It's come to my attention in the last few weeks that Sally Neighbour, who runs a lot
of what I call distasteful programs on the ABC in as much as they're all negative and
they're very personal, is putting together a program on our five years in office which
comes in October. You can expect from Sally Neighbour an hour of slime.
Award-winning journalist Sally Neighbour reports. Four Corners, 8.30 Monday.
Dancing in the Street, the BBC's ultimate history of rock and roll. Now available on
video in a collector's box set.
Dancing in the Street, on video from ABC shops, ABC centers and video retailers.
What about the silence of the lamps? I'm not really into nature films.
It's on the tip of my tongue. Because we laugh in the face of fear.
The Adventures of Laino and Woodley, Monday at 8 o'clock.
Basil fears the arrival of a hotel inspector when we return to Fawlty Towers next Friday
night at 10.30. You can find the videos and books at ABC shops. Coming up tonight, Smith
and Jones.
Now on your feet. I am not moving.
Rock forces are unleashed when the Stone of Destiny is disturbed.
If we lose that stone, we will lose John McKeever.
The Ancients won't let it go. What do they want?
They want you, Kevin. You've never once told me that you loved me,
Hamish. Death Visits Lock Doom. Don't miss the final
episode, Hamish Macbeth, 7.30, Sunday. They're born to be wild and they're heading
down the highway of groove, smooth and cool to the club at the end of the road.
And traveling with them this week is Easy Rider himself, Peter Fonda.
Don't miss Roy and HG Saturday.
Tonight's Smith and Jones is rated M for mature audiences and contains sexual references.
On Australian Story. Didn't I see you on television?
A mega personality. He was sort of one of us, I guess, and one
of us who rose to fame. This turned into a long drawn out affair.
I got the whole kid in Kaboodle. Gonna have to love yous and leave yous.
I got a very big win on Sale of the Century. I don't think the winners changed me in any
way at all. What was of more use was to be able to cash
that in and install solar power. How does life change when you win on Sale
of the Century? ABC Music is Country.
Wake up, Jeff, before the day's through. Jazz.
I'm on fire. Triple J.
All of this and so much more is in the new ABC Music catalog.
Make your selection. The body's unidentifiable.
Why? Because someone doesn't want it identified.
They think she killed her husband. Was it my father in the ice house?
And the evidence is mounting. I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder.
But someone else has blood on their hands. Son of a police, I don't want to tackle a
maniac on my own. And the nightmare has just begun.
She was terrified and not of me. I thought it was my father.
The Ice House, 8.30 Sunday.
The Ice House, 8.30 Sunday.
Tonight, China's Communist Party unveils its new leadership team.
North Korea adopts a hardline stance at preliminary peace talks.
And Filipinos demonstrate against proposed constitutional change.
The Chinese President has swept aside his political rivals to emerge as the Communist Party's unchallenged leader.
The week-long Party Congress has ended with a revamped leadership, loyal to Zhang and his plan to lead China on the road to capitalism.
After a week of closed-door jockeying, China's seven most powerful men faced the glare of cameras, the appearance of a united front hiding the blood spilled at the Congress this week.
Among those evicted from the Party's top policy organ, the reformist head of China's parliament, Qiao Shi, was notably shaky as he cast his show ballot at the Congress, his fate already sealed.
But Li Peng, the man referred to as the butcher of Beijing for his role in the 1989 student massacre, retains his party standing.
Premier Li is likely to shift to head of parliament while former economic kingpin Zhu Rongji is set to become prime minister.
The Party Congress is over for another five years.
China's new emperor is dismantling the last vestiges of a communist economy.
The party's control in other areas stays intact.
I think the only thing for Jiang Zemin to do is to provide people with the right to supervise, criticize and express their political opinion so China can keep on reforming.
But the largest communist party in the world is leaving that issue for another time.
Tonight, President Jiang Zemin celebrates his coup.
The Congress has overwhelmingly endorsed his reform agenda and he surrounded himself by allies.
All this from political obscurity just 10 years ago.
Preliminary talks aimed at securing peace on the Korean Peninsula have hit another snag.
Pyongyang has accused Washington of destroying the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and is demanding the US enter bilateral negotiations to replace it.
The claims claim in a letter to the UN Security Council president.
