NEWS AND WEATHER
Most of the major banks have moved today to cut their floating mortgage rates. The cut is a substantial one percent which takes the new benchmark level to 6.95 percent - the lowest on offer for at least ten years. Joining me now is ASB bank economist, Rozanna Wozniak. LIVE IV
Joining me now is our economics correspondent Bronwen Evans. LIVE IV
To the Kosovo crisis - Nato is keeping its collective guns to the head of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to ensure he keeps his promise to withdraw troops from Kosovo and admit international moniters. Western special envoy Richard Holbrooke negotiated the deal AUDIO CUT
While the West remains sceptical, the Yugoslav Ambassador to New Zealand Drugan Drugoilavich says the agreement will work, telling me that there is now hope for the thousands of Kosovo refugees who have fled their homes. LIVE IV
1715 BUSINESS HEADLINE
A major campaign has been launched to fight planned changes to the Resource Management Act. A coalition of recreation and heritage groups, called the Action for Community and the Environment, says the proposed changes present a serious risk to environment and would undermine the public's right to have their say. We'll be talking to the minister responsible for the act, Simon Upton, shortly, but first this report from Anne Jolly PKGE
Joining me now is the Environment Minister Simon Upton. LIVE IV
All Black star Jonah Lomu and his wife Tanya are separating after two and a [illegible] years of marriage. The giant winger says the break-up's no-one's fault, but they have drifted apart. There was a media frenzy over his marriage, which happened without his parents' knowledge. In March 1996, Jonah Lomu wept on national TV as he spoke of his guilt about not inviting his mother to the wedding. AUDIO CUT
Jonah Lomu won't discuss the breakup but his manager Phil Kingsley Jones made a brief statement to Checkpoint. IV
1730 HEADLINES
To the Pacific - and there's concern that the assasination of Bouganville rebel leader Paul Bobby could have repercussions for the New Zealand-brokered peace deal on the Papua New Guinea island. Paul Bobby was a top commander of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and took part in the Burnham peace talks. 30 New Zealand peace monitors are still stationed on Bouganville - Radio New Zealand International's Bruce Hill reports. PKGE
Joining me now is the Minister of foreign Affairs, Don McKinnon. LIVE IV
The biggest haul of heroin ever found in Australasia has been seized in a midnight raid off the New South Wales coast. The 400 kilograms of heroin has an estimated street value of half a billion dollars - it had been transferred from a freighter to a small runabout before police swooped. 18 people have been arrested so far. IV WITH police spokesperson, Tracy Dickerson
Tu Wylie - the sole Māori electorate MP left in New Zealand First - says he can find little evidence that there is any support for the new party being set-up by his former colleague Tau Henare. The party's due to be launched in Auckland on the 28th of this month - so far the Māori Affairs minister has support from fellow Māori seat MPs Tuku Morgan and Rana Waitai, as well as former New Zealand First list Mp's Anne Batten and Jack Elder. Our Māori Issues Correspondent Chris Wikaira joins us now LIVE IV WITH DROPINS
SPORTS
[illegible] Civil Aviation Authority is planning new measures in its crackdown on bogus helicopter parts. The Authority's three year investigation into the bogus parts trade has led to several prosecutions. In the latest case, a West Coast engineer, Kenneth Domonkos has been jailed forthree months for falsifying log books claiming new rotor blades were fitted to a helicopter, when the old, dangerous blades were still on the aircraft. PKGE EX Karen Gregory-Hunt
1750 MANA NEWS
Auckland swimmer Dean Booth has captured New Zealand's first gold medal at the world disabled swimming championships in Christchurch. The twenty year old champion is amongst 500 swimmers from 52 countries competing at the games - the biggest disabled sports event ever held in New Zealand. It's also one of the most important hosted in Christchurch since the 1974 Commonwealth Games, bringing more than five million dollars into the city economy. PKGE EX Lauren McKenzie
1800 NEWS