AAP Internet Bulletin 0900 Monday Dec 21, 1998

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-1998
AAP Internet Bulletin 0900 Monday Dec 21, 1998





[A][ACTU KELTY QLD][FED]

Labour boss calls for new blood in ACTU

The boss of Queensland's labour movement today backed calls for ACTU secretary Bill Kelty to
step aside and make way for a younger leader.

ACTU Queensland general secretary John Thompson said many shared the view that Mr Kelty
should stand down before his term expired in 2003.

Asked whether Mr Kelty had sufficient support to stay on, Mr Thompson told ABC Radio: "Some
people would say that, but others would say that we're looking not so much in the past but to
what the future holds.

"There are many people now indicating at many levels within the union movement that it's
time for a change, that there are people like (assistant ACTU secretary) Greg Combet who in my
view would be certainly ready to step into that job should Bill Kelty vacate it."

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard has led calls for Mr Kelty to end his
21-year rule, arguing that his influence has diminished under the coalition government while Mr
Combet has risen to national prominence with his handling of this year's waterfront dispute.

Mr Hubbard endorsed Mr Combet as Mr Kelty's successor.

Mr Thompson also recommended the state body revert to its former name, the Queensland Trades
and Labour Council.

"I guess that in many ways expresses the view that we have in terms of where the ACTU has
been going in the last couple of years," he said.

"The name ACTU for us has been more of a negative ... and from our point of view we want to
return to an identity of our own and the labour council gives us an opportunity not to have to
wear the baggage of other organisations."

Mr Thompson said he received almost unanimous support when he raised the name change last
week.

New South Wales Labor Council secretary Michael Costa insisted today speculation about Mr
Kelty's future was premature.

"Bill has earned the right to make that decision himself," Mr Costa told ABC Radio.

"I think at this stage people ought to focus on the real problems the union movement faces
and they are not solely about leadership, they are about issues to do with structural change,
management hostility and union performance."

Mr Costa said he had sometimes disagreed with Mr Kelty's policies but Mr Kelty had always
acted with a positive motivation towards the union movement.





[I][US CLINTON][US]

Ex-Presidents call for Clinton compromise

Former US Presidents Ford and Carter today proposed to end the impeachment proceedings
against President Clinton with a bipartisan censure resolution stating that he lied under
oath.

The linchpin would be language stating that Clinton accepted the findings in the resolution.
But his admission that he did not tell the truth could not be used against him in a future
trial.

"Somehow we must reach a conclusion that most Americans can embrace and that posterity will
approve," Ford and Carter wrote in an op-ed column published in The New York Times.

"Make no mistake, the judgment of history does matter. It matters profoundly. And
impeachment by the full House has already brought profound disgrace to President Clinton.
Whatever happens now will do little to affect history's judgment of him."

Helping make lunch at a Washington soup kitchen today, Clinton told reporters what the
Senate can initially expect from his defence team: "a few days to celebrate the season."

Meanwhile, Vice President Al Gore called on his former Senate colleagues to "forge a fair,
bipartisan compromise."

Speaking at the White House awards ceremony while the president toured the soup kitchen,
Gore said: "I believe that Saturday's vote in the House of Representatives was wrong, wrong for
our Constitution and wrong for America. But this much should be clear: President Clinton and I
will continue to focus all of our energies on the American people."

He added: "I do hope that the United States Senate will rise to this moment, as it so often
does, to be the voice of reason, deliberation and healing that America needs, to play the role
that it was intended by our founders to play in situations exactly like this one."

Both Ford and Carter said their suggestion rises out of the precedents they set while
president. Ford, who assumed office after President Nixon resigned following the Watergate
scandal, later pardoned Nixon. Carter, who beat Ford in the 1976 presidential race, later
granted amnesty to those who had avoided the Vietnam draft.

"While our acts of pardon or clemency are not directly analogous to the decision pending in
the Senate, how that body resolves the issue can have similar benefits of healing and
finality," Ford and Carter wrote.





[A][PATIENTS ACT][ACT]

Search continues in HIV scare

Canberra Hospital will continue its search today for 255 women who may have contracted HIV
and Hepatitis B from an infected hospital worker.

By last night, the hospital had tested 50 women who underwent invasive surgery between
January 6 and December 11 this year. All had received negative results.

It was confirmed last Thursday the worker had contracted both diseases and according to ABC
Television, the person worked in the maternity section and during invasive surgery.

