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Boat deaths spark fury
TONY Abbott’s debut visit to
Indonesia is set to be overshadowed by his government’s first asylum-seeker
tragedy as a grieving family
yesterday claimed it was
‘‘very angry’’ after losing two
women, one pregnant, and 11
children in the capsizing.
With the new Prime Minister leaving for high-level talks
in Jakarta today amid controversy over his boats media
blackout, the Government
was yesterday scrambling to
defend its handling of the rescue after claims it did not respond to initial distress calls.
Accusations overshadow PM’s Jakarta visit
As Lebanese media reported one of the female passengers was travelling to meet
her groom in Australia, Melbourne man Ali Taleb revealed his pain over the
loss of his two sisters and
11 related children, but declined to comment further as
he was too upset.
‘‘We are still very angry
at the death so I don’t want to
comment much,’’ Mr Taleb
told reporters.
‘‘But one of my sisters was
pregnant, with an unborn
baby as well as the 11 children
on the boat.’’
Indonesian rescue teams
were losing hope last night as
another 30 to 50 asylumseekers were feared drowned
from the boat that capsized on
Thursday off Indonesia.
A total of 28 survived but
about 22, mostly children,
were confirmed drowned.
The tragedy has rocked
Lebanese communities in
Melbourne and Sydney where
relatives of those on board
had been awaiting their ar-
rival, according to Victorian
Lebanese Community Council head Michael Kheirallah.
Mr Kheirallah said many
Lebanese on board had come
from a remote village, Abeit,
in Lebanon’s north, after fleeing due to the deteriorating
security situation in Syria.
‘‘There are at least five or
six families affected by this
tragedy, the majority in Melbourne as well as some in
Sydney,’’ he said.
As the Greens called for an
inquiry into the incident, sur-
vivors claimed they placed
more than 10 calls to Australian authorities to alert
them the boat was sinking.
‘‘The government cannot be
allowed to use its media
blackout to cover up the role
of Australian authorities in
this tragedy,’’ Refugee Action
Coalition spokesman Ian
Rintoul said.
Immigration Minister Scott
Morrison, breaking his vow
of silence on boat arrivals outside of weekly briefings for
the second time at the week-
HOMES BLOWN UP
Black day for
Golden Dawn
BAGHDAD: Violence that included attacks on security
forces and their families has
killed 14 people in Iraq, officials say.
In Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, militants blew up four
houses belonging to police
and soldiers as people slept
inside, killing four, including
a soldier, and wounding 15.
ATHENS: Five lawmakers
of the Greek neo-Nazi party
Golden Dawn, including its
founder Nikos Michaloliakos, will face charges of belonging to a criminal organisation, a court source said.
The five, who were arrested Saturday along with
15 other Golden Dawn members in a massive police
sweep, will remain in custody until their appearance
before a magistrate, the
source said.
Police swooped on Mr Michaloliakos and his deputies
10 days after the murder of
an anti-fascist musician, allegedly by a member of the
Golden Dawn party, an act
that shocked Greece.
The Greek government
coalition has been repeatedly accused of being too
lenient with the neo-Nazis.
DAMNING REPORT
PRESCOTT: An investigation
into the June deaths of 19
firefighters killed while
battling an Arizona blaze has
found a litany of problems
stemming from inadequate
radio communication.
The report cited improperly
programmed radios, vague
updates, and a three-minute
communication blackout just
before the flames engulfed
the men.
The report said at the moment the firefighters were
killed, an air tanker carrying
fire retardant was hovering
overhead, waiting for an update about their location.
Skin cancer
breakthrough
HI-TECH DEFENCE
LONDON: Britain is to set up
a dedicated military unit to
counter cyber attacks, the
Defence Secretary announced as he issued a call
for tech-savvy new recruits.
The Ministry of Defence is
looking to recruit hundreds
of computer experts to help
defend national security.
