AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, Aug 25

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2009
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, Aug 25
EVENING ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1630


NELSON Wrap (SYDNEY)

Former Liberal leader BRENDAN NELSON is quitting politics at the end of next month.

He's announced his early retirement .. saying voters in his Sydney seat deserve an
energetic new advocate sooner rather than later.

He was planning to retire at the next election.

A by-election will be held in his seat of Bradfield in Sydney's north shore .. with
former chief of staff to prime minister JOHN HOWARD .. ARTHUR SINODINOS emerging as a
front runner to contest the seat.

Opposition Leader MALCOLM TURNBULL says the vote will give voters an opportunity to
judge the federal government's economic management.

Doctor NELSON .. who was once a member of the labor Party .. took over the Liberal
leadership in November 2007 .. but lost support after less than a year .. and was replaced
by Mr TURNBULL.



TERROR VIC (MELBOURNE)

A Melbourne court's been told one of five men charged over an alleged suicide terrorist
plot to kill soldiers at a Sydney army barracks .. hates Australians and anyone who doesn't
follow Islam.

Federal agent DAVID KINTON has spoken at the trial of 26-year-old SANEY EDOW AWEYS
.. of Carlton North .. accused of conspiring with his co-accused to launch an attack on
the Holsworthy army barracks.

He's one of three men applying for bail in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court today.



WEATHER Wrap (SYDNEY)

A severe weather warning's been cancelled for Sydney .. after gusty conditions left
a trail of destruction in parts of the city's west and southwest.

Winds of almost 90 kilometres an hour tore through the city this morning .. and more
than seven thousand homes were blacked out .. most by trees falling on power lines.

The wild weather's also delayed flights by up to an hour at Sydney Airport .. and caused
widespread delays in Melbourne .. Adelaide and Canberra.

Meanwhile .. police in northern New South Wales are investigating whether strong winds
are responsible for the death of a man whose car fell off a jack while he was working
under it.

And .. State Emergency Services are on standby in Tasmania for flooding after heavy rain.



JACKSON DEATH LAWYER (LOS ANGELES)

A lawyer for MICHAEL JACKSON'S personal doctor says police have twisted his client's
account of the singer's last hours.

The Los Angeles coroner found today that JACKSON died from lethal levels of the anaesthetic
propofol and has ruled his death as a homicide.

His doctor .. CONRAD MURRAY .. is the target of a manslaughter probe.

Doctor MURRAY'S lawyer EDWARD CHERNOFF says his client never told detectives he left
JACKSON and returned to find him dead on June 25.



INDON CORBY (BRISBANE)

Queensland Premier ANNA BLIGH says she sympathises with SCHAPELLE CORBY'S family in
its fight to have the drug smuggler serve her jail time in Australia.

But Ms BLIGH says the matter will have to be handled by the federal government.

A top psychiatrist sent to assess CORBY by her family .. says her mental health won't
survive the next 15 years of her sentence if she remains in Bali's KEROBOKAN Prison.



SPILL WOODSIDE (PERTH)

Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum has offered to help clean up a major oil spill
off Western Australia's northwest coast.

Woodside chief executive DON VOELTE says he's offered a drill rig and emergency response
team to help stem the flow of oil and gas into the Timor Sea .. about 250 kilometres off
the Kimberley coast.

The West Atlas oil rig has been leaking since last Friday .. and it's not expected
to be fixed for at least seven weeks.



SHOTS (SYDNEY)

Three men have been arrested over the shooting of a truck driver in Sydney's west.

66-year-old BOB KNIGHT was killed by a spray bullet during a car park shootout at KFC
in Milperra .. southwest Sydney .. on June 25.

Police have already charged two teenage boys in connection with the shooting .. but
have today arrested three more.

The men .. in their 20s .. have all been charged with concealing a serious indictable offence.



SLOAN (ADELAIDE)

A controversial rape case in South Australia has taken another turn .. with prosecutors
now admitting they were wrong to suggest the woman originally consented to sex.

29-year-old MATTHEW JAMES SLOAN has pleaded guilty in the South Australian District
Court to raping a drunken woman in city parklands after they met in a hotel in 2008.

SLOAN maintained the woman had passed out after sex began .. and Judge DAVID SMITH
sparked controversy last month by saying SLOAN didn't deserve jail .. describing incident
as only a technical rape.

However prosecutors now admit they were wrong .. saying the woman was just feigning
sleep before she was raped .. and didn't consent to initial sexual activity with SLOAN.

SLOAN'S sentencing has been postponed.



INDUSTRIAL GILLARD (SYDNEY)

Deputy Prime Minister JULIA GILLARD says Australia's ability to weather the economic
downturn depends on cultural change in the workplace.

Ms GILLARD's told the world's largest industrial relations conference in Sydney ..

new partnerships must be built between bosses .. workers and unions.

She says with unemployment at 5.8 per cent and the budget forecasting a peak of 8.5
within two years .. cooperation and innovation are needed to protect jobs.



HENDRA (BRISBANE)

The owner of a horse stud under quarantine for the Hendra virus has been admitted to
hospital for monitoring.

Independent horse industry liaison officer Doctor FIONA THOMPSON says JOHN BRADY was
admitted to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane last night.

He owns the J4S horse nursery at Cawarral in central Queensland that's the centre of
the latest Hendra outbreak.

Three of Mr BRADY'S workers are also being monitored at the Princess Alexandra .. and
vet ALISTER RODGERS remains in a critical condition at the same hospital after contracting
the virus from infected horses at the stud farm.



AFGHAN AUST (CANBERRA)

Australian forces in Afghanistan have killed another Taliban leader.

MARK EVANS from the Australian Defence Force says MULLAH ABDUL KARIM and a number of
insurgents were killed on August 10.

No civilians were wounded and no Afghan or Australian troops were injured.



US CIA (WASHINGTON)

The OBAMA administration's launched a criminal investigation into the questioning of
detainees during former US president GEORGE W BUSH'S war on terrorism.

A report by the CIA's inspector general .. declassified and released under court orders
.. reveals threats to kill one suspect's children .. and to force another to watch his
mother sexually assaulted.



BRIEFLY IN OTHER NEWS ..



BREAST ABC (BRISBANE)

A report on the rate of breast cancer among ABC staff .. has found employees outside
Queensland face no greater risk of being diagnosed with the disease than the rest of the
population.



IN SPORT ..



LEAGUE JUDICIARY (SYDNEY)

Wests Tigers prop BRYCE GIBBS will risk an extended three week NRL suspension after
electing to challenge the grading of his dangerous contact charge.

But if GIBBS is successful at tomorrow night's hearing he will be free to play in 10th-placed

Tigers' desperate bid for a finals berth over the remaining two rounds.



AFL LIONS (BRISBANE)

The Brisbane Lions' task of securing a home final has been made that much tougher after
losing key forward DANIEL BRADSHAW and fullback DANIEL MERRETT to injury.

BRADSHAW has succumbed to a quad complaint and MERRETT a hamstring injury and will
miss Saturday night's showdown with Sydney at the SCG.



TRI AUST (PERTH)

The Wallabies have been dealt a major blow ahead of Saturday night's Tri Nations series
rugby Test against South Africa, with lock NATHAN SHARPE and inside centre BERRICK BARNES
both ruled out through injury.



ENDS EVENING ROUND-UP


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