US TO BOMB AUSTRALIA

No need to panic though, it's only training:

The United States will start regular bomber aircraft training in northern Australia in the new year.

At the annual ministerial talks between the US and Australia it was announced that the strategic bomber training program would involve B-52 and B-1 bombers and the B-2 stealth aircraft.

The outcry was immediate:

Greens Senator Bob Brown is angry about the deal.

"The Australian Government, more and more, is allowing the Americans to view this country as the 51st state," he said.

The Northern Territory Environment Centre says it is disgusted by the announcement.

Co-ordinator Peter Robertson says he is particularly alarmed about the location of the training.

"Only a matter of 100 kilometres or so from one of the proposed nuclear waste dump sites near Katherine, and it would be extraordinarily alarming and ironic if an American B-52 bomber dropped a live bomb on top of the Commonwealth's nuclear waste dump," he said.

Here's more from Bob Brown:

“The almost apologetic reassurance from Defence Minister Hill that nuclear bombs would not be dropped on the Territory highlights the absurd and obsequious nature of this announcement,” said Senator Brown.

The Howard lickspittles could justify nuking the Northern Territory as a pre-emptive strike on environment-destroying cane toads.