From the World-Wide Resourses of the Western Australia Reserch Senter(*) OIL THE NEWS THAT FITS MY VIEWS #50 =============================== In the Run-Up to World War III, Reliably Reporting the News Relevant to Extreme Right-Wing Democratic Socialists Everywhere (validated for RiteThink(tm) by the Office of Our Man in Can-berra). Visit Our Home Page At: http://www.chickenhead.com/loserscopes/ [Take our "Am I Superficial?" test!] See the Undeniable Evidence At: http://www.evil-doers.org/evidence This Stuff Blogged At: http://kymhorsell.blogspot.com/ Also Kindly Archived At: http://www.kymhorsell.com/OIL/ [N.B. upper case!] Iraqi Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/ [4,849+ as at 23 May 2003]. ------------------------------------------------------------ Selecting latest news stories and other data for you... ------------------------------------------------------------ It is also possible that they decided to destroy them... -- Donald Rumsfeld, 28 May 2003 What about those Iraqi WMD? The number of people out there that think this was a hoax, increases. -- Jane Harman, House Intel Committee, 28 May 2003 What would have been unacceptable on the 10th of September 2001 is now becoming almost a norm. -- Irene Khan, Amnesty International Sec Gen, 28 May 2003 Some crap about detention without trial and torture in the US. ---------------------------------------- Wed, 28 May 2003. Stock prices jump in the US 3 die in Everest chopper crash Everest no longer a symbol US puts Iran on notice Iran hints at deal for al-Qaeda chief 5 suspects arrested by Saudis Poland sends troops to Iraq Pentagon was warned over policing Iraq Rumsfeld says US to keep Baghdad grip Nuclear team to assess scale of looting How to do a body counts US, Chile to sign trade deal in Miami US rejects N Korean call for bilateral talks Fresh tribal fighting erupts in DR Congo Jordan to host Middle East peace summit Palestinian teen shot dead in West Bank: sources Israeli military put on the spot over abuses 6 jailed over SARS riots in China WHO gains greater warning powers Witness links Bashir and JI Bali witness describes "horrific" scene AI attacks Australia Dept plans to relocate asylum seekers One-fifth of Aust's population born overseas ASIO probes immigrants' backgrounds Alleged people smuggler appears in court Ruling sparks spate of migration appeals Small quake shakes SA Exit celebrates 1 GG apologises to the nation Markets Stock prices jump in the US NY. Investors on Wall Street have burst out of the blocks on their return from the holiday long weekend. Stock prices in NY have jumped ahead following encouraging statistics on consumer confidence and the housing market in the US. Consumer sentiment has hit a 6-m high with American households optimistic about a recovery in business conditions and the labour market. The private sector Conference Board's confidence index has moved up from 81 to 83.8. Although a little below some forecasts, it is still the strongest reading since last Nov. At the same time, US Commerce Dept figures show sales of new homes have risen 1.7% in Apr to their highest level since last Dec. Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average has surged 180 points higher to finish the latest session at 8,781. That is a gain of 2.1%. Prices on the high-tech Nasdaq market are 3.1% ahead at their highest level in 11 m. The Nasdaq composite index has ended 47 points in front at 1,557. The American economic data have been welcomed on the other side of the Atlantic, where UK investors have pushed the market modestly higher. Despite a 2.4% drop in Vodafone shares, London's FT-100 index has closed 13 points up at 3,992. The AUS dollar retreated during the night after the new 40-m high of yesterday, when it touched 66.25 US cents. At 7.00 am, it was being quoted at around 65.52 US cents, down more than four-tenths of a cent since yesterday's local close. The gold price was at $US365.15/oz, while West Texas crude oil was at $US29.24/bbl. Kathmandu. 3 DIE IN EVEREST CHOPPER CRASH! At least 3 people have been killed and 6 others injured when a helicopter crashed nr the Mt Everest base camp in Nepal. The Russian-built MI-17, owned by Simrik Airlines, was carrying 9 people to base camp when it went down. The 3 killed were all from Nepal. More than 1,000 people are at the base camp, part of more than 20 expeditions this y trying to climb the world's tallest mtn for tomorrow's 50th anniversary for the first ascent. Melbourne. EVEREST NO LONGER A SYMBOL! Aussie climber Tim Macartney-Snape says the number of commercial operators climbing Mt Everest has reduced its status as a symbol of hope and achievement. Macartney-Snape was the first person to climb the world's highest peak via the N face, and the 1st to climb it all the way from sea level. But he says the climb is no longer really mountaineering, and has become just another item on people's "to do" lists. US puts Iran on notice Washington. The US has fired serious warnings at Iran over terrorism, its role in Iraq and its quest for nuclear arms. The warnings come amid mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran. The Whitehouse says Iran has "insufficiently" responded to demands it crack down on Al Qaeda and forsake nuclear arms. Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld says any effort to rebuild Iraq on Iran's strict Islamic model "will be aggressively put down". Top aides to US Pres Bush Jr are expected to meet this wk to review US policy towards Iran after the war to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, officials say. But US officials say contacts with the Islamic republic, which has strongly denied supporting Al Qaeda, will be pursued. Mr Rumsfeld says interference in Iraq by its neighbours or their proxies will not be permitted. "Indeed, Iran should be on notice [that] efforts to try to remake Iraq in Iran's image will be aggressively put down," he said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in NY. Asked how Iran has responded to US pressure to end its quest for nuclear weapons and crack down on Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, Whitehouse mouth Ari Fleischer replied: "Insufficiently." Mr Fleischer would not say specifically that direct talks between US and Iranian officials, held recently in Geneva, had been suspended. But he noted that US officials had not attended a meeting scheduled for last wk. Reports have said the Bush Admin cut off secret talks with Iran because of intel info pointing to the presence of senior Al Qaeda members in the country. Sec of State Colin Powell told reporters that he knew of no change to the Admin's approach to Iran. "Our policies with respect to Iran have not changed," Mr Powell said, while reaffirming the Admin's concerns. "We do not approve of their support of terrorist activity. We have made it clear over the y that we disapprove of their efforts to develop a nuclear capability." "Our policies are well known and I am not aware of any changes in policy of the kind that have been speculated about," Mr Powell said. The NY Times has reported that the US asked Iran to hand over Al Qaeda members operating in its territory, following the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia that left 34 dead. Iran said, however, that the US should stay out of its internal affairs. "We hope logic and reason will prevail in the Americans' debates and that they will avoid taking an interventionist stance," Iranian Foreign Ministry rep Hamid Reza Assefi said. Mr Assefi said the Govt did not know how true the reports were that the US was preparing a new hard-line policy. "But we have always told the Americans to avoid meddling in our internal affairs," he said. A group seeking the overthrow of Iran's Govt has claimed that it has found 2 new secret uranium enrichment plants that it believes are part of Tehran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons. The Nat'l Council of Resistance of Iran said the plants were under construction in Lashkar-Abad and Ramandeh, about 40 km W of the Iranian capital. The council is controlled by the People's Mujahedin, an Iraq-based group designated by the US Govt as a terrorist organisation. Iran hints at deal for al-Qaeda chief Tehran Al-Qaeda's third-ranked leader and alleged mastermind of the Riyadh bombings has been seized in Iran, intel sources say. The US has ID'ed Saif al-Adel as the most senior al-Qaeda member linked to the attacks that killed 34 people, including one Aussie, earlier this m. Intel sources said al-Adel, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard, approved the bombing plans before his capture by Iranian security forces 9 days before the attack. Iran is thought to want to handover al-Adel to Washington, in return for senior leaders in the anti-Iranian terrorist group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK). He would probably be deported to Egypt initially. Washington has demanded that Iran should act against al-Qaeda leaders in the country and has conveyed a message via the UN of its "deep, deep concern that individuals associated with al-Qaeda have planned and directed the attack in Saudi Arabia from inside Iran". Al-Adel's presence in Iran was of particular concern, the US said. If al-Adel is transferred into US hands it will be a serious blow to al-Qaeda and a significant move by Iran in the war on terrorism. It effectively removes what is thought to be one of the few remaining havens for the terrorist group. Al-Adel is understood to be one of several al-Qaeda figures being held in the state, although Iran, which publicly has denied holding any senior operatives, has not yet officially informed the US of the arrest. It is understood that in talks with the AUS For Min, Alexander Downer, this wk, Iran proposed a deal to take significant action on al-Qaeda if the US cracked down on the militant MEK. Formerly funded by Saddam Hussein, the MEK is based in N Iraq but did not come under heavy attack during the US-led invasion. Iran is concerned that the US military is looking to sign a ceasefire with the MEK -- even though it is listed by the US State Dept as a terrorist organisation -- and will allow it to retain its extensive armoury. But US sources said the group was being disbanded and disarmed. Mr Downer delivered a strong message to the Iranians on behalf of CBR and Washington, warning them to clamp down on al-Qaeda. The Iranians are understood to have used the meeting to convey messages back to the US. Iranian officials confirmed they were still holding a number of al-Qaeda operatives, and suggested exchanging those prisoners for senior MEK figures. Iran wants the MEK leadership deported to Tehran for trial over numerous assassinations and bombings. The US is understood to be prepared to remove the leaders from the region, but is reluctant to hand them over to the Iranians. As al-Adel is an Egyptian nat'l, he would probably be deported to Egypt, where US intel could begin his interrogation. He would then be transferred either to the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or Saudi Arabia for trial over the Riyadh bombings. Rohan Gunaratna, the author of Inside al-Qaeda, last wk said al-Adel, the former head of al-Qaeda's security, had recently been appointed chief of the group's military committee, making him operational cmdr. Riyadh. 