Checkpoint. 2007-07-04

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Year
2007
Reference
35677
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
2007
Reference
35677
Media type
Audio
Item unavailable online
Duration
01:00:00
Credits
RNZ Collection

**** CKPT FOR WED 4 JULY 2007
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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A tornado ripped through downtown New Plymouth at lunchtime today, flinging pieces of buildings through the streets, smashing plate glass windows and damaging cars. It blew out a wall of a Placemakers hardware shop and tossed a huge piece of roof across the road and into a tree. Shocked bystanders went scurrying for cover - including George Johnston, who begins this report from Craig Ashworth. PKG
Our reporter Craig Ashworth is at the scene of this afternoon's tornado and he joins us now. LIVE

BBC journalist Alan Johnston has been released after 114 days of captivity in Gaza. He was handed over to Palestinian officials following a deal reached between his extremist abductors, the Army of Islam, and the Hamas organisation, which took control of Gaza last month. Alan Johnston spoke to the BBC shortly after his release CUT He described his four-month ordeal CUT Later at a media conference he told reporters at times he thought he would not survive. CUT We spoke with Jo Floto, a correspondent in the BBC's Jerusalem bureau. PREREC

After Team New Zealand's defeat in the America's Cup in Valencia, the focus is turning to the next chance to snare the Auld Mug. The Government's already stumped up 10 million dollars for the next campaign. This report from Sarah Bristow. PKG
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BUSINESS NEWS
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17.30 HEADLINES
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The police are investigating the abduction and sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in West Auckland. They say the girl was walking along West Coast Road near the Glen Eden shops last Staurday at about 2-o'clock, where she was approached by a man in a silver car, who asked her to get in. With us now is the officer in charge of the case Detective Segreant Megan Goldie. LIVE

Australian Federal police have been allowed another 48 hours to detain and question an Australian based doctor who's been caught up in investigations into the foiled terrorist plot in Britain. The AFP commissioner Mick Kelty says Mohammad Haneef has been co-operating with police but he'll be held for at least another two days to allow a senior British police officer time to get to Australia to question him. Police have also revealed the second gold coast doctor who'd been questioned, Mohammad Asif Ali, has now been released. The ABC's Gillian Bradford reports PKG

Further to our lead story, a mini-tornado has also swept through the suburb of Botany Downs in Auckland. It touched down just before 4 o'clock this afternoon, lifting a number of roofs and displacing tiles. The fire service says up to twenty houses have been damaged. Fire officer Andy Clarkson has been at the scene and joins us now LIVE
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WAATEA NEWS
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A man's appeared in the Rotorua District Court and admitted responsibility for a fatal dog attack in Murupara in April. Shane Joseph Rurehe pleaded guilty to two charges laid under the Dog Control Act for owning dogs which caused serious injury. Virginia Ohlsen, who was 56, was repeatedly bitten by two male bull mastiff cross dogs while out walking and died of trauma. Our Bay of Plenty reporter Matthew Farrell was in court and joins me now LIVE

Doctors are angry that the government has handed out ten million dollars to Team New Zealand's America's Cup campaign, but wasn't prepared to spend the same money to prevent thousands people getting cervical cancer of cases of cancer. Documents released to Radio New Zealand under the Official Information Act show ministry advisers told the goverment that the Gardasil vaccine would save lives and millions of dollars. Monique Devereux reports.PKG

Could the drive to protect old buildings from earthquakes be putting them at risk from bulldozers? The nuns that own Our Lady Star of the Sea chapel, which overlooks Wellington's south coast in Seatoun, have applied to the Environment Court to have the building taken off the Historic Buildings register.They want to bowl the building, rather than pay nearly a million dollars to strengthen the structure in line with earthquake safety standards. Amanda Strong filed this report. PKG
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