The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 1

STEPHEN HAWKING BRJEF HISTORY Urlrlfc FUIUI IE LLo ACGEE AFTERLIFE 4J mi Telstra Joy, and a plea for those left behind, as CARE's third man unties freedom ribbon Hi TEAM M1LLBNNIUM I IJ I I OLYMPIC PARTNER 1 I fc I Union dispute threatens power supply iw5fijyijf'i Victorians will face I v't power cuts during hot weather unless f'JjLl" a dispute between IjLj? fc' power unions and moves to swallow OzEmail lauuurn energy ends, energy experts warned yesterday. Consumers in New South Wales and South Australia would also be affected. Yallourn Energy closed its La Trobe Valley Cower plant yesterday after talks etween the company and power unions broke down. NEWS 3 Sharemarket claws back lost ground The top providers ntfStr' Telstra faces potential opposition to its plan to take over an Internet competitor. By LEONIE WOOD OzEmaH 350000 Mss 1 foWl I VlOptusMkroplex 120,000 The Australian I Eisa 100,000 sharemarket roared back into I.

One.Net 70.000 jf posinve territory yesterday after a rally on Wall Street i at the weekend Primus 65.000 Estimates ofAusrafan eunomere trifraprRrl hpaw oo buying among industrial and Internet stocks. The All Ordinaries Index stacked on 58.6 points, or 1 .92 per cent, to close at 3 1 03. 1 yesterday, clawing back most of the Branko Jelen, with daughter Manon and son Fillp, on the balcony of Government House in Canberra. Fellow CARE Australia workers Peter Wallace, left, and Steve Pratt watch Mr Jelen remove a yellow ribbon tied to the balcony to signify his freedom. losses suffered last week.

BUSINESS I Reprieve for fast bowler riles Simpson and JENNY SINCLAIR Telstra has moved to entrench its position as the dominant supplier of Internet services to Australian homes with a plan to buy Its nearest rival, OzEmail, for close to $350 millioa The purchase would double Telstra's share of Internet subscribers to 900,000 about 40 per cent of the market and leave it with seven times the customer base of its next biggest Internet competitor, Cable Wireless Optus. But' Telstra faces potential opposition from the nation's competition watchdog, which plans to examine the dynamics of one of the world's fastest-growing industries. The acting chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Mr Rod Shogren, said yesterday that Telstra had briefed him on its plan to buy the residential Internet business from OzEmail's United States-based owner, the giant MCI-Worldcom. "The ACCC will consider today's information and make further market inquiries into the possible impact of the proposal before making a decision about any intervention," Mr Shogren said. If successful, Telstra would become OzEmail's second owner In just over a year.

The big global Internet provider UUNET, a subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom, last year paid $520 million for OzEmail. UUNET later carved out the business and corporate Internet customers for itself, leaving residential users with OzEmail. Telstra's acquisition of OzEmail would widen the already large gap between the big players and garage Internet operators. The 2.3 million Australian households now connected to the Internet choose from about 700 service providers, or ISPs. Yet about half the market is supplied by just six providers Telstra, Former Test captain Bob Simpson, left, Australia's representative on cricket's illegal action committee, made it clear Sources: tiloomtxrg www.consuft OzEmail, Optus, One.Net, Primus and Eisa and only about 100 ISPs can claim more than 1009 subscribers.

I. Rapid growth in Australia's home Internet market over the past yeat has helped drive down access charges and has extracted an array of innovative Internet services, hard; ware deals and payment plans from telecommunications carriers, service providers and retailers. Industry analysts suggested that Telstra's move could trigger more mergers and takeovers. But they warned that Telstra's dominance could put the brakes on prige reductions. OzEmail was a major force in developing the Internet as a mainstream medium in Australia, gelling itself with quick-install "family pack" CDs, free trial periods and a magazine-style home-page.

Telstra's BigPond offers similar services, yet has a heavier emphasis on broadband Internet, which provides faster access to the Web plus advanced services that are unavailable through regular connections. Telstra plans to retain OzEmail's brand and to run it as a semi-autonomous unit with its own board and management structure. Its initial deal includes a five-year contract to buy access to UUNET's network. Telstra yesterday noted that its discussions on buying OzEmail were continuing. Any deal depends on the approval of the Telstra and UUNET boards, as well as the ACCC.

Leonie Wood owns Telstra shares. yesterday that he was dissatisfied with the "appeals board" reprieve for Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar. SPORT I survival in Australia: "Learn to drink Australian beer quickly. It's much much better beer than he has been used to at home." During his welcome at Government House, Mr Jelen pleaded for more help for refugees In his home country. "Refugees in my country are still In a very desperate situation," he said.

"And I am calling on all in the International community to try to give much more help In the future to refugees In Serbia." Mr Jelen said he was looking forward to starting a new life in Australia with his family, and Sir William said Mr Jelen's work for CARE Australia guaranteed him a welcome to Australia like that of no other migrant. Mr Jelen, who has been offered residency by the Federal Government, told the Government House gathering: "We are very happy but I think that Just happy Is not enough to explain how really happy we are. "As my wife said once when she visited me in prison, 'I know that when we come to Australia that the sun will be great' and It Is true." AAP By ELIZABETH GOSCH CANBERRA Freed CARE Australia aid worker Branko )elen was welcomed to Australia yesterday after nine months of detention In Yugoslavia. Mr Jelen, who was released In Belgrade on New Year's Eve, urged the international community to devote more effort to helping refugees in Serbia. There was a warm welcome for Mr Jelen and his family wife Nadja and children Manon, 11, and Filipi 7 yesterday morning at Canberra Airport where they were met by a crowd of more than 50 CARE Australia workers with bunches of yellow flowers signifying his release.