5 SUSPECTS ARRESTED BY SAUDIS! Saudi authorities have arrested 5 men in connection with the deadly suicide bombings in the kingdom. A Saudi source says it's believed 1 of the 5 is the mastermind of the blasts. The source says the arrests were made in the Muslim holy city of Medina, but he gave no further details. Increased security measures have been taken t'out Saudi Arabia after the May 12 blasts on housing compounds in the capital Riyadh that killed 34 people. Warsaw. POLAND SENDS TROOPS TO IRAQ! Poland says a 7,000-strong multinat'l [!] peacekeeping force under its command will be sent to Iraq in Jul. The US has asked Poland to run Iraq's C-S zone between Baghdad and the pt of Basra. The US request is said to be a reward for backing the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein and rescue the oil fields from bad management. Def Min Jerzy Szmajdzinski told Polish radio the deployment will take place in Jul and be fully operational by Aug. Pentagon was warned over policing Iraq Washington (The Guardian). In the m before the Iraq war the Pentagon ignored repeated warnings that it would need a substantial military police force ready to deploy after the invasion to provide law and order in the postwar chaos, US govt advisers and analysts said yesterday. Some 4,000 US military police are now being deployed in Baghdad, but only after most Iraqi govt services have been crippled by a wave of looting and arson. The anarchy and crime in the Iraqi streets was predicted by several panels of former ambassadors, soldiers and peacekeeping experts, who advised the Pentagon and the Whitehouse while the invasion was being planned. They urged that lessons be learned from previous US-led military interventions and a post-conflict police force be established before the war. Robert Perito, a former diplomat who had designed a similar police mission in Haiti 9 y ago, put together a detailed plan on how to deal with postwar lawlessness, warning that regular troops, trained to shoot to kill or retreat, were not right for the job. He wrote a report for the US Institute for Peace and briefed the defence policy board, a Pentagon advisory panel, in Feb. He said the board had appeared to agree with his conclusions but no action was taken. "The need for specialised forces was widely anticipated, but they have only just got there and are going to be just in Baghdad," he said. "The damage has already been incalculable. The bombing campaign was conducted in such a way by the air force to meticulously preserve key govt facilities, cultural sites, hospitals and other civilian buildings. But as soon as the conflict ended, those facilities were destroyed by looters." Similar warnings and recommendations were made by experts at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council, and the Centre for Strategic and Internat'l Studies. The Council on Foreign Relations study was overseen by a Republican former defence secretary and member of the defence policy board, James Schlesinger. It was presented to Whitehouse officials but its recommendation, that a police force be sent alongside the combat force was not acted on. The breakdown of law and order in Iraq has several precedents in US military history. It resembles the Panama invasion of 1989, where much of the damage to Panama City occurred after combat operations were over. 5 y later, in Haiti, the lesson appeared to have been learned, and an internat'l constabulary force, which Mr Perito helped to assemble, was standing by in Puerto Rico to follow US troops into Port-au-Prince. But after the 1995 Dayton peace accord US-led forces in Bosnia were unprepared to deal with a wave of arson, looting and thuggery by Serbs abandoning the suburbs of Sarajevo. 8 y later, in Iraq, Mr Perito said the Pentagon had made a "colossal miscalculation over what they thought the Iraqis would do". "They thought the Iraqis would just get over the trauma of the war and go back to work on the 1st day," he said. The deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, rejected the criticism, saying the fighting in Iraq was not over. "We need to recognise that this situation is completely different from Haiti or Bosnia or Kosovo, where opp'n ceased very soon after our peacekeeping troops arrived," he told Congress last wk. While Mr Wolfowitz and the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, have been at odds with army generals over many aspects of military doctrine, they are in agreement over peacekeeping. Most US military police are reservists who are given just one day's instruction in dealing with civilian crowds, and the US army peacekeeping institute is being closed in Sep. The state dept is consulting other govts over creation of an internat'l police force. Rumsfeld says US to keep Baghdad grip NY (AP). The US intends to maintain a tight grip in Baghdad to "fill the vacuum of authority" while helping Iraq to create its own version of democracy, Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld said Tue. "We are committed to helping the Iraqi people get on the path to a free society," Rumsfeld said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. "The Iraqi people have this historic opportunity to build a free society, and the world as well as the US has a stake in their success." To that end, he said, the UN, other countries, internat'l institutions and NGO's were welcome to participate in the restoration of Iraq following the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime. In his remarks, Rumsfeld cited no recovery timetable but listed a set of "broad principles" that he said the Bush Admin considers "critical, if Iraq's transition from tyranny is to succeed." He said those envision a "single country" that does not support terrorism, threaten its neighbours or repress its own diverse population and that provides market-based economic opportunity and maintains an independent judiciary. "These are not solely American principles nor are they exclusively Western," Rumsfeld said. "We do not have an American template that we plan to impose on them. The Iraqis will have to figure out how to build a free nation in a manner that reflects their unique culture and tradition." Some US officials have expressed concern that Shiite extremists in neighbouring Iran would try to stir unrest amid Iraq's own Shiite majority, in a campaign to install a Tehran-like theocracy in Baghdad. In remarks clearly aimed at Iran, Rumsfeld said the allies would not permit some "new form of tyranny" to replace Saddam's. "Iran should be on notice that attempts to remake Iraq in Iran's image will be aggressively put down," he said. In reply to a question, the Pentagon chief said the Admin was debating the most effective way to deal with Iran itself -- through the hard-liners in charge, through the moderate leaders they tolerate or directly with the Iranian people. Rumsfeld conceded that the rebuilding of Iraq would not be swift or easy, and he even likened postwar Iraq to "the chaos" that existed in the newly minted US after the American Revolution. He said that as Saddam's regime disintegrated, it freed 100,000 criminals, most of whom are still at large. "There are folks out there who do not wish the coalition well," he said. Rumsfeld did not mention, and was not asked about, incidents that have killed 8 Americans and wounded nearly 2 dozen in Iraq in recent days. The Admin's game plan calls for Iraq's own monetary assets -- those frozen in foreign banks and those still being seized in Iraq -- to finance its recovery. Eventually, Rumsfeld said, planners hope to diversify Iraq's economy beyond its nearly total dependence on oil revenues. "The transition to democracy will take time, and it will not be a smooth road," Rumsfeld said in comments that appeared aimed at Admin critics in the packed audience. "Trial and error and experimentation will be part of the process. Course corrections will be needed. I'm sure they will all be looked at and viewed with alarm, but we will survive that." Asked to explain why allied forces have not found the weapons of mass destruction that were Pres Bush's initial rationale for invading Iraq, Rumsfeld said it was known that Iraq had sizable chemical warfare programs and had used chemical weapons on the Iranians and its own people. He said evidence may yet turn up as the search moves farther afield. Nuclear team to assess scale of looting Vienna (The Guardian). UN weapons inspectors are to be allowed back into Iraq to try to establish how much radioactive material was looted when nuclear facilities were ransacked in the final days of Saddam Hussein's regime while US troops stood aside. Experts from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the Internat'l Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, are expected in Kuwait this weekend before they travel to the Tuwaitha complex S of Baghdad, the centre of Saddam's secret nuclear bomb project. The complex was the scene of looting in Apr when lax US security encouraged a free-for-all. The IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, has been appealing to Washington for wk for a return of his experts. But the appeals were ignored until a few days ago when Washington said it could send in a handful of inspectors, but restricted them to Tuwaitha. It may be that pressure from Brit helped prompt the u-turn. Dr ElBaradei sought the help of Jack Straw a fortnight ago and the foreign secretary agreed to raise the issue with the US, IAEA sources said. Up to 8 UN experts are expected to spend up to 3 wk in Iraq investigating the thefts from Tuwaitha. Before the war the IAEA had almost 100 tonnes of raw uranium and low enriched uranium -- none of it weapons-grade -- stored in barrels under UN seal at the complex, as well as small quantities of highly radioactive caesium, cobalt, and strontium. Many of the seals have reportedly been broken, while locals are said to have emptied the barrels of uranium and used them for water storage. More sophisticated equipment and documents, of more value to non-locals with more sinister ambitions, are also believed to have gone missing. A US military officer familiar with Tuwaitha said last wk that one in 5 of the UN-sealed barrels of uranium was