Accused war criminal still eludes police

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Federal Government says police are doing all they can to track down alleged war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic, who disappeared in Australia more than a month ago.

The High Court ordered Mr Vasiljkovic be extradited to Croatia for trial in March.

Nicknamed Captain Dragan, he is accused of torturing and murdering civilians and prisoners of war during the Balkan conflict.

Serbian-born Vasiljkovic, also known as Daniel Snedden, has not been seen since the High Court decision.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor says it is possible Mr Vasiljkovic is still in Australia.

“The advice I received is he may well be [in Australia], and certainly we’re acting on that basis,” he said.

“But we will do everything we can to bring him to justice and indeed ensure we fulfil our obligations as signatories to the extradition treaty.”

Mr O’Connor says the Federal Police are working hard to find Mr Vasiljkovic.

“This is not a person who has escaped custody. This is a person who was free to walk the streets given the situation he was in,” he said.

“The AFP were not in a position to do anything other than how they acted and I do not for one minute blame the AFP for this situation.”

Mr Vasiljkovic denies the allegations that he killed, tortured and raped civilians while he was a Serbian paramilitary commander during the Balkan conflict.

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Sailors bailed for bulk carrier detour

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Three foreign sailors who were arrested in connection with a bulk carrier that entered a restricted area of the Great Barrier Reef have been granted bail in a north Queensland court.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege that the Japanese-owned MV Mimosa entered the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park near Bowen, off the North Queensland coast, on April 4.

It is alleged the ship entered the area without registering with the Reef Vessel Tracking System and failed to provide a pre-entry report.

The 63-year-old South Korean ship master and two Vietnamese officers aged 26 and 32 years, were arrested by the AFP on Saturday and face a number of charges including conduct in a zone that is prohibited.

The men have been granted bail to reappear in the Townsville Magistrates Court for mention on Friday.

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Sailors front court over entering Reef waters

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Three foreign sailors will appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court in north Queensland this morning charged with entering restricted waters on the Great Barrier Reef.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) searched the Asian-owned MV Mimosa yesterday and seized navigational equipment and charts.

The three sailors from Korea and Vietnam were arrested and taken off the ship.

The MV Mimosa was allegedly 50 nautical miles off course and outside a designated shipping channel when it was picked up on its way to a coal terminal near Bowen last weekend.

The AFP also allege the crew ignored warnings and has not registered with the Reef Vessel Tracking System.

Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan says an unauthorised shipping route allegedly used by the foreign bulk carrier was in a “complicated” and “highly sensitive” area of the Great Barrier Reef.

Ms Nolan says the master and two crewmen are due in the Townsville Magistrates Court this morning.

“The idea that a ship was totally out of place and not making contact with the authorities is a very serious matter,” she said.

“That’s why federal authorities are investigating, that’s why the ship’s crew have been arrested, and that’s why they’ll appear in court.

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Four killed in US drive-by shooting

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Four people have been killed and six others wounded in a mass shooting in one of Washington DC’s poor south-east neighbourhoods, media reports say.

According to witness accounts, the drive-by shooting, one of the capital’s worst bouts of gun violence in 15 years, turned a street into a war zone.

A gunman was “spraying [bullets] into a crowd” gathered outside an apartment block, police chief Cathy Lanier was quoted as saying in the Washington Post.

“All I saw was bodies dropping. It was like Vietnam,” a witness told the daily.

Washington NBC said that an AK47-type weapon was thrown from a fleeing car as police chased suspects through the city.

Chief Lanier later said three people were in custody after the shooting, but no charges had been filed, according to the Post report, adding that four police officers had been injured in the subsequent car chase.

- AFP

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Colosimo joins Aloisi at Heart

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Socceroo and former Sydney FC star Simon Colosimo has signed a deal with new A-League club Melbourne Heart.

The 31-year-old, who signed a ‘multi-year’ deal, had been tipped to return to his home city after a short stint ahead of the World Cup with FC Seoul in South Korea fell through.

“Simon has a wonderful technical ability and will also provide fantastic composure in defence,” head coach John van’t Schip said.

“He is capable of playing the ball out of defence and also provides excellent tackling and organisational ability.”

