AAP Internet Bulletin 0001 Thursday Dec 24, 1998

AAP General News (Australia)
12-24-1998
AAP Internet Bulletin 0001 Thursday Dec 24, 1998





[I][IRAQ UN][MID]

Iraq orders UN to cancel flight

Iraq ordered the United Nations today to cancel a scheduled flight of military observers
headed to Baghdad to monitor the cease-fire and demilitarised zone on the Iraq-Kuwait border,
a UN official said.

Iraq offered no explanation for its decision, which was likely to increase tensions with
the United Nations.

The UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he hoped the measure was
temporary and that the UN is pursuing the matter with Iraq.

The flight had been scheduled to carry members of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer
Mission, from Amman, Jordan to Habaniyya air base outside Baghdad, the official said.

The force was set up after the 1991 Gulf War which evicted Iraqi forces from Kuwait
following their seven-month occupation of the tiny oil-rich emirate.

The official said the Iraq move appeared to be related to the US-British military
airstrikes on Iraq to force it to comply with UN resolutions to eliminate its weapons of mass
destruction. The four nights of strikes ended on the weekend.

Iraqi air defences are still on alert for further possible attacks, and the cancellation of
the UN flight may be the result of Iraq's fears.

Iraq had warned that it won't forgive Kuwait for allowing the United States and Britain to
use its military bases to mount last week's airstrikes against the country.

Meanwhile, some 120 UN humanitarian workers resumed their normal duties Wednesday after
returning from Jordan.

Their first task will be to judge the impact of the bombing campaign on the UN-approved
oil-for-food program and other international efforts to help the 22 million Iraqis, said UN
officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Benon Sevan, head of the UN humanitarian program at UN headquarters in New York, ordered a
survey taking no more than a week to determine what repairs are needed, the officials said.





[A][IRAQ BUTLER][FED]

Butler urges new inspections

United Nations weapons inspection team leader, Richard Butler says he is hopeful the
international community will find a new means of monitoring Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction.

Mr Butler said his UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) had told the UN Security Council the
truth about Iraq's weapons, a truth some council members found unpalatable.

Iraq had adopted a strong stance in the past few days after the bombing by the British and
United States military, saying it would not permit further UNSCOM inspections, he said.

"But it is not theirs alone to say," Mr Butler told ABC TV's 7.30 Report from New York last
night.

"There's been an intense discussion initiated in the Security Council... no-one is saying
that we should give up on running to ground Iraq'sweapons of mass destruction capability.

"What is being discussed is how to do it better in the future, including through UNSCOM."

For that to happen, he said, there had to be cooperation from Iraq.

Mr Butler said his commission was preparing proposals for Security Council consideration.

"I do think the negotiation that is now underway among senior members of the council, and
involving presidents and prime ministers of interested countries, is a constructive one," he
said.

"And I think we will get to a new way of doing this work... through my organisation, which
I think could have a better chance of succeeding in the future."

Mr Butler said it would not be possible to continue inspections without a human presence in
Iraq.

He said there was no doubt Iraq had significant weapons of mass destruction and the
commission had captured a lot of them, and destroyed the country's capacity for making
weapons.





[T][CRICKET AUST][CRIK]

Nicholson replaces injured Gillespie

Playing Test cricket for Australia was the last thing on Matthew Nicholson's mind when he
boarded a flight for Sydney.

The Western Australian speedster had settled in his seat and was only minutes from flying
to Sydney to spend Christmas with his parents in his native New South Wales when he discovered
he had been called up to replace Jason Gillespie in the Australian side for the Boxing Day
test.

Gillespie failed a fitness test yesterday, troubled by soreness behind a knee, paving the
way for Nicholson to win a baggy green cap after just six Sheffield Shield matches.

An Ansett employee approached Nicholson on the plane and explained he had received a call
from the WACA asking him to retrieve the pace bowler from the plane.

When his request for Ansett to delay departure for five minutes while the matter was sorted
out was denied, Nicholson phoned the WACA on another passenger's mobile phone and was given
the news every cricketer dreams to hear.

It is just another amazing chapter in the most incredible of seasons for the unassuming
Nicholson, the fastest bowler in WA and also the unluckiest until this season.

Nicholson didn't play a single first-class game last year due to chronic fatigue syndrome,
after debuting with three games during the 1996-97 season.

He wasn't even in WA's Shield side for the first game this season, but the unavailability
of Brendon Julian, Mark Atkinson and Jo Angel for WA's four-day match against England gave
Nicholson his chance.