STALEMATE ASSURED
WASHINGTON: The US
House of Representatives
approved a controversial Republican measure that
avoids a looming government shutdown but delays
President Barack Obama’s
healthcare law for one year.
The Bill assures a stalemate
with the Senate, whose Majority Leader Harry Reid said
he would not pass legislation
that defunded or delayed socalled ‘‘Obamacare’’, and
brings the Federal Government closer to its first shutdown in 17 years.
end, rejected the survivors’
claims of neglect.
‘‘Suggestions Australian
authorities did not respond to
this incident appropriately
are absolutely and totally
wrong,’’ he said. ‘‘The government completely rejects allegations of a 26-hour delay in
response to this tragic incident by Australian agencies.’’
Mr Abbott and Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono will hold talks today, with asylum-seeker policy at the top of the agenda.
Mr Abbott has recruited 20
of the biggest names in business to travel with him on his
high-stakes visit.
Rescuers managed to save 33 people from the building’s wreckage in the two-day search
Picture: AFP
Toll stands at 60 as rescue effort ends
MUMBAI: The search for
survivors at the site of a collapsed apartment building in
India’s financial capital of
Mumbai is over.
An emergency response official said the final death toll
was 60 people.
Rescuers managed to save
33 people from the building’s wreckage in the twoday search.
By yesterday morning,
Alok Awasthi, local commander of the National Disaster Response Force, said
all 93 people listed as missing
had been accounted for and
the search was called off.
The five-storey building
collapse on Friday was the
third deadly cave-in of a
Mumbai structure in six
months. The cause is under
investigation. High demand
for housing around India’s
crowded cities combined
with lax inspections often result in contractors cutting
corners by using substandard materials or adding
unauthorised floors.
LONDON: Skin cancer sufferers could be cured with
new breakthrough drugs,
experts claimed as they
hailed the ‘‘beginning of a
new era’’.
Seriously ill patients are
said to have seen ‘‘spectacular effects’’ after receiving
the medication, which could
eventually be used to combat other cancers.
Until now the prognosis
for advanced melanoma has
been very poor and many
patients die within months
of diagnosis.
Professor Peter Johnson,
chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, said: ‘‘We’re just
at the beginning of a new
era of cancer treatments.
‘‘These drugs that can
turn the body’s own defences against a tumour are
starting to show promise.’’
Tackling Syria’s chemical weapons a daunting task for lean force
NEW YORK: International
chemical weapon troubleshooters will enter war-torn
Syria tomorrow to start one of
the biggest and most dangerous disarmament operations
ever staged.
With more than 1000 tonnes
of sarin, mustard gas and other banned horror chemicals
www.ntnews.com.au
stocked across the country,
the United Nations and the
global chemical weapons
watchdog have launched an
urgent appeal for scarce experts to join the mission.
Applicants must be ready
to face mortal risks and an
impossible deadline.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon cal-
led the operation ‘‘daunting’’
after the UN Security Council
voted late last week to eliminate President Bashar alAssad’s chemical arms.
The mission by the Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons will run
in parallel with a UN investigation into a huge sarin gas
attack in Damascus in August
and other suspected attacks.
Final details of a US-Russia
plan to dispose of stockpiles at
an estimated 45 sites have still
not been agreed on, UN diplomats said. Clean-ups of chemical nasties have been staged
in Iraq and Libya, but never
in the middle of a raging war.
The UN said the Syrian conflict had already left more
than 100,000 dead.
Experts said the OPCW
would need up to 200 inspectors for the Syria force. It currently has less than half that.
The watchdog has had to
appeal to the major powers to
send scientists.
Those who go will become a
new target in the 30-monthold conflict and the strife
means the noxious potions
will have to be moved out of
Syria to be destroyed.
The US-Russia plan sets a
target date of mid-2014 for
completion, but few people believe it is achievable.
Monday, September 30, 2013. NT NEWS.
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WSNENT
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