Radio And Television Midday Round Up

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-1999
Radio And Television Midday Round Up
MIDDAY ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1130.

KOSOVO US MILITARY (WASHINGTON)

The United States says it wants to send 24 Apache helicopters and about 2,000 support
troops to Albania to take on Yugoslav forces driving ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.

The Pentagon says the decision to send the low-flying Apaches, designed to destroy tanks,
is expected to be approved by NATO tomorrow.

Washington says the move to back up the 12-day-old NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia is
not a precursor to using ground troops in Kosovo.

NATO military sources say sending ground troops into Kosovo would be almost prohibitively
difficult and likely to result in heavy allied casualties.

They say such a force would require at least 200,000 men and take two months to assemble.

However, US Secretary of State MADELEINE ALBRIGHT has suggested a shift in NATO strategy,
saying the alliance might deploy ground troops in Kosovo without Yugoslavia's agreement.

In the latest round of airstrikes, the Yugoslav First Army headquarters in Belgrade has
been demolished, along with petroleum tanks, an ammunition plant and highway bridges elsewhere
in Yugoslavia.

KOSOVO REFUGEES (BONN)

The German government says European Union countries are considering offering sanctuary to
more than 100,000 refugees driven out of Kosovo by Yugoslav forces.

An estimated 350,000 refugees have fled to Albania and Macedonia since NATO started bombing
Yugoslavia on March 24.

Refugees are currently stranded in border areas around Kosovo in what the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees has described as desperate conditions.

The United States has agreed to accept up to 20,000 refugees on at least a temporary basis.

Meanwhile, Australia's Immigration Minister PHILLIP RUDDOCK says the Federal Government is
not considering increasing the number of immigration places for Kosovar refugees.

He says Australia will offer permananent settlement rather than temporary refuge to ethnic
Albanians forced out of the Serbian province of Kosovo.

KOSOVO CARE (CANBERRA)

Efforts continue to find two Australian aid workers missing in Yugoslavia since last
Wednesday.

CARE Australia chief executive CHARLES TAPP has made contact with Serb border patrols at
the Croatian-Yugoslavia border.

He's travelling with the Australian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, CHRIS LAMB.

It's believed that CARE Australia workers STEVE PRATT and PETER WALLACE have been taken
into custody by Serb authorities in the area.

Meanwhile the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says there has been no further clues
as to the pair's whereabouts.

OLY COLES (CANBERRA)

Beleaguered International Olympic Committee member PHIL COLES appears set to carry the
Olympic torch along Sydney's Bondi Beach.

Mr COLES' replacement as Torch Relay Committee chair, ANNA BOOTH, has endorsed Mr COLES as
an appropriate candidate to run the relay leg along the famous stretch of coastline.

Mr COLES, who is still under investigation by the International Olympic Committee over a
$10,000 gift of jewels, has told News Ltd newspapers he has accepted Ms BOOTH'S invitation to
run the Bondi leg.

However, Ms BOOTH says the ultimate decision on who will carry the torch will be decided by
committees set up for that purpose

TELSTRA KELLY (CANBERRA)

Outspoken National Party MP DE-ANNE KELLY is defying the federal government on the full
privatisation of Telstra.

She has written letters to lobby independent senators BRIAN HARRADINE and MAL COLSTON to
oppose the sale, outlining her concerns about the impact on rural and regional Australia.

The North Queensland MP says she is confident of the support of the National Party
Queensland branch and denies that she is being disloyal.

She says her stance is National Party policy in Queensland and she has to pursue an outcome
that is good for the party and the constituency.

POLLNSW CLARENCE (SYDNEY)

New South Wales Regional Development Minister, HARRY WOODS, will find out today whether he
will retain his north coast seat of Clarence in the state election.

Mr WOODS is so far 89 votes ahead of national party candidate STEVE CANSDELL.

A formal distribution of preferences, expected yesterday, has been deferred until today.

The result is expected to be known this afternoon.

ECSTASY (PERTH)

Federal police have arrested three people after seizing six kilograms of ecstasy tablets at
Perth International Airport.

A police spokesman says the drugs were found in the possession of two men and a woman on a
flight from Singapore to Perth on Saturday morning.

The trio has been charged with possession and importation of an illegal drug and will
appear in the East Perth Magistrate's Court today.

IRELAND ADAMS (DUBLIN)

Sinn Fein leader GERRY ADAMS has warned that Northern Ireland's year-old peace deal is in
crisis.

Marking the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule at Glasnevin Cemetery, where some of
the IRA dead are buried, ADAMS has called demands for the group to disarm a provocation.

In his Easter Sunday address, ADAMS has also reaffirmed the support of his group for the
peace process.

But he swears that republicans will never stop trying to end the 1921 partition of the
island and unite the British-ruled province with the Republic of Ireland in a single state.

BRIEFLY.............................................

Spain is experiencing an horrific increase in its Easter road toll as its highways are
packed with holiday makers. A total of 141 people have died in the past 10 days.

Queensland has recorded its first Easter road fatality with the death of a cyclist near
Bundaberg early today.

In the United States, searchers have spent the day carefully moving debris from piles
of wreckage, hoping to find more survivors of a tornado which sheared a 5.6 kilometre
swath through a L
ouisiana town, killing six people.

The US military says US and British warplanes have attacked an Iraqi surface-to-air missile
and communications sites in southern Iraq after Iraqi aircraft violated the southern no-fly
zone.

A Brazilian teenager has been shot dead in a fight among rival soccer fans at Rio de
Janeiro's Maracana stadium.

SPORT...............................................

SURFING BELLS (BELLS BEACH, Vic)

World number four surfer SHANE DORIAN has come from behind to defeat fellow Hawaiian SUNNY
GARCIA and win the Rip Curl Pro surf classic at Bells Beach in Victoria.

The 26-year-old won his first ever World Championship Tour event with a near perfect
9.5-point ride and then sealed victory with 7.1 point wave.

His opponent GARCIA -- a two-time winner at Bells -- needed an 8.1-point ride to win but
ran out of time before the final siren.

Australians MARK OCCHILUPO of the Gold Coast and Wollongong's TODD PRESTAGE placed equal
third losing in the semi-finals surfed this morning.

TENNIS WOMEN (HILTON HEAD, South Carolina)

Top-ranked MARTINA HINGIS of Switzerland cruised past fellow teenage tennis star ANNA
KOURNIKOVA 6-4 6-3 to win the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

The 18-year-old HINGIS needed just over an hour to claim her 22nd career singles title and
third of the year.

KNEE (MELBOURNE)

A study shows that Melbourne' bad weather has a bright side: it reduces football injuries.

Sports medicine experts have found that Australian Football League matches played north of
Melbourne have a significantly higher rate of knee injuries.

It also shows that there are higher numbers of injuries in matches played in years with dry
weather.

ENDS BULLETIN AAP RTV/rp

KEYWORD: MIDDAY ROUND-UP

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