Radio and Television Evening Round Up

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-1999
Radio and Television Evening Round Up
EVENING ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1630.

CYCLIST COLLEAGUES (SAN DIEGO)

Missing US adventurer ROBERT BOGUCKI has been found alive in Western Australia's Great
Sandy Desert after being missing for nearly a month.

The chief of Alaska's Chena Goldstream Fire and Rescue Service yelled with joy when told Mr
BOGUCKI had been found alive.

Chief ERIC MOHRMANN says his colleagues knew Mr BOGUCKI was as tough as nails but admits
their confidence that he would make it out of the desert alive was starting to drop.

Sgt EDDIE CLOUTER from Broome police says the 33-year-old adventurer is in good physical
and mental condition but will remain at Broome District Hospital overnight for observation.

Mr BOGUCKI was spotted by a helicopter pilot just before 9am (WST) walking along a dry
creek bed in the Edgar Ranges, about 180km south east of Broome.



SORRY (CANBERRA)

A formal apology to the stolen generation of Aboriginal children now appears likely, due to
a change of heart by Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD.

Mr HOWARD had vetoed an apology because of concerns it could lead to legal action from
Aborigines forcibly removed from their parents.

But cabinet secretary BILL HEFFERNAN says he believes Mr HOWARD is now prepared to back
some form of apology.



QUAKE TURKEY (ISTANBUL, Turkey)

As fewer victims are pulled alive from the rubble of Turkey's earthquake, hopes are fading
for tens of thousands believed trapped beneath the wreckage.

Only two women survivors were found yesterday and further rescue efforts may be hampered by
rains that are expected to engulf northwestern Turkey today.

Nearly a week after last Tuesday's massive earthquake, it's still not known how many people
remain buried in the earthquake zone across north-western Turkey.

The official death toll has surpassed 12,000 and some officials predicted that it could
climb as high as 40,000 when rescue workers account for those who perished beneath the rubble.



REPUBLIC ANDERSON (CANBERRA)

Deputy Prime Minister JOHN ANDERSON warns the flag will be under threat if Australia
becomes a republic.

Yesterday, Workplace Relations Minister PETER REITH said advocates of a YES vote had a
secret agenda of ditching the Union Jack from the Australian flag.

Today Mr ANDERSON, who's the National Party leader, agreed saying the flag is the most
potent symbol of Australia's connection with the monarchy.



OAKDALE (CANBERRA)

Workplace Relations Minister PETER REITH has defended his plan to link a national employee
entitlement protection scheme to his controversial second wave of industrial relations
reforms.

Mr REITH will this week release an options paper on the scheme for a safety net for sacked
workers in company bankruptcies.

The announcement comes in the wake of mine closures at Oakdale and Cobar in which workers
lost millions of dollars in pay owed to them.

Yesterday, Mr REITH said the safety scheme would be linked to the second wave of workplace
relations changes currently before the Senate.

The opposition and the unions say he is using Oakdale as a sweetener for an otherwise
unpalatable policy, and the opposition wants the issues to be kept separate.

But Mr REITH says the issue should be included in the legislation currently being
negotiated with the Australian Democrats because it is a work place relation matter.



OBESITY (SYDNEY)

Leading health experts say all Australians will be fat by 2050 if current unhealthy trends
continue.

The newly-formed National Obesity Prevention Group says Australians are steadily gaining
weight, with two thirds of men and one third of women now overweight or obese.



KIEN (MELBOURNE)

The Melbourne Magistrates Court has heard a hot-tempered 81-year-old woman told a hostel
worker that she had killed a woman in another room and then asked whether she believed her.

CHE KIEN, who's now 82, is charged with murdering 84-year-old LAI FUN who died from
multiple stab wounds after an incident at the Victoria Elderly Chinese Hostel in Ascot Vale on
February 24 this year.



PEACOCK BEAZLEY (CANBERRA)

Opposition Leader KIM BEAZLEY says ANDREW PEACOCK'S replacement in Washington should be a
career diplomat and not another political appointment.

The former Liberal leader has informed the government he wants to retire as Ambassador to
the United States early next year to return to his private business interests.



TIMOR AUST (DILI, East Timor)

An Australian civilian police adviser has been injured as a pro-Indonesia campaign of
violence gains momentum in the lead up to next week's autonomy ballot in East Timor.

The officer suffered a head wound when he was struck by a rock thrown through a restaurant
window in Suai, about 200 kilometres south of Dili.



STOWAWAYS (SYDNEY)

The first person to be charged with people-smuggling since the recent introduction of
tougher penalties has made a brief appearance in Sydney's Central Local Court.

Twenty-four-year-old FENG LIN, of Zhoushan city in China, was formally refused bail and the
matter put over to the same court on September 20.



BRAVERY WRAP (MELBOURNE)

Many of the winners of the Australian Bravery Decoration Council's awards, announced today,
are haunted by the very experiences for which they will be honoured.

EARPENG CHEA, 31, who came to Australia from Cambodia in 1982, has been too traumatised to
work since saving at least eight lives in the fire at Kew Cottages on April 8, 1996.

The blaze killed nine intellectually-disabled men and brought back terrifying memories for
Mr CHEA of the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Meanwhile, nine other recipients of the Bravery Medal have been named for rescues during
last year's tragic Sydney-Hobart yacht race in which six people died.



CHINA DETAIN US (BEIJING)

The US Embassy has confirmed the American colleague of an Australian researcher deported
from China has been injured while trying to escape Chinese police.

Melbourne University researcher GABRIEL LAFITTE and American academic DAJA MESTON had been
arrested by Chinese police while investigating a controversial Chinese farming project.

A US Embassy spokeswoman says Mr MESTON is recovering in hospital suffering spinal damage
and broken bones.



BRIEFLY .....

A miner has been killed in an underground accident at the Cumnock Colliery in the New South
Wales Hunter Valley.



A campsite used by four missing snowboarders a year ago will be the focus of an intense
search for them in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains today.



WALTER MIKAC, the man who lost his wife and two daughters in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre,
is to remarry. A family friend has confirmed Mr MIKAC, aged 36, will marry Melbourne based
Channel 7 reporter KIM SPORTON.



AND IN SPORTS ....

SWIM PANPACS (SYDNEY)

SUSIE O'NEILL and American JENNY THOMPSON will attempt breaking MARY T MEAGHER's
18-year-old world record in the women's 100m butterfly at the Pan Pacific Swimming
Championships tonight.

MEAGHER's world records in the 100m and 200 butterfly events were swum within days of each
other in 1981 - and they are the oldest benchmarks in swimming.

Sydney's SIMON COWLEY will start favourite in the men's 100m breaststroke tonight and
MATTHEW DUNN is a big chance of winning the men's 400m individual medley.



LEAGUE JUDICIARY (SYDNEY)

Balmain captain DARREN SENTER is the only player charged by the National Rugby League match
review committee following the completion of round 25 matches.

SENTER has been charged with a grade two careless high tackle charge arising from Saturday
night's loss to Canterbury.

LEAGUE LANGER (BRISBANE)

Former Brisbane Test halfback ALLAN LANGER will make a rugby league comeback next year
after signing a two-year deal with English Super League club Warrington.

THIS ENDS EVENING ROUNDUP

RTV rat/jn

KEYWORD: EVENING ROUND-UP

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.