The lead up to these talks has been a long and delicate process with North Korea capable of pulling out at any moment.
This tenuous state has been sorely tested by the recent shock defection to the United States of North Korea's ambassador to Egypt, Jang Sung-gil.
North Korea's military regime, headed by Kim Jong-il, responded by abruptly halting missile nonproliferation talks and making no promises to attend the peace initiatives this week.
It's a very unpredictable regime. We don't know what they're thinking.
However, over the past few months it's very clear they've stayed with us and they're still coming to the table, which suggests that they really want to move forward.
North Korea's primary motive for attending is to secure more international food aid for the drought and famine stricken country.
But conditions attached by the North Korean government as prerequisites for any peace agreement have increased skepticism about its true willingness to achieve real peace with the South.
It has demanded American troops pull out of South Korea and wants to sign a unilateral peace agreement directly with the United States, bypassing South Korea.
South Korea has no intention of losing the security of the US troops stationed here nor of being left out of any peace treaty.
So unless the North backs off its demands, these peace talks will be just talk.
I don't think anyone on the Chinese American or South Korean side thinks there's going to be any closure, thinks that there's actually going to be a date set for peace talks or that the full agenda will be set for the peace talks.
But I think it's going to be seen as an incremental step forward.
Simply engaging North Korea in these two days of talks is considered a breakthrough in itself, much welcomed by the whole region.
In the Philippines, more than a million people are expected to take part on Sunday in a massive protest against planned constitutional change.
The controversial amendments would allow President Fidel Ramos to hold office for another six year term.
Hundreds of schoolchildren took to the streets of Manila yesterday, encouraged to make as much noise as possible protesting the charter change.
During their noisy 10 minute barrage, they waved placards and called on passing drivers to honk their horns in support.
For the past two weeks, the noise barrage has become almost a daily event.
Not since thousands of Filipinos poured into the streets in 1986 and drove the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos into exile has the country been gripped by such political hysteria.
Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin has called on people to publicly demonstrate against moves to amend the current constitution.
The constitution is the primary law of the land.
If we think of it something as sensitive as this, then it's going to affect the future of the children who will be taxpayers later on.
Support for the protests has come from many sectors of Philippine society.
President Ramos had consistently denied he wanted a second term, but in a dramatic reversal early this month, he said he was keeping his options open.
Supporters say he should stay in power to continue economic and political reforms.
Opponents claim the proposed constitutional changes would open the way for dictatorship and endanger democratic provisions as well.
The first meeting of finance ministers from Asia and Europe is underway in Thailand.
The grouping brings together finance ministers and senior officials from 25 Asian and European nations.
The meeting comes at a time when Southeast Asian currencies are weathering their toughest financial crisis.
We need to join hands.
The Thai Prime Minister Chawalit Yongchewd thanked the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for coming to the rescue of Thailand's economy with a huge bailout package.
Thailand's economic problems spilled over into other regional economies, causing alarm in the so-called Asian tiger nations, thought to be all but invincible to economic slumps.
This is quite a timely meeting today because at the moment when we're having a lot of the currency turbulence and the Asia and Europe, they get together and they perhaps try to exchange some experience on how to try to rectify the situation.
Thailand's economic problems are also on the agenda for next week's meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The World Bank's president said he was optimistic about the future of economies like Thailand's, but conceded there was fear in the system.
The money is there to be able to see Thailand through, but it will have an impact on Thai growth.
There's no doubt that the growth patterns will come down.
There's no doubt that investment in Indonesia and Malaysia will be reduced as people try to make sure that they've got the storm barriers up.
Perfectly rational.
So in that sense, it's a hiccup. I don't think it's going to stop the future development of Asia.
However, the International Monetary Fund has its critics.
I think the financial institution has to share the blame on the problem in the Third World debt crisis also.
For example, in Thailand, it's impossible that the World Bank didn't know that how the foreign loan was used in property development, which caused the collapse,
which caused the collapse in the economy right now.
Meanwhile, in Bangkok, one of the most visible signs of the economic downturn is idle construction projects.
The property development boom has turned into a real estate and loans crisis, leaving banks reeling from bad loans.
Automobile sales are down 20 percent and sellers say it's going to get worse.