The NSW Health Department has also confirmed the worker was employed in NSW last year.

"An immediate investigation has begun to establish whether the worker was involved in any
invasive procedures," NSW Chief Health Officer Andrew Wilson said.

ACT Health Minister Michael Moore moved quickly yesterday to allay fears of infection.

Mr Moore said there was a very low risk. US experts had found the probable level of risk of
HIV transmission was between one in 42,000 and one in 420,000 procedures.

"The literature shows at the riskiest we're talking about a situation of one in 20,000, so
it is a very, very low risk," he told reporters.

Testing was expected to be finalised by tomorrow, although some women may have to wait three
months before results can be determined.

Of the 255 women who could have been exposed, 240 lived in the ACT and 15 were in NSW.





[I][ISRAEL ELECTIONS]

Knesset approves early Israeli elections

Israel's parliament rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's peace policies today, then
gave initial approval to a law calling early elections.

The election law must be approved twice more, but Netanyahu has said he will not attempt to
block its passage. The early parliamentary elections will mean yet another delay in the Mideast
peace process.

Slumped in his seat at the Knesset head table, Netanyahu cast a vote for the elections bill
put forth by the opposition Labor Party.

He had likely played the final card in his two-month struggle to keep his government afloat
after he returned from the United States with a new peace agreement with the Palestinians.

The Knesset rejected Netanyahu's peace policies 56 to 48, with two abstentions. The vote on
elections was approved 81 to 30, with four abstentions.

Netanyahu said earlier he would negotiate an elections date with the opposition. Media
reports said the vote could come any time between the end of March and the beginning of June.

Today's votes came after Labor rejected a last-minute bid to establish a national unity
government.

"We will investigate the possibility of coming together ... If we don't succeed at least we
tried at this critical moment for Israel," Netanyahu told the Knesset.

But Labor leader Ehud Barak refused.

"This government divided Israel and gave into the extremists at the expense of education,
of employment, of true security for all," he said.

Netanyahu had presented his conditions that Palestinians must meet for a resumption in
talks: renounce their intentions to declare a state by May; drop their demands for the release
of jailed killers; confiscate illegal arms; and ensure that anti-Israel attacks are halted.

"The way to reach true peace is to maintain demands that Palestinians carry out their
obligations. That way we will protect peace, security and Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.





[A][TEACHER][VIC]

Teen to be charged in school killing

A 19-year-old man will appear in a Melbourne court today to be charged with the murder of a
teacher's aide stabbed at an inner-city school last week.

A police spokesman said homicide squad detectives had interviewed the Kew East man
yesterday.

He would appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court today where he would be formally charged
with the murder of 40-year-old Peter Orr, the spokesman said.

Mr Orr died in hospital on Sunday morning after being stabbed in the forehead by a thief at
the Lynall Hall Community College in Richmond last week.

Meanwhile, the State Education Minister, Phil Gude, yesterday said the government had
already spent a lot of money upgrading security standards at the school where Mr Orr was
employed.

Mr Gude said fencing had been upgraded, toilets had been relocated within the main school
block and video cameras had been installed.

"We've had some unwanted visitors across boundary fences and that's part and parcel of drugs
in society, I suppose, but we certainly don't want the American fortress system," he told ABC
radio.

Mr Gude said he had even flagged the possibility of moving the school when he visited there
last week, and department officials were looking at the options.





[A][TAX][FED]

Democrats find tool to fight GST on food

The Australian Democrats are determined to take an even tougher stand against a GST on food
following a survey showing two-thirds of Australians are against it.

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research found 66 per cent of
Australians in November wanted food to be zero-rated, up slightly on October and an indication
opposition is hardening.

Democrats' leader Meg Lees said the survey had toughened her resolve to reject the GST
legislation as it now stood.

"Very much so, and it certainly isn't surprising. As Treasury itself well knows, we can take
the GST off food and get all the other benefits that a GST will give to us, and hopefully this
will get the government thinking again," Senator Lees told the ABC's Radio National.

"I'm not sure they will change but with growing community pressure we may see, in the end,
the right result."

She said the compensation package must be increased, but people not in the tax or welfare
systems, such as those working casual and irregular jobs, would still miss out.

"Australians don't need lengthy surveys to tell them that those hardest hit by a tax on food
are going to be those at the very bottom," Senator Lees said.

