HighLights of the AAP National Wire at 14:30, Dec 31

AAP General News (Australia)
12-31-2009
HighLights of the AAP National Wire at 14:30, Dec 31

SYDNEY - Vision of Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations will be picked up by 90 percent
of the world's broadcasters and watched by a potential global audience of up 1 billion
people, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally says (EVE NSW UPDATE)

CANBERRA - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has defended his government's 2009 record in a
New Year's Eve address to the nation. (EVE RUDD - EMBARGOED, see also Text)

MELBOURNE - New Year's Eve revellers who degenerate into drunken troublemakers will
be locked up and fined, Victorian police have warned. (EVE VIC)

BRISBANE - Forecast rain will not put a dampener on New Year's fireworks displays in
Queensland's southeast as revellers get set for a long night of celebration. (EVE QLD
WRAP)

To come: EVE NATIONAL WRAP, EVE ABBOTT, EVE VIC WRAP, plus coverage of New year's Eve
activities around the country. Pix available

PERTH - A fallen power line appears to have caused Western Australia's devastating
Toodyay fires, the state government says. (BUSHFIRES WA WRAP)

CANBERRA - The federal government has pledged to help residents in Western Australia
recovering from the worst fires to hit the region in 50 years. (BUSHFIRES WA FUND)

CANBERRA - January 1 heralds a new era for workers and employers, the federal government
says. (CHANGES FED)

CANBERRA - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will turn back boats carrying suspected
asylum seekers if elected, while accusing the government of lacking the nerve to do it.

(BOAT ABBOTT)

PORT MORESBY - Six people are dead and their Australian pilot is fighting for his life
in hospital after their light plane crashed in Papua New Guinea. (PNG PLANE UPDATE)

MELBOURNE - The husband of a woman found dead with her throat cut in her western Sydney
home has appeared briefly in a Melbourne court where he was remanded in custody over her
death. (SINGH)

BRISBANE - Brisbane's Somali community on Thursday will farewell a 13-year-old boy
who drowned in a flooded creek this week. (CREEK) WRAP to come

MELBOURNE - Australian property prices have risen by 11.3 per cent over the first 11
months of 2009, defying predictions of a slump in house prices amid the global financial
crisis, figures show. (HOUSE PRICES to come)

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE - News ahead of third Test Australia v Pakistan at SCG starting Sunday.

Aust coach Tim Nielsen presser. (CRICKET AUST WRAP to come, plus CRICKET PAKISTAN)

PERTH - Lleyton Hewitt presser 1645AEDT ahead of his Australian summer campaign starting
at the Hopman Cup on Saturday. (TENNIS HOPMAN to come)

BRISBANE - Top seed Andy Roddick presser ahead of his season start in the Brisbane
International. (TENNIS QLD WRAP) to come

HOBART - The battle for handicap honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race being determined
in a protest hearing today. (SAIL SYDHOB to come)

more mo

KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL

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