Colosimo would be given every opportunity to force his way into the Socceroos squad for the World Cup, including spending time abroad if need be, van’t Schip said.

The Heart, who make their A-League debut next season, starting in August, earlier this week announced they had signed former Australian international striker John Aloisi.

- AFP

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Foxe stays with Sydney FC

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Former English Premier League defender Hayden Foxe has signed a one-year contract to stay with A-League champions Sydney FC, club officials said.

The former West Ham, Portsmouth and Leeds United defender joined Sydney in January on a six-week contract as an injury replacement but became an important part of the Sky Blues’ defence.

“I am very lucky to have been given a chance to play for Sydney FC this season and I am blessed to have been able to play football and now win a championship,” Foxe said.

Foxe, 32, represented Australia at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics.

-AFP

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Argentina arrests torturer blamed for 600 deaths

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Argentina has arrested an accused torturer who is blamed for 600 cases of torture and homicide, including prisoners being thrown alive from planes, under the 1976 to 1983 military dictatorship.

Carlos Galian, 64, also known by the alias Pedro Bolita, has been accused of human rights violations against at least 600 people while he worked at the Naval Mechanics School between 1976 to 1978.

About 5,000 regime opponents went through the school, essentially a killing field, and just about 100 are known to have survived.

Galian was linked to the “death flights” on which opponents, real or perceived, of the military government were tossed out of planes into the Rio de la Plata or Atlantic Ocean.

Human rights organisations say about 30,000 people went missing after being arrested during the right-wing military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

Many of those abducted were accused of being leftist sympathisers or deemed subversive by the regime. They were sent to torture centres then murdered and their bodies disposed of in mass graves.

- AFP

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Man avoids jail over porn video of 8yo

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A South Australian man has avoided a jail term for downloading international child pornography.

Shane Padberg, 26, of Elizabeth North was among 15 Australians charged last year.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege a video showing the rape of an eight-year-old girl was downloaded.

The AFP said it acted on information from German police who identified 9,000 suspects worldwide.

Adelaide District Court Judge Kevin Nicholson said Padberg conceded he had more than 800 images and more than 2,000 videos of despicable pornography involving children aged between nine months and 14 years.

But the judge said the man was not considered to be a paedophile.

Padberg was given a suspended jail sentence and put on a two-year good behaviour bond.

He must get treatment and counselling.

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Strong quake hits off PNG

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A strong 6.2-magnitude quake has struck off Papua New Guinea’s coast, geologists said, but there was no tsunami warning and the epicentre’s depth lessened the likelihood of damage.

The quake’s epicentre was 95 kilometres north of the town of Rabaul on New Britain island and was at a depth of 423 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

There was no immediate alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, based in Hawaii.

- AFP

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Strong quake hits off PNG

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A strong 6.2-magnitude quake has struck off Papua New Guinea’s coast, geologists said, but there was no tsunami warning and the epicentre’s depth lessened the likelihood of damage.

The quake’s epicentre was 95 kilometres north of the town of Rabaul on New Britain island and was at a depth of 423 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

There was no immediate alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, based in Hawaii.

- AFP

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Serena, Del Potro withdraw from Miami

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Serena Williams and Juan Martin Del Potro have pulled out of the upcoming ATP and WTA hardcourt tournament in Miami with injuries, organisers said.

Argentina’s Del Potro had hoped to be back but is still nursing a wrist injury that wrecked his Australian Open campaign.

Last year’s US Open champion first felt the injury in Shanghai last October and it failed to clear up going into the new season.

Williams, a five-time Miami titlist, pulled out with a knee injury which she continues to rehabilitate following her victory at the Australian Open.

The tournament announced that Venus Williams will launch her bid for a fourth title on Thursday night (local time). She won in Miami in 1998, 1999 and 2001.

- AFP

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FIFA nixes Indonesia’s World Cup bid

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Indonesia is out of the running to host football’s World Cup finals in 2018 and 2022, world football’s governing body FIFA has announced.

The move followed a decision by Indonesia’s government not to provide guarantees over taxes and other issues to back the country’s bid committee by a December 2009 deadline, said FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke.

“Indonesia is no longer a candidate for 2018 and 2022,” he told journalists after the decision by the FIFA’s executive committee at a meeting in Zurich.

