HEADLINES & NEWS
A worldwide computer virus has hit New Zealand, crippling computer email systems and distributing thousands of contaminated emails at a rate of about one per second. The "Kournikova" virus is also reported in the United States and Australia - it tricks mircosoft outlook email users into thinking it contains a picture of Anna Kournikova. Anna-Louise Taylor reports. PKGE
The virus was only detected yesterday but has already spread through out the Asia Pacific region and soon Europe will feel its full impact with the business day just starting. Joining us now is Ben Guthrie who is with the internet security company Symantec. LIVE
The Stock Exchange has still to confirm that Lion Nathan has taken control of the country's biggest winemaker, Montana. But while the brewing company waits, the controversy continues over how it clinched the deal, heading off a rival bid fr om the international liquor company, Allied Domeq. Joining us now is Lion Nathan's chief executive Gordon Cairns. LIVE
Meat companies and the Ministry of Agriculture are making a last ditch effort to find a legal loophole to block Friday's strike by meatworks vets. The action will go ahead after the Employment Court rejected the Ministry's application for an injunction stopping the strike. The court also rejected the ministry's claim that the vets' union, the National Union of Public Employees was not legally registered. The union's secretary, Ivan Finlayson, is delighted by the ruling, but says the court case has been a waste of everyone's time. He says MAF should simply recognise that the vets deserve the 10 percent pay rise they're asking for. CUT But Ministry spokesperson, Grant Burney, says that level of pay rise is unacceptable, as meatworkers would want a similiar increase. CUT
The Meat Industry says the strike will disrupt its export shipments to Europe for the lucrative Easter market.
Joining us now is Brian Lynch who is the Executive Director of the Meat Industry Association. LIVE
BUSINESS NEWS WITH CLAIRE SILVESTER
Parliament has resumed sitting, with the Prime Minister Helen Clark setting out her Government's programme for the coming year in a speech to the house. Joining me now is our political editor, Al Morrison. LIVE WITH DROP INS
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SPORT with STEPHEN HEWSON
Economists and Farmers are cautious about the economic impact of the Dairy Board's extra billion dollar payout to dairy companies this year. The Board is estimating its earnings, paid as milk value, will be four point two billion dollars, up more than a billion dollars on last year. That means the country's 14 and a half thousand dairy farmers will get, on average, an extra 70-thousand dollars - Corin Dann reports. PKGE
In Fiji, military and customs officials have increased security at teh country's ports after a tip off that an illegal arms shipment is on its way from Sydney. The report comes just as the authorities in Suva step up internal security in the lead up to next weeks Court of Appeal hearing, which will decide the legitimacy of the current interim government. A Fiji army spokesperson, Lieutenant Ilaitia Tagitupou PRON TANGI-TU-PU says the authorities have been given a tip-off to expect an arms consignment, PREREC
An Auckland hospital is introducing a new system to ensure patient safety, hoping it will provide information to prevent medical mishaps re-occuring. The system the Waitemata District Health Board is introducing was developed by the Australian Patient Safety Foundation.
From now, when something goes wrong with a patient's care or treatment, or when there is a "near miss" where something COULD have gone wrong, it will have to be reported and the information fed into a computer database. Waitamata Health's director of nursing, Jocelyn Peach joins us now. LIVE
The future of music sharing online is hanging in the balance. A court in California has told the music swapping website, Napster, it must stop trading copyrighted material. But the judges have stopped short of ordering the service to shut down completely, sending the matter back to a lower court first. Our Washington correspondent Steve Mort filed this report. PKGE
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