Australia - (Rioters): Pesky Iranian fundamentalists are once again the top suspects as a mysterious Marie Celeste-type of ghost yacht was found drifting off the North Queensland coast yesterday.
Coastguard services said that the boat was found with its engine running. Below deck a table had been laid for dinner but the vessel was deserted.
Everything else seemed normal apart from one of the sails which was shredded.
Elsewhere on board computers were running, a laptop and radio were on and there was dinner complete with two bottles of Chateauneuf Du Pape on the table ready to eat.
"We suspect the Iranians," Australian Prime Monster John Howard told TV today.
"People don't just disappear into thin air like some fictional UFO has just whisked them off into outer space," he continued.
"Clearly there's more to it than that but I agree it looks an awful lot like that 18th century ghost ship the Marie Celeste.
"Of course, that could have been 18th century Iranians too."
An air and sea rescue operation was launched to investigate the yacht's route plan which had been radioed to coast guards shortly before midnight.
The three-man crew set sail in the 40 foot catamaran from Airlie Beach for Townsville on Sunday.
Although Australian coastguards have had no reported sightings of Iranian patrol boats in the area and there have been few territorial disputes with Iran over the local waters, John Howard's government remains skeptical.
Last month he bolstered some of the more radical wingnut views in the White House that the US should be prepared to 'blitz the living daylights' out of the regime while it was holding 15 UK sailors hostage.
"Clearly we bombed the wrong country and Saddam wasn't really that bad."
