AAP Internet Bulletin 0900 Wednesday, Dec 9, 1998

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-1998
AAP Internet Bulletin 0900 Wednesday, Dec 9, 1998



[I][Clinton-Impeachment]

Defence: Clinton conduct 'sinful, not impeachable'

WASHINGTON Struggling to stave off impeachment, President Clinton's defenders pleaded his
case Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee. "As surely as we know that what he did was
sinful, we also know it is not impeachable," argued one White House lawyer.

Ready by all accounts to muscle through at least one article of
impeachment by week's end, Republicans bore in with questions
relating to allegations that Clinton lied under oath about Monica
Lewinsky.

Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., Noted that Clinton has testified he
never touched Monica Lewinsky in a sexual way while she has
testified to the contrary.

"Do you have any opinion ... As to who's lying, because it seems
inevitable one of those parties has lied?" Coble asked Gregory B.
Craig, special counsel to the president.

"The president ... Has testified about that kind of activity,
and I accept his word about that," Craig said. He added that "It's
an oath-on-oath, he says-she says situation."

Underscoring an argument made by a panel of witnesses assembled
by the White House, Craig said, "This is hardly ... The kind of
issue that the House of Representatives should send to the Senate
for a trial."

Under the direction of the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry
Hyde, the panel's staff has begun drafting articles of impeachment
accusing Clinton of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of
power.

Under the current timetable, the White House will have two days for its defence
presentation. Committee lawyers will make their cases on Thursday, after which the panel will
begin debate.

No vote is expected before Friday or Saturday.





[T][CRICKET BRIBES][CRIK]

ACB facing cover-up allegations over Waugh and Warne

SYDNEY - The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) was today facing accusations of a major cover-up
over the revelation that test stars Mark Waugh and Shane Warne had been fined for accepting
money from an illegal Indian bookmaker.

The pair were fined a total of $18,000 in February 1995 for selling weather and pitch
reports to an Indian bookmaker during the previous years short visit to Sri Lanka which
preceded the three-test tour of Pakistan.

It was on that tour that Waugh, Warne and Tim May claimed they were approached by Pakistani
cricketer Salim Malik and offered money to play poorly.

However the scandal was kept secret and only confirmed by the ACB last night when the story
was leaked to the media.

ACB chief executive Malcolm Speed today said he had known about the incident for some
months, but did not know why it had not been made public by ACB authorities at the time.

"Thats something Ive reflected on - I wasnt here at the time, it was a decision made by
management at the time and Im sure they had good reason for it," Speed told ABC radio.

However Matthew Engel, editor of the influential cricket bible Wisden, said the cover-up
was shocking.

"The shocking thing about this is not what Waugh and Warne actually may have done, which in
itself is arguable in its seriousness, but the fact that the Australian Cricket Board thought
it could cover it up," Engel told ABC radio.

"Frankly its the sort of behaviour one expects of English cricket boards rather than
Australian ones.

"This is one of the biggest scandals that cricket has ever faced and the attitude of the
entire game and everyone in it is that it really doesnt matter much, thats been the attitude
for four years.

The reputation of all Australian cricketers would be damaged by the scandal, said Ali
Sibtain Fazli, the solicitor in charge of the Pakistan Cricket Boards bribery investigation.

Waugh gave key evidence to the inquiry in Pakistan two months ago to support Australian
allegations that former Pakistani captain Salim Malik had tried to bribe him, Shane Warne and
Tim May during Australias 1994 tour of Pakistan.

Fazli said Waugh and Australian captain Mark Taylor should have mentioned the incident when
they gave evidence to the match-fixing inquiry in Lahore during this years Pakistan tour.

"Mark Waugh and Taylor shouldve made some mention of it because they were made to give
statements on oath. There should have been disclosures then," he told ABC radio.

Fazli said a lot of credibility had been given to the evidence of Mark Waugh, who was one
of only two people to give direct evidence against Malik.

"Now with Mark Waughs own character - theres a big dent which has been put in his own
credibility now."





[A][THELMA][NT]

Cyclone Thelma slowly moves away from Darwin to WA

DARWIN - A cyclone more powerful than Cyclone Tracy, which destroyed Darwin in 1974, was
slowly heading towards the Western Australian coast this morning after narrowly avoiding
Darwin.

Cyclone Thelma was last night designated a category five cyclone after winds near its
centre were measured at more than 280kph and then increased in intensity to 320kph.

Cyclone Tracy - which destroyed 95 per cent of the buildings in Darwin and left 66 people
dead when it hit on Christmas eve 1974 - was only designated a category four cyclone because
Bureau of Meteorology instruments broke soon after measuring the winds near its centre at
217kph.

