Athletics: Six of 14 Sierra Leonean athletes who went missing from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne have been found in a Sydney beachside house but nineteen other athletes are still unaccounted for.
The Games finished yesterday but local media report that another nine Cameroon athletes went missing from the athletes' village overnight.
An Australian immigration official said the Sierra Leonean athletes - three men and three women - were granted bridging visas which allowed them to stay in the country pending a formal visa application.
The Games visas given to athletes do not expire for another month, but Australia has revoked the special visas of the 14 athletes, making them illegal immigrants.
Police received a tip-off and found the athletes at Harbord Beach, one of Sydney's wealthy northern seaside suburbs.
There were similar disappearances at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. At those games 21 Sierra Leoneans went missing rather than returning to their civil war ravaged homeland.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whose country has some of the toughest illegal immigration policies in the world, has warned potential defectors they will not receive asylum. Reuters
