*** Checkpoint FOR FRI DEC11 2009
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Provincial rugby has won a stay of execution. The New Zealand Rugby Union has shelved plans to cut back the first division from 14 to 10 teams next season, to the relief of Northland, Counties-Manukau, Manawatu and Tasman who were facing the axe and threatening legal action. It means that next season the National Provincial Rugby Championship, regarded as the bedrock of the game, will remain unchanged with the same 14-teams competing for the Air New Zealand Cup. The New Zealand Rugby Board says the prospect of legal action was a factor in its change of heart as well as the current collective employment negotiations with players. However, the decision to stick with the status quo is only a temporary reprieve with the NZRU still looking at major changes for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The Chief Executive of the NZRU, Steve Tew, joins us now: LIVE
Counties Manukau Head Coach, Milton Haig joins us now LIVE
The father of a man killed by a chunk of concrete thrown off an Auckland motorway bridge says people are still putting lives at risk because the penalties are too lenient. Police figures obtained by Radio New Zealand show there were 27 reports of objects being thrown from Auckland overbridges, between July and September this year. Teresa Cowie reports. PKG
Millions of dollars should be poured into poor Māori communities to set up driver's licence camps for teenagers. The editor of the car buyers' Dog and Lemon Guide, Clive Mathew-Wilson says the Government is missing the point as it considers lifting the driving age and tougher licencing laws for young drivers. Mr Mathew-Wilson says New Zealand has a huge problem with thousands of Māori teenagers who drive unlicenced because they can't afford lessons or can't read well enough to pass a theory test. He says the solution is to give Māori the money and resources to bring kids back within the law.
PREREC
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Naomi Mitchell
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The United States and China have been trading verbal blows at the climate talks in Copenhagen. Beijing says it deserves the lion's share of aid funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Americans have balked at that suggestion. They claim China is well enough resourced to help itself and that any deal at Copenhagen should involve a firm commitment from Beijing to lower its emissions.
Here's the ABC's Europe correspondent, Emma Alberichi: PKG
New safety measures are being brought in to protect cyclists on one of Auckland's most dangerous stretches of road, but there are doubts about whether they will be enough. The Auckland City Council is acting on ideas from the Tamaki Drive road safety working party, formed after a car hit a group of cyclists on the busy waterfront road in September, injuring four men. Bridget Mills reports. PKG
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17.30 HEADLINES
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An outspoken critic of Fiji's military government and head of the country's Women's Crisis Centre has been given an Amnesty International award for her bravery and courage in the face of intimidation. Shamima Ali has been given the Human RIghts Defender Award by Amnesty's New Zealand office. I spoke to her about the difficulties of being a political activist under a military regime. PREREC
Business owners are being warned to check whether they're on the Google Maps website after a Napier florist was charged with tampering with her competitors' details online. Kendra Drinkwater is accused of accessing the site and changing phone numbers, addresses and websites of other local florists. The co-owner of Flowers by Tanya in Hastings, Richie Davies, says he didn't even know his business was on Google Maps - and was shocked to find someone had changed his contact details. CLIP Google spokeswoman Annie Baxter says there are several ways a business can end up on Google Maps. She says Google has an agreement with finder-dot-co-dot-nz to show their business listings , in some instances Google will list business information it has found elsewhere on the internet, and businesses can list themselves. Annie Baxter says it's the first time they've heard claims of someone editing with ill intent in New Zealand or Australia. PREREC
President Obama has defended the right of the US to wage what he calls 'just wars' after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. In his speech, he said he would not stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. He also said that although he admired the non-violent tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, there were times when the use of force was not only necessary but morally justified.
The BBC's Gavin Hewitt was at the ceremony in Oslo: PKG
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17.45 TRAILS
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WAATEA
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Negotiators are returning to the mountains on a southern island in the Philippines to try to free more than 50 people taken from a school and surrounding homes by armed tribesmen. The abductors freed 18 hostages, including all 17 children, yesterday. Our correspondent in Manila Girlie Linao has the the latest. PREREC
The Atheist Bus Campaign is looking for donations to run adverts on buses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch next year. They'll feature the same slogan that was used in the controversial UK campaign - which read "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Belinda McCammon reports: PKG
Sir Robert Jones has told business leaders of his radical plan to remove all vehicles from Wellington's central city and create a golden mile shopping mall, complete with old fashioned trams and bikes for hire. Sir Robert says wants to set his plans in motion by forming a political team aimed at winning the 2010 local body election. Nick Butcher filed this report from the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce's final luncheon meeting for the year. PKG