AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-1999
Radio and Television Evening Round Up
EVENING ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1630.
QUAKE TURKEY (IZMIT, Turkey)
Turkish Interior Minister SAADETTIN TANTAN says at least 200 people are dead and hundreds
of others are injured following a powerful earthquake that rocked Turkey's western and central
provinces early today.
The earthquake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, has injured about 500.
Reports of collapsed buildings in heavily populated areas suggest that the death toll is
likely to rise.
The industrial town of Izmit, the epicentre of the quake, seems to be worst hit.
Witnesses say rescue teams are struggling to reach residents buried under dozens of
collapsed buildings in Izmit.
The Anatolian news agency says many people have also died in the cities of Bursa, Istanbul
and Eskisehir.
SNOWBOARDERS (PERISHER, Nsw)
An inquiry has been launched into why police searching for four missing snowboarders were
not told for three days that rescuers had found a snow shovel.
Questions are also being asked about why Army high-tech thermal imaging equipment brought
in last night was not employed earlier in a week of search activity.
Hopes of finding the four men missing in the Snowy Mountains were briefly raised today when
it was revealed a snow shovel found in the search area last Friday had the name DEANO
scratched on it.
However, it turned out to belong to a cameraman.
One of the missing men is 25-year-old DEAN PINCINI, of Sydney, who bought a
new snow shovel
on August 5.
SCOTT and PAUL's father TREVOR BEARDSMORE says he's confident the four young men will be
found alive because they are survivors and work as a team.
CYCLIST (PERTH)
West Australian police have warned an American rescue team searching for a US adventurer
missing for more than three weeks in the Great Sandy Desert that their mission won't be a
stroll in the park.
Sergeant WALLY WOLFE from Broome Police says the Miami-based 1st Special Response Group
doesn't know the terrain and could need rescuing themselves.
The eight rescuers have been allowed to bring in three cadaver dogs to sniff for
33-year-old Alaskan fireman ROBERT BOGUCKI'S body, but Sergeant WOLFE says the dogs will last
about five minutes in the spinifex.
When police abandoned the search for Mr BOGUCKI eight days ago, they had confined the
search area to 600 square kilometres about 280km east of the Great Northern Highway.
BOAT RUDDOCK (CANBERRA)
Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK says the Port Hedland detention centre is capable of
handling the latest load of boat people, even though it's approaching full capacity.
Mr RUDDOCK says it's expected up to 140 people will be leaving the West Australian facility
this week and the centre has the capacity to expand from the preferred 700 inmates to about
800 people.
Mr RUDDOCK has also downplayed claims that staff are undertrained to deal with rioting
among the detainees.
He says specially trained security staff are brought in to deal with the situation when
riots break out.
BIKIES RANN (SYDNEY)
South Australian opposition leader MIKE RANN warns senior police are underestimating a
nationwide escalation in bikie violence.
Mr RANN says FBI experts have been predicting a rise in internationally-linked biker
criminal activity in Australia for several years.
He called on Justice Minister AMANDA VANSTONE to visit the United States to hear the
information first hand and alert Australian authorities the seriousness of the threat.
The SA Labor leader made the comments after talks with National Crime Authority head JOHN
BROOME following a recent police conference in Adelaide which downplayed talk of a nationwide
bikie war.
TAX BUSINESS (CANBERRA)
A small army of tax officers will visit up to a quarter of a million businesses this year
to help them prepare for the introduction of the GST.
The tax office has embarked on the mammoth task of making sure businesses are ready to
implement the GST by the start-up date of July 1 next year.
Tax Commissioner MICHAEL CARMODY says up to 3,000 department officers would be sent out
around the nation to help businesses make the transition.
He's told reporters in Canberra that two million businesses would receive a booklet over
the coming weeks telling them how the
new tax system would affect them.
NRMA (SYDNEY)
The NRMA has won a temporary court order stopping advertisements placed by a dissident
director claiming it lost $50 million in a single transaction.
NRMA board member IAN YATES placed the advertisements urging NRMA members to vote for
Motorist Action Group candidates who oppose demutualising the company's insurance arm.
Lawyers for NRMA claim the advertisements about the loss of $50 million, shown on TV last
week, are misleading.
They have won a temporary stop to them in the equity division of the
New South Wales
Supreme Court.
Justice KIM SANTOW has ordered that Mr YATES be restrained until 2pm this Friday from
publishing or authorising the publication of any statement that the NRMA lost $50 million by
selling its shares in Soul Pattinson Ltd and Brickworks Ltd.
The matter will be heard again at 10am on Friday.
WHEATON (SYDNEY)
A woman believed to be the oldest person in
New South Wales has died two days short of her
109th birthday.
MYRTLE WHEATON -- a dedicated family woman and avid armchair cricket fan -- died in
Armidale yesterday.
Daughter-in-law VAL WHEATON says MYRTLE was never one to make a great deal about her age.
KOREA MISSILE (SEOUL, South Korea)
Air raid sirens sounded in the South Korean capital of Seoul today in a drill held amid
fears of a long-range missile test by communist rivals North Korea.
Pedestrians in the South Korean capital ducked into nearby buildings and cars pulled over
for the drill while its leaders joined the US and others in condemning the testing.
The US, Japan and South Korea have warned the testing may jeopardise their badly-needed
food aid while North Korean leaders watered down the tough talk of the past.
BRIEFLY:
An 32-year-old Albanian man is in a serious condition after being stabbed during an argument
at the Portsea Safe Haven for Kosovar refugees, southeast of Melbourne.
Kosovo refugees in Australia and Kosovo are to be trained to avoid landmines, cluster bombs
and booby traps under a $500,000 program announced by
Foreign Minister ALEXANDER DOWNER.
AND IN SPORTS NEWS:
SWIM LONGJOHNS (BRISBANE)
World swimming champions MICHAEL KLIM, IAN THORPE and SUSIE O'NEILL risk losing out on
possible world records by opting to wear the
new long john swimming suits at next week's Pan
Pacific Swimming Championships.
The neck-to-ankle suits are yet to be ratified by world swimming governing body FINA but
Australian head swimming coach DON TALBOT says KLIM, THORPE and O'NEILL intend to wear them at
the Pan Pacs in Sydney.
LEAGUE CARROLL (SYDNEY)
Former rugby league Test prop MARK CARROLL has announced his retirement, citing injuries
after a 13-year career with Penrith, South Sydney and Manly.
An emotional CARROLL read a letter to a press conference at South Sydney Leagues club,
during which he called on the National Rugby League to ensure the Rabbitohs' continued
survival in the competition.
And in other sports news:
SUSIE MARONEY is to team up with Cuban president FIDEL CASTRO in a
new ultra-distance ocean
swim attempt -- from Jamaica to Cuba.
THIS ENDS THE EVENING ROUND-UP
AAP RTV lm/jn
KEYWORD: EVENING ROUND-UP
1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
