Wikinews:Briefs/April 13, 2006

Audio Wikinews Transcript, 0800 UTC, 13 April 2006
Hello and welcome to Audio Wikinews Newsbriefs, at 0800 UTC, April 13, 2006.

Headlines
Bomb threat that diverted Ryanair jetliner reportedly a hoax
 * A jetliner carrying 172 passengers and crew from Paris to Dublin was diverted to Prestwick Airport in Scotland following the discovery of a bomb threat note by the cabin crew. The threat was found in a magazine aboard Ryanair Flight 25. The UK’s Times Online and Reuters are now reporting that the threat was a hoax. Passengers were still being questioned.

Australian PM to face Cole inquiry - Australian foreign minister tells inquiry it was the UN's job to investigate Iraq kickback claims


 * In Australia, two more officials are facing the Cole Inquiry into kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer told the inquiry on Tuesday that it was not his department’s job to investigate claims that wheat exporter AWB was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. Prime Minister John Howard is expected to face the inquiry Thursday, making it the first time a Prime Minister has faced a royal inquiry since 1983.

U.S. claims of Iraqi bioweapons labs contradicted early in classified Pentagon report
 * A Washington Post reporter alleges that the Bush administration and the CIA “possessed powerful evidence” that contradicted assertions by Bush that trailers found in Iraq were mobile biological weapon laboratories. A fact-finding group that investigated the labs concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Their preliminary report was released on May 27, 2003, two days before Bush made public statements regarding the trailers. The administration accuses the Post of "reckless reporting."

Closing Comments
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