missing. The IAEA has inventories of what was stored at the site and will be able to determine what has been stolen. IAEA officials are furious it has taken so long for the Americans to relent. "It's been 2 m now. It's absolutely crazy," said a source close to the IAEA. "If you've got a nuclear emergency, you get the IAEA in. It's getting the sheepdog to look after the sheep." Dr ElBaradei insisted last wk that his inspectors had a moral obligation and a mandate to visit Tuwaitha. "I am deeply concerned by the almost daily reports of looting and destruction at nuclear sites and about the potential radiological safety and security implications of nuclear and radiological materials that may no longer be under control," he said. But the inspectors' visit does not constitute a resumption of weapons inspections, despite reports from Baghdad that a further 6 Iraqi nuclear sites have been ransacked. Separately from the IAEA, experts from the US, Brit, and other countries are examining 2 mobile laboratories said by Washington before the war to be suspected biological weapons facilities. Body counts Baghdad (The Guardian). All over Baghdad on walls of mosques or outside private homes, pieces of black cloth inscribed with yellow lettering bear witness to the 1000s of Iraqis killed in the US-led war. Only if they were officers do these notices make clear whether the victims were soldiers or civilians. As far as Iraqis are concerned all the dead are "martyrs", whether they fell defending their country or were struck when missiles or cluster bombs hit their homes. Iraqis argue that in a war launched against their country illegally, every casualty is an innocent who deserves equal mourning. Yet the few W newspapers and human rights groups which have begun to calculate the war's death toll focus on civilians. The website -- www.iraqbodycount.net -- calculates the civilian toll as between 5,425 and 7,041. A LA Times survey of 27 hospital records in Baghdad and its outlying districts found that 1,700 civilians died in this area. The bias in these counts may be influenced by the trend of wars in the Balkans, Chechnya and Africa, where civilians were at greatest risk. Evidence from Iraq suggests this war was different. The LA Times itself contacted 4 mosque-based burial societies which reported interring 600 bodies of civilians, and many more of soldiers. Haidar Tari, director of tracing missing persons for the Iraqi Red Crescent, estimated up to 3,000 such undocumented burials, perhaps two-thirds involving soldiers. Interviews with officers and soldiers in Baghdad also suggest the military death toll exceeded the civilian. The imbalance was not as marked as in the 1st Gulf war when around 3,500 Iraqi civilians were killed, compared with 100,000 soldiers. In this war no more than 10% died in most units. The resistance American and Brit forces met as they advanced into Iraq was mainly confined to the 1st wk. After that men ran away in huge numbers. Lt Col Adel Abdul Jabar commanded an air defence unit on the E approach to Baghdad. "We had 250 men moving about in the area manning 57mm anti-aircraft guns. American planes were hitting us day and night. We shot down some cruise missiles and morale initially was high," he recalls. After a missile scored a direct hit on an underground bunker killing 4 soldiers on Mar 24, 3 days into the war, many deserted. "We were down to 175 men out of 250 after a wk," he says. On Apr 4 a cluster bomb landed on part of the air defence force at Doura. "It really frightened the men. A captain, a 1st lieutenant, and 19 soldiers were killed or wounded. You could not approach the injured because of the unexploded bombs lying on the ground. The wounded were dying where they were." The shock caused a new exodus. By Apr 9 the unit only had 13 officers and one soldier, wounded in the arm. More than 80% had fled. 25, exactly 10%, had died. Stationed at the al-Taji airbase N of Baghdad, Private Abbas Ali Hussein was a private in an artillery unit. He and 200 others were ordered to move to the capital's W outskirts as the Americans approached. Half slipped off on the way or deserted in the 1st days. On Apr 5 US planes attacked. "Seven of our 18 guns were hit in one hour," says Hussein. "They were in civilian areas on the main road. The others were quickly moved under palm trees. Between 7 and 10 of us were killed. Others ran. I experienced bombing as a child but had never been nr anything like this. It was terrible." Two of his close friends had died and he felt he could not abandon his post. "I thought I had to carry on to avenge them," he says. Military honour also played a role, plus the fact that his father was a retired army officer and a member of the Ba'ath party. By Apr 8, when US forces were in Baghdad, he and 5 others were the only ones left from the unit of 200. Like many other Baghdad soldiers, Private Hussein used to go home during the war for food and clean clothes. The army supplied nothing. Desertions in his unit were at 90%. Around 5% were killed. One of the biggest battles took place at Baghdad airport. Adel Ali, 29, was with 950 airforce troops guarding the perimeter. There were 1,000 infantry and another 1,000 Republican guards outside the airfield. After US land forces reached it on Apr 5, he estimates that about a hundred Iraqis died. The death toll was 3%. To try to stop desertions, soldiers had to sign a declaration saying they understood they would be executed. In practice, no interviewee knew of such cases. Mass desertions affected every unit including the Special Republican Guards, who experts predicted would mount the fiercest resistance. Many were members of Saddam Hussein's tribe in Tikrit. In fact, they abandoned Tikrit even before Baghdad fell. Before the war, thinktanks estimated that the Iraqi military had 389,000 men, including 80,000 members of the Republican Guard. Iraq was also believed to have up to 60,000 paramilitaries and 650,000 reservists, though how many of the latter answered the call is unclear. Extrapolating from the death-rates of between 3% and 10% found in the units around Baghdad, one reaches a toll of between 13,500 and 45,000 dead among troops and paramilitaries. The heaviest fighting took place around Baghdad and in a few places on the route from the S. The overall casualty rate may lie closer to the lower figure. Postwar calculations are rough, but they are all there is since Iraqi officials kept no tally. The US also avoided the issue. "We don't do body counts", said General Tommy Franks, the US cmdr. US, Chile to sign trade deal in Miami Washington (AP). The Bush Admin announced Tue that it will sign a free trade agreement with Chile on June 6 in a ceremony that will be far different from the one it hosted for Singapore in early May. The free trade deal with Singapore, which supported the Pres Bush's war in Iraq, was signed at a Whitehouse ceremony where Bush and a large contingent from his Cabinet gave a cordial welcome to Singapore PM Goh Chok Tong. In a brief announcement Tue, the Admin said the deal with Chile, which opposed the Iraq action, will be signed not by the leaders of the 2 countries but by US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Chilean For Min Soledad Alvear. The ceremony won't be in the Whitehouse but in Miami. While the negotiations on the deal with Chile were completed before the agreement with Singapore, the Admin gave Singapore the honour of becoming the 1st country to sign a free trade agreement with the US since Congress gave Bush the power to negotiate such deals last summer. Chile saw its agreement held back as Admin officials made no secret of their unhappiness with the S American country's withholding of support in Iraq. The Admin lobbied vigorously to win Chile's vote during the UN Sec Council debate in the wks leading up to the war. A group of 8 Democratic members of the House and Senate wrote Bush a letter warning him that his decision to hold up the Chile trade agreement was sending the wrong message at a time of global economic sluggishness by "announcing to the world the US is not serious about steering the global economy back onto the path of greater integration and truly free markets." Both the Singaporean and Chilean free trade agreements must win approval from Congress before they can go into effect. The Admin's brief announcement of the June 6 signing ceremony made no mention of the dispute over Iraq, but Zoellick last m told reporters that the Admin had been disappointed by the failure of Chile to support the US war effort. While the free trade agreement with Singapore would be the 1st with an Asian nation, the agreement with Chile will be the 1st with a country in S America. The US currently has free trade agreements with Canada and Mexico, its partners in the N American Free Trade Agreement, and with Israel and Jordan. The Bush Admin is in the process of negotiating other free trade deals with individual countries or groups of countries in S Africa and Central America. The Admin's biggest free trade goal is to achieve a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, to cover all 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. Miami will serve as host for a 34-nation conference of trade ministers from the 34 FTAA countries scheduled for Nov. 21-23. US rejects N Korean call for bilateral talks Washington. US Sec of State Colin Powell has rebuffed a N Korean call for bilateral talks on its suspected nuclear arms program and says Washington wants to address the matter in multilateral talks. Over the weekend N Korea said it would be willing to hold multilateral talks, apparently including S Korea and Japan, but only after one-on-one talks with the US, something Washington has strenuously opposed. "I've been reading those statements and we always examine closely whatever they say, but we are still committed to multilateral talks, expanded multilateral talks, if there are going to be future talks the way we want to do it," Mr Powell said. The US, N Korea and China held three-way talks on the issue in Beijing last m during which US officials say Pyongyang told them it possesses nuclear weapons, an admission that raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The US has insisted on multilateral talks in part because it believes it has little chance of persuading N Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions, unless Beijing uses its economic influence to pressure Pyongyang. Fresh tribal fighting erupts in DR Congo Bunia. Rival tribal militia have clashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo's NE town of Bunia, despite a truce to halt ethnic bloodletting that has left 100s of people dead this m, UN officials said. UN cmdr Colonel Daniel Vollot said 5 Lendu militiamen were killed and 3 Hema wounded