The International Monetary Fund's rescue package will require austerity measures and discipline from Thailand's financial sector.
But some see what's happening there as a warning to other Asian countries and another economy in trouble, although for different reasons.
Three months after the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh was rocked by heavy fighting in the coup that ousted Prince Norodom Rana Red, the streets are calm again.
But trade has plunged, tourism is non-existent, and analysts are now predicting a severe recession for the country.
Looting, which followed July's fighting, frightened many investors away and foreign governments cut humanitarian aid.
But that's only hurting the ordinary people.
We've got a situation where we've thrown directly through the aid and hospitality and we've got 30,000 people unemployed.
Those people probably relate to 100,000 mouths to feed.
There's no hope for those people for re-employment.
There's no social security or social payments in this country.
Analysts say further unemployment and rising prices raise the spectre of recession and an increasingly disgruntled population.
Australia's hard line on greenhouse targets is threatening to produce an unprecedented split with its South Pacific neighbours.
After 12 hours of debate at the South Pacific Forum, it's Prime Minister John Howard against the rest.
A warm Pacific welcome as the leaders arrived on the outer island of Atutaki.
It's been a tough forum for John Howard.
Going into the retreat, he was isolated on the greenhouse issue.
But an image of unity was being presented.
So I don't think Australia is ever on its own in a generic sense in this part of the world.
The mood between the leaders is, I think, enormously constructive, very warm.
We will work it out.
However, prior to the retreat, Sir Geoffrey Henry indicated just how angry he is about Australia's position on greenhouse gases.
There is much that Australia can do in terms of the reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions.
And I think they have a lot to answer for the amount that they are belching into the air.
The other islands are very angry.
I mean, constantly they're saying it's 15 to 1, 15 to 1, and Australia is the one.
And the 15 have been united in the official's meetings.
And over on the island of Atutaki today, that anger has come to the fore.
Never before has there been such open confrontation at a South Pacific forum.
The target for the attack, Australia, and its refusal to budge on greenhouse.
The discussions have been intense and difficult.
Even Australian sources say the debate has been serious.
And one spokesman raised the prospect that Australia won't sign the final forum communique
if it commits to binding greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Fiji and New Zealand are trying to broker a deal, but small island states are prepared to split the forum if Australia maintains its stance.
The terrorists have killed 10 people, most of them German tourists, in an attack in Cairo.
The assailants hurled petrol bombs into a tourist bus outside the Egyptian museum.
Some of the attackers were arrested after a gun battle with police.
Terrorists picked out one of many tourist coaches parked in a square outside the Egyptian museum on the banks of the Nile.
33 people were on board.
One terrorist ran onto the bus, threw a petrol bomb down the aisle and opened fire as the tourists tried to escape through the back of the bus.
Witnesses say the man leapt off and threw another petrol bomb under the bus.
Egyptian security forces in the square engaged the terrorist in a gun battle before arresting three men.
The security dealt with the situation immediately, within seconds. That's why they have been caught.
First reports said the attackers were Muslim fundamentalists aimed at bringing down the secular government of President Hosni Mubarak.
But two were later identified as brothers, one of them the deranged killer of four tourists outside a Cairo hotel in 1993.
He escaped from a psychiatric hospital on Monday.
The tourism ministry said the attack was not aimed at tourists, but a random attack that could have happened anywhere, anytime.
We're on honeymoon. We won't forget it.
We're very wary now, very, very, just glad we're alive.
Eight injured tourists were taken to hospital, many with severe burns.
Most of those shot on board the bus were believed to have been incinerated.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who's been trying to broker peace in the region, was quick to condemn the attack.
On behalf of the United States government, I condemn this cowardly act of terrorism in the strongest possible terms.
The attack is a serious setback for the Egyptian government's attempts to persuade tourists that the country is safe to visit.
One leading British tourism operator immediately cancelled all bookings to Cairo.
A week after Scotland opted for its own parliament, voters in Wales have gone the same way, but only just.
The result was not decided until counting of the last votes from the last region.
At the last possible moment, an extraordinary victory.
They thought it would be close, but no one was prepared for this.
It's absolutely amazing. I can't believe it. It's like an emotional roller coaster.
Up and down my neck. I'm normally to believe it. A Hollywood scriptwriter. Couldn't have written it any better.
