HIGHLIGHTS AAP national news wire at 1530 Aug 3, 1999

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-1999
HIGHLIGHTS AAP national news wire at 1530 Aug 3, 1999

HOBART - Education Minister David Kemp today became the
second republican government minister to publicly endorse a
"no" vote at the November referendum.

DARWIN - A young police officer and a fugitive gunman were
dead after a shootout today at a police roadblock near Darwin.



MELBOURNE - A sacked worker shot dead a bar supervisor and
a teenage girl was wounded as staff struggled to disarm him at
a La Trobe university bar today.

CANBERRA - Treasurer Peter Costello today ruled out further
community consultation on proposed changes to business
taxation.

SYDNEY - Governor-General Sir William Deane handpicked
sprigs of wattle from his Yarralumla garden to lay at the
Swiss gorge where 14 young Australians died last week.



GOULBURN, NSW - Two brothers were today found guilty of murdering of prominent AIDS
specialist Peter Rowland.

SYDNEY - The jury in the John Newman murder trial was
discharged today with the judge saying it would be unfair to
the accused for it to continue.



SYDNEY - The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), in front
of a live Internet audience, today won its battle for the
ownership of the copyrights of films covering the 1956
Melbourne Olympic Games.



SYDNEY - The days of unemployed Australians queuing for a
job may be coming to an end with the federal government today
urging them to click onto the Internet instead.



SYDNEY - New cars are worth half their sale price within
three years with the value of popular large models
experiencing the worst price drops, a new NRMA report has
revealed.

SYDNEY - Cigarette company WD & HO Wills Holdings Ltd,
which is preparing to have its recommended merger with
Rothmans Holdings approved by shareholders, has announced an
interim net profit of $23.3 million, up 6.7 per cent.



SYDNEY - The Shark is caught in the Net. Greg Norman
launched his own web site today, targeting men aged 25-55 "who
are seeking more out of life".



HOBART - A woman was on the verge of tears today as she
recounted in court how international cricket umpire Steve
Randell fondled her breast in a friend's bedroom when she was
11-years-old.



HOBART - Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out blocking the import of raw salmon.



HOBART - Indonesia was responding positively to Australian
pressure for a free and fair ballot on East Timorese
independence, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.



BANGKOK - A senior Thai police general leading the
investigation into the murder of Australian auditor Michael
Wansley said the alleged killer's arrest could be within the
week.



CANBERRA - Health ministers have had to run the gauntlet of
a protests as they arrived for a meeting here today to discuss
the labelling of genetically modified (GM) food.



CANBERRA - Visitor numbers to Australia declined slightly
in June, new official figures show.



CANBERRA - Aboriginal activist Mick Dodson was today
appointed by the federal government to develop a code of
conduct to ensure Olympics tourists are culturally sensitive
when they visit indigenous communities.



SYDNEY - A $10 smoke alarm and a Vietnam veteran saved the
lives of 50 people after fire broke out today in the basement
of a three-storey Sydney apartment building.



SYDNEY - An unfair contract case sought against New South
Wales state Labor MP Gabrielle Harrison by a former staffer
was today formally sent to conciliation in the NSW Industrial
Relations Commission.



SYDNEY - A man with a knife has barricaded himself alone
inside a house at Narooma on the New South Wales far south
coast.

MELBOURNE - Victoria Police have cleared staff in Premier
Jeff Kennett's office of the alleged misuse of their
government credit cards, the state opposition said today.



MELBOURNE - Union pickets designed to reduce petrol and oil
movements to a trickle have been set up around Shell's Geelong
facilities in support of a five per cent wage claim.

MELBOURNE - Victorians should be totally switched on as
they enter the Year 2000, with little risk of Y2K bug power
failure, the Office of the Regulator-General has found.



MELBOURNE - A motive for the chilling car bombing of a
Melbourne man remains a mystery to investigators a year after
the fatal blast.



MELBOURNE - Four men will reappear in court next month
charged with possessing and selling a sexually explicit video
of entertainer Debra (Debra) Byrne and a man.



MELBOURNE - The Victorian government is to appoint a
three-person committee to examine the impact and the
importance of sport beyond the year 2000.



BRISBANE - Plans for a $28 million sawmill in north
Queensland may be in jeopardy if the state government does not
extend its end of the month deadline for investment,
environmental and business groups said today.



BRISBANE - The Criminal Justice Commission was applying
double standards in its approach to the net bet affair
involving the Labor government, Opposition Leader Rob Borbidge
said today.



BRISBANE - Four sugar mills in north Queensland's Mackay
district were idle today as 700 workers met to discuss staff
selection procedures.



BRISBANE - A man who put a race caller in a headlock during
a race at an Albion Park trots meeting has been banned from
the Brisbane track.



BRISBANE - The Queensland government today announced a $20
million upgrade of the state's firefighting equipment in next
month's state budget.



PERTH - The director of Western Australia's Cancer
Foundation Clive Deverall revealed today he has a rare form of
cancer similar to that which claimed the life of British actor
Paul Eddington.



PERTH - Police are concerned for the welfare of a
41-year-old New South Wales Man, missing in from a campsite in
the far north Kimberley region since last week.



ADELAIDE - Smokers were more likely to get gum disease, the
Australian Dental Association (ADA) warned today.



ADELAIDE - A 47-year-old man died from a karate kick to the
chest delivered with such force it fractured five ribs, his
breastbone and bruised his heart, the Supreme Court in
Adelaide was told today.



ADELAIDE - A three-year-old South Australian boy has died
from meningococcal infection - the first death from the
disease in the state this year.



ADELAIDE - People who doubt religious miracles or the
supernatural should take the same sceptical approach to belief
in science or market forces, bioethicist and Catholic priest
John Fleming said today.



ADELAIDE - A Labor Party branch stacking row in South
Australian will go to trial in the state's Supreme Court later
this month.



AAP mo

KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL AUG 3, 1999

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