AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, Dec 16

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2010
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, Dec 16
Evening Round-Up: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1630


Boat Capsize Gillard (CANBERRA)

JULIA GILLARD has warned the death toll from a fatal boat accident off Christmas Island
could rise.

The prime minister has confirmed the death toll from yesterday's accident remains at
28 .. but it's not certain how many people there were on the boat.

Ms GILLARD says the people on board .. believed to be asylum seekers .. were Iraqi
.. Iranian and Kurdish in origin.

She says people-smuggling is a evil trade .. but Australians are responding to the
events as human beings.

The prime minister says it'll take some time to establish exactly what happened.

Ms GILLARD says she'll establish a multi-party standing group to look at the best response
to the tragedy.

The prime minister says the group will be made up of ministers .. opposition counterparts
.. the Greens and independent parliamentarians.

Ms GILLARD says it'll take reports from government agencies including Customs .. defence
.. immigration and border protection.



Weather Wrap (SYDNEY/BRISBANE)

Lightning has killed a person and hit train lines .. while large hailstones have battered
suburbs around Sydney.

One person's been killed and two others flown to John Hunter Hospital with injuries
.. after they were hit by a bolt of lightning at the Hawks Nest Golf Club .. north of
Newcastle.

The storm then moved in to belt the western Sydney suburbs of Penrith .. Horsley Park
and Fairfield .. forcing the evacuation of 700 people from the Penrith Leagues Club.

In Queensland .. severe storms are rolling across the southeast for the second day in a row.

The weather bureau's issued severe storm warnings .. with six different storm cells
headed towards coastal regions from the southwest.

Damage is being assessed in Stanthorpe .. on the Granite Belt .. after storms hit there
mid-morning with wild winds and hail.



Bushfires WA (PERTH)

Residents at Forrestfield in Perth's east have been urged to evacuate .. as an approaching
bushfire threatens lives and homes.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority has urged residents to leave their properties
if the way is clear .. but not to relocate at the last minute in a vehicle or on foot
as this could prove deadly.

It says a number of roads have been closed and motorists should avoid the area.



Super (MELBOURNE)

Billions of dollars will be pumped into Australians' superannuation accounts as part
of sweeping changes .. including a new low cost .. no-frills super offering.

The federal government has accepted most of the recommendations of the Cooper review
into the industry .. including setting up the MySuper product.

It will replace existing default funds where about 80 per cent of Australians have
their superannuation money.

Assistant Treasurer BILL SHORTEN says that by combining super accounts and reducing
costs .. members will save 2.7 billion dollars a year in fees.



Nuttall Family (BRISBANE)

Lawyers for GORDON NUTTALL say the former Queensland minister is unlikely to appeal
a five-year sentence for official corruption and perjury.

NUTTALL's been sentenced in the District Court in Brisbane .. after being found guilty
of arranging government contracts for a businessman friend in return for money .. and
lying to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

Speaking outside the court .. his son ANDREW NUTTALL said he'd feared a longer sentence
and is relieved the matter's over.

But he says the family's woes aren't over .. with the public trust working to take
away their two homes and his father's superannuation.



Holohan (SYDNEY)

A heroin addict .. who bashed a Sydney policewoman with a brick and fractured her skull
before dragging her into bushes and leaving her for dead .. has been sentenced to at least
11 years' jail.

35-year-old SAMANTHA BARLOW .. a sergeant at Kings Cross police station .. was on her
way to work in May last year when she was attacked by RODERICK HOLOHAN.

The attack left the mother-of-two with multiple facial and skull fractures.



NZ Mine (AUCKLAND)

Another Australian machine has arrived in New Zealand to help with the recovery effort
at the Pike River Coal mine .. where the bodies of 29 miners including two Australians
are still entombed.

A 20-tonne nitrogen generator has made its way on a ship from Brisbane to the North Island.



Kayak (BRISBANE)

Police have found the body of a kayaker who failed to surface after going over a waterfall
in far north Queensland.

The 29-year-old Atherton man failed to surface from Barron Falls River at Kuranda ..

north of Cairns .. yesterday afternoon.



Baillieu (MELBOURNE)

Newly-elected Victorian Premier TED BAILLIEU says he expects to be back at work on
Monday after surgery to remove a kidney stone.

A spokesman says he was discharged from the Epworth Hospital in Richmond last night
and is recovering at home with his family.

Nationals' leader PETER RYAN is acting premier until Mr BAILLIEU returns to work.



US McDonalds (LOS ANGELES)

A mother-of-two from California has launched a class-action lawsuit against McDonald's
.. claiming the toys given out with Happy Meals unfairly lure kids into eating unhealthy
food.

MONET PARHAM says the main reason her six-year-old daughter asks to go to McDonald's
is to get toys based on Barbie .. Shrek or Strawberry Shortcake.



Briefly in other news ..



Callington (ADELAIDE)

A South Australian court's been told the Adelaide Hills home where 63-year-old PIRJO
KEMPPAINEN was allegedly killed by two 14-year-old boys was a complex crime scene .. with
blood found in a number of rooms.



Woodbridge (SYDNEY)

A drunk driver more than five times over the limit who crashed her car in Sydney ..

killing a woman and permanently injuring the woman's husband .. has had her minimum jail
term increased by two years.



MFB (MELBOURNE)

The head of Melbourne's Metropolitan Fire Brigade GRAHAM FOUNTAIN has quit .. after
complaints were made about him by a former employee.



Mansion (MELBOURNE)

A stunning Portsea cliff-top mansion has sold for more than 25 million dollars and
broken the Victorian residential property market sale record.



NZ Icecream (AUCKLAND)

A man armed with a butcher's knife who commandeered a Mr Whippy van and threw ice-cream
at bystanders in Hastings has been convicted in a New Zealand court.



in Sport ..



Cricket Aust (PERTH)

MIKE HUSSEY is digging in but Australia is in all sorts of trouble against England
in the third test at the WACA.

20 minutes after lunch on day one .. Australia is five for 77 .. with HUSSEY on 33
and BRAD HADDIN not out four.

Australia's top order put up little resistance after losing the toss and being sent
in to bat .. with PHIL HUGHES making two .. CLARKE four .. PONTING 12 .. WATSON 13 and
STEVE SMITH seven.



Tennis Wrap (SYDNEY/MELBOURNE)

SAM STOSUR is set to reignite her rivalry with French Open champion FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE
after being named in an extended Australian Fed Cup squad to play Italy.

World No.6 STOSUR .. who lost to SCHIAVONE in this year's French final .. heads a seven-strong
squad for the February 5-6 tie in Hobart.

Meantime .. top seeds ALICIA MOLIK and PETER LUCZAK continue to advance towards wildcard
entries into next month's Australian Open.

MOLIK's scored her second win of the wildcard play-off tournament at Melbourne Park
.. defeating Canberra's ALISON BAI 3-6 6-3 6-1 .. while LUCZAK's beaten Victorian JAMES
LEMKE 6-3 7-6.



ENDS EVENING ROUND-UP

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