shoreline of Trepang Bay. The eight were subsequently detained.

"I understand that they travelled on a cargo ship that ran aground on December 24th," she
said.





[A][STORM NSW][NSW]

Storm causes blackouts in Wagga

An electrical storm caused major damage to buildings and left hundreds of homes without
power in south western New South Wales today, emergency workers said.

State Emergency Services spokesman Rick Stone said winds of up to 80kph ripped through the
city of Wagga Wagga at about 2pm, propelling branches and uprooted trees onto roofs.

"At this stage, we've had reports of damage to about 16 houses, and some of that has been
fairly serious," Mr Stone said.

Trees had knocked down power lines, cutting electricity to hundreds of homes and making the
cleanup by the volunteers more difficult, he said.

"There's been extensive power failure across Wagga, and Great Southern Energy are working
to restore supply," he said.

Twenty emergency volunteers had responded to calls for help, and would work until midnight
tonight to clean up the worst of the damage, he said.

A series of small, isolated storms were expected across the south and central west of NSW
this afternoon, he said.

"Storms in the central part of NSW at the moment are heading north and east ahead of a
front which is going to hit the coast sometime this afternoon and might wake up the people in
the Sydney-Hobart," he said.

The storms could cause further damage to crops and towns in their path, he said.

"What happens with a lot of these storms, they're very small, and if there happens to be a
town in the way, then they'll do damage, but if there isn't, then they tend to only effect
farms and rural areas," he said.



[A][BUSHFIRES VIC][VIC]

Firefighters battle park blaze

Firefighters and water bombing aircraft are trying to head off a 700 hectare bushfire
before it moves from national park on to wheat farms on the edge of western Victoria's Little
Desert National Park, north of Horsham.

Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) central fire coordinator Max Coulter
said 30 NRE firefighters, two bombers and one support aircraft were at the scene, supported by
seven Country Fire Authority fire trucks.

There was as yet no risk to homes, he said.

"The fire had a bit of a run under strong winds and headed for private property where we
hope to contain it."

NRE is also facing the prospect of new bushfires in the Sunset Country area, south-west of
Mildura, following lightning strikes late this afternoon.

"We will investigate them tonight and decide whether to put people on line tonight," Mr
Coulter said.

"These fires tend to drop off at night, then when the sun comes out they tend to flare up
again."

Meanwhile, 60 firefighters and five aircraft had spent the day fighting a fire which has
led to the closure of some walking tracks on the north-east corner of Wilsons Promontory.

Mr Coulter said the 362 hectare fire on Victoria's southern coast has been partly
extinguished by heavy rain.

But the rain had also interfered with NRE's plan to contain the fire and it did not yet
have a line around its perimeter, he said.





[A][SALES NSW][NSW]

Thousands flock to sales

Thousands of New South Wales holiday makers spent Boxing Day shopping as the annual
post-Christmas sales kicked off early in some city stores.

Grace Bros in Sydney opened on Boxing Day for the first time ever, getting ahead of David
Jones which is sticking to the traditional time of 8am (AEDT) tomorrow to begin its popular
clearance sale.

The newly renovated Grace Bros city store, which will trade until 6pm today, is offering 50
per cent cuts in some lines.

Store manager Peter Dansie said about 3,000 shoppers were waiting outside when the doors
opened at 9am.

He said trade had exceeded expectations, with more than 80,000 shoppers visiting the shop
throughout the day.

"I'm standing on the ground floor at the moment, and there would be probably five or six
thousand people on this floor," Mr Dansie said.

The decision to trade today was intended to test the local market, he said.

"We had a go at it and the customers are voting with their feet and their wallets," he
said.

" ... We've just added shopping to the Boxing Day agenda as well as the Sydney to Hobart."

Country Road, Gowings and a number of specialty shops in Pitt Street Mall also opened
today.





[I][CHINA MAO][CHN]

China marks Mao's birth

China marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong today as an outspoken
dissident called on Beijing to close the late leader's mausoleum and take down his portrait
from central Tiananmen Square.

"Every year on December 26, the newspapers are full of positive things about Mao, but I
call on people to speak the truth," said Gao Hongming, a Beijing activist who recently
attempted to stand as a candidate in local elections.

"In creating New China, Mao did much successful work, but after the revolution he made a
lots of errors and his greatest crime was his personal dictatorship," Gao said in an open
letter addressed to China's parliament, government and ruling Communist Party.

In a four-point demand, Gao called on the central government to take Mao's embalmed body
out of the huge mausoleum which dominates Tiananmen Square and transform the building into a
memorial hall for all the heros of China.

He also called for the huge portrait of Mao that hangs at the north of the square, on the
gate of heavenly peace, to be removed.

Mao was born on December 26, 1893 and died on September 8, 1976 after three decades as
China's great helmsman, leaving a clouded legacy and the nation in isolation and economic
collapse.