in the fighting. A UN rep said a 14-yo boy covered with burns had arrived at Bunia's over-stretched hospital, saying his parents had been killed by unID'ed militiamen and his village, 6 km to the S, had been burned down. Militias linked to the Lendu and Hema tribes have long battled for supremacy in the mineral-rich Ituri area, which has suffered most of the worst atrocities in Congo's four-and-a-half y war. The UN mission in Bunia found more than 300 bodies after drugged fighters armed with machetes, spears and arrows went on a killing spree earlier this m. Many of the corpses had parts missing after what some suspect to be cannibal butchery. A ceasefire came into effect on May 17 but sporadic fighting has continued, threatening to derail a fragile political accord for a transitional govt aimed at ending Congo's war. The UN has called for a multinat'l force to intervene. Its mission in Bunia is small, with neither the mandate nor the firepower to stop the violence. Brit, France and S Africa have said they would consider sending troops. Jordan to host Middle East peace summit Jordan. Jordan has confirmed it will host a three-way summit between US Pres Bush, Israeli PM Sharon and Palestinian PM Abu Mazen. The talks are expected to take place next wk. Jordan's state news agency, Petra, reports that Info Min Mohammad Adwan has confirmed Mr Bush will attend the summit. The event will mark Mr Bush's deepest foray into the effort to end decades of violence. Mr Adwan says Mr Bush will attend 2 summits during a brief swing through the region, after travelling to Poland, Russia and the G8 gathering in France. A separate US-Arab summit would take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where Mr Bush would meet a number of Arab leaders, among them the Jordanian monarch and Egyptian Pres Hosni Mubarak. Mr Adwan said consultations were underway on the dates for the 2 summits. Egyptian, US and Israeli officials have said they expect to hold the talks next wk. Palestinian teen shot dead in West Bank: sources W Bank (AFP). Israeli troops have shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the N West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, Palestinian medical sources say. Mohammed Amin Mahmud, 16, was shot in the chest when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a group of young stone-throwers during an incursion into the camp, the sources told the AFP news agency. A 7-yo boy was also wounded and several other Palestinians were rounded up, they added. A similar incident in the village of Beit Furik, E of Nablus, left three other Palestinian youths wounded, one of them critically, the same sources said. The stone-throwers were pelting a bulldozer positioning a block on the road linking the village to Nablus, the sources said. Palestinian medical sources said a Palestinian teenager critically wounded by Israeli troops last wk nr the N town of Jenin died of his wounds on Tue. Kamal Nawahda, 14, was shot in the head as soldiers fired at a group of stone-throwers during an incursion into Yammun village on May 22. The 2 deaths raise to 3,266 the number of people killed since the start of the intifada in Sep 2000, including 2,464 Palestinians and 742 Israelis, according to an AFP count. Further S, troops arrested 2 wanted Palestinians from the radical Islamic group Hamas, an Israeli army rep said. Nadar Fakhan was arrested nr the S West Bank town of Bethlehem on suspicion of planning a suicide bombing, he said. The 2nd man was arrested in Abu Dis, a suburb of Israeli-annexed E Jerusalem. Earlier, 2 home-made Qassam rockets were fired from Jabalya refugee camp in the N Gaza Strip on the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, causing no casualties, military sources said. Hamas's armed wing, Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement said it fired 8 Qassam rockets and that the attack was "a message to the criminal Zionist Govt that the occupation of Beit Hanun will not prevent us from continuing our jihad", or holy war. The army has re-occupied the N Gaza town of Beit Hanun since May 15 in a bid to dismantle radical groups and prevent rocket attacks on army posts and Jewish settlements inside the Strip as well as nearby Israeli towns. Meanwhile, 2 Palestinians were wounded by shrapnel from 2 shells fired by Israeli tanks in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the S Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources told AFP. Two flats in a housing block were damaged but it was not initially clear why the shells were fired, security sources said. Troops also destroyed a house in the S town of Rafah on the border with Egypt. Israeli military put on the spot over abuses Tel Aviv. A leading Israeli politician has accused soldiers of "gross violations of human rights" in the occupied territories, and the army high command of indifference to the abuses. The unprecedented accusations came from Michael Eitan, a former cabinet minister and leader of Ariel Sharon's Likud party, as he chaired hearings of the Knesset's law committee. Although Israeli and foreign human rights groups have long documented evidence of systematic abuses by soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza -- including murder, indiscriminate shooting, aiming at children, torture and use of human shields -- such accusations have generally been dismissed by the authorities as driven by anti-Israeli motives. In a new controversy on Mon, Israeli troops allegedly shot at a diplomatic convoy at a military roadblock in Gaza Strip, twice hitting the windscreen of one of the cars but causing no injuries, diplomatic sources said. The convoy included representatives of Switzerland, Brit, Greece, Sweden, and Austria. The Israeli army declined to comment on the incident. However, military sources said the army had closed the entrance to Beit Hanoun because of "warnings of attempts by terror organisations" to leave the town. But Mr Eitan's charges drew blood when he astonished the military at the start of the hearing by alleging widespread abuses and wondering if the army leaders knew of it. "I am not certain that the responsible officials are aware of the fact that there are gross violations of human rights in the field, despite army regulations," he said. In the Knesset hearing, Mr Eitan, a former army officer, demanded to know from the head of operations, Brigadier General Eli Yaffe, whether the military was aware of the scale of abuses. The general replied: "We are aware that there are exceptional cases." Asked how many cases a m, Gen Yaffe said he could not supply figures. "How can you not know?" Mr Eitan asked. "Are there a few instances or 1000s?" In Mar, the army claimed that about 18% of more than 2000 Palestinians killed in the past 2 y of intifada were "innocent civilians", but said most were just "caught in crossfire". Human rights groups dispute the claim. They say soldiers make civilians a target almost with impunity. Mr Eitan also accused the army high command of indifference. "Are you aware that the number of complaints is nothing compared to the number of violations? How can you take stock of the situation when you don't know how many violations occur?" Mr Eitan, who has served in the Knesset for 19 y, has sparked controversy before. He drew the ire of Benjamin Netanyahu (when he was prime minister) by campaigning for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Late last y, he led the charge to bar prominent Israeli Arab political leaders from contesting the general election, accusing them of supporting "the armed struggle of terrorist organisations". The Guardian Six jailed over SARS riots in China Beijing. More people have been jailed in China for their roles in riots against SARS quarantine centres. Six people have been jailed for between one and three-and-a-half y for inciting a riot against a SARS quarantine facility in China's central Hunan province. They were also fined huge sums in Chinese terms, up to nearly double the average rural household wage. Six other people were sentenced to up to 5 y in prison last wk for a riot in late Apr in another province. The jail terms indicate the Govt's resolve to maintain social order while SARS continues to spread in China. WHO gains greater warning powers Geneva. The WHO has been granted greater powers to issue global warnings on diseases like the killer bug SARS. Until now, the world health body had to wait for the govt of an affected country to confirm any disease outbreak before it could warn neighbouring states. But a resolution adopted by members of the UN agency will now allow it to issue global alerts on the basis of other info sources. China, where severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is thought to have originated in Nov, was widely criticised for not informing WHO or its neighbours until after the disease had spread to HK and Vietnam in Mar. SARS has now killed over 730 people worldwide and more than 8,200 cases have been reported. "The point is to ensure that any public health threat gets reported," said WHO rep Iain Simpson. Countries will also be urged to set up task forces that can be contacted around the clock in the event of an emergency. When WHO officials in Geneva wanted to launch a global alert over SARS in Mar, they could not reach many of the 192 member govts because it was a weekend. Jakarta. WITNESS LINKS BASHIR AND JI! A key Bali bombing suspect has told a Jakarta court he thinks Indonesian cleric Abu Baqar Bashir leads the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group. Ali Imron says he has no definite evidence for his suspicion. Imron is testifying amid intensely strict security at Bashir's trial for treason and terrorism. Prosecutors are trying to prove that Bashir leads JI, which is thought to be linked to al-Qaeda and is blamed for the deadly Bali bombings and a string of other attacks in Indonesia. Bali witness describes "horrific" scene Jakarta. A witness in the trial of Bali bombing suspect Amrozi has described a horrific scene of death immediately after last Oct's blast. The witness is one of 15 Indonesians expected to give evidence today. The blast woke 42-yo Agus Banbang and he ran from his home to the nearby Sari Club. From within the burning club, he saw more than 50 people crying for help. The witness himself cried as he described how a victim died in his lap. Others were alive but had limbs blown off. Mr Banbang described some of the victim's pleas. "I am burning. Please help me. Take me to hospital," he said. He helped load some of the victims into ambulances. During his testimony the suspect, Amrozi, sat listening but apparently unmoved and not smiling. Canberra. AI ATTACKS AUSTRALIA! Internat'l human rights group Amnesty Internat'l has attacked AUS over its tough