Highights of the AAP National Wire at 19:30, Dec 192011

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2011
Highights of the AAP National Wire at 19:30, Dec 192011

SYDNEY - A 28-year-old Australian man is in police custody in Bali following the stabbings
of two other Australian men in a bar fight. (Indon Stab)

CANBERRA - The Czech Republic lost one of its greatest sons when former president Vaclav
Havel died on Sunday, the Australian government says. (Czech Havel Aust)

MELBOURNE - A key police officer in the fight against Tony Mokbel's drugs empire has
apologised for a "failure" of his leadership that could allow the crime boss to have his
guilty pleas rescinded. (Legal: Mokbel Wrap)

CANBERRA - A broadcast on the Seven network showing pictures from a social media page
of a murdered woman's family did not breach the television industry's privacy rules, the
communications watchdog has ruled. (Seven)

CANBERRA - The ABC has broken the rules for impartiality for the first time in seven
years, the communications watchdog says. (ABC)

CANBERRA - Murray-Darling Basin communities will be able to take credit for any changes
made to a draft plan for the ailing river system, Murray-Darling Basin Authority head
Craig Knowles says. (Murray)

CANBERRA - Air safety investigators have conceded they might never know exactly why
a Qantas passenger jet on an international flight to Perth plunged nearly 200 metres in
mid-air in October 2008. (Plane)

CANBERRA - Motorists should expect some festive cheer at the bowser with petrol prices
expected to fall by up to two cents a litre in the next two weeks, an economist says.

(Petrol)

CANBERRA - Treasurer Wayne Swan has invited Australians to submit their priorities
for next year's federal budget. (Budget)

CANBERRA - Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says Julia Gillard is the best person to
be prime minister. (Ministry)

SYDNEY - Allegations of animal cruelty against the head of the RSPCA have been dismissed
but the animal protection agency is set to prosecute the man who was denied his day in
court. (Legal Wright Wrap to come)

SYDNEY - People across much of NSW are being warned to prepare for large hailstones,
flash flooding and damaging winds. (Storms NSW)

MELBOURNE - Victorians are drying off after a big weekend soaking that drenched the
north-western parts of the state, causing minor damage from a rush of flash flooding.

(Storms Vic Wrap)

MELBOURNE - The number of government assistance programs for Victorian manufacturers
will be slashed from 32 to five under the state government's new manufacturing plan. (Manufacturing
Vic)

MELBOURNE - Victorian manufacturers bidding for major state contracts will continue
to receive special treatment but the government has abandoned set targets for local content.

(Manufacturing Vic Wrap)

HOBART - Tasmanian Liberal senator Richard Colbeck says a report the federal government
has refused to release shows protected areas of the state's forests have come under increased
harvesting pressure. (Logging)

HOBART - It survived a greater disaster than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs and
points to how life evolved after the extinctions. (Fossil)

ADELAIDE - A bikie shooting at an Adelaide cafe was related to a marital dispute, the
restaurant's owner says. (Shots Wrap (with pix) )

ADELAIDE - The Federal Court has recognised the native title rights of the Gawler Ranges
people to more than 3.5 million hectares in South Australia's mid-north. (Gawler )

ADELAIDE - Former AFL footballer Fabian Francis, found guilty of assaulting his former
wife, had a toxic relationship with her, a court has heard. (Legal: Francis )

ADELAIDE - A 58-year-old man has died after an accident at a stockfeed manufacturing
business north of Adelaide. (Hay )

ADELAIDE - The disabled in South Australia will have a bigger say in what services
they use and how they use them under a revamp by the state government. (Disability SA
)

BRISBANE - The 2018 Commonwealth Games budget will be further detailed in a January
review by the Queensland government, Acting Premier Andrew Fraser says, in response to
a report of a $7 million hole. (Com18 Wrap)

BRISBANE - Both sides of Queensland politics link the opposition's dip in the polls
to stepped-up scrutiny of Campbell Newman's financial interests. (Poll Qld Wrap)

BRISBANE - A combination of faulty equipment, inadequate safety protocols and bad weather
may have been responsible for the death of a Queensland floods hero. (Legal: Fenton)

BRISBANE - A central Queensland nature reserve may be swallowed by Australia's biggest
coal mine because an endangered species cannot be included on an environmental impact
submission. (Finch Wrap)

BRISBANE - A combination of faulty equipment, inadequate safety protocols and bad weather
may have been responsible for the death of a Queensland floods hero. (Legal: Fenton Wrap)

BRISBANE - A policeman who was found guilty of assaulting a homeless man in a Brisbane
mall has had his appeal against the verdict dismissed.

DARWIN - A Northern Territory woman will face court after allegedly stabbing her partner
17 times, mostly in his back. (Stab)

ENTERTAINMENT

SYDNEY - Tom Cruise's high-rise antics in the latest Mission Impossible movie have
impressed Australians over the weekend, giving Ghost Protocol the number one position
and $4.12 million at the box office. (BoxOffice Aust)

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