Coast to Coast is next online. Then join Buddy Epson as he stars in Barnaby Jones.
This movie was proudly sponsored by Honda and Bankers Trust Australia.
Michael Caine, brilliant, and Jack the Ripper.
I have killed people before.
Now comes the real thriller.
I also did it with pleasure.
It will grip you to the very end. The whistle blower.
Get this thing off me!
If the truth can be told of the world's biggest cover-up.
If everyone was made to know.
I still don't see why you had to kill him.
What would you believe?
Their secret world has put out the light of the ordinary world.
They know the answer. But who will blow the whistle?
8 Buddy Sunday on 9.
Channel 9 now brings you the results of tonight's cross-lotto draw.
For details on lotteries and lotto results phone 11-521.
That number again, 11-521.
Happily married.
I immediately thought, hey, you know, that they'd been another woman.
But 1 in 10 husbands could be seeing another man.
60 Minutes Sunday, 7.30.
Good evening and welcome to Coast to Coast.
Great to have you with us once again.
Good evening, Terry, everyone.
Tonight, a country community turned upside down by one of the most damaging storms on record.
An environmental conference in Darwin that aims to set the record straight on what's good and bad for planet Earth.
And Deborah Harry of Blondie shows up again at age 45.
And I now have the latest for you from the National 9 Newsroom.
And a violent hailstorm has ripped through a small community on the New South Wales North Coast.
No one's hurt, but giant trees have been uprooted and roofs are off houses.
At 3 p.m. this afternoon, class was in at the Shannon Public School when the storm hit unexpectedly.
Children, terrified by the noise, hid on the floor as windows were shattered and outside trees uprooted.
It was really loud and scary. It was really frightening.
We could hear it coming just like a jet zooming toward us.
The tiny rural community was pelted by large hailstones, causing massive damage.
Powerful winds tore huge trees out of the ground, sending them crashing onto cars and homes.
Other houses lost their roofs.
One was picked up by the winds and dumped in a field 300 meters away.
On the state's central coast, a 52-year-old man is believed to have drowned
after his yacht was smashed onto rocks by heavy seas.
The nine-meter boat was sailing from Sydney to Brisbane.
With 40-knot winds blowing, it soon ran into trouble.
The search for the lone yachtsman was abandoned when the weather deteriorated.
Nick Grim, Coast to Coast.
One of Western Australia's most beautiful harbours is dying of pollution.
A new report says marine life in Albany harbour has been seriously damaged
by years of industrial abuse and must be cleaned up immediately.
For 20 years, mercury and lead was being pumped into Princess Royal harbour
from a local phosphate plant.
For even longer, fertilisers from coastal farmland has been leaching into the harbours.
Add to that all the industrial waste and you have a cocktail of pollutants
resulting in this thick green algae on the surface of the water.
Seagrasses on the seabed, vital for the ecological balance of the area,
are being starved of light and killed off.
Where once there were underwater fields of the grasses, a source of food for fish,
now there are marine deserts.
The prosperity which came to the town in the late 50s has come at a price,
a price now being paid by the people of Albany who've inherited a harbour in big trouble.
A three-year study by the Environmental Protection Authority
has revealed a familiar tale of an environment under siege from industry.
But a senior cabinet minister like Bob Pierce didn't travel all the way to Albany today
merely to be the bearer of bad news.
Mr. Pierce was there to announce his government were ready to do something about the problem.
It's going to take money, it's going to take a lot of commitment from local people,
and it's going to take a management plan which manages all of those areas
that are currently putting nutrients into the waterways.
But Mr. Pierce says Albany's industry must be allowed to continue if the town is to prosper.
Senior Airlines executives will meet on Friday to discuss resolving the six-month-old pilots dispute.
Today the Pilots' Federation agreed to rejoin the industrial relations system.
The decision means the union must lift its ban on pilots seeking re-employment
and accept last year's wage case ruling.
