澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-02-04（在线收听）

The Federal Communications Minister has rejected criticism of his handling of plans for a National Broadband Network. An Auditors-General report says an initial tender process aborted by the government in April last year cost taxpayers 17 million dollars. The report says doubts about the tender process surfaced eight months before it was abandoned. And Stephen Conroy’s department began looking at alternatives. The minister says the global financial crisis was the cause of the problems. He’s rejected Opposition claims he wasted time and money continuing with the bidding process knowing it was going to fail.

The United States says it doesn’t believe three American soldiers killed in Pakistan were deliberately targeted by the Taliban. Three US military trainers and three children were killed by a bomb blast near a girl’s school in the northwest. The Taliban has claimed responsibility and says attacks on Americans will continue.

And at least 23 people are dead in another big bomb blast in Iraq after a vehicle laden with explosives plowed into a group of Shiite pilgrims. More than 40 people were injured when the bomb exploded in the city of Karbala. It’s the latest in a series of bombings targeting Shiites ahead of the country’s election next month.

I’ll have more news later.