Highlights of the AAP National wire at 15:30 = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-1999
Highlights of the AAP National wire at 15:30 = 2

HOBART - A woman was on the verge of tears today as she recounted in court how
international cricket umpire Steve Randell fondled her breast in a friend's bedroom when she
was 11-years-old. (RANDELL DAYLEAD)



HOBART - Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out blocking the import of raw salmon.
(SALMON HOWARD, see also SALMON PROTEST, SALMON N/L to come)



HOBART - Indonesia was responding positively to Australian pressure for a free and fair
ballot on East Timorese independence, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. (TIMOR
DOWNER)



BANGKOK - A senior Thai police general leading the investigation into the murder of
Australian auditor Michael Wansley said the alleged killer's arrest could be within the week.
(THAI WANSLEY N/L to come)



CANBERRA - Health ministers have had to run the gauntlet of a protests as they arrived for
a meeting here today to discuss the labelling of genetically modified (GM) food. (FOOD
PROTEST, FOOD N/L to come)



CANBERRA - Visitor numbers to Australia declined slightly in June, new official figures
show. (ARRIVALS, N/L to come)



CANBERRA - Aboriginal activist Mick Dodson was today appointed by the federal government to
develop a code of conduct to ensure Olympics tourists are culturally sensitive when they visit
indigenous communities. (TOURISM CONDUCT to come)



SYDNEY - A $10 smoke alarm and a Vietnam veteran saved the lives of 50 people after fire
broke out today in the basement of a three-storey Sydney apartment building. (FIRE LEAD, N/L
to come)



SYDNEY - An unfair contract case sought against New South Wales state Labor MP Gabrielle
Harrison by a former staffer was today formally sent to conciliation in the NSW Industrial
Relations Commission. (SUPPRESSION)



SYDNEY - A man with a knife has barricaded himself alone inside a house at Narooma on the
New South Wales far south coast. (SIEGE)

MELBOURNE - Victoria Police have cleared staff in Premier Jeff Kennett's office of the
alleged misuse of their government credit cards, the state opposition said today. (CARDS)



MELBOURNE - Union pickets designed to reduce petrol and oil movements to a trickle have
been set up around Shell's Geelong facilities in support of a five per cent wage claim.
(SHELL)

MELBOURNE - Victorians should be totally switched on as they enter the Year 2000, with
little risk of Y2K bug power failure, the Office of the Regulator-General has found. (Y2K
POWER)



MELBOURNE - A motive for the chilling car bombing of a Melbourne man remains a mystery to
investigators a year after the fatal blast. (EXPLOSION)



MELBOURNE - Four men will reappear in court next month charged with possessing and selling
a sexually explicit video of entertainer Debra (Debra) Byrne and a man. (LAND)



MELBOURNE - The Victorian government is to appoint a three-person committee to examine the
impact and the importance of sport beyond the year 2000. (MILLENIUM SPORT)



BRISBANE - Plans for a $28 million sawmill in north Queensland may be in jeopardy if the
state government does not extend its end of the month deadline for investment, environmental
and business groups said today. (FORESTS QLD)



BRISBANE - The Criminal Justice Commission was applying double standards in its approach to
the net bet affair involving the Labor government, Opposition Leader Rob Borbidge said today.
(NET CASINO BORBIDGE DAYLEAD, see also NET CASINO WATSON)



BRISBANE - Four sugar mills in north Queensland's Mackay district were idle today as 700
workers met to discuss staff selection procedures. (MILLS)



BRISBANE - A man who put a race caller in a headlock during a race at an Albion Park trots
meeting has been banned from the Brisbane track. (TROTS CALLER)



BRISBANE - The Queensland government today announced a $20 million upgrade of the state's
firefighting equipment in next month's state budget. (BUDGETQLD FIRE)



PERTH - The director of Western Australia's Cancer Foundation Clive Deverall revealed today
he has a rare form of cancer similar to that which claimed the life of British actor Paul
Eddington. (DEVERALL)



PERTH - Police are concerned for the welfare of a 41-year-old New South Wales Man, missing
in from a campsite in the far north Kimberley region since last week. (CAMPER)



ADELAIDE - Smokers were more likely to get gum disease, the Australian Dental Association
(ADA) warned today. (SMOKERS)



ADELAIDE - A 47-year-old man died from a karate kick to the chest delivered with such force
it fractured five ribs, his breastbone and bruised his heart, the Supreme Court in Adelaide
was told today. (TZEEGANKOFF)



ADELAIDE - A three-year-old South Australian boy has died from meningococcal infection -
the first death from the disease in the state this year. (MENINGOCOCCAL)



ADELAIDE - People who doubt religious miracles or the supernatural should take the same
sceptical approach to belief in science or market forces, bioethicist and Catholic priest John
Fleming said today. (SCEPTICS, to come)



ADELAIDE - A Labor Party branch stacking row in South Australian will go to trial in the
state's Supreme Court later this month. (ALP SA)



AAP mo

KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL 2 SYDNEY

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