Late last night central standard time, the bureau said Cyclone Thelma had moved 20km
away from Darwin in three hours and was about 195km north-west of it.

The cyclone was moving south-west towards the West Australian coast at 9kph, the bureau
said.

In its wake it left a trail of destruction in the Tiwi islands - Bathurst and Melville -
which are about 100km north of Darwin but no injuries have yet been reported.

It also caused gales and havoc in Darwin with winds gusting up to 110kph knocking down
trees and powerlines and forcing the closure of schools, the university and elective surgery
at Royal Darwin Hospital.

The high winds in Darwin are expected to continue for the next 18 hours, the bureau
predicted.

It also expected heavy rain and widespread flooding in the north-west of the Top End
extending to the north of the Kimberley late today.

The bureau said a cyclone warning (a likelihood of a cyclone within 24 hours) was current
for all coastal and island areas between Cape Don (150km north-east of Darwin) and Mitchell
Plateau in WA (600km south-west of Darwin).





[A][TELSTRA][FED]

Record complaints against Telstra service

CANBERRA - A damaging new report into slipping service standards by Telstra could harm
government attempts to sell off the rest of the government carrier.

The Telecommunications Performance Report 1997-98 found complaints against Telstra hit a
new high of almost 49,000 last year.

Telstra was also forced to pay out $3,681,050 to 52,847 customers for breaching its
customer service guarantee to meet minimum service levels to connect or repair services.

Just 65 per cent of faults were cleared within 24 hours, down from 79 per cent six years
earlier, and while there was some improvement in the latter half of the year, the time taken
to repair faults in the country is still twice that for metropolitan phone customers.

Opposition communications spokesman Steve Smith said the report was bad news for government
plans to sell off the rest of Telstra.

He pointed to the reports concern about the decline in service levels for country phone
users, who had to wait longer to have phones installed and repaired, with the average time to
clear a fault in the country put at 54.6 hours.

"The ministers stern words on service standards upon the release of the last set of bad
performance figures have clearly had no effect on Telstras management," he said in a
statement.

"Todays news bodes ill for services to Telstras customers, especially those in regional
and remote areas, if Telstra was to be fully privatised."

Two National Party backbenchers abstained from voting on legislation in the House allowing
the full privatisation of Telstra, because of concerns about its impact on country phone
users.

The legislation is now being investigated by a Senate committee, and is expected to go
before the Senate early next year.





[I][dollar][open]

Dollar opens sharply weaker

SYDNEY - The Australian dollar slumped
overnight in a busy session which saw selling across the
board.

All major quotes against the Australian dollar, with the
exception of the New Zealand dollar, reflected a sharp
weakening for the local unit.

Commodity price falls were the driving factor with gold
retracing some of the previous days gains and the Commodity
Research Bureaus index, a key barometer of the health of
commodities, down to a record low.

At 0700 AEDT, the Australian dollar was trading at
$US0.6153/57 from 0.6182/87 late yesterday.

The currency was buying 73.38/46 Japanese yen from 74.30/39
and 1.0253/62 German marks from 1.0380/91.

It was trading at 0.3713/18 British pounds from 0.3747/53
and 1.1945/65 New Zealand dollars from 1.1843/64.

The US dollar was trading at 119.23/28 Japanese yen from
120/20/25 locally and 1.6668/73 German marks from 1.6790/95.





[A][COCAINE][NSW]

Police smash international cocaine ring

SYDNEY - Undercover officers have smashed a major international drug ring, seizing a record
$50 million haul of high-grade cocaine.

The 225 one-kilogram blocks of the drug were recovered by Australian Federal Police and
customs officers when they raided an 18m yacht at Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid north coast
around lunchtime yesterday.

The cocaine, the largest quantity ever seized in Australia, was concealed in the lining of
a fibreglass runabout attached to the vessel, which had recently arrived from Venezuela.

Four people - three men and a woman - were arrested during the raid and this afternoon
appeared in Coffs Harbour Local Court, facing a series of charges.

A nine-month undercover investigation involving some 100 officers had also seized almost
$600,000 linked to the drugs, AFP General manager Bob McDonald told reporters in Sydney.

A further $6 million in laundered funds - thought to be proceeds from a previous
importation - had been traced to Hong Kong, Canada, the United States and Spain.

"Its a massive international drug syndicate behind this operation," Mr McDonald said.

"And while we believe weve dismantled it, there are several principals that we would still
like to bring to justice.

"We will not be leaving a stone unturned in our pursuit of them."

