Fed: Main stories in today's Canberra Times

AAP General News (Australia)
02-19-2004
Fed: Main stories in today's Canberra Times

CANBERRA, Feb 19 AAP - Main stories in today's Canberra Times:

Page 1 - Fire authorities briefed the ACT cabinet two days before the January 18 firestorm
that urban Canberra would be under threat if weather conditions deteriorated, a court
heard; At a press conference the day before the firestorm, chief fire officer Peter Lucas-Smith
said the chance of the fires reaching urban Canberra was slim; ACT school principals given
guidelines to deal with high temperatures; Leading criminologist says ACT government needs
to build a secure mental health facility.

Page 2 - Leading US scientist says the federal government's failure to help Mt Stromlo
Observatory begin rebuilding immediately after the 2003 fires was incomprehensible; A
quiet fire season has allowed ACT firefighters to take part in the first mock incident
for several years; A top defence intelligence officer admitted he was the unnamed official
cited in a newspaper report about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction; A mentally ill woman
took an overdose of pills hours after she left court on Tuesday, ACT Magistrates Court
heard.

Page 3 - Labor Leader Mark Latham laid out his strategy to help balance work and family
pressures as he called for more help for boys; Mark Latham has got his opponents' attention;
Prime Minister John Howard revealed he gave the green light for Telstra to do a deal with
Fairfax, sparking Labor warnings the telco could have seized control of the newspaper
group; Nine-year-old owes his life to the helmet he was wearing when he almost went through
the windscreen of a taxi.

World - US Senator John Kerry squeezed out a narrow win in Wisconsin's presidential
primary; A disgraced US Catholic bishop was found guilty of hitting a pedestrian with
his car and fleeing the scene of the crash as the victim lay dying; Walt Disney Ltd to
buy Muppets characters.

Business - Woodside Petroleum Ltd will consider up to seven projects for final approval
in 2004, which if approved could almost double the oil and gas company's production to
100 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2007; Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile Australia
said it was heading for its first annual net profit after posting two successive quarters
of earnings growth.

Sport - Auckland Blues coach names all four of his superstar outside backs in the team
to face the ACT Brumbies on Saturday; A gene-manipulated virus created to help sufferers
of muscular dystrophy could be used by athletes to enhance sporting performance.

AAP sm/lb

KEYWORD: FRONTERS ACT

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