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Keep off the beaches, say Aussie cops

Australian police have urged the general public to stay away from beaches in Sydney and in the neighboring cities of Wollongong and Newcastle over the weekend because of the threat of continuing gang violence.

New South Wales state Police Commissioner Ken Moroney made the warning yesterday a day after he invited the public to return to Sydney beaches despite a spate of violence this week between white Australians and predominantly ethnic Lebanese gangs.

Police promised to mount the biggest security operation in Sydney's trouble-plagued southern suburbs this weekend since the city hosted the Olympic Games in 2000 after a mob of 5,000 white youths, many of them drunk, descended on Sydney's Cronulla Beach on Sunday, fought a series of skirmishes with police and attacked people who appeared to be of Arab descent.

Moroney said intelligence received from the public indicated gangs would target Cronulla again this weekend, as well as beaches north to Newcastle and south of Sydney at Wollongong -- a stretch of about 300km of coast.

The state parliament passed emergency laws on Thursday enabling police to crack down on race rioters after several days and nights of unrest in southern suburbs.

Police said yesterday that a task force had already used their extended powers overnight to stop traffic headed for Cronulla, searching more than 100 cars at check points on major roads.

Police also have new powers to cordon off entire suburbs and to stop bars from selling alcohol for up to 48 hours as well as to seize vehicles and mobile phones for up to seven days.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties secretary Cameron Murphy said the new police powers could be used as easily to prevent political protests as racial violence.

But Police Minister Carl Scully said the new laws were necessary because the government was taking seriously the threat of an escalation of violence this weekend.

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and former Midnight Oil front man turned federal lawmaker Peter Garrett led a group of Australian celebrities who appealed for racial tolerance yesterday at a media event at the beachside suburb of Coogee.

Meanwhile, two men arrested in Australia's biggest terror swoop discussed assassinating the prime minister, killing policemen and even attacking crowds at sports events, a court was told yesterday.

The men, one an Islamic cleric, were part of a group of 18 Muslims arrested in police raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November and charged with being members of a terrorist organization and/or plotting a terrorist attack.

Magistrate Reg Marron said the case against them was "not overwhelming", but the transcripts showed "disturbingly strong and reasonably assertive positions".

Prosecutor Nick Robinson said police intercepted discussions between preacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, and Abdullah Merhi, 20, where they discussed jihad.

Robinson said that in the conversation Merhi asked: "For example if John Howard kills innocent Muslim families do we ... do we have to kill him and his family ... his people like at the football?"

Benbrika allegedly replied: "If they kill our kids we kill little kids." Merhi then said "innocent ones" and Benbrika replied "innocent ones", according to transcripts of the discussions read out in court.

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