Operation Gentle began following inquiries into a suspicious vessel that arrived in
Forster, also on the states mid north coast, in February.

It was learned people connected to the boat had allegedly smuggled massive amounts of cash
out of Australia through Adelaide.

Further investigations revealed a plot to import cocaine on board the now-seized ketch,
Maeva Chiqui, probably with the intention of distributing the bulk of it in Sydney.

AFP officials believe the craft left Venezuela some weeks ago, passed through the Panama
Canal and stopped off at the French-controlled Marquesas and Tonga.

An undercover federal agent also infiltrated the Spanish-based couriers during a brief
stopover on Lord Howe Island.





[A][INSURANCE][FED]

Harradine says it's difficult to support rebate

CANBERRA - Key Independent Senator Brian Harradine today gave his strongest indication yet
that he would not support the federal governments private health insurance rebate.

Senator Harradine said he was still studying the governments proposal for a 30 per cent
private health insurance rebate but had found serious flaws in the package.

"Id find it most difficult to vote for the package as it stands," he told the Seven
Network.

"Im still studying the matter, but it has very serious flaws."

Senator Harradines comments come after Queensland Independent Mal Colston signalled he
would not vote against the rebate, increasing the chance of the measure being approved.

Senator Colston told Parliament he had reservations about some aspects of the non-means
tested rebate but the scheme had been put to voters during the October 3 election campaign.

Even with Senator Colstons support the government needs one more vote to have the
legislation passed.

With Labor, the Australian Democrats and Greens Senators continuing to oppose the rebate,
Senator Harradines vote will be crucial.

Senator Harradine said he was in favour of people who are paying into private health funds
receiving a rebate, but he did not believe the governments proposal would be effective.

"Those people are very concerned about two major issues. One is the cost of premiums which
are exorbitant," he said.

"The second is when they get home they feel theyve paid their way and you get all these
extra bills and thats the fault of the medical profession."

The governments proposal did not address those issues, he said.

"Its not going to solve those problems and its going to have very little effect on the
waiting lists of public hospitals and thats of great concern to a lot of elderly, those
people who really need the attention but cant get up the waiting list."

Senator Harradine said the rebate might not encourage more people to take out private
health insurance.

"Not necessarily, particularly while the gap is so large, while they have to fork out extra
payments for doctors who charge like wounded bulls in some private hospitals," he said.





[I][Chechnya]

Heads of four kidnapped foreigners found

GROZNY, Russia The severed heads of four kidnapped foreigners, including one New Zealander
- were discovered neatly lined up beside a highway in Chechnya on Tuesday after a rescue
attempt apparently went wrong.

The whereabouts of the bodies of the three Britons and the New Zealander, engineers who had
been installing telephone lines across Chechnya, was unclear.

While kidnappings, usually for ransom, have become widespread in
Chechnya since the end of its 1994-96 war for independence from
Russia, hostages are rarely killed particularly foreigners. The
gruesome slaying stunned even Chechen officials, and is likely to
aggravate Chechnya's attempts to gain international recognition of
its independence.

The deaths were apparently the result of a rescue attempt by
Chechen authorities Monday night that went "tragically wrong,"
according to Ray Verth, chief executive of Granger Telecom, the
British company the hostages had worked for.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov said Chechen officials had
caught one of the kidnappers Monday and he told police where the
hostages were being held. But that information reached the other
captors, who decided to kill their captives, the ITAR-Tass news
agency quoted Maskhadov as saying.

An Associated Press reporter saw the decapitated heads Tuesday near the village of
Assinovskaya, about 40 kilometres west of Grozny, the Chechen capital. He did not see any sign
of the bodies.

The heads were lined up on a piece of cloth along a main highway
across southern Russia, in plain view of passersby. Two of the
heads had wounds to the temple, possibly gunshot wounds.

The victims Britons Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey, and Rudolf
Petschi, and New Zealand's Stanley Shaw were identified by Umar
Makhauri, who had been their bodyguard when they were abducted Oct.
3 by unidentified gunmen in Grozny. He said the bodies had not been
found.

Maskhadov, however, said in Grozny that the bodies of four men
had been recovered.





[A][JUDGMENTS][NSW]

Supreme Court judgments to go online

SYDNEY - New South Wales Supreme Court judgments would be available on the Internet from
January 1, Chief Justice James Spigelman said today.

Justice Spigelman said in a statement the new system would bring NSW into line with the
High Court whose website was being used as a model for making the state judgments available.

He said the new judgments database would also allow distribution of the Supreme Court
judgments by e-mail.