The 24-year-old grabbed it with both hands, terrorising the English batsman in returning
his best ever figures at any level of cricket of 7-77 and in doing so cemented his spot in the
WA side.

Nicholson also delivered one of the first psychological blows of the tour, striking Mark
Butcher in the head as he attempted to avoid a particularly sharp bouncer.

He has 25 wickets at 22.28 in five games this season for a career total of 29 wickets in
eight matches.





[A][TAX][FED]

Howard says no to food tax exemption

Prime Minister John Howard has dismissed growing demands for food to be exempted from the
GST, but said it was too early to talk of a new election if the government's hardline stance
blocked the tax in the senate.

The rejection came as business was also put on notice by the chairman of a review of
business taxation that it would still have to pay its fair share following an expected
overhaul of business taxation.

The Australian Democrats and others opposed to a GST on food have seized on a Melbourne
Institute finding that 66 per cent of Australians want food to be exempted from the GST.

But Mr Howard said the survey was meaningless, because all Australians had already been
polled on the GST.

"We had a nationwide survey on October 3 and the Australian public voted for our plan," Mr
Howard told ABC radio.

He said he remained reasonably confident about getting the GST through the senate but
denied he was already considering an early election if the tax was rejected.

"Look, I am not talking about further elections," he said.

"I am talking about getting this platform through.

"We have just had an election. Let's not start talking about fresh ones."

But Democrats leader Meg Lees said Mr Howard had difficulty counting, because the coalition
had attracted less than 40 per cent of the primary vote, and less than half of the two-party
vote.





[A][MAXWELL][FED]

Judge urged to stand down from bench

Embattled judge Vince Bruce was urged to consider standing down after his superiors
overturned a murder conviction he handed down following a bout of mental illness.

The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the conviction against Brian William
Maxwell, 48, for murdering his estranged wife, Marilyn Maxwell, 37, outside a Sydney childcare
centre in 1992 and ordered a new trial.

The appeal court said there was a miscarriage of justice in the case "on account of the
appearance of bias" on the part of the Supreme Court judge.

Justice Bruce escaped being sacked for chronic procrastination in June after telling state
parliament's upper house he had been unable to perform his judicial duties because of a
temporary but debilitating bout of depression.

The Maxwell trial was one of a number of cases that highlighted Justice Bruce's problems.
The judge heard the evidence against Maxwell then waited 10 months before handing down a
guilty verdict.

Appealing against the decision, Maxwell's lawyers submitted that Justice Bruce was biased
against their client.

Yesterday, the appeal judges, Chief Justice James Spigelman and Justices Harold Sperling
and Peter Hidden, noted that a key part of Maxwell's defence was the claim that he was
suffering from depression, the same condition that had affected Justice Bruce.

"The propositions are sufficiently closely related for a fair-minded independent observer
to form an opinion that a view on the former would constitute prejudgment on the latter," they
said.

The judges also expressed reservations about the long delays in Justice Bruce's handling of
the case and criticised him for failing to properly consider evidence from expert witnesses
and Maxwell's previous good character.

Opposition justice spokesman John Hannaford said the decision raised serious questions
about his future on the bench.





[A][AWARDS TRAINING][FED]

AIRC frowns on blood donation leave

Employees will not be allowed time off to give blood or for some types of study, following
a test case in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

The AIRC yesterday made the ruling in a key case involving three Victorian awards.

Under the decision, leave for union training was also ruled out, but leave to attend
industrial proceedings was allowed.

In a majority ruling, four of five commissioners ruled against the ACTU's submission that
trade union training was "cultural" leave.

The decision means these forms of leave can not be classed within the "20 allowable
matters" under the Workplace Relations Act and must be removed through the award
simplification process.

Employers welcomed the decision, saying it removed a burden on firms.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive director Reg Hamilton said the
decision would change the face of some leave clauses in awards.

"It's quite a welcome decision. It means that the award training and training leave clauses
as we know them will be removed from awards," he told AAP.

ACTU officials, who have begun the Christmas break, could not be reached for comment.

The commissioners in the majority decision - President Geoffrey Giudice, Senior Deputy
President Jan Marsh and Commissioners Leonard Hingley and Annette Larkin, emphasised their
decision was relevant only to the award clauses looked at in the test case.

Deputy President Jennifer Acton, in her minority decision, argued that while union leave
was not allowable, study leave, trade union training leave and blood donor leave were
allowable under the act.