The ACTU, as expected, has come out solidly behind Labor endorsing the government's wage tax deal
and promising to campaign against the coalition.
The announcement came as Prime Minister Hawke was preparing himself
for tomorrow's official launch of his re-election campaign.
Prime Minister Hawke's now focused on the all-important midday launch of the government's election policy
which will be delivered in the Lyric Theatre of Brisbane's Cultural Centre.
And although he was unable to rule out uranium mining when questioned on radio,
he's expected to hold out more to Green voters in his policy speech,
including an expansion of areas for World Heritage listing and a boost to environmental spending.
Beyond that, he'll attempt to beat the opposition on childcare promises with a $320 million program.
The ALP's also been working on urban renewal, pumping money and social support into outlying suburbia.
And if his performance on the airwaves is any indication, the party won't forget the unions.
Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Andrew Peacocks faced questions in Melbourne about his election spending promises.
He made it obvious there would be large cuts in federal expenditure in the second and third year of his government.
I see the opportunity for making those substantial cuts in expenditure.
But he refused to reveal whether cuts would be made, although his other commitments make the welfare budget an almost certain target.
You would be asking too much for us to spell out not only the first budget, but the second budget and the third budget.
I mean, after all, you're not asking the government to do that.
Janet Gibson reporting for Coast to Coast.
US authorities are investigating the possibility that a bomb was responsible for blowing up a bank in Colorado today.
The explosion levelled the two-storey building in the ski town of Crested Butte,
killing three people and injuring 15.
The bank was full of staff and customers when it collapsed.
Survivors had to be pulled from the rubble.
Another important step has been taken by the Supreme Soviet.
From July 1st, citizens will be able to buy their own small businesses and hire their own workers.
Now, under Marxist thinking, private ownership is the root of all capitalist evil.
But under Gorbachev's rule, it's the main plank in the campaign for economic reform.
And there is a fellow I'd like to see connected to the Fitzroy Football Club.
Yeah.
How's that for a bit of guts and determination, eh?
Yes, I reckon.
Gorbachev? Absolutely.
Also interesting in the news, the story about the pilots deciding that they're going to go back into the industrial system,
which just, I just can't understand that.
Why stay out for so long? Why have families suffered for so long? Why have the workers suffered for so long?
Why the public suffered for so long?
Yeah, and what for what?
Yeah.
Oh, and how many times do you see that in industrial disputes where that happens and they just go back to work?
Cave in.
Strange.
Anyway, this first row, I guess, could come under the heading,
so you think we've got it tough, because while the great Australian dream of owning our own home
could take a lifetime to realise, in Tokyo it can take three.
With the price of a two-bedroom flat being about $700,000,
the latest offer by the banks is a 100-year loan.
With runaway interest rates which refuse to heal, home ownership's never been harder.
It's still a goal most Australians achieve in their own lifetime.
But in Tokyo, where the average apartment costs $700,000, it's become the impossible dream.
It's no longer possible for ordinary workers to purchase houses only from their savings.
But there's now hope for couples like this.
Nippon Housing, Japan's largest loan company, is offering to cut monthly repayments by 40%.
The catch, the term is 100 years,
stretched over three generations to include the mortgagee's children and grandchildren.
While housing prices appreciate, it's a scheme which appears to make sense.
But if they dive, children could be left with a loan worth more than their property.
And could the 100-year loan soon be on offer here? Australian banks say no.
We're encouraging people to pay off their homes in 20 or 25 years, and a lot less if at all possible.
And the incomes, the average wage here, suggests that if you're reasonably prudent,
then of course you can pay it off in about 15 years.
But while the banks might scoff, the Japanese plan could be the ideal way
to clear those hard-to-sell properties like this one,
houses which would normally take most of us 100 years just to save the deposit.
Come on, Dad, let's try our luck in Tokyo.
Russell Bishop, Coast to Coast.
Good on you, Russ. I hope you don't leave us, though.
I hope you, little fellow, didn't really mean that.
