Highlights of the AAP newsfile, Tuesday morning

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-1999
Highlights of the AAP newsfile, Tuesday morning
KOSOVO (BELGRADE)

NATO missiles and aircraft have blasted Serbian targets inside
Yugoslavia for a 13th straight day while a massive airlift for
ethnic Albanian refugees has begun.

An airlift of Kosovo refugees from Macedonia has begun with 151
ethnic Albanians, mainly women and children, flying to Turkey
aboard a Boeing 737 jet.

Macedonian Transport Minister BOBI SOIKOVSKI says a second
plane is leaving shortly for Turkey, which has said it's willing
to admit up to 20,000 Kosovars.

Turkish authorities earlier said they expected the arrival of
four planes with a total of 598 refugees at Corlu in western
Turkey.

The evacuations had been demanded and organised by the
government of Macedonia which has been overwhelmed by an influx of
some 120,000 Kosovo deportees.

NATO spokesman JAMIE SHEA says about 44,000 ethnic Albanians
have streamed out of Kosovo and 831,000 have been displaced since
the Kosovo conflict began at the end of February 1998.

Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary WILLIAM COHEN says plans to
send 24 tank-hitting Apache helicopters into Yugoslavia aren't a
prelude to deploying ground troops to defeat Serb forces.

COHEN says the US is not any closer to deploying ground troops
and that the use of Apache helicopters is a continuation and
extension of NATO's 13-day air campaign.



KOSOVO REFUGEES AUST (CANBERRA)

Australia has refused to join NATO in accepting planeloads of
refugees from Kosovo, but has offered temporary asylum to visitors
trapped here by the war in Yugoslavia.

Australia's small Albanian community have criticised the
decision.

But the Refugee Council has warned that any early move to
resettle the refugees would be a vindication of the ethnic
cleansing of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population.

Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK says residents from the
former Yugoslavia affected by the conflict are able to apply for
an extension of their stay on a case by case basis.

Mr RUDDOCK says Australia has no plans to lift the refugee
intake beyond the current 4,500 places but it will be guided by
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Germany has agreed to take 40,000 temporary refugees from
Kosovo, the United States 20,000, Turkey 20,000, Norway 6,000,
Greece 5,000 and Canada 5,000.



KOSOVO CARE AUST (LONDON)

CARE Australia officials are bracing for a long wait to learn
the fate of their two missing colleagues in war torn Yugoslavia
after initial meetings with border guards today.

CARE chief executive CHARLES TAPP and Australia's ambassador to
Yugoslavia CHRIS LAMB have held two meetings with Yugoslav
authorities.

But TAPP says there's still no firm information on the
whereabouts or welfare of CARE workers STEVE PRATT and PETER
WALLACE, who haven't been seen since last Wednesday.

Speaking from the Croatian city of Vukovar, near Yugoslavia's
north-western border, Mr TAPP says the wait to learn firm news
about the two men may take several days.

CARE overseas chief ROBERT YALLOP yesterday said that both men
were believed to be in an area not far from the border.

He also said CARE was optimistic the men would be back in
safety before too long.

Meanwhile, two more CARE Australia workers are on their way to
the troubled Balkans.

BOB ALLEN and KATHERINE MACARTHUR are expected to arrive in
Macedonia tomorrow to join an operation helping the thousands of
ethnic Albanian refugees pouring out of Kosovo.

The Tasmanian pair have both had experience in medical aid
prior to signing up with CARE -- Mr ALLEN in the army medical
corps and Ms MACARTHUR as a nurse.



LOCKERBIE (ROTTERDAM, Netherland)

Clearing the way for justice after years of defiance, Libya has
handed over two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am jet bombing for trial
in the Netherlands.

The surrender of alleged former intelligence agents ABDEL
BASSET ALI AL-MEGRAHI and LAMEN KHALIFA FHIMAH means they can be
finally tried under Scottish law on charges of planting the
suitcase bomb that shredded Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The December 21, 1988, bombing killed 270 people -- mostly
Americans -- and led to punishing UN sanctions that have isolated
Libya from the West for the past seven years.