It would have a number of advantages, including cost-saving over the current paper-based
distribution system, and cheaper access for libraries, law students and the public.





[A][ECONOMY][FED]

Retailers set for bumper Christmas: surveys

CANBERRA - Australian shoppers are expected to spend up big this Christmas despite the
Asian crisis, new surveys today suggested.

Prime Minister John Howard boasted the economy was its strongest in 30 years today amid
signs of healthy business conditions and a strong retail sector.

One survey found business conditions improving for the fourth consecutive month in
November, while another said boosted new orders, output, exports and profits in the December
quarter would be sustained into 1999.

The survey by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and Westpac said
business was less pessimistic about its outlook after a marked recovery in demand and
production.

Westpacs general manager of economics, Bill Evans, said the economy was in surprisingly
good shape this festive season.

"Everything is in place for sales over the Christmas period to be extremely strong," he
told reporters.

"Weve got strong consumer sentiment, weve got strong real wages, weve got a big increase
in incomes, were going to see a strong Christmas and very strong consumer spending."

However, he conceded sales were unlikely to reach record levels.

Meanwhile, the National Australia Banks latest survey said both stocks and forward orders
increased in November - especially in retail, wholesaling and construction.

"Overall, the Nationals latest business survey suggest the strengthening trend in economic
activity evident in recent months has been maintained in November," NAB chief economist Alan
Oster said.

But NAB said the full impact of the deterioration in growth among Australias trading
partners was still to be felt, and that it still expected a slowdown in both output and income
growth during 1999.



[A][drownings]

Spate of drowning incidents claims five

Five drowning incidents have left five people dead and one recovering in hospital, according
to reports from NSW and Victoria.

In NSW, Two four-year-old girls drowned in a dam near the north coast town of Lismore about
6.20pm yesterday.

The sister of one of the girls found the pair floating in the dairy farms dam at Bentley
about an hour after they were noticed missing, a police spokesman said.

The girls relatives attempted resuscitation without success.

Their names have not been released.

About 10 minutes after the girls were found, police reported that a 20-year-old Victorian
man had drowned in the Macquarie River at Dubbos Sandy Beach, while swimming with friends.

Police said the Bayswater mans friends had tried to help when they saw him get into
trouble but he disappeared from sight.

A short time later State Emergency Service personnel, ambulance and police found his body
floating about 50 metres downstream from where he disappeared.

And at 7pm yesterday a 13-year-old boy was discovered floating face down in a backyard
swimming pool of a home in Kidman Way, about 80km south of Cobar in western NSW.

Police said the boy, who had a history of epilepsy, was seen sitting on the pool steps just
prior to his death. His name has not been released.

In Victoria, a four-year-old boy drowned in a backyard swimming pool but in a separate home
pool incident a seven-year-old boy was resuscitated and saved last night.

Ambulance duty manager Rob Ray said the four-year-old boy was found floating fully-clothed
at about 6.40pm in a pool in Cardinal Court, Narre Warren in Melbournes outer south-east.

He had not been seen for between 40 to 45 minutes before being found in the water.

Ambulance officers tried in vain to revive the boy, from Eldo St in south-east suburban
Keysborough.

Just after 7pm, during a party at a house in View Hill Rd, in east suburban Balwyn North,
an unconscious seven-year-old boy in his bathers was dragged from the bottom of the house
pool.

Fortunately among those present was a nursing sister trained in intensive and coronary
care, who successfully resuscitated the boy before ambulance arrived, Mr Ray said.

With water still in his lungs, he was admitted to Royal Childrens Hospital where he was
recovering well.

And in another incident, police divers will search Jindabyne Lake in the Snowy Mountains
for a 21-year-old fisherman missing since Sunday night.

Police said the man, from Jindabyne, was reported missing about 2am on Monday after failing
to return from a fishing trip.





[S][SOCCER VIDUKA][SOC]

Viduka - I'll be back at Celtic

GLASGOW - Celtic's runaway Australian striker Mark Viduka insists hell return to Parkhead
after a short break to recover from his psychological problems.

Viduka signed for $A8 million from Croatia Zagreb, fled Glasgow on the weekend claiming he
wasnt mentally fit to play soccer.

Celtic managing director Fergus McCann has flown to Croatia in an attempt to solve the
dispute with Zagreb over the details of Viduka's transfer, and also met the Australian
international.

Viduka says it was a very positive meeting.

He says McCann and the Celtic club have been very sympathetic and hes working with them to
get back to Glasgow as soon as possible after hes had a break.

McCann says Viduka will return to Melbourne for the short break.