The recent warming of relations between East and West has brought with it the death of the Blackbird,
a United States spy plane capable of breaking all sorts of speed records.
With the routine dawn takeoff, it appeared to be just another test flight.
But for the Blackbird and her crew, it was the sad end to a 25-year partnership.
The most effective spy plane in history, its sleek lines and high-power engines
enabled it to fly faster and to greater altitudes than any other,
making it an impossible target for the enemy.
It could fly anywhere and back in a day,
taking detailed photographs and electronic data of troubled spots.
Today's flight proved that age has not wearied them as the Blackbird broke speed records,
flying from Los Angeles to Washington in 68 minutes at a speed of 3,380 kilometers per hour.
But the 20-strong fleet needed frequent and expensive maintenance
and with improvements in East-West relations have fallen foul of federal budget cuts.
You know, I've been with it from cradle to the grave.
It's hard to see a winner, you know, be put away.
The Big Bird will now be released from undercover duties
and take up a more public position on display in Washington.
After the break, the latest star on the pro-tennis circuit,
only 13 years old and already worth $7 million.
This butterfly is traveling at 100 kilometers an hour.
Yet it is blissfully unaware of its surroundings being anything less than perfect.
The Honda Legend Coupe has a similar effect on the driver and passengers too.
The Honda Legend Coupe has a similar effect on the driver and passengers too.
The Honda Legend Coupe has a similar effect on the driver and passengers too.
The Honda Legend Coupe.
So you think you've tried every weight-reducing method available.
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At a leg-caller's phone, 364 211, country viewers use our 008 number.
All aboard for Stratco Steel City.
There's extra attractions to make your stay even more enjoyable.
In addition to carports, verandas, fencing, roofing, guttering, garages,
garden sheds, and rainwater tanks, Stratco Steel City offers a bigger range of handyman products
and introduces all your basic steel supplies.
Visit Stratco Steel City near you at Japs Cross, Richmond and Lonsdale for factory direct savings.
When I want to say it's forever
When it's time to make a start
When we both agree
Our love should be something special from the heart
G.W. Cox is my jeweler
For the best diamond rings in town
Nine o'clock Thursday, a new pilot makes it into Cootler's Crossing.
What is he doing in Winduna?
He's in the slammer.
My name's Jerry O'Neill, a new pilot for the Flying Doctor.
Yeah? And I'm the Queen of Sheba.
While a special friendship has dealt a cruel blow.
Sorry is no longer acceptable.
What? They sent you?
What are you going to do? Who's going to want me?
I'm going to run away.
At the special time of nine o'clock, the Flying Doctors follow by Jake and the Fat Man on nine.
Look out, Steffi Graff. A new tennis star is on the horizon.
Jennifer Capriati is only 13 years old and experts are predicting
that before too long she will be the world's number one.
Media attention around Jennifer Capriati already runs at superstar levels.
But insatiable cameras and an opponent twice her age are what Jennifer has been groomed to expect.
The solid ground strokes are already in place.
Mark down Mary Lou Daniels, world ranking 110, as the first in a line of victims stretching all the way to the top.
I'd like to be the best player in the world, but I want to be the best that I can be.
I mean, I also want to win all the Grand Slams and just be at least in the top five.
But number one, that's what I really want.
Capriati's application to turn pro last year failed because she was too young.
She's already won the Junior French and US Open and was a millionaire without earning a cent in prize money.
She is the third highest sponsored player behind Navratilova and Evert.
She's out there and she's not thinking about going home and being a Girl Scout or baking cookies or, you know, she has one goal in mind.
I think that's why it's fairly obvious that she is going to be a champion.
Evert's father Jimmy tutored Capriani before she was in kindergarten and she was handling a racket back towards the cradle.
Not surprisingly, she's being compared to her idol, Crucevert.
I really adore her, but I don't really want to be compared to her.
I mean, I want to be my own self. I want to be known as the next Jennifer Capriati.
Jenny will only play 12 tournaments this year and so far has struck a school tennis balance that makes her an A student.