She said the Senate tax inquiry, which began last week, showed Treasury's calculation of a
1.9 per cent increase in costs was wrong and the real figure was 3.1 per cent.

"Once we continue on through the Senate process we'll see that for some households the
impact is going to be a lot greater, so they are going to need a change in the compensation
package as well," Senator Lees said.

She warned that introduction of an unpopular tax had caused the fall of the Canadian
government.

While Labor and the Greens senators oppose a GST, the Australian Democrats and Tasmanian
Independent Senator Brian Harradine have said changes are needed to secure their support for
the tax package now being scrutinised by a Senate inquiry.

The Melbourne Institute surveyed 1,200 householders Australia-wide every month since the
government's tax package was released last August. The most recent results collected during
November revealed about 45 per cent favoured a GST and about 40 per cent were against it.

Seventy-two per cent of householders surveyed in August believed food should be zero-rated,
falling to 68 per cent and 65 per cent in the next two months, but bouncing back up to 66 per
cent in November.

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday ruled out an exemption for food, despite declaring
himself uncertain the GST would be approved by the Senate.




[A][WATERFRONT][QLD]

Strike breakers accuse Patrick, Reith

More than 350 non-union waterfront workers used as strike breakers earlier this year
launched a class action seeking $125 million damages from 36 respondents, including federal
Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith.

Patrick chairman Chris Corrigan and the National Farmers Federation (NFF) were also named
among respondents to the Federal Court action in Brisbane.

The former workers are seeking damages for misleading and deceptive conduct, negligence and
breach of contract.

They include former Special Air Service and regular army personnel who trained in Dubai in
December last year on behalf of the Melbourne-based stevedore Patrick.

Mr Corrigan sacked the company's unionised workforce in April, intending to replace them
with non-union NFF-backed workers who were to be trained by the Dubai men.

The Dubai recruits were to train staff first at Webb Dock in Melbourne and then later at
Brisbane, Sydney and Perth docks.

However, they were used as strike breakers when the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) staged
massive sit-ins at the four ports.

The MUA eventually won legal action in the federal court to keep their jobs.

Solicitor Garry Scott, representing the Dubai-trained men, alleged today that they were
deceived into working for the Patrick company.

"When my clients went over to Dubai they never knew they were going to be strike breakers,"
he said by telephone.



[I][Iraq][Iraq]

Iraq: 62 soldiers, more civilians killed

Iraqi officials confirmed Monday that U.S.-British airstrikes killed 62 soldiers, demolished
key missile factories and severed phone lines, but insisted the attacks failed to seriously
harm the military or government.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said civilian casualties were "much, much higher," than the
military toll but refused to give details. Iraq earlier said that 42 people were killed in the
four nights of airstrikes.

The attacks targeted key military bases, government buildings, communication centres and
factories that could be used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni said in Washington on Monday that the strikes hit 85
percent of their targets, 74 percent of them successfully. He said damage assessment from the
series of cruise missile and bombing attacks is still ongoing and will probably take a few more
days.

Iraq says the missiles also struck colleges, post offices, dormitories, a museum and an oil
refinery.

"They want to ... strip Iraq of any serious industrial capabilities," Aziz said. "This is a
policy of hatred."

But he added that the United States and Britain failed to seriously harm the Iraqi
government or military.

"They boasted of great success. ... They lied," Aziz said at a news conference in Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities have not taken foreign journalists to sites where they say there were
significant civilian casualties as they have in the past a likely indication that civilian
casualties either were not high or were scattered.





[I][US CLINTON LOCKERBIE]

Clinton pushes for Lockerbie bombers

President Bill Clinton promised the families of the Pan Am 103 victims Monday that the
United States will keep pressure on Libya to turn over the suspects in the bombing.

"We owe this not only to you, but to all Americans who seek justice," he said.

Speaking in Arlington National Cemetery at a memorial service on the bombing's 10th
anniversary, Clinton said the deal brokered by the United States and Britain for trying the
bombing suspects in a neutral third country is "a take it or leave it offer," and Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi would feel repercussions if he continues to balk at the deal's conditions.

"This was deliberate murder," Clinton said. "None of us wants to live in a world where such
violence goes unpunished and people can kill with impunity."

Immediately, a man in the crowd shouted: "Bomb Gadhafi, Mr. President, please bomb
Gadhafi."

The 1988 bombing of the Pan American World Airways jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland killed
270 people.