[X][PROSTATE][FED]

Hi-tech hope for prostate patients

Prostate cancer could be treated without the side-effects of surgery and radiotherapy in a
new anti-cancer treatment using gene technology being developed by a team of Australian
researchers.

Under the revolutionary treatment, genes will be delivered direct into prostate cancer
cells to stimulate the production of an enzyme, which in turn activates anti-cancer drugs.

Researchers say the treatment, which is expected to go to human clinical trials in two
years' time, should be more effective than current approaches because it will specifically
target the cancer cells.

The federal government yesterday announced a $900,000 grant for the researchers - from
leading pharmaceutical company F H Faulding & Co Ltd and the CSIRO Molecular Science and
Oncology Research Centre - for their preclinical research project.

Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said prostate cancer was the second largest cause of
cancer death among Australian men, claiming 2,500 lives annually.

"This prostate cancer research offers real hope for Australian men, particularly those who
develop a form of the disease which cannot be treated at present," Dr Wooldridge said.

It is hoped the new product will treat both androgen-dependent and independent prostate
cancer, as currently there is no treatment other than palliative care for the
androgen-independent disease.

Faulding chief executive officer Ed Tweddell said the gene treatment was a novel approach
which might be able to be used in the fight against other forms of cancer.

The treatment could avoid the need for surgery, radiotherapy and the use of hormone drugs,
which have unpleasant side-effects such as impotence and incontinence in some cases.

"It's got a brilliantly simple rationale to what is a very complicated disease ... there's
a real attractiveness about the specificity of the treatment and the basic simplicity of the
philosophy," Dr Tweddell said.





[F][OPTUS]

C&W Optus strikes deal with Foxtel

Cable & Wireless Optus has emerged as the sole carrier of pay TV via satellite, striking a
deal with Australia's largest pay TV company Foxtel.

Foxtel, a joint venture between Telstra Corp, Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting
Ltd and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, had been considering operating on C&W Optus's rival
carrier, the PanAmSat satellite launched in November.

But that decision would have meant duplicated satellite dishes outside Australian homes if
a satellite subscriber wanted to receive both Foxtel and C&W Optus's pay TV brand Optus
Vision.

Yesterday's deal also involved Australia's other main pay TV satellite player Austar, which
had formed a joint venture with C&W Optus in May.

Austar, which services its own subscribers in regional Australia via the C&W Optus B3
Hotbird satellite, provides access infrastructure and a subscriber management system in the
joint venture.

Foxtel uses the C&W Optus satellite, along with Austar's access system under the joint
venture, to broaden its footprint.

It is already boasts 360,000 cable subscribers versus Optus's 200,000 or so subscribers.

"This agreement will enable Foxtel to provide an expanded satellite service similar to its
cable line-up from early next year," said Foxtel's chief executive Tom Mockridge.

He added the new platform would mean Foxtel could provide additional channels to its
existing 40,000 satellite customers it attained when pay TV company Australis collapsed in
May.

Then, Foxtel had struck a temporary lease arrangement to use C&W Optus's satellite.

Mr Mockridge said the new channels would be available early next year and Foxtel would then
start to install new satellite customers in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Mr Mockridge said a date for the expanded service would be announced earlier in the new
year.





[F][YEARENDER INTERNET]

Aussie 'net market set for revolution

The profits are yet to flow, but Internet stocks have begun to create a flurry of interest
with Australian investors excited by phenomenal growth.

New players, more listings and an expected increase in mergers and acquisitions are likely
to see 1999 become the formative year for one of Australia's fastest growing industries.

Enticed by the success of access provider OzEmail and more recently Internet content
provider LibertyOne, investor hunger for Internet stocks is accelerating.

But a sense of caution still remains, with less awareness and understanding of Internet
stocks than more traditional investments and most broking houses yet to allocate analysts to
cover the sector.

Even so, if the recent listing of LibertyOne is anything to go by investors are prepared to
pay and pay big bucks to get a bite. LibertyOne listed earlier this month at a 75 per cent
premium to its offer price. The shares were trading at $2.99 yesterday, up 11 cents.

OzEmail also has had a stunning ride on the stock market, trading around $3.66 yesterday
from around $1.40 in October.

Few knew much about the Internet in 1995 when the fledgling Internet service provider (ISP)
driven by the dynamic Sean Howard opened its doors.

Just four years later and with a staff of 700, the company so impressed the world's fastest
growing Internet company, MCI WorldCom, that the US-based group made a $520 million bid for it
this month.

It won't be the end of interest in Internet companies.

Analysts are expecting an increase of listings on the Australian Stock exchange by both
domestic and international companies with an Internet connection.





