Category:May 9, 2006

The time is 13:30 (UTC) on May 9th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

United States

President George W Bush has announced US emergency food shipments to Darfur, a province of Sudan. He has asked Congress to approve $225m in aid. Sudan and the biggest rebel group signed a peace deal last Friday to end the three year old civil war, claiming more than 200,000 lives. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state will address the UN Security Council to help speed up the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the Darfur region.

United Kingdom

Newly appointed British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, today confirmed that there are no plans for military action in Iran. Beckett has been speaking at a meeting in New York to discuss international policy concerning Iran with her counterparts from France, Germany, Russia, China and the US. Speaking on BBC Radio she said, "it's not anybody's intention to take the course of military action". Beckett refused, however, to rule out action as 'inconceivable' in the way that her predecessor Jack Straw had.

Australia

The Australian Budget (Appropriation Bill No. 1) for 2006-2007 was released by the Australian Liberal Party-Australian National Party coalition government treasurer, Peter Costello (Division of Higgins, Liberal). Costello noted the resilience of the economy against natural disasters and terrorism, and through "disciplined and prudent management" the Government was able to "repay Labor's debt" of quoted 96 billion dollars of net debt and the Government was now "debt-free". Costello noted that the Government budget was in "surplus for the ninth time" with a forecast surplus of 10.8 billion.

Australia

The two miners who had been trapped almost one kilometer beneath the surface in Beaconsfield, Tasmania in a collapsed gold mine for 14 days have now been rescued. The men, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, were well enough to walk out from the lift onto the surface and threw their arms up in exultation. They then walked to a board and removed their location tags to indicate that they were no longer underground at approximately 5:59 a.m. AEST before embracing family and friends and making their way to the waiting ambulances. The vehicles slowly made their way through the crowds with a police escort and the miners waved to the crowds through the open rear doors. They will undergo medical supervision at Launceston Hospital for 24 hours before being confirmed well enough to return home.

Today, the day that saw the rescue of trapped miners (Brant Webb and Todd Russell in Beaconsfield, Tasmania), their collegue Larry Knight, 44 was farewelled at a funeral service in Launceston. Knight was killed when a small earthquake triggered a rockfall killing Knight and trapping Webb and Russell.

India

The main suspect in the 7th March bombings in Varanasi, was shot dead by Indian security forces in Kashmir early this morning. Abu Zuber, an operative of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami was gunned down in an coordinated operation involving the Jammu & Kashmir State Police Special Taskforce and the Indian Army.

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