We're a nation once again. Thank God for that.
The difference was tiny. Just six and a half thousand votes out of more than a million cast.
Britain's Labour government is claiming this as the expression of will it wanted to hand some limited powers to an elected Welsh assembly.
I promise you, I guarantee this, this will be an assembly which is genuinely inclusive of the whole of Wales.
Those areas that voted against, just as much as those areas which voted yes.
The people of Wales have shown that they can believe in themselves.
Devastated by their last minute loss, no campaigners could take some comfort from the narrow margin.
It's hardly a nation struggling to be free, is it? I mean, I think all of us must reflect on the fact that there is no great enthusiasm in Wales.
Now it's coming. It must be sensitively drawn up so that it includes all the people of Wales.
And some of the doubts of almost half a million people who voted must be reflected in that legislation.
So much rejoicing. Wales will have a measure of self-government, though the assembly these people will eventually vote for won't be able to raise taxes or pass important laws.
It'll administer a budget still set at Westminster.
Britain's new Labour government has made constitutional reform one of its early goals.
This narrow result in Wales keeps it on course, just.
But the lukewarm response of the Welsh could well make the government more cautious about trying similar experiments in other parts of Britain.
To Australia and more bushland, greater protection for wildlife and jobs in new rural industries.
That's the promise from the Australian government.
But there are claims the country's biggest greening effort is becoming bogged down in bureaucracy.
18 months after John Howard announced what he called the greatest attempt ever to revegetate Australia, the government today launched the centerpiece of its environmental policy.
Three hundred and fifty million dollars from the part sale of Telstra will be spent to revegetate one quarter of a million hectares of land annually over five years.
Farmers at the National Land Care Conference in Adelaide were the first to hear the news.
If we all play our part, Bushcare will help arrest or at least slow the rate of species extinction, halt rising water tables and consequent dry land salinity.
Volunteers working under Land Care will provide most of the workforce.
The processes we've put in place really ought to ensure that people at the community level feel fully empowered.
But many Land Care volunteers immediately said that the money and the strategy was already being lost in a sea of bureaucracy.
Our concern is that state government are utilizing NHTFunds to fund their own programs.
There's a very real risk that the community land care groups will lose ownership of land care and lose control of the direction that land care is going in.
There's been concern too that in the race to secure funding from government, a climate of competition among community groups is replacing the spirit of cooperation that's been the hallmark of the land care movement.
Now to finance news.
And support for international blue chips helped Japan's Nikkei to a higher close.
A lack of incentive and late selling saw the Hang Sen end lower.
Singapore stocks ended barely changed as the market waited for August trade figures to be released.
Australian stocks continued to gain ground, the all-ordinaries closing 34 points higher.
The Aussie dollar closed higher against the greenback while both Hong Kong gold and Australian bullion ended higher.
An Australian businessman has paid $70,000 for one of Raelleen Boyle's Olympic silver medals and the sprinter will be able to access it whenever she likes.
The auction of sporting memorabilia, including some of Boyle's prized possessions, raised $350,000 for cancer research.
Down the chore, sir, for $70,000, thank you.
Raelleen Boyle couldn't have hoped for a better buyer.
Transport businessman Bill Gibbons will donate the medal to the Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Raelleen will have constant access, taking it on the road wherever and whenever she wants.
It's not mine or anybody else. It's her medal and it's Australia's medal.
The 100 and 200 metre silvers in 72 should have been gold, Boyle beaten by the East German sporting machine.
History has already been written in that area and I don't think it'll change. I don't think they'll give retrospective gold medals.
It was a dark period in international sport, you know, through the 70s with the drug issue and the steroid issue.
Since her 15-year reign as one of the darlings of the track, Raelleen has faced another dark period, battling breast cancer.
Many of Australia's sporting elite rallying to pay tribute to her, raising funds for a special cancer foundation.
The guest of honour most touched by the appearance of another great Australian who's also a survivor of the fight with cancer.
The power of the mind is everything. I visualise my beautiful red setter, Scarlett, running through my veins, eating up all the cancer cells.
Currently in good health, Raelleen's plans are simple.
And I can go back to the Sunshine Coast now, sit back, relax, walk my dogs in the afternoon on the beach and think of you all out there working.