[I][ISRAEL][MID]

13 Israelis hurt in rocket barrage

Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired a hail of rockets at northern Israel today, causing heavy
property damage and injuring at least 13 people.

Although the cross-border attack with Katyusha rockets was the heaviest in nearly three
years, most people in Israel's north had spent the night in shelters, accounting for the
relatively light casualty toll.

In the border town of Kiryat Shemona - so often hit by rocket attacks that some Israelis
call it "Kiryat Katyusha" - a rocket smashed into a bank, wrecking its cash machines. Broken
glass littered the streets. A tree was uprooted by a direct hit, and the electricity was out
in some areas.

As of mid-morning, several hours after the attack, tens of thousands of people in northern
Israel were being told to stay in shelters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a special meeting of his security Cabinet to
discuss the attack, for which Hizbollah guerrillas claimed responsibility. Israel's army said
its forces were returning artillery fire and was prepared to launch air strikes.

Northern Israel had been braced for a retaliatory attack after Israeli air strike yesterday
killed a woman and her six children in south Lebanon. That was the highest civilian death toll
this year in the war between Israel and Lebanese guerrillas.

More than a dozen rockets were fired in today's attack, falling with tremendous booms that
could be heard for kilometres. At least six injuries - five slight, one more serious - were
reported in and around Kiryat Shemona.

"What is here is tremendous damage - to property," Mayor Chaim Barbivai told army radio.
"People were in shelters... We were ready for this situation."

"My entire house was destroyed, covered in glass," a woman whose house was hit told army
radio. "I lay down on top of my son - I threw him down on the floor so he wouldn't be hurt."

In its claim of responsibility, Hizbollah threatened more attacks.

"Since force cannot be confronted except with force and murderers must pay the price of
their crimes ... the Islamic resistance rocketed Zionist settlements," said the statement. "We
renew our pledge to protect our people and their villages, no matter how great the struggle."



[X][MED SURGERY][US]

Doctors studying magnetic surgery

Surgeons may some day treat brain tumours and heart ailments with the click of a computer
mouse.

Washington University neurosurgeon Ralph Dacey used a pioneering magnetic surgery technique
to direct a biopsy needle to the brain tumour of a 31-year-old man. The December 17 biopsy at
Barnes-Jewish Hospital indicated the man needed chemotherapy.

The Magnetic Surgery System will be tested on four other brain tumour patients over the
next several months, Dacey said today. Several years of trials will likely be necessary before
the procedure is commonly used.

Dacey and officials with Stereotaxis Inc, which helped develop the system, believe it will
help in getting surgical tools - and perhaps medicine - to hard-to-reach areas of the brain
and the heart. They say it may eventually help treat aneurysms, coronary artery disease and
other ailments.

For a traditional biopsy, a surgeon would manually push a rigid needle via a long, narrow
catheter through the brain to the tumour.

Magnetic surgery allows the catheter to follow curved routes, bypassing sensitive areas of
the brain, or travel along blood vessels to or near the heart, Dacey said.

Surgeons around the country said the procedure appears promising.

"I just think this is a better way," said Warren Selman, professor of neurosurgery at Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

"I think part of our problem is getting around structures that are in the way," Selman
said. "The ability to steer around an object instead of merely go through it is an exciting
development."

In magnetic surgery involving a brain tumour, a small hole is drilled in the patient's
skull. The surgeon places a plastic bolt in the hole to provide entry for a guidewire with a
magnet that travels through a catheter about the width of a strand of spaghetti.

The surgeon views magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the patient's brain on a computer
screen. The three-dimensional view allows him to plan the best route to the tumour.





[T][TENNIS DRUGS][TEN]

Experts challenge Korda steroid claim

Drug experts here have challenged claims by Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda that
he was unaware that he had used a banned steroid.

But organisers of next month's Open at Melbourne Park confirmed there would be no question
of Korda not defending his title.

Tests administered during the last Wimbledon championships revealed the presence of the
steroid nandrolone, but Korda said he had no idea how the substance had been administered to
him.

The Czech World No.12 was forced by the International Tennis Federation to forfeit the 199
ranking points and $154,000 he won as a Wimbledon quarter-finalist.

But the ITF declined to suspend the 30-year-old because it was satisfied he was unaware
he'd taken the banned substance.

Australian Sports Drug Agency spokeswoman Vicki Kapernick said yesterday nandrolone was an
artificial version of the hormone testosterone which could only be injected.

"It has a performance-enhancing effect and helps in muscle building and recovery from
injury while training," she said.