counter-terrorism laws and the continued detention of asylum seekers. In its annual human rights report Amnesty criticises the fed govt over plans to hand ASIO interrogation powers under which people can be detained for a wk without charge. In a pessimistic report, Amnesty says internat'l paranoia about terrorism since 9/11 has resulted in 50 y of human rights freedoms being rolled back over the last y in 151 countries. Dept plans to relocate asylum seekers Canberra. The fed Immigration Dept has distributed info sheets to Port Auga residents living nr 3 sites under consideration for a detainee housing project. The dept has not picked the site for the housing project but it has issued surveys and info sheets to the neighbourhoods under consideration. The info says detainees from the housing project will be able to shop, attend school, go to church and visit recreational facilities in Port Auga under supervision. It says security around the housing project will be subtle, and all detainees will have to pass health and character checks to live there. The dept's info sheet indicates up to 40 detainees from Baxter will live in the housing project. The dept expects to complete the public consultation process within a fortnight. One-fifth of Aust's population born overseas Canberra. New figures show more than 20% of AUS's population was born overseas. The AUS Bureau of Statistics says in 2001-2002 almost 50,000 people left AUS permanently, the highest number in 20 y, with half of those people actually born in AUS. The figures show 130,000 migrants arrived in AUS in the same y, contributing to half of the entire population growth. But as for the number of unauthorised arrivals, they have dropped by almost 60% to about 2,500. In 2001-2002, 50% of asylum seekers arrived by boat and 50 per cent by air. That compared to more than 70% arriving by boat in the previous y. ASIO probes immigrants' backgrounds Canberra. ASIO is investigating the backgrounds of some immigrants to determine whether they have any links to terrorist groups. Last y, it was revealed that 3 men were granted permanent residency in AUS, despite being linked to organisations sympathetic to the radical Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiyah. The Immigration Dept's Peter Hughes has told a Senate estimates hearing, officials have reviewed other files and some have been passed on to ASIO. "We have referred a number of files to ASIO for their examination to see if they are any info that would be of use to them or issues of security concern," he said. The Immigration Dept says the inquiries are continuing and it cannot reveal how many people are being investigated at this stage. Alleged people smuggler appears in court Darwin. The 1st person to be extradited to AUS on people smuggling charges has made a brief appearance in the Darwin Magistrates Court. Iraqi nat'l Ali Hassan Abdolamir Al Jenabi, 32, is accused of smuggling more than 350 people from Indonesia to AUS between 2000 and 2001. The prosecution asked Magistrate Daynor Trigg to adjourn the matter until June 24, to give them time to settle the list of witnesses which is expected to number about 70. Wearing black jeans and a brown t-shirt, Al Jenabi sat comfortably in the dock listening to proceedings through an interpreter. Four of the 22 charges that Al Jenabi is facing carry a maximum penalty of 20 y in prison. The magistrate granted the adjournment and remanded him in custody. Ruling sparks spate of migration appeals Canberra. A High Court decision which found 2 asylum seekers were denied natural justice has prompted 100s of court challenges. Last y, the court ruled 2 ethnic Chinese Indonesians were denied procedural fairness because the Refugee Review Tribunal did not consider info which would have supported their cases. The High Court's principal registrar, Christopher Doogan, has told a Senate estimates hearing the court is expecting up to 800 cases to be lodged shortly. He says they will all be remitted to the Fed Court. But he says that is not the end of the matter. "Sitting in limbo at the moment as a consequence of those decisions there are around about 6,000 potential cases," he said. Mr Doogan says 67% of the court's work is now based on migration matters, compared to only 6% in 1997/98. Adelaide. SMALL QUAKE SHAKES SA! An earthquake on SA's Eyre Penn may be linked with more powerful tremors O/S. The quake, measuring a tiny mag 3.3, hit S of Pt Lincoln just before 8 pm last night. Its epicentre was W of Neptune Is and S of Sleaford Bay. Seismologist David Love, from Prim Ind and Resources SA, says no reports of the quake have been received, but it's likely to have been felt along the coast. Gold Coast. EXIT CELEBRATES 1! Voluntary euthanasia group Exit Australia has celebrated the 1st anniversary of Nancy Crick's death by unveiling a grave-side memorial describing her as a hero and martyr. The mourners at the cemetery N of the GC included many of the 21 witnesses who attended Mrs Crick's barbiturate OD. Exit's nat'l dir Dr Philip Nitschke says he thinks if she was looking down on them [?] she would be thinking, with some alarm, that there's still no resolution to the question she tried to solve. Canberra. GG APOLOGISES TO THE NATION! Ex-GG Hollingworth has done a Nixon and apologised to AUS for "getting it wrong in one case". Dr Hollingworth borrowed some free air time to tell Australia he had been an innocent party in the cover-up of child abuse in the Anglican church. He apologised to those who had suffered because of his handling of abuse allegations while he was Archbishop of Bris. He said he decided to resign because the continuing controversy made it difficult for him to carry out his duties and fulfil his community role. [Recent polls showed 65% of Aussies wanted the GG to go]. He said he'd now work with children to repair the damage he and others like him had done. Sydney. MARKETS. The ASX edged higher, helped by the US and Europe. The All Ords ended up 25 pts to 2,976. In Japan, the Nikkei closed up 114 pts at 8,234. The Hang Seng also closed higher, ended 90 pts higher at 9,421. {{ 9.45 pm SBS TV. 8 people have been killed in fighting between the GAM and Indon govt today -- 1 police commando and 7 separatists. The offices of an NGO were looted by members of a youth group in Aceh because the org has criticised the military conflict. The raid came 1 day after the Indon govt banned NGO's from the prov, saying it could not guarantee their safety. Indon has denied it is being heavy-handed in the rebel province. An interview with SBS TV was cut short when the Indon For Min walked out. }} ---------------------------------------- Thu, 29 May 2003. Markets AUS posts another record Geldof back in Ethiopia Another aftershock Saudi arrests terror suspects US detains Palestinian diplomat Bush launches into Middle E campaign Powell to meet with Pope US calls for internat'l police Trade sanctions lifted on Iraq More bad intel revealed in bunker bombing Blair tours Kuwait and Iraq AI lashes war on terror Website results in 10 y jail: China Man jailed for email facing death: Vietnam Mukhlas says he's an official in JI New suspected SARS in Canada AUS HIV cases up sharply AUS officials warn of killer flu Quake hits Peru Trawler sunk by bulk carrier Handgun buyback Oppn spots $3 b problem in Budget Rivkin sentenced Tourism lifts in Qld Markets NY. MARKETS! The Dow has closed up 11 pts at 8,794. Gold is trading around $US364.55/oz. In London, the FTSE ended 80 pts (2%) higher at 4,072. The German Dax ended up 46 pts (1.6%) at 2,920. Canberra (midday). AUS POSTS ANOTHER RECORD! AUS has posted a record trade deficit of $3.1 bn for Apr -- $1.6 bn above the prev m and about 50% above market expectation. [The Mar trade deficit was the prev record and $1/2 bn above Feb]. The SARS virus and strong domestic demand for imports is being blamed for the hike. The ABS says exports fell 8% over the m to $11.24 bn, while imports increased 4% to $14.368 bn. Trade Min Vaile says the figures reflect the strength of the AUS economy, the effect of SARS and the impact of the drought. Awassa. GELDOF BACK IN ETHIOPIA! Ethiopia is again facing the prospect of a nation-wide famine. Drought has been exacerbated by a 75% decline in world coffee prices -- the country's chief export. 19 y after "Band Aid", Bob Geldof has returned to help raise the profile of the plight of the African nation. He says it's brought back memories of his first visit to Ethiopia in 1984 at the hight of a famine that was the result of both drouth and a crippling civil war in which 100s of 1000s died. Band Aid and Live Aid concerts organised by Geldof raised $A91 mn for the victims of the 84/85 famine. The demise of the ICO -- the OPEC of coffee -- has resulted in 4 key multinationals controlling world prices over the past 3 y. The subsequent collapse in prices has seen typical coffee growers in Ethiopia earn about $A10 for a y's output. Even in Ethiopia, that's not enough to buy even the basics. Farmers told a single cup of coffee in AUS can sell for $A3 while they earn only cents/kg are not amused. Algiers. ANOTHER AFTERSHOCK! A strong aftershock has struck Algeria -- the 3rd in 36 hrs. The latest aftershock made buildings shudder across the capital, and was apparently in the region of the mag 5.2 quake that hit Algiers and surrounds yesterday. The worst tremor was on Tue, which measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. That quake caused several buildings already damaged by the massive May 21 jolt to collapse, injuring several 100 people. Riyadh. SAUDI ARRESTS TERROR SUSPECTS! Saudi officials say they have arrested 11 suspected al-Qaeda members in connection with the May 12 suicide bombings that killed 34 people. But the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia has warned that other terror cells could be plotting more attacks. Int Min Prince Nayef has confirmed the arrests but offered no details and didn't ID the captive. [In other news, one of the suspects is said to have died of liver and heart failure]. Baghdad. US DETAINS PALESTINIAN DIPLOMAT! In a move sure to anger Arab opinion, US troops have detained a Palestinian diplomat in Baghdad. Soldiers handcuffed Charge d'Affaires Najah Abdul Rahman and 4 others outside what ousted Iraqi Pres Saddam Hussein's govt recognised at the Palestinian embassy. The troops say the man had illegal weapons, but it isn't clear what had prompted them to target a Palestinian diplomat in a city awash with arms 7 wks after Saddam's overthrow. Washington. BUSH LAUNCHES INTO MIDDLE E CAMPAIGN! US Pres Bush Jr has launched his deepest foray yet into Middle E peace and announced a Jun 4 joint summit with the Israeli and Palestinian PM's to be held in Jordan. In what will be his first trip to the Middle E since