AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, April 4

AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2005
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, April 4
Evening Round-Up: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1630


Chopper Grounded (SYDNEY)

The Australian Navy's Sea King helicopters have been grounded after nine Australians
died when one of them crashed in Indonesia.

The navy says it's erring on the side of caution and won't allow the helicopters to
fly until after an investigation into the cause of the crash on Nias island on Saturday.

The bodies of the six navy and three air force personnel who died in the crash are
due to be flown home to Australia tomorrow.

The Australian Defence Association has questioned the government's decision to continue
using the choppers when other nations are retiring them.

But Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD says other countries are still using Sea Kings just
as old -- and in some cases older.



Chopper Survivors (ON BOARD HMAS KANIMBLA)

The two survivors of the Australian military helicopter crash are being hailed by shipmates
as miracle men.

SHANE WARBURTON and SCOTT NICHOLLS are believed to have survived the crash because
they were at the rear of the Sea King as it plunged into a field near the remote village
of Aman Draya on Saturday.

They were dragged from the flames by an Indonesian villager who was later thanked personally
for his heroism by HMAS Kanimbla's captain Commander GEORGE MCGUIRE.

NICHOLLS, an RAAF paramedic, and WARBURTON, a communications operator, were both on
board the helicopter as part of a medical team sent to help earthquake survivors.



Indon Aust PM (CANBERRA)

Two days after the chopper crash tragedy, Indonesian President SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO
has held talks with Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD in Canberra.

Mr HOWARD has told reporters the tragedy has brought Australia and Indonesia closer together.

He says both he and the Indonesian leader have a strong personal commitment to strengthening
the relationship between their two countries.

Mr HOWARD says Australia will finance 600 scholarships for Indonesian students to study
here, to build that relationship further.

And he says it's important for Australian companies to invest in Indonesia as a means
of defeating terrorism.



Pope Pell (SYDNEY)

Australia's highest ranking Catholic, Sydney Archbishop GEORGE PELL, has arrived in
Rome after the death of Pope JOHN PAUL II.

He's there with 116 other cardinals to decide who the next leader of the church will be.

Cardinal PELL says the 84-year-old pontiff will be remembered for his great following
of young people and his contribution to the collapse of communism.

Thousands of Australian Catholics will gather at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral tomorrow
night for a special mass to commemorate the life and death of JOHN PAUL.



MP (ADELAIDE)

South Australia's parliamentary speaker PETER LEWIS has announced his resignation after
a month-long controversy in which he claimed there was a paedophile MP in state parliament.

Mr LEWIS has told parliament he'll go to the governor's office this afternoon and tender
his resignation.

His decision came only moments before the Labor government was to introduce a motion
of no confidence in him.

The government has threatened to sue for criminal defamation after a volunteer worker
in the speaker's office named the MP at the centre of the allegations last week.



Basketball (PERTH)

A 10-year-old Perth boy whose hands and foot were surgically reattached after an horrific
basketball accident has been forced to have his foot amputated.

Nine days after he repaired TERRY VO's limbs, plastic surgeon ROBERT LOVE has performed
a 90-minute procedure to remove the schoolboy's leg 14cm below the knee.

A brick wall and guttering collapsed on top of TERRY as he performed a slam dunk at
a friend's birthday party on March the 26th.

The eight-hour operation to reattach his hands and foot -- crushed off seven centimetres
above the wrists and ankle -- was originally hailed a success, but Dr LOVE says the muscles
in TERRY's foot have since decayed.



Detainee (ADELAIDE)

A suicidal Iranian asylum seeker, who has taken court action against the federal government,
says he was treated like an animal at the Baxter detention centre.

He and another Iranian detainee have launched an action in the Federal Court, claiming
the federal government has failed in its duty of care towards them.

One of the men -- identified only as S -- says he wasn't able to see a psychiatrist
until January this year despite several self-harm and protest incidents during his four
and a half year detention.

Both men, whose names have been suppressed, are being held at the Baxter facility in
South Australia's north.



Thai Bombs (BANGKOK)

Airports in southern Thailand are on full alert after bomb blasts at the region's main
airport and two other sites killed at least two people and wounded several dozen others.

Foreigners, including British, French and Malaysian nationals, are among those wounded
in the blasts at the Hat Yai regional airport, a French-owned department store and a hotel
in Songkhla province yesterday.

Deputy Transport and Communications Minister PHUMTHAM WECHAYACHAI says authorities
will check security at all airports and railway stations in southern Thailand.



Mallah (SYDNEY)

The jury in the trial of a Sydney man accused of planning a suicide attack on government
offices has retired to consider its verdict.

Twenty-one-year-old ZAKY MALLAH has pleaded not guilty in the New South Wales Supreme
Court to charges under federal counter-terrorism laws.

The Crown alleges MALLAH planned to kill himself and government staff at the Sydney
offices of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or the Australian Security and
Intelligence Organisation, in late 2003.



Bushfires Vic Esplin (MELBOURNE)

Victoria's emergency services commissioner says mother nature -- not the Department
of Sustainability and Environment -- is to blame for a routine burn that grew out of control.

The blaze ripped through 7,000 hectares of Wilsons Promontory National Park in the
state's south-east when weather conditions changed at the weekend.

More than 200 firefighters, 17 tankers and two bulldozers are battling the flames and
the department is hoping for substantial rain to help bring it back under control.

Commissioner BRUCE ESPLIN says the burning was started 11 days ago when weather conditions
were benign, but a sudden change in the weather caused it to fan out.



Whales (PERTH)

A pod of pilot whales has been herded back into deep water after spending more than
a day stranded on a West Australian beach.

19 long-finned pilot whales were found between Peppermint Beach and Siesta Park at
Busselton, 230 kilometres south of Perth, early yesterday.

Four were already dead, and despite the efforts of more than 120 people, another two
died before nightfall.

The Department of Conservation and Land Management says the rescue team worked throughout
the night to ensure the survival of the remaining 13.

The whales are still being tracked and are reportedly making good progress.



BRIEFLY:



A semi-trailer filled with explosive chemicals has crashed near an explosives factory
in central Queensland, forcing the closure of the Bruce Highway.




Indonesian police say they've had to deal with more than 100 bomb threats since the deadly
attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September.




A Sydney mother who has fostered more than 40 children has been named Barnardos New South
Wales Mother of the Year.




And in Tokyo, a women-only subway car has begun operating during the morning rush hour
in a bid to crack down on groping, which is common on crowded trains.



IN SPORT:


LEAGUE WEBCKE (BRISBANE)

Test prop SHANE WEBCKE has announced his retirement from representative rugby league
due to a chronic knee injury.

A veteran of 18 Tests for Australia and 21 State of Origin appearances for Queensland,
30-year-old WEBCKE says he's bitterly disappointed not to be able to play for those teams
again.

The Brisbane Bronco says he has a degenerating knee problem that has required surgery
twice in the past six months and does not believe it would cope with the extra workload
of representative football.



LEAGUE JUDICIARY (SYDNEY)

Parramatta lock DANIEL WAGON will miss Sunday's clash with Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium
unless he successfully fights a dangerous throw charge at the NRL judiciary.

WAGON has been charged with a grade one dangerous throw for a tackle on Penrith prop
JOEL CLINTON during the Eels' 26-16 victory at Parramatta Stadium on Friday night.

Bulldogs hooker COREY HUGHES will escape suspension with an early guilty plea on a
grade one careless high tackle charge for his hit on Cronulla lock PAUL GALLEN at Toyota
Park yesterday.


AAP RTV ea/wjf

KEYWORD: EVENING ROUND-UP

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