Sports medicine practitioner Dr Peter Larkins said it was hard to believe Korda had not
known what substance he had been injected with.

"How often have we heard the story, I didn't know where it came from?," Dr Larkins said.

"Elite athletes have a lot of people wanting to help them and there is a lot of shonky
advice around. Maybe he could have been that naive.





[T][LEAGUE ARL][RL]

NSW wins latest struggle for ARL

New South Wales was on its way to regaining control of the Australian Rugby League in a
move that's set to have a major impact on the makeup of the National Rugby League competition.

Justice John Hamilton handed down a judgment in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday deeming the
Queensland Rugby League's (QRL) attempt to appoint Kevin Brasch chairman of the ARL as invalid
and defective.

The ruling leaves the way clear for newly-appointed New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL)
chairman Colin Love to be elevated to the position of ARL chairman at the next board meeting,
which is likely to be held after Christmas.

It should also give the NSWRL a solid platform from which to begin its push for the NRL to
retain 16 teams rather than the 14 earmarked for competition in 2000.

The ARL appoints three members to the six-member NRL board and three to the NRL partnership
committee.

If Love gains control of the ARL board the NSWRL-based representatives will have the
numbers to appoint three of its members to the NRL board.

The NSWRL has made no secret it's unconvinced a 14 team NRL competition is the way to go.
If it's successful in convincing the NRL board of the same it would mean only one more merger
or the demise of another club would decide the final makeup of the competition.

Outside the court Love confirmed he would stand as ARL chairman at the next board meeting.

ARL chief executive David Barnhill said last night ARL board members would decide later
today on a time to hold the meeting.

The past week's dispute centres on former ARL chairman John McDonald's controversial ruling
at last week's annual general meeting that the outgoing board was entitled to vote for his
successor.

NSWRL delegates walked out in protest at McDonald's decision and then Queensland
representatives voted Brisbane-based Brasch to the job, claiming they had a legal quorum of
five.

But Hamilton declared that meeting invalid and against the constitution of the ARL.





[T][YACHT SYDHOB][YACHT]

Sayonara eyes Sydney to Hobart record

Sayonara's owner Larry Ellison says his world champion maxi yacht could slash up to half a
day off the Sydney to Hobart race record given favourably conditions.

The virtually unbeatable 80-foot American boat took line honours in 1995, but its time of
three days 53 minutes 35 seconds was 46 minutes outside the 1975 record set by Kialoa.

Morning Glory lowered the record in 1996 to two days, 14 hours, seven minutes and 10
seconds, but Ellison said Sayonara had consistently beaten the German yacht over the years.

"We've beaten Morning Glory every time we've raced against her and we've raced against her
a lot, and we're a lot faster than she is, especially into the wind," Ellison said yesterday.

"It will be decided after Maria Island. If we're becalmed like we were in 1995 and just sit
there bobbing around, I don't care how fast the sail boat is into the wind, when there's no
wind you don't go any place.

"If there really are thunder showers and there is a big low coming through and we get lucky
and get a quartering wind through Bass Strait, if things go right, we could knock half a day
off the record, 12 hours off, but then again that's all in the hand of the wind gods."

Ellison said Sayonara was the fastest up wind yacht ever built and its only loss was due to
human error rather than the boat.

He said Sayonara was faster than in 1995 following some recent modifications.

"We put more weight in her and we've lengthened her, so there's a little bit more water
line than we had before and I think we know her better.

"She will be as stiff as we can make her for this race and as long as we can make her for
this race."





[I][TRINIDAD FROZEN][CENTAM]

Fugitive frozen in plane wheel well

The frozen body of a man wanted on kidnapping charges was found today in the wheel well of
a jetliner in Trinidad, police said.

Former Antiguan police officer Trevor Jacobs, 30, had apparently snuck into a space in the
landing gear apparatus of the MD-80, which had stopped in Antigua en route from Toronto, said
Peter Hill, customer service manager for Trinidad-based airline BWIA.

Documents he carried identified him as Jacobs, and police later confirmed his identity with
fingerprints and a photograph sent from Antigua, where he is wanted on several criminal
charges, including the kidnapping of 60-year-old Donna Pietracupa on October 7.

Pietracupa was later released unharmed.

Airline workers found the body after the airplane had been towed into a hangar for
maintenance at Trinidad's Piarco International Airport.

"We found the body during an inspection of the landing gear," Hill said. "This raises
serious questions about the security at whatever airport he got into the plane."

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 0001

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