Highlights of the AAP National Wire at 15:30, Dec 22 =2 Sydney

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-1998
Highlights of the AAP National Wire at 15:30, Dec 22 =2 Sydney

CANBERRA - There have been no cases of HIV or Hepatitis B discovered so far following a
mass testing of women patients who came into contact with a health worker carrying the viruses
at the Canberra Hospital. (PATIENTS ACT 2ND D/L, see also PATIENTS ACT WOOLDRIDGE, N/L to
come)



CANBERRA - The decision whether to have United Nations weapons inspectors back in Iraq was
up to the UN Security Council, not the Iraqi government, UNSCOM chairman Richard Butler said
today. (IRAQ BUTLER)

CANBERRA - Working days lost to disputes in Australia dropped by 14.5 per cent in September
but the construction industry continued to be hit by industrial turmoil, new figures show.
(DISPUTES)



CANBERRA - The federal government today unveiled the unlikely duo of household rubbish and
sugarcane waste as two of the keys to lowering Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
(EMISSIONS)



CANBERRA - Wheat prices will go into the new year unchanged, despite threats to sales from
the attack on Iraq and the Asian economic crisis. (WHEAT)



MELBOURNE - An appeal court has dismissed an appeal against sentence by a man jailed for a
minimum of 35 years for abducting, raping, torturing and murdering two Bega schoolgirls.
(BECKETT N/L)



MELBOURNE - A 19-year-old man charged with last week's murder of a Melbourne teacher's aide
faces hearings on other matters, including attempted murder. (SEATER)



MELBOURNE - Victoria's privatised electricity companies have agreed to join the state
government's millennium bug monitoring program, allowing public scrutiny of their progress in
dealing with the problem. (Y2K POWER)



MELBOURNE - A man whose defence against a murder charge was that the dead man committed
suicide was today sentenced to 21 years jail, with a minimum of 16 years, for the killing.
(COGLEY SENTENCE N/L)



MELBOURNE - The Victorian government today named a new board of trustees for the Melbourne
Cricket Ground (MCG) introduced today as part of a controversial shake-up. (AFL MCG)



SYDNEY - Cobar miners received their long-awaited payout cheques today and used the
occasion to call for the reopening of a parliamentary inquiry into the protection of workers'
entitlements. (COBAR)



SYDNEY - New South Wales taxpayers were funding two fully-furnished luxury homes for use as
holiday retreats by state MPs, an auditor's report found today. (AUDITOR HOLIDAYS)



SYDNEY - A private company was paid $37.9 million of taxpayers' money to relocate from the
Olympics site at Homebush Bay, according to the New South Wales Auditor-General's annual
report released today. (OLY PRIMO, see also OLY SURVEY)



SYDNEY - Three New South Wales north coast shires were today declared natural disaster
areas after violent thunderstorms hit the Tweed, Ballina and Maclean districts on Friday
night. (STORMS)



SYDNEY - More than two million litres of water swept through Wynyard Railway Station in
central Sydney early today, leaving train services in chaos and shop owners shocked and out of
pocket. (WYNYARD D/L, see also WYNYARD INSURANCE, WYNYARD PEAK, WYNYARD N/L to come)



SYDNEY - Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) chief Barry O'Keefe today
complained that funding cuts were hampering the fight against corruption. (ICAC, N/L to come)



BRISBANE - Hospital foundations can continue to receive proceeds from public assets such as
carparks and cafeterias after state cabinet resolved a $1.3 million question posed by the
Auditor-General earlier this year. (FOUNDATIONS)



BRISBANE - A young family was rescued from a stricken yacht in high seas off Tin Can Bay,
about 250km north of Brisbane, in the early hours of this morning. (YACHT)



BRISBANE - A police standoff with a man at the top of an electricity tower led to a two
hour "brown out" for several thousand residents of the north Queensland city of Townsville.
(TOWER)



BRISBANE - A young father would never forgive himself for punching a fridge which toppled
on to his baby son, killing him, a Supreme Court jury was told here today. (BAGBY)



BRISBANE - Many Queensland graingrowers were facing a lean Christmas with mounting
disappointment at the federal reaction to the disastrous wheat harvest, the Queensland
Graingrowers Association (QGGA) said today. (GRAIN)



ADELAIDE - Scientist are unravelling the mystery of a unique Australian sea creature that
is at the centre of a budding international tourism industry. (DRAGON)



ADELAIDE - Sir Donald Bradman put his fair share of cherries on bats in his cricketing
days, but now fruit lovers will be able to put cherries on their plates bearing his name.
(CHERRIES)



ADELAIDE - Premium red wine production will overtake white wine production by 2000/01,
ABARE said today. (ABARE WINE to come)



ADELAIDE - Scientists are manipulating the genes of sheep to produce shrink-proof wool.
(WOOL to come)



PERTH - Debate over native title legislation was set to last all day and night in the West
Australian Legislative Council, where three bills are up for consideration. (WIK WA)



PERTH - Police have captured West Australian prison escapee James Lindsay Charles Ryder,
who walked out of the minimum security Wooloroo prison just six days after he was transferred
there from a maximum security jail. (RYDER)



PERTH - Boat skippers on Western Australian waterways could soon be breath-tested, under
new legislation expected to go before state parliament next year. (SKIPPERS)


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KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL 2 SYDNEY

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