The suspects are two Libyan intelligence agents, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen
Khalifa Fhimah. The United States and Britain want to try them in the Netherlands under
Scottish law, but Gadhafi has refused to hand them over without a guarantee the men will serve
any sentence in Libya.

"Our policy is not to trust Mr. Gadhafi's claims, it is to test them," Clinton said. "If the
suspects are not turned over, we will work at the United Nations with our allies and friends to
seek even stronger measures against Libya. If the proposal fails, all should make sure the
responsibility falls on Mr. Gadhafi alone."

To the families, Clinton said: "Although 10 years, or 20 or 30 or 50, may never be long
enough for the sorrow to fade, we pray that it may not be too long now before the wait for
justice and resolution is over."

After he spoke, Clinton joined Hillary Rodham Clinton and family members in laying roses on
the memorial cairn erected in memory of the 270 victims, as the sun began to peek through a
steel-grey sky.





[I][BALLOON QUEST]

Balloon team in crisis talks with China

Three men hoping to be the first to circle the world by balloon neared China early Friday,
still hoping for permission to fly on a northerly course but fearing that they may be ordered
to abandon their quest.

"We are effectively in an emergency situation," said British tycoon Richard Branson, who has
teamed with American Steve Fossett and Sweden's Per Linstrand.

"But we are friends with the Chinese people, and this is a sporting event, an adventure. We
have no choice but to go over China, and we would be enormously grateful if they let us in,"
Branson said Thursday.

China had given permission for the ICO Global balloon to travel in its airspace south of 26
degrees north latitude. But because of diversions around Mediterranean storms and Iraq, the
balloon crossed the Himalayas further north than planned.

Because of the rugged Himalayan terrain, the balloon had no place to land before reaching
China, project director Mike Kendrick said.

"The Chinese are very friendly. I've apologised to them," Kendrick said. "It is their
airspace. They are entitled to keep us out. I have no argument with that at all, but we are
appealing to them."

Britain's Foreign Office, which was in touch with Chinese officials in an effort to get
permission for the flight, advised the balloonists that they must follow any orders from China
once they are over its territory.

At the same time diplomats were seeking Chinese help for the balloonists, a senior official,
Foreign Office Minister Derek Fatchett, was criticising China for the 13 year prison sentence
given to dissident Xu Wenli on Monday.

"I was shocked to learn today at the speed with which Mr. Xu Wenli was tried, and the
severity of his sentence," Fatchett said.

The balloonists also had a problem before crossing Libya, when permission was unexpectedly
revoked. That was resolved on Saturday just before the balloon entered Libyan airspace.





[X][MED HEART][US]

Researchers zero in on sudden-death gene

Researchers say they have all but located a gene responsible for a heart-rhythm abnormality
that can cause young, seemingly healthy people to drop dead without warning.

The disorder, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, or ARVD, could be responsible for
5 percent to 15 percent of sudden deaths among people under 35.

People who are diagnosed with the disorder can be treated with implanted defibrillators,
drugs and, occasionally, surgery. But often, ARVD goes unnoticed until a person drops dead.

Researchers found the gene's approximate location by studying seven generations of a large
Canadian family that included 10 people with ARVD. They hope to isolate the gene and then clone
it perhaps within a year or two and develop a blood test to identify carriers of the deadly
flaw.

"The immediate benefit is you can then screen people who have the bad gene, and they can
have a defibrillator put in," said Dr. Robert Roberts of the Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston. A defibrillator shocks the heart to restore a normal rhythm.

The findings were published in Tuesday's issue of Circulation, a journal of the American
Heart Association.

Roberts' team studied DNA from 149 members of the family and narrowed down the location of
the mutant gene to an area of chromosome 3.

The findings were welcomed by the mother of Andy Stoppelman, who was 17 when he collapsed
and died at a high school yearbook-signing party in 1993.

"Now that we can identify it, I hope the next step is to remedy it if not reverse it, so
that we can hold onto young lives and not lose them," said Lynn Stoppelman of Reston, Virginia,
who started an Internet support group for victims of the disease.

Dr. Hugh Calkins, director of electrophysiology at Johns Hopkins University, called the
findings "a very significant breakthrough."





[S][SOCCER BRITAIN FA][SOC]

Soccer scandal may cost UK its FIFA spot

The four soccer associations in Britain may lose their right to a guaranteed FIFA vice
president after the cash-for-votes scandal currently sweeping through the English Football
Association.