His death prompted the end of the disastrous Cultural Revolution and the start of the
economic reform program which has seen China re-emerge as a world power.

But the man who frequently declared that power came from the barrel of a gun has not lost
his prominent position in China's hierarchy and despite the positive changes since his death,
the ruling Communist Party continues to base its legitimacy on Mao.

To mark the 105th anniversary of his birth, China Central Television is running a six-part
documentary on Mao's early life which "looks at the great contributions Mao Zedong made to the
revolution and construction of the country".

A new "Mao Reference" on CD-ROM has been issued by the central committee of the ruling
Communist Party, which includes more than 3,000 pictures and 120 video clips of Mao.



[I][CHINA DISSIDENTS]

Dissident may face 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.

[I][YUGO KOSOVO][EUR]

Diplomat bids to stop all-out war

With Kosovo teetering on the brink of a return to all-out war, a top US diplomat has
visited the scene of latest outbreak of fighting and urged both sides to step back from
further confrontation.

William Walker met with an ethnic Albanian rebel commander during a lull in the second day
of renewed fighting in northern Kosovo.

He said he also hoped to talk with Serb commanders as part of his bid to end the latest
Serb offensive.

The Serb attack poses the gravest threat yet to the October 12 agreement that halted months
of violence between Serbs and guerrillas trying to gain independence for the predominantly
ethnic Albanian province in Serbia.

"This is the tensest period since the agreement was signed," said Walker, head of an
unarmed force charged with monitoring the accord.

The observer mission was organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE).

Walker said the force - set to increase from 600 to 2,000 in the coming weeks - would not
be pulled out in the face of increased danger.

"More verifiers are the answer to violence," he told reporters.

A day after the Serbs launched their crackdown just west of the northern town of Podujevo,
the rattle of gunfire echoed through the area.

But OSCE spokesman Jorgen Grunnet said there was a lot less activity than Thursday, when
Serb forces backed by artillery and dozens of tanks swept into the area in what they said was
a response to the killing of a policeman earlier in the week.



[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][US COLD][US]

US deep freeze continues

Ice storms that crippled electrical services throughout southern USA left thousands
shivering through Christmas while utility crews raced to rewire their customers today.

"If they named winter storms they way they named hurricanes, they could name this one the
Grinch," said Kurt Pickering of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. About 54,000
electric customers in the state were still without power today.

While more freezing rain was not in the forecast, the south - and most of the US - was
expected to continue under a cold snap already blamed for at least 30 deaths.

The worst outages struck Virginia, where 1,100 crewmen worked Christmas Day to restore
power. At least 197,000 customers remained without electricity Friday night.

Dolores Carter of Glenns, Virginia, sought warmth 13km away at a shelter in Gloucester.

"It was scary. We would have been like two ice cubes come morning," said Carter, who spent
Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at the shelter with 20 other people.

Virginia Power officials said the heavy ice storm that hit the state could keep the lights
off in some homes until early next week.

Slick roads were blamed for many deaths in recent days, including six in Alabama, six in
Virginia and two in South Carolina. Many airports also suffered delays or cancellations.

About 20,000 power customers in North Carolina were still in the dark Friday night. Most
tried to make the most of Christmas and the sudden entrance of winter.

"It's neat. It's about time North Carolina had snow for Christmas and ice and - Santa Claus
weather," said Carrie Mosteller, 50, of Greensboro.





[I][CAMBODIA ROUGE]

Khmer Rouge leaders defect to govt

Two Khmer Rouge leaders considered main architects of the genocidal reign of terror in the
1970s defected today to the government in a deal that looked unlikely to bring them to justice
for their crimes.

Khieu Samphan, long the nominal leader while others held real power, and political chief
Nuon Chea said in letters read on national radio that they wished to become "ordinary
citizens."

Prime Minister Hun Sen said he personally negotiated what amounts to the pair's surrender
and brushed aside questions whether they would be brought to trial for crimes against
humanity.

"We should not talk about any court," Hun Sen said. "This is a time when we should talk
about reconciliation."

Hun Sen's language indicated a deal had been struck allowing the pair to make peace in
exchange for not being tried, despite international pressure to bring them to justice.

The deal amounts a final nail in the coffin of one of history's most brutal revolutionary
groups and leaves at large only one major figure, the one-legged general Ta Mok, known as "The
Butcher," and less than 100 die-hard loyalists.

Om Yenthieng, an aide to Hun Sen, said that Ta Mok's arrest is still sought.

In a letter to King Norodom Sihanouk read over national radio, Hun Sen said he "would like
to warmly welcome the two personalities and I hope this decision ... will become a
mobilisation of strength for national reconstruction and peace."

The defectors were key players in the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule of Cambodia between 1975
and 1979. As many as two million people died of starvation, disease and executions when the
Maoist guerrillas forced the population into massive agricultural labour camps.

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 1930

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