Detained by Yugoslav authorities on 8 April last year during the Kosovo crisis, Mr Jelen was charged with espionage and sentenced after a closed trial to six years' jail. At a welcoming ceremony at Government House, Mr Jelen was Joined by his fellow aid workers Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace to cut the yellow ribbons signalling his freedom. Welcome: Branko Jelen is greeted at Canberra Airport by Steve Pratt, left, and Peter Wallace. pictures: mike bowers The Governor-General, Sir William Deane, said: "At the time Steve and Peter had been detained I fastened two sets of ribbons in our national colors to the balcony, and on that occasion Peter and Steve cut them down. "In their place they tied two yellow ribbons, which have been flying there ever since.

1 "They were tied there to wait Branko's arrival to cut them down and now he, his wife and his two children are here with us." Mr Pratt and Mr Wallace said they were pleased to see Mr Jelen again. The two Australians were (ailed with Mr Jelen but were released last September. "We shared a pretty tough experience and it's nice to be reunited," Mr Pratt said. He offered Mr Jelen advice on INDEX pae i ARTS 5 BUSINESS BUSINESS 1-7 COMICS today 2 CROSSWORDS TODAY 2 EDITORIAL" OPINION 10 LETTERS OPINION 10 WORLD WORLD 7,8 PERSONALS TODAY CLASSIFIEDS 8 WEATHER Planes hit by new fuel fear Rebel threat to Australians ADELAIDE: Fine, top 37. BRISBANE: Showers, top 27.

CANBERRA: Fine, top 26. HOBART: Fine, top 26. MELBOURNE: Late shower, top 32. top 26. SYDNEY: Showers, top 23.

Details: Page 12 ODD SPOT ASf 'itiircrtftthttrefuoM 1 MM cnrwGN IUUMJUAVU 41 November and bar am grounded slrcrsft art romp A persistent suitor has rented advertising space in 1 05 subway carriages in the Czech capital, Prague, to beg his former sweetheart, referred to as to come back. "I think of you all the time," says the letter, which Is signed ON NOW AT CROWN a Witt country vmtf Stay in touch with the latest news, Halmahera. The massacre claim, described as outrageous by diplomats and later denied by a local military commander, was splashed on the front page of the widely circulated Rupublica newspaper and carried by the official Antara news agency. Australia's ambassador in Jakarta, Mr John McCarthy, stressed during private high-level talks in Jakarta last weekend that the Ing company, majority-owned by Newcrest, had remained neutral, Mr McCarthy also stressed In the talks with Indonesia's armed forces chief, Admiral Widodo, and the Mines and Energy General Bambang Yudnoyono, "the importance of protection for the mining "Clearly there are concerns about the mine both Admiral Widodo and General Yudnoyono stand the Issue's," Mr McCarthy said. But large sections of Continued page 7 WORLD 7: Reports By LINDSAY MURDOCH INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT JAKARTA Fears are growing for the safety of up to 20 Australian workers at a gold mine in Indonesia's remote Ambon island chain where bloody battles are raging between Muslims and Christians.

The Australian Government has sought assurances from Indonesia that its troops will protect the Gosowong gold mine on the island of Halmahera in North Molucca province. Marauding gangs of Muslim fighters nave been told the workers are backing Christians in the sectarian flare-up that has left up to 700 people dead in the past two weeks. The accusations, strongly denied by the "Melbourne, based company Newcrest Mining Ltd, come amid renewed anti-Australian propaganda in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, including insinuations that Australian-led InterFET troops deployed in East Timor were involved in the massacre of an entire Mus-11m community 6H sport, business and photographs from around Australia and around the world, updated throughout the day. Australia's best news website Is only a cllckawayacthuge.com.au HOME DELIVERY By MANIKA NAIDOO Thousands of light aircraft were grounded Indefinitely across Australia late yesterday as the solution to Australia's worst fuel contamination crisis continued to elude experts. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has ordered that 5000 piston-engine aircraft that used contaminated Mobil aviation gasoline remain on the ground after new facts emerged at the weekend about the contamination.

Mobil has found that contaminants blocking fuel systems are white or clear. Earlier CASA directives requiring pre-flight checks of fuel systems had advised oper- ators to look for black deposits. A CASA spokesman, Mr Peter Gibson, said it could take up to a month before some planes were cleared to fly. "No one can recall anything like this in Australia before or even overseas," he said. "It's far worse than any other fuel contamination because of the chemical nature," The problem was getting worse, not better, he said.

"We fully recognise that this is going to do a lot of harm to the industry, but we have been forced to take this action in the 7-23 JANUARY, 2000 interests of safety. The last thing you want is planes dropping out of the sky," The latest directive extends to all planes that used fuel produced from Mobil's Altona Avgas refinery between 21 November and 23 Decem- ber last year. Mr Gibson said about half of Australia's 11,500 light aircraft were affected, mostly In Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. I He said operators should first find out if the fuel they used during the period was from the contaminated batch I-! in i 1 CaR(03)4O4l4eO THE ACE 250SpencrSc Mejbourn 3000 Founded In 1654 No.4S.l92 Telephone (0I)M0042II OtatlMs (01) in 241 Continued page 2.