The English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish FA's have all had a special arrangement
where they can vote for a vice president of soccer's world governing body. Currently it is
Scottish lawyer David Will.

According to Northern Ireland president Jim Boyce, that could end next year at FIFA's
special congress in Los Angeles July 9.

"Three members of the FIFA executive have told me that a motion calling for the end of the
Home Nations' vice-presidency would be on the agenda at the special congress next July," he
said.

"That would be a very serious and potentially damaging development for British football. In
the past, the other European countries have always backed the position of the British Isles but
I'm not sure that they would do now."

Boyce fears that the mood of the other European associations has moved against the
arrangement because of a series of events in the past 18 months.

Some were annoyed that England broke an alleged agreement with Germany not to bid against
the Germans in the race to the World Cup 2006. Now the two are rivals.

Then the English FA changed its mind and voted against UEFA president Lennart Johansson in
the election for FIFA president. Johansson, who has most European votes, lost to Sepp Blatter.

The FA's Stg3.2 million ($A8.75 million) payment to the Welsh FA, interpreted as a bribe to
gain a vote for FA chairman Keith Wiseman in a FIFA/UEFA committee election, could further
alienate the European federations.

Will says he hopes the latest scandal will blow over and the arrangement will stay.





[T][CRICKET AUST][CRIK]

Lehmann in, Ponting out of Test team

Dumped Test batsman Ricky Ponting said today he fully expected to be dropped from the
Australian cricket side.

Ponting was axed from the Test side today for the Boxing Day Ashes Test to make way for
recalled South Australian captain Darren Lehmann.

Ponting said he knew it was time for him to go after making just 47 runs in the opening
three Tests of the summer against England.

"With the amount of guys that are scoring runs in Australia now, if you're not doing the
business week-in, week-out for Australia then there's going to be pressure put on you," he said
after Tasmania's eight wicket win over Queensland at the Gabba.

"That show's by my last four innings where I didn't get any runs and now I'm out of the
side."

Ponting said he was feeling the pressure generated by the bookies scandal hanging over the
Australian side.

Ponting revealed last week he turned down an approach from a Sydney bookmaker last year to
provide information on the Australian side.

"There's been things in the paper virtually every day ... and I've tried to stay pretty much
away from all that and concentrate on the cricket," he said.

"But as it's turned out I still haven't got any runs in the past couple of innings so I'm
paying for it now."

Ponting's fate was sealed with a third ball duck yesterday in the Tasmanian first innings.

The Australian team is:

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





[T][CRICKET ENGLAND][CRIK]

Blewett hopes for a West Indies trip

Greg Blewett hopes his dominant century against England will clinch him a place in the team
to tour the West Indies next year.

The South Australian opener hit an unbeaten 169 for the Australian XI here yesterday, but he
knows he will have to keep waiting for a Test place.

He said afterwards it was a really important innings which he hoped had helped clinch him a
ticket to the West Indies.

The innings also excited the English media contingent because Blewett has signed for
Yorkshire next season.

While his powerful performance further emphasised his credentials for an international
recall, the match itself has become little more than a romp.

The wicket is friendly and the Australians are still without three frontline bowlers.

There have already been two declarations - the Australians calling a halt yesterday at 4-293
in reply to England's first innings of 6-469.

By stumps England was 2-166 in its second innings for a lead of 342.

The questions this morning are whether Mark Butcher, who is on 85, can become the fourth
century maker of the match and whether England captain Michael Atherton will set the
Australians a feasible target or opt for continued batting practice.





[I][US SCREAM][US]

Teen gets 45 years in 'Scream' stabbings

A US teenager who stabbed an ex-girlfriend's parents while wearing a black robe and white
mask like the attacker in the slasher movie Scream 2 was sentenced to 45 years in prison by a
Wisconsin court.

Thaddeus Swim, 16, indicated that he was influenced by the movies and "that his reality and
fiction started to intertwine", District Attorney Tim Scobie said.

Swim had pleaded guilty to battery and attempted murder for wounding Eugene and Debbie
Neitge in their home on July 27. Debbie Neitge was seriously wounded in the neck. Her husband,
a police officer, had less serious wounds.

Swim was wearing a costume similar to the hooded Grim Reaper outfit worn by the
knife-wielding attacker in Scream 2.

Swim will be eligible for parole after serving one-fourth of the term.

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 0900

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