taking office in Jan 2001, Bush will also meet with Arab leaders the day before the summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Nat'l Sec Adv Conny Rice says Bush believes it's a new opportunity for peace at the end of the war in Iraq. Vatican City. POWELL TO MEET WITH POPE! US and Vatican sources say Sec of State Powell will meet with JPII next wk to discuss the Middle E peace process and the rebuilding of post-war Iraq. The meeting slated for Mon will be the 1st high-ranking face-to-face between the US govt and the Vatican since GWII, which the Pope vehemently opposed. Sources say the 2 men will discuss efforts to bring peace to Iraq and the country's reconstruction program. Washington. US CALLS FOR INTERNAT'L POLICE! A top def official says the US has called on nearly 50 countries to send police to Iraq in a bid to curb chaos and growing violence in the country. But the Pentagon says only 7 nations have so far heeded the appeal and agreed to dispatch so-called "police advisors" to help train and re-organise the Iraqi police force and assist US troops in daily patrols. Canberra. TRADE SANCTIONS LIFTED ON IRAQ! Following similar announcements in the US, Aussie companies can now resume trade with Iraq after trade sanctions were officially lifted today. For Min Alex Downer says regulations to be gazetted today remove domestic restrictions on trade with Iraq. The move follows a UNSC vote to lift sanctions imposed in 1991 because Iraq allegedly had WMD. Under the new regulations, financial resources belonging to the former regime will also have to be returned to Iraq for use in reconstruction efforts. Washington. MORE BAD INTEL REVEALED IN BUNKER BOMBING! The Baghdad "bunker" which Donald Rumsfeld said had been successfully attacked in the opening round of GWII has been found not to exist. CBS evening news quotes an Army col in charge of inspecting key sites in Baghdad as saying no trace of a bunker or bodies has been found after repeated searches at the site. Col Tim Madere says they were looking for an "underground facility" that US intel claimed was located at the palace, S of Baghdad. Or bodies. But all CIA and Army sweeps of the compound found were several giant holes created by the bunker busters -- and no sign of underground bunkers. Kuwait City. BLAIR TOURS KUWAIT AND IRAQ! Brit PM Tony Blair has warned latest regime-change targets Iran and Syria not to back terrorist groups or meddle in the internal affairs of other countries, echoing the words of US officials against both states. Blair issued the echo in comments to reporters on his plans before arriving in Kuwait on the eve of a visit to neighbouring Iraq. Blair has warned Iran and Syria not to meddle in Iraq's future or support terrorist groups and militants who could upset America's plans for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Canberra. AI LASHES WAR ON TERROR! In its annual report, Amnesty Int'l says the US-led war on terror has made the world a more dangerous place. It is particularly critical of the wind-back of human rights in connection with the US's detention-without-trial of 100s of "enemy combatants", incl 13 and 14 yo children, at its concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The report is also critical for "counter terrorism" laws intro'd in both Brit and the US in the wake of 9/11. Is says while the US has targeted Iraq and Afghanistan in the war against terror, it's ignored or supported even more abusive regimes to continue. AI also criticises the AUS govt for its detention of asylum seekers and proposed laws that would allow ASIO to detain people for up to 1 wk without trial. AI AUS Pres Russell [no relation] Thirgood says the planned laws are part of a disturbing trend world-wide to detain people without charge in the name of the war against terror. Beijing. WEBSITE RESULTS IN 10 Y JAIL: CHINA! A human rights group says 4 Chinese intellectuals accused of criticising the govt on the Internet and setting up a democracy study group have been jailed for up to 10 y. The group, Human Rights in China, says the Beijing Intermediate Court delivered the sentence at a hearing today, almost 18 m after the 4 were tried in Sep 2001 of subversion. There has been a Communist Party drive to shut down the Web as a forum for free discussion or political criticism. Brisbane. MAN JAILED FOR EMAIL FACING DEATH: VIETNAM! Human rights groups are hoping 50,000 people around AUS will get online today and help free a man imprisoned in Vietnam. Amnesty says law student Le Chi Quang, who suffers from kidney disease, is facing death unless he receives treatment. Le Chi was jailed in Feb 2001 after police were tipped off he was sending emails critical of the Viet govt from an Internet cafe in Hanoi. Amnesty asks well-wishers to go to www.amnesty.org.au. Jakarta. MUKHLAS SAYS HE'S AN OFFICIAL IN JI! A Bali bombing suspect has admitted in court he's the SE head of the Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Ali Ghufron, AKA Mukhlas, was testifying at the trial of Abu Baqar Bashir, a Muslim cleric and the alleged "spiritual leader" of JI, who Jakarta accuses of treason. Mukhlas told the packed courtroom he took over as the operational chief after his predecessor, Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, went into hiding. Toronto. NEW SUSPECTED SARS IN CANADA! Concern about SARS has shut down a Toronto-area high school, sending staff and students into quarantine and raising fears the virus may have spread outside hospitals into the broader community. More than 6,400 people, incl 2,999 from the school, are now in quarantine in greater Toronto after SARS resurfaced 6 days ago. Health officials say a student at the school, located just N of the city, appeared to have symptoms of the virus, and prompted the quarantine call. Sydney. AUS HIV CASES UP SHARPLY! The rate of HIV infections in AUS in on the rise, with the latest numbers showing a worrying trend in the nation's 3 most populous states. 700 Aussies, mainly gay and bisexual men, became infected with HIV last y. Records show new HIV infections rose by 7% in Vic and 20% in Qld in 2002. Nat'l Pres of the peak nat'l Aids organisation says the overall rise in infections, together with the fact that Vic has recorded its 3rd consecutive annual increase, should set alarm bells ringing. Melbourne. AUS OFFICIALS WARN OF KILLER FLU! Aussie health officials have issued a warning against a new killer flu that's threatening AUS. The A/Moscow strain is the most dangerous of the 3 main types of flu threatening human populations, and a bad season is expected in AUS this winter. Officials say about 1,500 people normally die from the effects of flu each y, and the toll this y is likely to be significantly higher. Diabetics, asthmatics and people with heart conditions are warned against braving winter without a flu shot after the dangerous strain was found locally. The A/Moscow flu swept through Africa and Europe during the N winter. Specialists say the first Aussie cases were picked up this m, so time is running out for those whose health is already compromised, but who have not been vaccinated. Lima. QUAKE HITS PERU! A strong earthquake has jarred the Peruvian capital, Lima, rattling buildings across the sprawling city of 8 mn. An official at Peru's Nat'l Geophysical Inst told local radio the quake measured 5.1 on the Richter scale. Its epicentre was 51 km under the Pacific Ocean, 48 km W of the coastal city of Chilca. No reports of damage are immediately available, although the nat'l police say no injured have been registered. Brisbane. TRAWLER SUNK BY BULK CARRIER! Rough weather off N Qld is hampering an air and sea search for the skipper of a prawn trawler that sank after a collision with a 20 kt bulk carrier. The 55 yo skipper of the Sassenach [!] was reported missing after the collision with the 225-m Asia Nova shortly after midnight nr Palm Is. A 62 yo deckhand [!] was found in the water at around 4.30 am and has been choppered to Townsville. Sydney. HANDGUN BUYBACK! NSW police will being buying back nearly 1/2 the registered handguns in the state in Jul after "sensitive plans" were approved by state Cabinet this wk. The Daily Telegraph says police will tour the state in special vans, destroying some 21,000 concealable weapons and handing out compensation for them. Gun owners will only be able to bypass the new laws by paying for a costly manufacturers' modification to lengthen the barrel. Canberra. OPPN SPOTS $3 B PROBLEM IN BUDGET! The Finance Dept has been accused of breaching its own accounting regulations by over-valuing the govt's 1/2-share in Telstra by $3 bn. Before the Senate's Finance Estimates Committee, dept officials have struggled to explain how the fed Budget -- released just 2 wks ago -- valued the telco at $5.25 bn, rather than the normally-assumed price of $4.75 bn. Labor finance rep Stephen Conroy says that by using the higher value, the Commonwealth's total net worth is at least $3 bn higher than it should be. Treas Peter Costello says the problem doesn't affect the Budget bottom line, and the fed govt is still $2 bn in surplus. The is reportedly now adjusting 7 key sections of the Budget to reflect the true value of Telstra. Sydney. RIVKIN SENTENCED! SYD stockbroker Rene Rivkin has been sentenced to 9 m of periodic detention and fined $30,000 for insider trading. The sentence was handed down in the NSW Supreme Court. Rivkin was convicted of buying 50,000 Qantas shares just hrs after hearing in Apr 2001 of a potential merger between Qantas and struggling Impulse Airlines. The max penalty for insider trading is 5 y jail and up to $200,000. Brisbane. TOURISM LIFTS IN QLD! Bris hotels will be showing "Full" signs for the next wk as more than 16,000 Rotarians from around the world descend on the city for their annual conference. Delegates from 113 countries have started to arrive in the Qld capital for the 4-day talk-fest which officially kicks off Jun 1. The conf is the biggest in AUS this y and is a tourism windgall for Qld in the wake of GWII and SARS. And the string of murders of foreign tourists. Sydney. MARKETS! The Nikkei ended the session up 151 pts to 8,375. The Hang Seng closed down marginally. {{ 6 am 3 children have died in a blast at an Iraqi ammo dump nr Karbalah. The US had found the huge dump but had decided not to destroy it because of its size. Military reps say people have been breaking into the site and lotting it for metal. Washington. After 7 wks of hunting, no WMD have been found in Iraq. And for the first time, US Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld has admitted that WMD may not be found in Iraq. It was extremely difficult to find something in a country that was determined to hide it, he told reporters. Rumsfeld has previously been critical of UN weapons inspectors, implying the task of finding WMD was not difficult. The Pentagon released intel info, used by US officials incl Sec of State Colin Powell, allegedly showing Iraqi weapons sites. But today Rumsfeld says it's possible Iraq destroyed its WMD before the war. Critics say it's a damning admission, and the war was misrepresented to the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Captured Iraqi officials have continued to deny Iraq had an active WMD program after 1991. The Pentagon had previously indicated prisoners were co-operating with the US and would lead them to the hidden Iraqi WMD programs. The CIA and US Army have examined a palace S of Baghdad, and blown another hole in GWII Pentagon spin. The first strike of the war dropped several bunker busters on the site in an attempt to kill Saddam Hussein and his family. At the time, Don Rumsfeld said it was a "success". But after repeated searches, questions have been raised about the quality of the original intel. A Col assigned to search for Saddam's DNA says there is no sign of a bunker at the compound, that was said to be the hiding place of the Iraqi leader. It also turns out many of the bombs failed to hit their mark, destroying outlying buildings instead. The main building is still largely intact. The Col says people there would have probably survived the US attack. Brit PM Blair is in Kuwait, on his way to Iraq. He's the first W leader to visit Iraq since GWII. He is still hopeful that WMD -- the alleged reason for the war -- will be found there. More deaths from SARS have been announced in Canada. 