Fire At Corrimal Suspicious

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday July 1, 2000

Police are appealing for information about a suspicious fire at a Corrimal unit block - the second blaze at the premises in four weeks.

Three males were seen near a small scrub fire close to the Princes Hwy address when the second fire started at 11pm on Tuesday.

A witness reported seeing one of the males throw an object through a window and then fire coming from inside.

``We are asking that anyone who may have been in the area or have information regarding the fire to contact us," Detective Senior Constable Andrea Panozzo said yesterday.``We would like a man who was at the scene and assisted people from the premises to come forward and help."

The first fire at the unit occurred on May 27. Anyone with information is urged to call Wollongong police.

Parkinson's hits Sir Joh

Former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was in the preliminary stages of Parkinson's disease, his wife said yesterday.

Lady Flo said her 89-year-old husband was suffering from the slowly progressive degenerative neurological disorder.

The one-time National Party leader, who led Queensland for 19 years until stepping down in 1988, was admitted to Brisbane's Wesley Hospital on Thursday.

Lady Flo, a 79-year-old former senator, said Sir Joh was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease earlier this year.

Australians in Suva warned

Australians should leave the Fijian capital Suva and avoid the parliamentary complex, the Foreign Affairs and Trade Department has warned.

Yesterday's upgraded warning follows the detention of a group of journalists, most of them Australians, by coup leader George Speight in the parliamentary complex on Thursday.

In the other South Pacific hotspot, the Solomon Islands, the department is continuing to warn Australians against travelling there, despite signs the political crisis is coming to an end.

The department is also warning Australians against travelling to various parts of Indonesia beset by violence, including Ambon, Aceh and Poso.

Butts earn on-the-spot fines

Smokers should be extra careful with their cigarette butts today or face an on-the-spot fine under new NSW anti-littering laws.

The new laws will give council workers the power to slap on-the-spot fines on everyone from careless smokers to more dangerous litterbugs - such as those who smash glass bottles in public places.

Environment Minister Bob Debus said the fines, which operate on a sliding scale, will give a range of government officers the power to clean up the streets.

Beauty crown tug of war

A tug of war over the Miss Australia crown is headed for the courts after a Gold Coast company announced yesterday it plans to relaunch the shelved beauty pageant next year.

The managing director of the new awards, Peter Lapko, announced yesterday that his contest, called the Miss Australia Ambassador Awards, would see ``Miss Australia reclaim its rightful status as the nation's number one beauty pageant".

Soon after the announcement a shocked CEO of the Spastic Society of Victoria, Vici Funnell, which co-owns the Miss Australia trademark with societies in each state, was on the phone seeking legal advice - fearing the beauty queens' title had been stolen.