Her parents have adjusted their lives around tennis, but claim they don't push.
I never think I pushed Jennifer because she has so much ego that she wants to go to court and win.
She's happy and she's having fun at what she's doing.
You know, and as long as I see that, I'll just go for it, you know, 100%.
Tim Sheridan, Coast to Coast.
Yes, just remember where you heard it first, folks. I think we haven't heard the last of that young lady at all.
Yes.
Beautiful mother, too. Good looking mum, eh?
He's a deviant, folks.
Well, you know, why not? You sit there and you see her come up and the daughter's a great tennis player.
Mum looks all right, so you know.
Bringing you nice stories about 13-year-old tennis players and he's panting over mother.
If I'd have said the 13-year-old was a stunner, you'd say, come on.
Leave it there. With the increasing awareness of environmental issues, there is some confusion about information we're receiving.
A conference called Environment 90 opens in Darwin tomorrow and it aims to clear up a lot of those misconceptions.
As images like these become more and more commonplace, the message is getting through. Green is the only way to go.
When the earth is spoiled, humanity and all living things are diminished.
The past few years have seen an explosion of community awareness of all things environmental.
That's good, but the difficulty is distinguishing between what's fact and what's fiction.
Before we can take the next step of solving our environmental problems, we have to cut through the myths, the hype and the hysteria.
And that's what the Environment 90 conference being held in Darwin this week intends to do.
Well, we believe that the community is aware of environmental issues.
They have to be aware of environmental issues because there are environmental issues hitting the press just about every day.
But unfortunately the level of awareness is, sorry, the level of information is not very good.
I think they're rather ill-informed and they're ill-informed because when you're grabbing for headlines, the first casualties are often accuracy.
One of the best examples of misinformation, says Roger Smith, is the greenhouse effect.
The message that seems to be getting across through the media is that it's a catastrophic series of changes.
It's definitive. All our coastal cities are going to be flooded out.
You're putting all the blame on the media here.
Not at all.
But there's a lot of scientists who come out and say these things too.
Well, you're opening question. You're opening question.
I think also, I'd line that, I think science has been negligent in not informing the public.
All our conferences to date have been scientists talking to scientists.
If we want our community to make valid judgements, we have to make sure that they're not only aware but that they're well-informed on the issues.
Another topic which will be covered at the Environment 90 conference is the preservation of wild animals, a heated issue at the best of times.
Dr Graham Webb, an expert in wildlife management, says it's time to stop thinking doomsday.
His approach is a controversial one.
The solution to solving conservation problems is not to put a fence around it and look at it.
It's to get in and make the animals worth conserving.
You put a dollar value on them.
Put a dollar value on them and then control the way it's used.
It's a very emotional issue, isn't it?
Yeah, but it doesn't need to be. It's only emotional because the majority of their people live in cities where they don't harvest stuff anymore.
They go in the supermarket and pick it off the shelves.
They should spend a week or two in autumn. They change their attitude.
The conference will be addressed by some very distinguished speakers from Australia and overseas.
But what's really surprised the Northern Territory Conservation Commission is the 1,000 people who've signed up to attend, double the number expected.
A, it says to me that they're very interested in it, and B, it says to me that they're hungry for information. They want information.
What do you hope will come out of this conference?
Well, one of the things at a national level I would hope is that this conference could be followed by similar conferences elsewhere.
At the territory level, we're using it as part of our process of developing a conservation strategy for the territory.
Do you think a conference like this can affect the way people think about things, even perhaps the way they live their lives?
I'm sure it does. I'm sure it does. To be better informed is the first step.
Alex Smith reporting then, still to come. Blondie star Deborah Harry prepares for her Australian tour.
Good looking sort for the tomatoes from outer space, not a new sci-fi movie, but an experiment using satellite seedlings.
All ahead on Coast to Coast.
Starring Terrence Joseph Aloysius Willisie.