4 hospitals have established a joint program to fight the virus. Russia has recorded its first confirmed case, on the border with China. Midday. Flamboyant trader Rene Rivkin has been found guilty of insider trading and been given a 9 m periodic detention sentence. He was also fined $30,000. Rivkin will now be required to step down from 24 director-ships he holds, and hand in 2 trading licenses. He claims he's been targeted for public execution. Even if the insider trading claim was true, he says, the deals involved made only about $340 in profit. He also sold the shares before the take-over was finally announced and the share price increased another 50%. Puzzling, for an inside trader. 4.30 pm 2 people have been stabbed and 2 others injured in what's believed to be a hijack attempt at MEL airport. One of the attackers allegedly tried to set fire to an aerosol can in an attempt to hijack a Qantas flight from Launceston. Few details are available at this time. PM Howard today revealed info that AUS was targeted prior to 9/11. He told Parl today that recent intel [and who could question that?] showed that al-Qaeda was investigating targets in AUS in 2000 or 2001. While he didn't name the targets, analysts suggest the obvious one was the SYD Olympics. The PM was arguing that current warnings are unrelated to AUS involvement in GWII, but because AUS is a W country with W values. The Opp'n says it's old news, that's being used to divert attention from another m of record trade deficits. The Vic Courts have given dementia patients the right to deny treatment. The case centres on the artificial feeding of a vegetative 68 yo woman is "treatment" and not palliative care. Under Vic law treatment can be refused, but palliative care can not. The Judge found that artificial feeding required special medical knowledge and is not "palliative care", which incl the provision of food and water. Right to Life groups outside the Court today said they fear death by dehydration may gradually become a norm for those lives society feels are not worth living. The family of the woman say she expressed a desire to die if she could not longer look after herself. The AUD has fallen sharply to 64.76 US c. It follows the bad news of the trade deficit, and good news from the US about consumer confidence. An article in tomorrow's prestigious Nature journal says computer games improve visual and co-ordination skills. The research was done by a gamer at Rochester U. He found as few as 10 sessions playing a video game can significantly improve visual acuity and hand/eye co-ordination. 6.45 pm Another Aussie has been detained on suspicion he's an al-Qaeda terrorists. Egyptian authorities have revealed they have detained the man on suspicion he trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in mid-2001. While the ASX closed up 7 pts to end at a 3-m high, AMP continued to slide as more of its assets get taken over. Share in the former insurance giant are trading around $4.85. Those investors who bought in at $5 2 wks ago are seriously underwater. A new head of the ACCC has been named by Treas Costello. While Prof Fels supports the former deputy, Graeme Samuel, sitting at the helm for 1 y after he leaves, consumer groups and small business say the former businessman and investment banker is too close to the big end of town. 5 state and terr'y Prems tried to veto the move, but Mr Costello used a little-exercised power to temp appoint Samuel to the position for 12 m, instead of the usual 5-y term. 9.45 pm Qantas has announced a 40 yo man has tried to take over a MEL to Launceston flight and crash it into the city. 2 flight attendants were seriously wounded when the man used wooden stakes to attack members of the crew in an attempt to break into the cockpit. The attack happened about 10 mins into the flight. 2 passengers were also wounded when they tackled the attacker. Although armed flight attendants randomly fly around AUS, there were none on the Qantas aircraft. The fed govt says the incident was no an act of terrorism, but the act of one person. 11.30 pm Oil is trading around $US28.47/bbl. The AUD is around 64.52 US c after falling more than 1 c in the prev 24 hrs. }} ---------------------------------------- Fri, 30 May 2003. Markets 9 killed in Algerian bus crash Blair in Baghdad Vets in Baghdad Mixed messages from Sharon Israel to free prisoners Canada to join US defence shield Anti-globalisation protests Attempted Qantas hijack PM rejects death penalty Hijacker faces MEL court Passengers safe after ferry springs leak More Aussie troops return Wheat virus out of control Rivkin to launch appeal Microsoft to pay up Markets (midday) NY. MARKETS! US markets were mixed, with US data showing strong consumer spending but weak jobs market. The Dow dived 83 pts near the close to end at 8,710. But the Nasdaq ended 12 pts higher in the busiest day of trading in 1 y. The FTSE up 12 pts, but the German Dax closed 12 pts lower. Gold was down to $US367/oz, but oil was up to $US29.25/bbl. Overnight the AUD was trading higher on USD weakness after diving 1 c yesterday on news of another record trade deficit. Around 9 am it was 65.24 US c. Algiers. 9 KILLED IN ALGERIAN BUS CRASH! 9 people were killed and another 30 injured nr Algiers when 2 buses collided with a truck travelling in the wrong direction. Emergency services say the truck, which authorities say was speeding, smashed headlong into 1 bus which then collided with a 2nd bus, packed with passengers. More than 4,000 people were killed on Algeria's roads last y. Baghdad. BLAIR IN BAGHDAD! Amid news of the latest death of a US soldier in the Iraqi capital, Brit PM Blair has made the first visit of a foreign leader to the regime-changed country. He congratulated troops for making a difference, but refused to answer reporters' questions about WMD. Meanwhile, the where-abouts of Saddam Hussein remain a mystery, with American officials saying there's no sign of the deposed dictator at the site bombed during the opening attack of GWII. Blair arrived in the S city of Basra yesterday after flying from Kuwait where he praised Brit troops for their defining efforts during the war. The PM's minders also found one of the few calm places in the city for a picture op. Mr Blair visited a school to meet with teachers and children. Reporters say the event was the safest place the children had been all day. London. VETS IN BAGHDAD! A team of animal welfare campaigners is to travel to Iraq to deliver much-needed veterinary supplies. The World Society for the Protection of Animals plans to undertake the mission next m to help animals in the ag regions of S and C Iraq. Brian Faulkner says their emergency supplies, will help provide a lifeline for Iraq's animals at a time when the country is getting back on its feet. WSPA says looting has left vets without medicines to treat animals and many local people depend on livestock for survival. Jerusalem. MIXED MESSAGES FROM SHARON! Israeli PM Sharon says Israel will never let go of of Jerusalem, just hrs ahead of meeting with Palestinian counterpart Abu Mazen. In a televised speech marking Jerusalem Day, Sharon says Israeli will never let go of the city and he was its protector. The Palestinians want to make E Jerusalem their national capital. Jerusalem. ISRAEL TO FREE PRISONERS! Israel has agreed to release 2 long-term Palestinian prisoners, incl a snr PLO member following talks between the Israeli and Palestinian PM's. Pal Info Min Nabil Amr says Israel has agreed to free Taysir Khaled, a member of the PLO executive committee. The agreement was reached in talks between Abu Mazen and PM Sharon that were described by both sides as "positive". Ottawa. CANADA TO JOIN US DEFENCE SHIELD! After m of indecision and stormy bilateral relations, Canada has finally decided to hold talks with the US over joining its proposed missile defence shield. The announcement is expected to help mitigate tensions between PM Cretien and Pres Bush Jr. The 2 are scheduled to have dinner in Russia on Sat and then attend the G8 summit in Freedomland. Cretien criticised Bush's fiscal policies [?] for 3 straight days this wk in the lead-up to the meetings. Lausanne. ANTI-GLOBALISATION PROTESTS! Up to 5,000 anti-globalisation protesters have begun marking through the Swiss city of Lausanne. They are demonstrating against the G7+Russia summit due to kick off this weekend in nearby Evian, France. Earlier, the protest movement's alternative summit opened in the SE Freedom town with a challenge to the legitimacy of the summit. Melbourne. ATTEMPTED QANTAS HIJACK! Security at Aussie airports is to be "reviewed" after a man tried to hijack and crash a Qantas jet armed with sharpened wooden stakes. The 40 yo computer engineer stabbed 2 flight attendants and injured 2 passengers before being overpowered about QF-1737 between MEL and Launceston yesterday afternoon. Fed Transp Min John Anderson says it was an isolated incident, not terrorism, and the man had gone through metal detectors at MEL airport which failed to pick up the weapons. Canberra. PM REJECTS DEATH PENALTY! PM Howard has rejected the idea of the death penalty for terrorists or hijackers. [Mr Howard