Today, a useful day's work in her name. Cancer Research, more than $340,000 better off.
Two tennis and two of America's big guns, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang, are out to regain some US pride.
The Davis Cup semi-final against Australia gets underway tonight and both players say they have US Open winner Patrick Rafter in their sights.
But the American campaign got off to a wobbly start at the official draw.
Eager US promoters chose a dramatic backdrop for the draw, but there was more drama than even they had planned.
Without warning, America's Todd Martin collapsed.
Before his show, there's been taken, I think, a lot of anti-inflammatories or things like that.
And if you take a lot of them in the heat, you know, it could give you some trouble.
He wasn't feeling well apparently.
Yeah, and that's what could do it.
Just back from injury, he was a late inclusion in the US team.
After he was helped inside, the order of play was drawn from the Davis Cup.
The first match, a US Open rematch, Chang versus Rafter.
Coming into this match, you know, feeling pretty good, feeling pretty fresh.
Well, I haven't been in this situation in the semi-finals of a Davis Cup and we're going up against the best players in the world.
Philippousis then plays Sampras. On day two, the Woodies play Martin, if fit, and probably Sampras.
That's a good possibility I'll play.
Rafter gets his crack at the world number one on day three.
You know, Patrick now is kind of a marked man. We'll see if he can back it up, how he played there.
I'm sure he wants to kick my bum. It's fair enough, he wanted to kick my bum anyway, so it doesn't matter.
And the last match in the best of five Davis Cup semi-final, Philippousis and Chang.
I think this could be every bit as great as the 1953 tie between the United States and Australia.
3-2 to Australia. Hode and Rose will underdogs. We're the underdogs.
US team officials say Todd Martin will be fit to play doubles, but he has only a day to recover.
The match play conditions won't help. It's expected to be testing. The forecast is for hot and humid weather.
Health workers in Australia's Northern Territory have been comparing traditional Aboriginal remedies with Western treatments.
And they've come up with some surprising results after testing a traditional bush remedy for skin complaints.
For thousands of years, the Bohemia root has been used by Aboriginal people in the remote town of Alliet,
about 700 kilometres south of Darwin, to treat scabies, skin sores and boils.
Six years ago, it was introduced to the local health clinic by Aboriginal health workers.
It's used for a lot of people that come to the clinic. It heals up just like that.
But medical authorities were sceptical.
When you're working in the Department of Health, they were concerned that we were using bush medicines that needed to be proven.
And so the clinic began treating some patients with Bohemia, others with Western medicines.
The results compared at the Manzie School of Health Research in Darwin.
They were found to be on a par, both Western medicines and Bohemia medicines, so they were about the same.
This is really, really important because it's the first time that there's clear evidence that some of Aboriginal plant medicine is equally effective as Western medicine.
The findings of the report won't have any impact on the practice of bush medicine in Alliet or at the local health clinic,
but they will provide further encouragement for other health clinics in areas where bush medicine is also widely practised to make greater use of it.
And I guess for our sake, it's justified the fact that we can use the bush medicines, the Bohemia root and the Western preparations.
Now let's check the weekend weather outlook. And Hong Kong, 29 and fine, showers expected elsewhere.
Similar weather for Bombay, Dhaka and Colombo, with showers and a top of 33 for the other centres.
Hazy conditions continuing for Singapore, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, storms and showers elsewhere.
Rain for New Meir, Suva and Honiara, showers also for many of Australia's capitals, with Perth and Darwin remaining fine.
Now let's look again at the main stories in this bulletin.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin has swept aside his political rivals to emerge as the Communist Party's unchallenged leader.
Preliminary talks aimed at securing peace on the Korean Peninsula have hit another snag, with North Korea adopting a hardline stance.
And in the Philippines, more than a million people are expected to take part in a massive protest on Sunday against planned constitutional change.
And that's the news from Australia Television for the moment. I'm Natasha Belling. Enjoy your weekend. Good night.
What about the silence of the land? I'm not really into nature films.
It's on the tip of my tongue.
Because we laugh in the face of fear.
Adventures of Laino and Woodley, Monday at 8 o'clock.
This edition of Rage is rated M for mature audiences and contains adult themes, coarse language and sexual references.
Rage!
Rage!