Zagreb has indicated it will refer the case to a UEFA or FIFA tribunal if it does not
receive assurances about how and when Celtic intends to pay the full $A8 million figure
negotiated.





[A][POLLNSW][NSW]

Chikarovski baptism continues with snub and stumble

SYDNEY - Kerry Chikarovski today begins day three as New South Wales Opposition leader after
a snub and a stumble yesterday.

Mrs Chikarovski floundered when questioned by the media on whether she had the power to
sack state Governor Gordon Samuels and alienated the man she replaced, Peter Collins.

Mr Collins announced he would remain an MP, only to have Mrs Chikarovski refuse to consider
him for the shadow cabinet.

He made it clear he would not go quietly.

"One of the things in politics is theres no such thing as never and my political death has
been reported prematurely on many past occasions," Mr Collins said.

Mrs Chikarovski said her former boss needed to "take some time out".

She became flustered as she defended her intention to demand that Governor Gordon Samuels
live in the traditional residence, Government House, or stand down at the end of his term in
February 2000.

To the outrage of monarchists, Labor demanded Governor Samuels live at his suburban home
when he was appointed in 1996 and the site is now open to the public.

The governor is appointed for an informal term of four years, but is officially appointed
for a term at "Her Majestys pleasure".

But Mrs Chikarovski, noted for her media savvy, became increasingly flustered when it was
apparent she did not know his terms of employment and transport spokesman Michael Photios
began to prompt her responses.





[I][iraq][un]

UN intensifies hunt for Iraq's illegal arms

BAGHDAD, Iraq The United Nations launched an intensive search Tuesday for Iraq's illegal
weapons amid Iraqi charges that its arms inspectors are again trying to harass Baghdad.

"We are undertaking a very intensive schedule," Caroline Cross,
the inspectors' spokeswoman in Baghdad, told The Associated Press.
"We have several teams in town. We need to test Iraq's pledge to
comply."

Baghdad did not hide its anger as the weapons inspectors speeded
up their probe. State-run newspapers quoted Deputy Prime Minister
Tariq Aziz, currently on a visit to Moscow, as saying that there is
a limit to Iraqi compliance.

They quoted him as saying that Iraq has been cooperating with
the U.N. inspectors for more than seven years but is yet to see an
end to economic sanctions.

"This situation is no longer acceptable," Aziz was quoted as
saying.

The sanctions, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait,
cannot be lifted until the weapons inspectors certify that Iraq is
free of chemical, nuclear and biological weapons and long-range
missiles.

Late Monday, Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said a
team of 39 inspectors had arrived in Iraq, and branded them
"commandos" trying to create problems. But Ms. Cross, the
inspectors' spokeswoman, denied a new team had come.

"There is no reason for the Iraqis to worry if they are going to
comply," she said.

There are now about 140 weapons experts in Iraq in addition "to
several visiting teams," she said.



[I][Sinatra Files]

FBI's Sinatra Files: a mishmash of fact and rumour

WASHINGTON Francis Albert Sinatra special agent for the FBI?

It would have happened if Ol' Blue Eyes had his way, according
to a cache of confidential documents from Sinatra's FBI file, made
public Tuesday. Sinatra in 1950 volunteered to work undercover for
the feds an offer they could (and did) refuse.

That same year, according to a confidential federal informant,
Sinatra smuggled $1 million cash into Italy for mobster Charles
"Lucky" Luciano. Such tales are the stuff of The Sinatra Files, a
mishmash of facts, allegations and just plain rumours.

The papers 1,275 pages in all offered few nuggets of new
information. There were vague allegations of mob ties and communist
sympathies, but little detail or evidence of either.

There's no mention of Judith Exner, the Sinatra acquaintance who
allegedly had simultaneous affairs with President Kennedy and
Chicago mobster Sam Giancana. No bacchanalian tales of the Rat Pack
rampaging through Las Vegas. And only passing mentions of mob
bosses like Giancana and Carlo Gambino, with no smoking guns.

Rather than flashes of the infamous Sinatra temper, the
documents include a variety of threats against the singer
everything from extortion to death threats.

A Sept. 7, 1950, confidential memo showed Sinatra offering his
assistance to the FBI. Using an unidentified go-between, the
Hoboken, N.J., Native told FBI officials that he felt there was an
opportunity to "do some good for his country under the direction of
the FBI," the memo said.

The singer, the memo continued, was "willing to do anything even
if it affects his livelihood and costs him his job."

The Sinatra family had no comment on the release of the
documents, said spokeswoman Susan Reynolds.

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 0900

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