The government claimed children were thrown into the sea after Adelaide fired across the vessel's bows and dispatched an armed boarding party.Asked for evidence, it released photographs showing children in the water. But – as Mr Reith was swiftly told by the navy – the pictures were taken the following day, when passengers were being rescued after the fishing boat sank.The public swung decisively behind the previously unpopular Mr Howard after he refused to allow 434 Afghan asylum-seekers rescued from a sinking boat by the Norwegian freighter Tampa to land on Christmas Island.Mr Howard defended his actions yesterday. "If I in good faith use information and I subsequently find that that information was not correct, I would express a regret that that has occurred, but I haven't acted in bad faith," he said. Mr Ruddock said he regretted "any action that misleads people" but added: "I don't apologise in relation to matters where I dealt with the information I had honourably and truthfully."* The Queen's representative in Australia, Dr Peter Hollingworth, the Governor General, will apologise on television today for failing to help victims of child abuse. Dr Hollingworth will admit in a documentary for the ABC network that he failed to protect children who were sexually assaulted by priests and other church members while he was the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s. Dr Hollingworth has denied previous accusations that he covered up sex abuse by the clergy..

The trial of an itinerant fruit picker accused of starting the fire at a Queensland hostel that killed 15 backpackers, including seven Britons, begins in Brisbane today. He is also charged with arson.Sixty-nine young people survived the blaze, which engulfed the century-old wooden building in the early hours. They crawled along smoke-filled corridors, squeezed through barred windows and clambered across rooftops to escape the flames.Mr Long, who had been evicted from the hostel shortly before the fire, was arrested five days later after a struggle with police in bushland near Childers, 180 miles north of Brisbane. He was committed to stand trial a year ago, but proceedings were delayed because of legal argument about the venue. He denies the charges.At least 27 backpackers from Europe, the United States, Canada, India and New Zealand will travel to the Queensland capital to testify during the six-week trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court Others will give evidence by telephone.

British survivors are expected to testify in the third week.Childers was a popular destination for backpackers, who picked fruit and vegetables in the surrounding area to finance their travels. Demolition of the charred shell of the two-storey hostel began last week, with a memorial to be built on the site. As well as the British victims, three Australians, two Dutch nationals, one Irishwoman, one tourist from Japan and one from Korea also died.Mr Long's lawyers succeeded in having the proceedings moved to Brisbane after arguing that he could not receive a fair trial in the town of Bundaberg, near Childers.. In the late 17th century the nation was gripped by an almighty witch-hunt.

A simple way of proving if a lady practised the dark arts was devised: her arms and legs were bound and the suspect was thrown in the river If she floated she was a witch and was immediately executed If the suspect sank and drowned she was innocent. If the suspect sank and drowned she was innocent. In the 21st century, it's not witches we're afraid of, it's accountants, or to be more specific, "aggressive accounting" techniques. And there is a strangely similar witch-hunt in the City, to identify companies which embraced such practices.Enron is the cause of today's hunt. The collapsed energy giant squirreled away billions of dollars of debt in a plethora of companies which were not accounted for on Enron's balance sheet. This left investors and many employees in the dark about the true state of the company.In the heady days of 2000, investors didn't care too much for the minutiae of accounting policy. Companies such as Enron boomed unchecked because shareholders didn't want to trouble themselves with such tedious things when mega profits were to be made. Now the bubble has burst and the flaky companies have gone to the wall, accounting policy is very much in vogue.