New Faces is back in 1990. If you'd like to audition for the program, phone DAS Entertainment toll free on 008 033 744 during business hours.
The trouble with most package holidays is that you have to be redesigned to suit the package.
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So you think you've tried every weight reducing method available? Forget all that. We're giving you the opportunity to achieve success and improve your self image.
The Easy Diet video will show you how to lose weight and tone up without breaking your budget or your routine.
With the Easy Diet method you can still go out for dinner, you won't break your diet and you choose only the exercises you can do.
You will lose weight with the Easy Diet video. At a callers phone 364 211, country viewers use our 008 number.
See you later. Let's have a coke.
Can you tell us where the waves are?
You can't stop it. You can't stop the feeling you get when you find the right thing. You can't beat it. You can't beat the feeling. You can't beat the feeling.
You know I love Italian food about as much as I used to hate Costa County.
One Sunday afternoon after a whole weekend of spreadsheets and not much fun I thought to myself, why are you doing this? If you use your brains you could be doing what you really want to do.
Thank goodness I had the brains to talk to bankers trust. I couldn't have got here just by saving or putting my money into an ordinary fixed term deposit.
And I figured if they were good enough to manage superannuation funds for the likes of BHP and IBM they probably would be able to take care of my investment.
In fact they made it easy. They didn't even mind when I started out with $500.
It costs $800 to keep just one premature baby alive for 24 hours. That's why Telethon supports the Queen Victoria Hospital. Without Telethon some could be left out in the cold.
On this day in 1945 it was follow me Joe I'm pearl in bound as allied troops crossed the Rhine while the Germans left in classic Busby Berkeley formation.
They were the first armies to progress so far since Napoleon but they came with all the mod cons as they took the Ludendorff Richard Remagen.
Here the fourth Louisiana press strokers take the river the hard way urged on by Lieutenant God's body. Ingenuity knew no bounds as some guys nobody liked anyway test a pontoon bridge.
Above they displayed the familiarity with parachutes that makes Americans such plaza air travelers and of course Winnie dropped in to sample the wine and cheese.
On to more peaceful things. Meet Maurice Ravel born on this day in 1875. He was a French composer with the utmost composure.
He was a master of orchestration and among his works were the ballet Daphnis and Chloe which has something to do with a duck, a can opener and a lot of good intention.
But the world knows him as the man who wrote Bolero the haunting jogging music from the movie 10 and his other triumph that great hit from the 60s Royal telephone.
Here he is comfortable and relaxed in Kodachrome Blue Denim the swabest member of the royal family Lord Snowden.
He was born on this day in 1930 as Anthony Armstrong Jones an uncommon commoner.
He's long been recognized as one of the world's best photographers and here we see him nipping down to the chemist to pick up the latest prints.
He was married to Princess Margaret in 1960 but between the press and the relatives they didn't stand a chance.
The couple would have awed in 1978 but at least marrying Tony guaranteed the wedding snaps would be in focus.
Two ski patrollers married today on the slopes of Canada but let's hope it's not all downhill from here.
These people are on their way to a wedding not exactly attired in their Sunday best but then again this is a rather unconventional wedding.
Here comes the minister Pastor Derek Hollett of the Baptist Church.
Here come the bridesmaids decked out in their velveteen capes.
The groom and his entourage are in place a bit of music to start the proceedings and here comes the bride.
To say this wedding was different would be an understatement.
The bride and groom met four years ago while skiing at Marble Mountain.
When they decided to get married a church wedding just wasn't for them.
We were really thinking about how something different and we met on the ski hill.
We were both on ski patroll and we just decided that that's the place for us.
Dearly beloved we gather together today in the sight of God.
The wedding was short. It lasted about 15 minutes.
It was a beautiful day but it does get cold standing around 1800 feet above sea level in the middle of the winter.
A couple of hundred people showed up to witness the event at the top of the hill.
There were more than a thousand waiting at the bottom for the wedding party to ski down.
Halfway down the slope, time for pictures.