had previously expressed his support the the death penalty for the Bali bombers and 9/11 attackers]. Mr Howard told a caller on radio 3AW that from a practical point of view, the law sometimes makes mistakes. He also says the experience of other countries indicates that the death penalty is not automatically a deterrent. Mr Howard says the homicide rate in the US, where the death penalty is applied quite widely, is relatively speaking much higher than in AUS. Melbourne. HIJACKER FACES MEL COURT! A 40 yo MEL man will face court this morning charged with attempted hijack of a Qantas aircraft. It follows yesterday's mid-air drama in which 2 people were stabbed on a flight from MEL to Launceston. Police say the attacker was restrained with plastic ties and bundled between 2 seats after he attacked crew and tried to break into the pilot's cabin. The flight immediately returned to MEL. A 38 yo male flight attendant was stabbed in the back of the head with a wooden stake, and a 25 yo female attendant was stabbed in the face during the attack. Both have been released from hospital after treatment and observation o'night. Athens. PASSENGERS SAFE AFTER FERRY SPRINGS LEAK! Passengers and crew travelling from the Greek Is of Santorini to the S Med Is of Crete are safe today after water began flooding the vessel. Reports say the high-speed cat "Jet 1", carrying 163 passengers and 11 crew, issued distress calls 25 nm S of Santorini. The emergency arose after water began to flood the vessel in strong gale-force winds. Harbour officials were quickly alerted and Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis says all passengers and crew are safe. Sydney. MORE AUSSIE TROOPS RETURN! Aussie mine clearance divers will be welcomed home from the Gulf today. The divers worked at the Iraqi pt of Umm Qasr clearing out mines, and will be honoured at a welcome home in Perth. They've returned as the fed govt concedes the WMD Iraq was supposed to be threatening the world with in the lead-up to GWII may have been destroyed some time before hostilities started. The existence of WMD was the central reason for the war given by PM Howard in televised speeches prior to going to war. In the US, Paul Wolfowitz says the WMD issue was selected to bamboozle the gullible American public, and there were really a range of reasons for attacking Iraq. Canberra. WHEAT VIRUS OUT OF CONTROL! The nation's ag depts are expected today to declare that a wheat virus is impossible to eradicate. Bureaucrats will meet in CBR to look at the latest info on the spread of the wheat streak mosaic virus that was first detected 2 m ago at a CSIRO research facility in CBR. 40,000 important research plants were destroyed at the Black Mtn facility in an attempt to control the spread of the disease. But since then the virus has been found at more than 20 sites around E and S Aus. Sydney. RIVKIN TO LAUNCH APPEAL! Share tipster Rene Rivkin will launch an appeal against his conviction for insider trading. Rivkin was sentenced to 9 m's weekend jail and a $30,000 fine yesterday. Rivkin described the sentence as the greatest injustice in the history of AUS. The Supreme Court Judge had previously described Rivkin's behaviour in court as conceited. The 58 yo multi-millionaire stockbroker could face more problems. The ACCC says it will now "review" his broker's licence. NY. MICROSOFT TO PAY UP! Microsoft Corp has agreed to pay $A1 bn to AOL Time Warner to settle a lawsuit claiming the software giant used its dominance to crush Netscape Communications, now part of the AOL group. Netscape, a onetime Internet star and the most visible victim of the Browser Wars, filed suit in Jan last y. Once the leading browser, Netscape has been reduced to a minor player in the market for browsers since M/S integrated its IE offering into the Windows O/S. Viva 'NIX! Sydney (midday). MARKETS! The ASX opened in negative territory with News Corp retreating to match a weaker Wall St overnight. At midday the All Ords has lost 8 pts to 2,976. But the AUD regained lost ground as the world sold down the USD. {{ Midnight. BBC World News. An American soldier has been shot dead in the latest incident in an on-going series of attacks on US forces in Iraq. Centcom said the soldier was killed while travelling on a main road. No other details were given. The death brings to 5 the number of soldiers killed by enemy action in the past wk. Several others have also been wounded. An official responsible for preparing Brit's "dossier" on Iraqi WMD before GWII says it had to be changed at the last minute following instruction from Number 10. A claim was added that Iraq's bio weapons could be ready in 45 mins, despite warnings from the intel services that the info came from a single and not necessarily reliable source. The news comes as Brit PM Blair arrives in the S Iraqi city of Basra. The fighting between Indon and GAM in Aceh has reportedly left 184 people dead. BBC World News reported there appear to be cases where Indon soldiers are selling weapons to the separatist rebels. Analysts say only about 25% of Army funding comes from the govt. The erst comes from legal, semi-legal and illegal activities. 0.30 am 28 elephants in Indonesia have been trained to listen for the sounds of chainsaws and charge in to "capture" illegal loggers. Friends of the Asian Elephant have qualms about the idea, saying the normally-gentle elephants are being trained to attack. There are also problems with loggers armed with chainsaws fighting back. Tony Blair says the war in Iraq is likely to be seen as a defining moment of the C21. Speaking to Brit troops in Basra, Mr Blair said the regime change has cleared the way for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Russia has announced a vast plan to re-settle 600,000 people from the far N of the country. The region is bitterly cold and winter lasts 8 m. But a Minister says the main reason is economic. Many towns in N Russia rely on single industries that are no longer viable. 6 am 1 wk after the AUS govt denied it had heard of the plan the LA Times says the US is considering moving 20,000 US Marines from Okinawa to new bases in AUS. No timetable was reported in the article. The global re-organisation of US troops is due to what the Pentagon now considers "hostile host nations" like Germany and Japan. Troops will be moved to the more US-friendly nations that comprised the Coalition of the Willing during GWII. [Like Powell and Rumsfeld said Japan and 38 other countries were?] Only last wk For Min Downer denied a prev report that 5,000 US troops and aircraft would be moved to a base in the NT to provide a "springboard" for the US into SE Asia. Today, Def Min Hill says he'll look into the new reports. China has warned its economy could collapse because of SARS. A 40 yo man is likely to be charged with attempting to hijack a Qantas aircraft from MEL to Launceston yesterday. As the Bali bombing trial continues, 4 more suspects have been arrested for helping to plan the attack and buy chemicals used in the explosives. Indon authorities are still trying to track down the mastermind of the atrocity. Aussie mine clearance divers who helped clear the S Iraqi pt of Umm Qasr will return to Perth today. 6 people have been charged over the 5 suicide bombings in Morocco. The AUS govt has folded in and accepted an opp'n plan to ban the Hezbollah terrorist arm. The change of heart came after the opp'n and minor parties in the Senate made it clear they would not grant the A-G sweeping powers to ban whatever groups he saw fit. Up to now only those terrorist groups listed by the UNSC could be banned in AUS. Aussie scientists have discovered 7 new "micro galaxies". The objects had previously been seen as single stars although the existence of small galaxies had been long suspected. Computer models are now struggling to explain how the objects were created and evolved. With 1 hr to trade, the Dow is down 77 pts. Gold is up $US4.95/oz on bad job news in the US. Oil is up .54 USD o'night. The AUD is also up as the greenback has been sold off. It's presently 65.14 US c. A student diagnosed with SARS has forced the closure of a Toronto high school, putting 2,000 students and staff into quarantine. Canada also announced 2 more SARS deaths in the past 24 hrs. 7 am The Dow has closed down 82 pts, but the Nasdaq ended 11 pts higher. 1/2 mn jobs were lost in the US in the last Q, although unemployment is still around 6%. Com Min Sen Alston has denied the ABC's funding is at risk over what he sees as its anti-US bias during GWII. Yesterday, the Min had said a broadcaster that didn't perform to govt expectation would face cutbacks, and the ABC had shown an anti-us bias during the war. UNICEF says the number of Iraqi children that are malnourished has doubled since GWII. 200,000 US and Brit military personnel remain in Iraq. The US says it will keep a large force in the country until the security situation improves. 11 am A 40 yo computer engineer has faced MEL court, charged with attempted hijacking and 2 counts of attacking air crew. David Robinson reportedly lost his job 6 wks ago. Midday. Following news of another soldier killed in Iraq, there's been a US retreated W of Baghdad. In a Sunni-dominated town W of the capital protesters have burned down a police stn. Demonstrators yesterday complained about intrusive US weapons searches in the area. Iraqi police and US soldiers have now left. An anti-globalisation protest has turned violent in Switzerland. Protesters have reportedly broken into an empty bank. About 4,000 protesters are demonstrating against a G8 summit meeting in France. The protest is far smaller than organisers expected. They are gathered on the E side of Lake Geneva because the meeting area has been sealed off. Palestinian and Israeli PM's have met ahead of a slated Middle E summit. Both had positive things to say about the meeting. Handline Jewish settlers have accused PM Sharon of treachery. While Sharon has previously said he would protect Jerusalem the Palestinians have said they want E Jerusalem as their national capital. By simply accepting the Road Map settlers think Sharon has changed. Analysts say the demonstrations against the road map have barley begun. Air France has announced the end of its Concorde flights. The first flight of the world's only supersonic airliner was between Paris and Rio in 1976. }} ======================================== (*) Who is responcible for W.A.R.S? A small group of dedicated sandgrubbers, bannana-lickers and 5th columnists on the run from support payments and sundry legalese in their home countries. Mention us at any Uncle Harry's Suburban Bunker and get a 10% discount on cop-killers! All speling macroizated for correctitood by Mcrosotf Speelchek. *** We will find those responsible! ***