Checkpoint. 2001-11-20

HEADLINES & NEWS
The United States continues to comb Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden, as its warplanes maintain their bombing attacks on Taliban troops.
And it is warning that it will pursue bin Laden outside Afghanistan if he [illegible] to slip into another country.
Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance troops besieging the Taliban redoubt of Kunduz have halted their assault while they tried to persuade the thousands of desperate defenders inside to surrender.
However Steve Mort reports from Washington that the United States opposes any deal that would allow international Taliban volunteers from places like Chechnya and Pakistan to flee the town. fs pkg
Meanwhile in Kabul, the United Nations is working with the rival factions in the city to arrange a meeting in Berlin on Saturday, about a future government for Afganistan.
BBC Correspondent Peter Greste is in Kabul and joins us now live q&a
As we've just heard, President Bush has come out fighting, defending his plan to create special military tribunals to try non-Americans detained following the September 11 attacks.
The move has drawn sharp criticism across the political spectrum, from a liberal senator worried about summary executions to a conservative warning of kangaroo courts.
The tribunals with military officers as judge and jury can convict by a two thirds vote, which is also needed to pass sentence including the death penalty. Trials may be held in secret.
Randell Hamud is a San Diego civil rights lawyer acting for a number of Muslims being held in detention, including a Moroccan born New Zealander Mohammed Elmaaroufi. Mr Elmaaroufi is due to be released shortly.
Randell Hamud told me the military tribunals are absolutely the wrong decision. pre rec iv
A new survey by the Employers and Manufacturers Association shows salary and pay increases have been significantly higher this year than last year - especially for bosses.
Pay packets for senior managers went up an average 4.4 percent, middle managers by 3.8 per cent, and workers 3.5 per cent.
While these figures are much better than the two percent average wage rise last year, the Council of Trade Unions argues workers are not much better off. Fiona Wilde looks at the survey. pkg
A veteran Northland youth-worker says the lowering of the drinking age has been an unqualified disaster in Whangarei - making at risk children even more [illegible].
Auckland university researchers have reported a big increase in teenage and binge drinking
Kahu Sutherland has run the Whangarei Youth Centre for twenty years - he says places like Whangarei were always going to pay the price of so called cafe-society, with drunken twelve - year olds, wandering the streets in the small hours.
He says the vast majority of youth workers would have predicted the 1999 law change was a recipe for disaster. pre rec iv
Two new electorates have been created after electorate boundaries were redrawn for the first time in five years.
The two new seats are in Auckland - a new general seat in West Auckland, and a new urban Māori seat stretching right across Auckland city. They come at the expense of list seats, so the total number of MPs remains at 120. That means there will be 62 MPs from general seats, seven from Māori seats, and 51 list places in Parliament at the next election.
The boundaries have been drawn up by the Representation Commission - its Chairman, Judge Bernard Kendall, says the decisions have been made independently, and free from political influence. dropin
Our Parliamentary Chief Reporter Kathryn Street was at the Chief Electoral Office for the release of the boundaries, and she joins us now. live q&a with dropins
Residents of a Christchurch City Council housing complex are being warned against gardening and eating vegetables grown on their properties after it was revealed their homes may be built on a toxic site.
And there are warnings that nine other council housing sites might also be [illegible].
As Eric Frykberg reports, the Christchurch City Council is now talking to its insurers as it investigates the contamination concerns. pkg
In Australia, a battle over working hours is being fought out before the Industrial Relations Commission, with claims the country is becoming the sweatshop of the western world.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions wants a review of working hours - the first since the 40 hour week was introduced in 1947.
It says nearly a third of the workforce now work more than 48 hours a week - a workload which would be illegal in much of Europe. Australian workers say they would prefer not to be working the overtime. voxpop dropin
ABC reporter Julia Baggio says the ACTU has told the Commission that Australia is second only to South Korea in having the longest working hours in the developed world. pre rec q&a
A dream to have a walkway running the length of the country from north to south is fast becoming a reality.
For three years Geoff Chapple has been developing a network of trails that will allow people to walk from Cape Reinga to Bluff without asking permission to cross private land.
His project has now been given a 27-thousand dollar boost from a new government scheme to support entrepreneurs whose work benefits the community. Our social issues correspondent Shona Geary explains. pkg
British boy sorcerer Harry Potter is casting his spell on both sides of the Atlantic, raking in an all-time opening weekend record of around quarter of a billion New Zealand dollars.
Film industry sources say they have never seen anything like this before. [illegible] 18 million Americans have already rushed to see the film - and that popularity has allowed Harry to easily dethrone the previous record holder, the dinosaur flick "The Lost World: Jurassic Park,"
And that's prompted a flurry of sharemarket activity - investors are rushing to snap up shares of AOL-Time Warner Inc, which owns Warner Brothers.
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