Australia urged to aid boat people

THE death of a Tamil man who had been aboard a boat moored at Merak in Indonesia has prompted renewed calls for Australia to help strike a deal to resettle the 246 people on board.

A defender of fish patrolling the high seas

OH, THE heroic travails of the Oceanic Viking. In the past five years, the 105-metre boat has come to the aid of whales, Patagonian toothfish, a sick Portuguese sailor €” and now asylum seekers.

The man who gambles with human cargo

CAPTAIN Bram isn't worried. He knows people-smuggling is not an offence in Indonesia. "Don't worry, I'll be free in a few months and will be able to help you again," Bram told Sri Lankan asylum seekers after taking their life's savings and duping them on an ill-fated voyage in a creaking, 30-metre wooden cargo boat to Australia's Christmas Island.

Poor weather delays retrieval of smashed yacht

POLICE will decide today whether conditions at Flinders Islet off Port Kembla are safe enough to start recovering the wreckage of the maxi yacht, Shockwave.

Always Look On The Curious Side Of Life

On the eve of touring his 20th album, music icon Dave Graney talks to PeterWilmoth about footy, Neighboursand life ahead of the pack."

Column 8

Yesterday's query, "How many passengers in major airline disasters have been saved by life jackets?", brings this from Dash Hall, of Vaucluse: "Pan Am flew Boeing's Strato-Clipper, a double-deck aircraft, across the Pacific in the early 1950s. Unfortunately it lost two aircraft when they had to ditch in the ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii. I believe it was the US Coast Guard that picked up all members of the crews and passengers, all wearing airline-issue life jackets."

Column 8

"Further to your current theme of 'fear of flying'," adds Janet Rogers, of St Lucia, Queensland, "dare I ask the question: how many passengers in major airline disasters have been saved by life jackets?" Does anybody know?

Tony's Flight In A Luxury Yacht

FOR Tony Mokbel, a man who tried to live his life straight from the pages of a pulp thriller, it would seem entirely appropriate to leave Australia in the most mysterious - and bizarre - method possible.

Beyond The Shallows

Fasten your life jackets, it's going to be a swell year. Michael Shmith finds The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in buoyant mood.

Life Jackets Avert Family Tragedy

A family of five found out how important life jackets are when their new boat capsized in Jervis Bay yesterday.