The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has welcomed the death of terrorist leader Noordin Mohammed Top. Indonesian police killed Asia’s most wanted man in a shootout in central Java yesterday. Mr. Rudd thanked the Indonesian Security Agencies, but he’s warned against complacency.
Jemaah Islamiah is still alive and well, Al-Qaeda is still alive and well, but this is a very significant result, this man has been a mass murderer, he’s been responsible for the murder of Australians, and I congratulate the Indonesians on their success.
Top is thought to have played a role in every major terrorist attack in Indonesia over the past five years.
The parents of Britt Lapthorne are in Croatia to mark the first anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance. The Melbourne backpacker’s body was found three weeks after she disappeared from a Dubrovnik nightclub. No one has been charged in relation to her death.
And the Federal Government has dramatically increased its population forecasts for Australia. It now expects the country’s population to top 35 million within 40 years. The Government’s intergenerational report says the revised forecast is due to improved fertility rates, a higher number of women within childbearing age and more immigrants.
We’ll have more news in an hour.
|