“It was the government side of the guarantees that were missing,” he said.

Australia, England, Japan, Netherlands/Belgium, Russia and Spain/Portugal have also bid to host both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, while Qatar and South Korea are bidding just to host the event in 2022.

England and Spain/Portugal are viewed as the leading contenders for 2018, while the United States, host in 1994, is seen as a top candidate for 2022.

- AFP

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BA strike to ground thousands

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Qantas says a strike by British Airways staff will not impact on the Australian airline’s services to and from Britain.

BA cabin staff will walk off the job after two days of talks with BA management failed to resolve a dispute over pay and work practices.

More than 1,000 flights are set to be cancelled in the three-day action, followed by a potentially more disruptive second walkout for four days from March 27 ahead of the busy Easter holiday period.

But a spokeswoman for Qantas says its customers booked on BA services have been contacted and accommodated on Qantas services or offered other flight options.

The joint leader of Britain’s biggest trade union Unite, Tony Woodley, says all BA had to do was reinstate the original deal, but instead came back with a proposal during the last-minute talks that reduced the amount of pay on offer.

“It is ridiculous to expect any union to go to its membership with a worse offer than was withdrawn last week,” he said.

But BA chief Willie Walsh says it has been trying to negotiate with the union for 13 months.

“I think if people want to point fingers in relation to why these discussions have failed, I think they need to look somewhere else,” he said.

A total of 1,100 BA flights out of the approximately 1,950 scheduled to operate during the first strike will be cancelled.

BA has vowed to keep at least 60 per cent of passengers flying during the action, using staff who are not striking, as well as leasing up to 22 planes with pilots and crew from up to eight other European airlines.

For the flights that do make it out, ground staff in Australia may impose some bans in solidarity with the union.

Adding even more pressure to Britain just weeks before its general election, rail workers have also voted to strike over Network Rail’s plans to cut 1,500 jobs.

If they walk over Easter, it will be the first national rail strike in 16 years.

-ABC/AFP

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Aussies push for snowboard green light

March 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

International Paralympic team officials will meet on Friday to consider adding snowboarding to the roster of competitions at the games.

The informal meeting in Whistler, venue of alpine events during the current winter games, was organised by Canadian ski and snowboard associations, Australian Paralympic Committee chief executive Jason Hellwig said.

“There’s a whole movement around the world of people practicing the sport, and there area lot of countries coming to the conclusion snowboarding belongs in the Paralympic games,” he said.

Hellwig said if there is enough support, from enough countries, to convince the International Paralympic Committee to add snowboarding, it is already likely too late to include a snowboard event in the next winter games in Sochi.

“Australia would support it,” he said.

“We’d love to see it as a Paralymic program.”

Snowboarding was added as an Olympic sport in 1998 at Nagano.

There are currently three events – halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross – in the Winter Olympics.

- AFP

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Aussies push for snowboard green light

March 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

International Paralympic team officials will meet on Friday to consider adding snowboarding to the roster of competitions at the games.

The informal meeting in Whistler, venue of alpine events during the current winter games, was organised by Canadian ski and snowboard associations, Australian Paralympic Committee chief executive Jason Hellwig said.

“There’s a whole movement around the world of people practicing the sport, and there area lot of countries coming to the conclusion snowboarding belongs in the Paralympic games,” he said.

Hellwig said if there is enough support, from enough countries, to convince the International Paralympic Committee to add snowboarding, it is already likely too late to include a snowboard event in the next winter games in Sochi.

“Australia would support it,” he said.

“We’d love to see it as a Paralymic program.”

Snowboarding was added as an Olympic sport in 1998 at Nagano.

There are currently three events – halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross – in the Winter Olympics.

- AFP

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Drone strike kills CIA attack plotter

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A key Al Qaeda figure involved in a recent attack on the CIA in Afghanistan appears to have been killed in Pakistan.

A United States counter-terrorism official says Hussein al-Yemeni was apparently killed in a drone strike in the Pakistani city of Miram Shah last week.

“We have indications that Hussein al-Yemeni – an important Al Qaeda planner and facilitator based in the tribal areas of Pakistan – was killed last week,” he said.

