Radio and Television Breakfast Round Up

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-1999
Radio and Television Breakfast Round Up
BREAKFAST ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 0430.

QUAKE TURKEY WRAP (Turkey)

The death toll from Turkey's earthquake has risen to nearly 3,800, and almost 18,000 are
reported injured as rescuers search for survivors under the rubble and a huge refinery fire
threatens to ignite a fertiliser plant.

Tens of thousands of people are refusing to return home as more than 250 aftershocks,
several dozen of them serious, have rattled their confidence that the worst is over.

Highway medians, parks and empty lots have been turned into makeshift tent cities across
western Turkey.

The quake initially was reported as a magnitude 7.8 quake, but scientists say that figure
might be downgraded to 7.4.

Throughout western Turkey, bodies have overflowed hospital morgues and are stacked in
refrigerated meat trucks.

International rescue teams have joined Turkish authorities to sift through the rubble in
search of survivors.

A huge fire rages on at Turkey's biggest oil refinery, and an explosion was heard.



Australia's federal government has called for donations to aid agencies. Foreign Minister
ALEXANDER DOWNER has pledged $1 million to help relief efforts in Turkey.

TRAIN (SYDNEY)

Australia's only east-west rail link is expected to be remain closed today after a
passenger train hit a freight train 200 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie yesterday.

Authorities say the trains collided when the Indian Pacific passenger train moved onto a
crossing loop where the freight train had stopped to allow it to pass.

Eight injured people have been air-lifted to Kalgoorlie Hospital, and around 160 remaining
passengers and crew are being taken there by road.

OAKDALE (SYDNEY)

The federal government has committed itself to finding a solution for workers left high and
dry by corporate collapses after bowing to pressure to bail out Oakdale coal miners.

Workplace Relations Minister PETER REITH says the government will legislate as soon as
possible to ensure the 125 Oakdale employees will be fully paid their $6.3 million in
entitlements.

The announcement comes weeks after Mr REITH rejected the idea of accessing the $240 million
coal industry fund, citing an unwanted precedent elsewhere in the economy.

SNOWBOARDERS (SYDNEY)

A scaled-down search for four missing snowboarders is set to continue in the NSW Snowy
Mountains today.

Yesterday potential clues brought false hope to rescuers and devastated relatives for the
second consecutive day when two thermal heat images turned out to be wild deer.

The search, which authorities say has well and truly covered the search area several times,
will today be downgraded to 20 personnel and one helicopter.

CYCLIST (PERTH)

A specialist American search team is due to venture into Western Australia's vast Great
Sandy Desert today, in a bid to find missing US adventurer ROBERT BOGUCKI.

Members of the Miami-based 1st Special Response Group will head into the desert from the
Kimberley town of Broome in search of the 33-year-old, who's been missing for three weeks.

NATION SHARPLES (BRISBANE)

One Nation will appeal against a Brisbane Supreme Court decision that it's not registered
in Queensland, in an attempt to stave off possible fraud charges.

One Nation may also have to pay back almost half a million dollars in electoral funding if
the finding by Justice ROSLYN ATKINSON is allowed to stand.

Justice ATKINSON has found that One Nation's registration as a political party in
Queensland was induced by fraud and misrepresentation

INDON ACEH (JAKARTA)

Indonesian military chief General WIRANTO has warned a state of emergency will be declared
in separatist-plagued Aceh province if security conditions do not improve.

WIRANTO also says 1,200 tough anti-riot troops dispatched in Aceh in May - who are widely
blamed for fuelling the violence - will be pulled back from residential areas and villages.

TIMOR AMNESTY US (WASHINGTON)

Amnesty International has urged Washington to send a high-level team to monitor East
Timor's upcoming autonomy referendum, with the release of a report alleging mounting violence
against pro-independence forces.

Amnesty officials say the United States should send a senior officer right away to East
Timor, along with a team to cover every part of the Indonesian-ruled territory ahead of the
August 30 vote.

And they want the international community to hold Indonesian President BJ HABIBIE and his
military accountable for the massacres and abuses taking place in East Timor.

TUNA (HAMBURG, Germany)

Australia and New Zealand have faced an international tribunal to try to stop what they say
is Japanese overfishing of bluefin tuna in the South Pacific.

The case before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea aims to secure a
temporary injunction halting Japan's experimental bluefin fishing program.

Australian Attorney-General DARYL WILLIAMS has rejected Japan's argument that the catches
are needed for scientific purposes.

IN FINANCE:

NEWS CORP (SYDNEY)

RUPERT MURDOCH's global media giant News Corp has suffered a 35 per cent slump in net
profit for 1998/99.

News Corp's net profit for the 12 months to June 30, 1999 was $1.088 billion, compared to
$1.682 billion in the previous corresponding period.

Despite the release of Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace this year, News Corp was
unable to match the previous year's efforts which saw the success of its blockbuster Titanic
lift profits to a record high.

GIO CORRIGAN (SYDNEY)

GIO Australia chief PETER CORRIGAN says legal action is likely against former GIO directors
following the insurer's massive $743 million loss for the year to June.

Mr CORRIGAN also warns the company is at risk of further reinsurance losses from the
American hurricane season, but says reserves will be able to cover any losses.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission says it will broaden its inquiry into
AMP Ltd's hostile takeover bid after GIO revealed on Monday it faces a staggering $759 million
loss in its reinsurance business.

BRIEFLY:

An Iraqi opposition group says its military wing has gravely wounded a deputy to Iraqi prime
minister and President SADDAM HUSSEIN, in an assassination attempt. Iraq has denied the
report.

A new poll shows nearly three in four Serbs want the regime of Yugoslav President SLOBODAN
MILOSEVIC to go.

More than 6,500 hectares of crown land in central Australia containing significant Dreaming
sites will be returned to its traditional owners today in the fourth handover of the year.

And in what's believed to be a world-first, national real estate chain Raine & Horne will
auction 17 properties live over the Internet in Sydney today.

IN SPORT:

ATHS DRUGS OTTEY (SEVILLE)

Jamaican MERLENE OTTEY has become the latest big-name track and field star to fail a drug
test, returning positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone after winning the 100m last month
in Lucerne, Switzerland.

OTTEY says she's innocent but the 39-year-old faces a two-year ban from competition which
would end her glamorous career spanning almost two decades.

CRICKET CONTRACTS (MELBOURNE)

Australians may no longer be in demand in English county cricket because of the Australian
Cricket Board's ability to force cancellation of contracts.

The ACB has approved a condition allowing the board to terminate a player's contract in an
overseas competition if it was worried about the player's fitness.

LEAGUE DRUGS (SYDNEY)

Canberra's BEN KENNEDY and BRANDON PEARSON could hold an unenviable place in rugby league
history if found guilty tonight of taking ecstasy, despite returning negative drug tests.

KENNEDY, who signed with Newcastle last month, will plead NOT GUILTY tonight when asked if
he consumed any illegal drug during a drinking session in Canberra last month.

But in a statement to the NRL, PEARSON has admitted taking ecstasy.

ENDS THE BREAKFAST ROUNDUP
AAP RTV kbw/

KEYWORD: BREAKFAST ROUND-UP

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