Thesun 2009-03-27 Page12 Australian Minister Under Secret Probe

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theSun

| FRIDAY MARCH 27 2009

news without borders

Australian minister under secret probe MELBOURNE: Australia’s military launched an investigation yesterday into allegations that officers spied on the defence minister and leaked details of his ties to a China-born businesswoman. Defence chiefs ordered the probe after Fairfax newspapers reported the military’s intelligence arm accessed Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s office computer system as part of a covert sweep into his private life. Defence officials, whom Fitzgibbon (pix) recently accused of being incompetent, then leaked information about his friendship with Beijing-born businesswoman Helen Liu to suggest the minister may be a security risk, the reports said. After initially denying accepting any gifts other than small birthday presents from Liu, Fitzgibbon late yesterday was forced to apologise and reveal he had failed to declare two trips to China paid for by the businesswoman.

“These trips were paid for by Ms Helen Liu either personally or through her associated commercial interests,” Fitzgibbon said in a statement. “I failed to disclose those trips. This was a mistake and for that I apologise,” he said, adding he had taken immediate steps to declare the trips in 2002 and 2005 to the appropriate parliamentary authorities. The allegations of spying on the minister came after a series of clashes between Fitzgibbon and the military brass, the most recent involving a bungle over pay for Special Air Service soldiers. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on a visit to Washington, said earlier he had only heard about the reports and he had not spoken to Fitzgibbon. “I am further advised that the secretary of the defence department is conducting a further investigation into this matter and therefore I will await the outcome of that investigation.

briefs Workers release French 3M manager after deal clinched PARIS: Workers at a factory operated by the US firm 3M released the French manager they had held hostage for over 24 hours yesterday after a deal on conditions for laid-off staff. The industrial director of the group, Luc Rousselet, was barricaded in an office on Tuesday evening and workers had refused to let him out until he agreed to more favourable terms for the 110 employees who face the axe. “A framework of an agreement allowing for the end of the crisis on the 3M site in Pithivers was signed today,” a union representative said. Locking up managers is becoming a tradition in French labour disputes, with police unwilling to intervene to avoid violence. – Reuters

Pirates seize two European tankers off Somalia BRUSSELS: Two European-owned tankers have been hijacked off the Somali coast and other vessels in the area have been alerted to a pick-up in pirate activity, the EU’s antipiracy naval mission said yesterday. The Maritime Security Centre run by the EU naval force said the 9,000-tonne Greekowned, Panamanian-flagged M.V. Nipayia was seized on Wednesday with its crew of 19. The incident was followed yesterday with the capture of the 23,000-tonne Norwegianowned and Bahamian-registered M.V. BowAsir with an unspecified number of crew. Somali pirates attacked more than 130 ships in the region last year. – AFP.

North Korea readies missile, makes new threat SEOUL: North Korea said yesterday if the international community punishes it for next month’s planned missile launch it will restart a nuclear plant that makes weapons grade plutonium. The secretive state this week put a longrange missile in place for a launch the United States warned would violate UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for past weapons tests. The planned launch, seen by some countries

“My advice is that this has been a family relationship with the Fitzgibbon family going back some 16 years,” Rudd said. Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard later ordered Fitzgibbon to apologise for the failure to declare the trips, but said she still had confidence in him. “The acting prime minister accepted this assurance and expressed her full confidence in the minister for defence,” Gillard’s spokesman said. The minister also denied there was anything untoward in his friendship with Liu. “No one has ever raised any concern between that relationship and if anyone has concerns about that relationship they should have come forward and shared them with me,” he said. Fitzgibbon’s father Eric, himself a retired federal politician, said the alleged actions were “a slanderous attack” and it appeared someone was out for revenge against his son. “It’s ridiculous to suggest that there’s anything wrong in the relationship between the Fitzgibbon family and the Liu family.” – AFP

as a disguised military exercise, is the first big test for US President Barack Obama in dealing with the prickly North, whose efforts to build a nuclear arsenal have long plagued ties with Washington. North Korea warned that any action by the UN to punish it would be a “hostile act”. – Reuters

Czech prime minister hands in resignation PRAGUE: Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek formally submitted the resignation of his centre-right government to President Vaclav Klaus yesterday, two days after losing a confidence motion in parliament. “I accept it, of course,” said Klaus before he entered talks with Topolanek, leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Klaus is due to meet with leaders of the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats today about the prospects of forming a new government at a time when the Czechs hold the revolving presidency of the European Union. – AFP

Radioactive device lost in China: Report BEIJING: Chinese investigators are searching urgently for a radioactive device lost from a cement plant, which may have already been sold to scrap metal collectors in a northwestern city, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. A lead ball containing Caesium-137, part of a nuclear scale used to make precise measurements, was lost on Monday as workers disassembled the Qinling Cement Co in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, Xinhua said. Caesium-137 is an extremely toxic radioactive isotope, formed through nuclear fission. It can cause cancer years after it is inhaled, eaten or absorbed into the body. – Reuters

German police seize ‘record-breaking’ drug mule BERLIN: A drug mule has been caught in Germany, trying to smuggle 1.72kg of cocaine into Switzerland after swallowing 115 “bodypacks” of the drug, police said yesterday. Police near Stuttgart made the 43-yearold West African do a drug test, when border officials noticed that he was acting suspiciously in a regional train to Switzerland. He was then forced to excrete the packs. A police spokesman said the amount of cocaine smuggled is “record-breaking”. – AFP