A champagne toast to the bride and groom.
Then down the hill to the reception below.
I don't think we really had any unusual problems.
The only problem was getting people up to the top.
It took a honey line of what we thought was going to.
And guess where they're going for their honeymoon?
Skiing in British Columbia.
And apparently they had a cool reception.
Back in the 70s Deborah Harry was the lead singer of Blondie.
Now at 45 years of age she's on the comeback trail still looking great and targeting a new audience.
As lead singer of Blondie, Debbie Harry sent peroxide sales through the roof in the late 70s with a platinum looks and a style that was pure vamp.
Really was inspired by Marilyn and Jean Harlow and Jane Mansfield and all these vivacious women.
Carol Lombard on and on and Amy Van Doren.
And I think that was really what was surprising to people and really what caught on.
And that was really a first.
At the height of their career they were making as many headlines for their hotel antics as for their music.
At the time the guys from Blondie did feel, Clam always felt a certain responsibility to throw TVs out windows and stuff like that to keep them from being his idols.
He was obligated to carry on the tradition of rock and roll.
Rock and roll destruction almost became self destruction for Debbie's partner and guitarist Chris Stein when the stress of being a punk took its toll.
It's a weird thing called Pempigas which is Latin for blisters.
They knock it out with steroids even though 30 years ago before the advent of chemotherapy it was probably fatal.
It's definitely stress related. Everybody I've talked to tends to be a worrier.
I was doing my record label in the band and a thousand things all at once and sort of exploded as it were.
While the illness spelt the end of Blondie, Deborah's solo career has taken her back to the top of the charts.
Here comes the twelfth century. It's gonna be much better for a girl like me.
Cause I want everything I can. And most of all, I want that man. I want that man.
Ironically, the blonde bombshell of the seventies has recently championed the cause of a rather select group of people.
As of today, as a matter of fact, I came up with the idea of incorporating the Housewives of America into the Teamsters Union
and perhaps the Australian women would like to consider something like this.
I think that Housewives need a union and I'm happy to represent them.
They've been underdogs for so long and they're the greatest. Right on, girls.
Her album's called Death, Dumb and Blom, but with an election and full swing, you can be sure she won't be mute on this subject when she hits town next week.
Yeah, I wanna be the queen of the USA. You can send me roses every other day.
What I really want, I've just been bought.
Here comes the 21st century. It's gonna be much better for a girl like me.
Cause I want everything I can. And most of all, I want that man. I want that man.
Somehow I can't see my mum relating to her. When we return, horsing around in Melbourne and in Sydney, the naming of the pet of the year.
This butterfly is travelling at 100 kilometres an hour. Yet it is blissfully unaware of its surroundings being anything less than perfect.
The Honda Legend Coupe has a similar effect on the driver and passengers too.
The Honda Legend Coupe.
The slate place have huge savings on imported slate. We've got six varieties all under $16 and our Kanza slate is just $9.95 a metre.
So hurry and get your floor finished before our specials are.
Well I was sitting at home right by the floor when all of a sudden it hit me.
It began with a craving. I was drooling at a raven. Was a pizza attack at Pizza Haven.
Cause the Pizza Heaven pizza with all the trappings. The only pizza worth attacking.
Fresh toppings each day. That's the Pizza Haven way. So get them on the floor and get wrapping.
We're talking delicious. We're talking hot. We're talking delivered on the spot.
A Pizza Heaven pizza with all the trappings. The only pizza worth attacking.
Since 76 Fleetwood Mac have delivered the hits.
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow. Don't stop, it'll soon be here.
From the breakthrough albums Fleetwood Mac and Rumours to Tango in the Night and their greatest hits.
The Mac have touched us all.
And now Fleetwood Mac are coming to town.
Catch them live at Memorial Drive, Wednesday April 4. Tickets are on sale now.
Fleetwood Mac, live in concert. The Mac is back.
Tomorrow night on A Current Affair, the other side of Bob Ancet. How he smuggled illegal immigrants for profit.
