Sydney Beaches Deserted As Police Seize Knives, Bomb-Making Equipment

Those who went to enjoy the waves had a new and incongruous experience as they negotiated police cordons and barricades with their surfboards. The police had flooded the area in cars, on foot and on horseback. They were backed up with boats and helicopters. By nightfal, 60 people had been arrested under new police powers. Almost 200 charges were laid against them. The police seized 22 mobile phones, 13 cars and scores of weapons including swords, knives, iron bars, baseball bats and axes. They also seizedpetrol bombs and other bomb-making materials. For months, controversy has been simmering in Australia over draconian new stop-and-search powers introduced by the Prime Minister, John Howard. But yesterday, Sydney suddenly came face-to-face with the new powers as car boots were opened and searched, people questioned at random and the text messages on their mobile phones closely inspected. Sydney's police commissioner, Ken Moroney, warned that people who had forwarded inappropriate and offensive text messages to incite the riots could face 10 years in prison under the legislation passed last week. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article333927.ece

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