The representative was actually from the yes men, a group of anti-corporate activists who have pulled off previous elaborate hoaxes on the WTO. The story spread around the world, from Australia, to England, to the Canadian Parliament, where MP John Duncan took the floor to ask "what impact this will have on our appeals on lumber, agriculture and other ongoing trade disputes."

The yes men run the WTO parody website gatt.org, frequently mistaken for the real thing http://www.wto.org/. Through this they receive requests for appearances. The WTO has made numerous attempts to shut gatt.org down, but to no avail. It seems to be the only thing getting shut down these days is the WTO.

Yes Men press release - World Trade Organisation to disband

Announcement of WTO closure goes to Canadian Parliament

The revelations aren't over. "Adding more fuel to the fire, NBC reported last night that two days before Sept. 11, Bush was given a 'detailed war plan' to dismantle bin Laden's al Qaeda network," says the New York Post.

"NBC reported that Bush was given a national security directive to sign for a plan that was 'pretty much' the same as the one the United States followed after the attacks. The plan included asking other countries to cooperate and share intelligence, disruption of al Qaeda cells using covert actions, the freezing of al Qaeda bank accounts and stopping its money-laundering operations."

[Read an eyewitness indymedia description of White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's May 17 news conference.]

CBS news anchor Dan Rather recently admitted, in an interview with the London Guardian, that America's news media has been suffering from "patriotism run amok."

Even New York City's tabloid press has begun to lay the heat on the Bush administration. The arch-conservative New York Daily News may have come the closest to the truth when it wrote: "this flap is a largely self-inflicted wound, prompted by what one outside presidential adviser acidly called the Bush team's 'incredible penchant for secrecy.'"

"All the evidence points to government labs. Is this why the FBI has failed to solve the anthrax case?" asks George Monbiot in the Guardian.

A well researched primer into the case of Bush's foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks is provided by ex-LA cop Michael Ruppert, who spoke at a confence in Sydney recently.

In the Bairnsdale County Court last week, ten local men were sentenced to four months imprisonment, suspended for a year, for their involvement in an attack last year on forest activists in East Gippsland.

In Melbourne on monday the 20th, 25 people occupied the offices of the department on natural resources and the environment to protest the logging of Goolengook and the 25 km exclusion zone surrounding it. 1500 people rallied the previous Saturday against old growth logging.

Currently East Timor and Australia are negotiating a treaty to jointly develop petroleum in the Timor Gap. The resource was previously carve up between Australia and Indonesia, by both Labour and Liberal Governments, during the Suharto dictatorship. Will these revenue possibilities as well as international support from donor governments allow for an independent East Timor? A recent article by La'o Hamutuk states that "most donor governments are reluctant to give funds directly to the new East Timor government and are lobbying for the World Bank to act as the middle man." For the past two years the World Bank has managed the Timorese fund and disbursed it to projects controlled by the World Bank.

Timorese, Australians and Papuans demonstrated Sunday in Dili, and circulated a letter which they sent to the new incoming President of East Timor stating demands dealing with the situation of West Papua and Aceh and the new Timor Gap. They demanded that incoming president Xanana recognize the situation and call for an end to the occupation.
Pictures and story.

Stay tuned as Simba from New York Indymedia reports on this historic event.

Reports: May 16 | May 17 | May 19th | May 20th

We're always looking for new people to get involved in the melbourne indymedia collective, there's lots to do. Join our weekly announcement list for melbourne indymedia updates and meeting info.

Don't forget to use the active calender, rather than the newswire, for all your events and meetings. Have a read of our editorial policy and process document for more info on how the site works. Also check out our new publish blurb.

The Melbourne Indymedia collective does weekly reports on RRR, 102.7 fm, every Tuesday at 5.15. We also have an archive of coverage from the woomera protests.
And don't forget the PIMP!! A system that allows you to upload audio reports from a phone onto the newswire, just like an answering machine!!

The federal government is looking to rush through so called 'anti-terrorist' legislation in the next couple of weeks. Public dissent is mounting to the proposed laws, with wide spread criticism coming from Amnesty International, Liberty Victoria, the ACTU and host of other community, legal and activist groups.

The laws would grant ASIO, Australia's spy agency, wide ranging new powers, including the right to detain citizens without charge and without access to lawyers, and allow the Attorney General to ban certain organisations.

The legislation also targets internet activists, would allow greater surviellance of internet communications and it's broad definition of 'terrorist' could easily lead to attacks on a wide range of social justice groups, including indymedia.

Protests have been held at the senate hearings into the legislation. A rally has been called, this Saturday, to demand the new laws be scrapped.

In the afternoon 250 protesters converged on Maribyrnong detention centre to express their solidarity with those detained inside. Fences were breached and people took the May Day spirit as close to the detainees as they could get. Detainees spirits were raised by the solidarity action.

Highlights of the May Day convergence in the city included the radical cheerleaders (listen to audio) and the orange bloc activities of no one is illegal. One NOII activist spoke to Indymedia about their impressions of the day and drew the links between attacks on the rights of migrants and the more traditional May Day concerns of workers' rights.
Another highlight for one protester was a share the wealth grafitti at a branch of the Commonwealth Bank.
Access News is planning a screening of Mayday footage on Monday the 6th of May.

For photos from Melbourne May Day see report 1, report 2, report 3.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, police brutally attacked those blockading Australasian Correctional Managment, the operators of Australia's detention centres. 31 people were arrested and numerous were injured.

One Brisbane activist sewed his lips together.