So I would take them from the border up to the fields in which they would pick the beans.
And admittedly I got a reward for doing so.
A Current Affair, tomorrow 6.30, following National 9 News at 6.
Welcome back and now for a news update. A violent hailstorm has wreaked havoc on a tiny rural community on the New South Wales North Coast.
The storm hit unexpectedly, bringing cyclone force winds and dumping heavy lumps of ice on the normally peaceful town, the Channon.
I hear it coming, just like a jet zooming towards us.
The gale ripped huge trees out of the ground, bringing them down on cars and homes.
Other houses lost their roofs. Locals now face a massive clean-up operation.
The search resumes tomorrow for a yachtsman missing off the New South Wales Central Coast.
The 52-year-old Queenslander was sailing solo to Brisbane from Sydney when 40-knot winds blew his yacht onto rocks near Kilcare.
It broke up quickly, leaving a trail of wreckage on the beach, but no trace of the skipper.
Environmentalists have condemned the state of one of Western Australia's most beautiful harbours. Goodness gracious me tonight.
The Environmental Protection Authority says marine life in Albany harbour has been seriously damaged by years of industrial waste spewing into the water.
The government plans to spend a million and a half dollars to clean up the mess, but admits it could take years.
And you'd think that was easy to say.
A month after being taken off the shelves, Perrier Water is being restocked.
The French company says it's found the source of benzene in some of its samples. It apparently came from a dirty filter.
Today, they promised it wouldn't happen again.
In finance news, the Australian stock market closed slightly firmer, with the all-ordinaries up slightly.
Tokyo's Nikkei Dow is sharply lower, while London's FT-100 is on the rise.
Our dollar ended the day slightly lower, while in New York gold has lost 20 cents.
And Skippy the Bush kangaroo has been given a new lease of life thanks to a medical team in San Francisco.
Earlier this week, doctors put a pacemaker in the seven-year-old roo to help her heartbeat properly.
It's the first time a zoo animal has had such an operation, and officials at San Francisco Zoo say Skippy's doing so well, she'll be hopping along again in no time at all.
Thanks, John.
An Australian horseman with royal connections will be among competitors at the First World Equestrian Championships in Sweden.
We found him at the reins today, training for the big event in July.
Four-in-hand driving is the fastest growing horse sport in the world, although Mike Phil is better known to Australians for his work with another team.
He's taken these Clydesdales just about everywhere in the country, for it's Mike's horsemanship that has made this six-horse team one of the most popular attractions anywhere they perform.
Now the Australian champion will be pitting his skills against the best in the world.
Four-in-hand driving is like car rallying, speed, endurance, finding your way around the course and keeping everything upright.
For three months in 1983, Phil drove for Prince Philip at his groom, and has been placed in events driving for royalty in Sweden.
His goals are high, but his skills match his desire.
I'm aiming at the top ten, and I'm giving myself the best opportunity. I'm going for five months pre-training with the former world champion, so I give myself a second and one chance at being right in it.
Putting his team through practice is a daily routine. It's estimated to cost $100,000, and much of it is owned to compete.
I do all my training with the Clydesdales, and of course if you want to compare that to driving these type of horses, it's like driving a semi-trail and then getting into a racing car.
The competition of four-in-hand carriage driving was started by Prince Philip in 1970.
It incorporates presentation and dressage, cross-country of 26 kilometres, and the final phase cone driving to test the horse's suppleness after three days of competition.
The idea of vegetables from outer space sounds a bit like the basis of a terrible science fiction movie,
but scientists in America are looking forward to seeing how thousands of tomato seeds will grow after spending six years in orbit.
Six years ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger took off from Cape Canaveral with a cargo of tomato seeds.
That wasn't all that was on board, but it was certainly the most interesting.
The seeds have been up there all this time in a satellite launched from Challenger's cargo bay and retrieved recently by Discovery.