Accompanied by UN representative HANS CORELL, who witnessed the
handover in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, the pair have arrived at
the Valkenburg military airport in The Hague.

They'll be held in a prison in The Hague or in the port city of
Rotterdam pending proceedings to extradite them to British custody
in the Netherlands.

Also, UN sanctions against Libya have been suspended after
secretary general KOFI ANNAN formally notified the council in
writing that the transfer has taken place.



DRUGS (CANBERRA)

Labor will propose what it says is a better national
co-ordination on drugs later today.

Opposition Leader KIM BEAZLEY is due to release proposals under
which the proceeds of crime are easier to confiscate and services
to help drug addicts better coordinated nationally.

The discussion paper on illicit drug use is the product of six
months work by a shadow ministerial committee.

It deals with law enforcement and legal matters, demand
reduction and social issues such as education and support for
families.

The timing is deliberate.

Labor wants to contribute to public discussion on illicit drug
use ahead of Friday's premiers conference at which Prime Minister
JOHN HOWARD wants the issue at the top of the agenda.

TELSTRA KELLY (CANBERRA)

Queensland National Party MPs are split over the full sale of
Telstra, with an outspoken backbencher lobbying independent
senators BRIAN HARRADINE and MAL COLSTON to vote against the plan.

DE-ANNE KELLY has outlined concerns about the impact of full
privatisation on rural and regional Australia, and is urging
Senators HARRADINE and COLSTON to support no more than a further
16.6 per cent sale.

Mrs KELLY says she abstained from voting on the bill when it
passed the lower house, but she is now acting in accordance with
Queensland National Party policy.

But National Party Senate leader RON BOSWELL has vowed to vote
for the legislation, saying he'll keep his word to the prime
minister in return for a $670 million infrastructure package for
the bush.



RURAL (CANBERRA)

Senior federal ministers will tour regional New South Wales
towns this week to discuss the serious shortage of country
doctors.

Transport and Regional Services Minister JOHN ANDERSON, Health
Minister MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE and several doctor group
representatives will visit Tamworth, Gunnedah, Mudgee, Moree and
Ashford to see first hand how the doctor shortage is affecting
country people.

They will be joined by National Farmers' Federation president
IAN DONGES.

The NFF last week supported Dr WOOLDRIDGE'S proposal to
allocate more places in medical schools to students from country
towns.

Studies show regional and rural medical students are more
likely to return to their communities after finishing their
studies.

Mr ANDERSON says most Australians take immediate access to a
doctor for granted, but in regional Australia people often wait
for weeks or have to drive for several hours to see one.



TOLL NATIONAL (SYDNEY)

Twenty-three people have died on Australia's roads this Easter
break -- eight more than the four-day long weekend claimed last
year.

The break had a horrific start, with the national toll for the
first 24-hours almost in line with last year's final Easter toll
count, which stood at 15.

This year, New South Wales led the deaths with 12, most victims
in the wet weather during the first two days -- up from three last
year.

Two died in Victoria, down four from last year, Western
Australia had two deaths, and Queensland recorded one death.

Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory remained
fatality-free, but South Australia, had six deaths, three
yesterday -- up five from last year.



QUAKE PNG (WASHINGTON)

A strong earthquake with a preliminary measurement of 7.4 on
the Richter scale has hit Papua New Guinea.

The United States Geological Survey says no damage has been
reported from the earthquake near Kandarian in New Britain, but
its magnitude shows there's potential for injuries.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 9:08pm local time
yesterday, was 110km north-north-east of Kandarian.



BRIEFLY:


The Australian Government has asked China to consider returning
jailed businessman JAMES PENG to Sydney on medical parole after he
contracted a life-threatening disease in prison.


Jailed East Timorese resistance leader JOSE XANANA GUSMAO (Pron:
Zhu-NA-NA Goos-MAO) has called on his people to take up arms
against pro-Indonesian groups after a day of violence which has
left up to 60 people dead.


An inquest into the bombing of the National Crime Authority's
Adelaide office five years ago begins today.


The Queensland government will launch the second phase of a
national advertising campaign later today to ensure the state gets
a fair share of revenue from the GST.



AAP

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