“The strike that appears to have got him was in Miram Shah, a clean, precise action that shows these killers cannot hide even in relatively built-up places.”

The official says al-Yemeni was involved in suicide operations and is suspected of playing a key role in an attack at a US base in eastern Afghanistan that killed seven CIA officers.

A Jordanian doctor, said to have been a triple agent, blew himself up at the US base in Khost near the Pakistani border on December 30 in the deadliest attack against the CIA since 1983.

- AFP

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Sigourney Weaver gets fangs into Vamps

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sigourney Weaver is going to play the queen of the vampires in horror comedy Vamps.

Written and directed by Amy Heckerling (Look Who’s Talking, Clueless), the film follows two vampirettes – Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter – through the New York club scene where they fall in love with human boys, putting their immortality at risk.

Weaver, 60, will play the part of Ciccerus, the blood thirsty queen of the vampires who is responsible for the young heroines’ transformation into creatures of the night.

Filming is set to begin in April.

- AFP

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Nigeria’s leader dissolves cabinet

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Nigerian acting president Goodluck Jonathan has dissolved the cabinet a little over a month after taking power, asserting his authority over the government in Africa’s most populous nation.

No explanation was given for the move and Mr Jonathan has not named a new cabinet.

Mr Jonathan took over last month after parliament voted to force ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua to step aside until he is well enough to return.

The decision comes at a tense time for the West African nation, following Muslim-Christian violence in the country’s north and renewed unrest in the oil-rich south.

Nigerian information minister Dora Akunyili says she does not know why Mr Jonathan dissolved the cabinet.

“He did not give us any reason and so I cannot give any reason,” she said.

“There is no vacuum as permanent secretaries will take charge and I will also hand over to my permanent secretary tomorrow.”

Mr Jonathan took office as acting president on February 9 and carried out a minor cabinet reshuffle the next day, moving the outspoken but controversial justice minister Michael Aondoakaa to the obscure special duties portfolio.

The cabinet move today is his first major shake-up.

Former president Umaru Yar’Adua returned to the country three weeks ago after spending 93 days in a Jeddah hospital treating an acute heart ailment.

Since then, he has not appeared in public and no official is known to have seen him.

His long absence from one of Africa’s top oil producers had worried the United States and European Union.

- AFP

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Vaidisova hangs up racket at 20

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Former Australian Open semi-finalist Nicole Vadisova has announced she is quitting tennis at the age of 20.

The Czech former world number seven’s decision was announced by her stepfather and former coach Ales Kodat to the Czech daily Sport newspaper.

“Her agent told me last week… she’s fed up with tennis and that’s understandable. She started very young,” Kodat said.

Vaidisova, who was seventh in the world in May 2007 before sliding to her current 176th spot, won her first WTA tournament in Vancouver in 2004 at the age of 15 years and three months.

Overall, Vaidisova has won six tournaments and reached the semi-finals at the French Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2007.

Kodat said she had turned down a wild card to play in Miami starting on March 23.

He also confirmed Vaidisova would soon marry her 31-year-old compatriot Radek Stepanek, the world number 17.

-AFP

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Ten-man Atletico beats Osasuna

March 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A depleted Atletico Madrid side beat Osasuna 1-0 at home on Tuesday (AEDT) thanks to a late goal by Spanish midfielder Jose Manuel Jurado which helps keep its dreams of securing a place in the Champions League alive.

With 11 minutes remaining, the 23-year-old cut inside after a pass from Sergio “Kun” Aguero and curled the the ball into the top corner from outside the box.

Atletico packed its defence to fight off some late waves of Osasuna attacks to leave it just 10 points outside the Champions League qualifying places.

Atletico was reduced to 10 men after veteran Portuguese international Simao Sabrosa was sent off in the 57th minute for his second bookable offence – a foul on Osasuna defender Cesar Azpilicueta.

He had already been booked in the 19th minute for another foul on Osasuna’s Iranian midfielder Javad Nekounam before a home crowd of just over 38,000.

Atletico, which was held to a 0-0 draw at home by Sporting Lisbon last Thursday in the Europa League, is now in 10th place in La Liga, 10 points below fourth-place Sevilla and 31 points behind leaders and city rivals Real Madrid.

- AFP

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