The seeds have arrived at a horticulture company in South Carolina where the container was first checked for meteorite scars.
Then the containers were weighed to make sure the seals hadn't broken and the seeds were still fresh.
Everything in order, the containers were opened to reveal seeds that had undergone bursts of radiation far greater than a human could stand.
After being declared safe by health officers, the seeds were packed up for distribution to school children in the United States.
The children will plant the seeds and report back to NASA on anything odd in the crop.
And John, they're not tomato seeds. They're tomato seeds.
Tomatoes. You say tomato and I'll say tomato.
At Sydney's Boulevard Hotel tonight, Christina Dwyer was named the Penthouse Pet of the Year.
The judges said it was a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
We first heard about Christina Dwyer last September when she set out with 30 other adventurers to cycle across the Simpson Desert.
Christina and most of the others completed the 600 kilometer route despite hazardous sand traps, high dunes and searing heat.
But she looked none the worse for wear when she appeared on Wide World of Sports to tell us about her adventure.
On the first day, the guy who came in first, he suffered from dehydration and they had to pull him off the bike.
It took them 10 minutes to put a drip into his arm and he took two liters of saline in 10 minutes.
So I think after that everybody started drinking a lot more.
Cycling's her spare time pursuit. Her job is undressing for the camera.
Age 22, Christina's a centerfold model and tonight in Sydney she was named Penthouse Pet of the Year.
Now the months ahead will be busy for Christina.
Apart from enjoying the spoils of victory and her commitments for the cameras,
Christina will be training for another race across the Simpson in September.
Nick Grim, Coast to Coast.
All ahead on, sorry, caught off guard there. Were you?
Beautiful eyes.
I reckon that's sexist crap.
Because that's what I reckon that is.
Ahead on Coast to Coast, the man who claims that conversation with John Lennon is still possible nine years after his death.
One thing I've learned about a really good television news service is not something that can be created in two months or two years.
A responsible news service demands full involvement.
Rob Kelvin and Kevin Kreese aren't just talking heads.
They work together with a team of professionals to make National Nine News the most responsible news service on television.
You can see the difference every night at six.
National Nine News, responsible and respected.
That's what I want.
Isn't it great?
Sure, where's the army?
Oh come on, where's your imagination? Look.
How about this? Now for some real magic.
Oh that's great, but what about...
Curved maybe?
No.
I know, beveled edges. In cream? Or red?
No, burnished. Ah, now that's it. And another rock garden.
No, not those trees. Eucalypts.
You're hard to please.
Make your yard beautiful with Newbrick, the great range of Hallett pavers.
In 1985, Phil Collins stunned Australian audiences with his live performances.
And now, Paul Dainty presents the return of Phil Collins.
Power, passion, electrifying.
This serious tour. Saturday, March 31 at Memorial Drive.
Tickets on sale now.
Seriously, don't miss Phil Collins live.
Keep them there.
Welcome back, and it's Wednesday as you know, and that means television ratings for Sydney and Melbourne.
Here's the way they crossed the finish line this week.
Round three in the ratings bout and a win to Channel 9 in Sydney with seven just behind.
The top rating programs were National 9 News, A Current Affair and the Channel 9 coverage of The Great Debate.
Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Bridge scored a 25 to take up the top movie honours from the Danny DeVito classic, Throw Mama from the Train.
Sydney viewers stayed up later this week, and the 10.30 slot saw an increase in ratings points for Coast to Coast, which hit a seven, and Tonight Live, which scored an 11.
In Melbourne, Channel 7 took their third ratings victory, making a perfect score for the year so far.
National 9 News and A Current Affair were the most watched programs with a figure of 31, while their nearest rival, Hey Dad, managed a 28.
It was a close finish in the Melbourne movie stakes, Throw Mama from the Train and Fletch on Channel 10, followed by the Lost Boys and Heartbreak Bridge on nine.
And the bridging of the late night gap continues, with Tonight Live losing a point on their previous peak of 16, while Coast to Coast picked up two points.
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