HEADLINES & NEWS
More details have emerged today about how a dangerous psychiatric patient escaped from Porirua Hosptal's secure mental health unit. Allan Greer is now back in custody after being caught by police this afternoon in the town of [illegible] about 30 kilometres northeast of Masterton. They were called to the area following a sighting of Greer this morning. Senior Sergeant Geoff Reid told me the armed offenders squad was called in and road blocks set up. CUT.
Dr Peter McGeorge is head of Mental Health Services in Wellington and says Greer managed to scale a five metre high fence around a courtyard that leads off a sitting room used by patients. Dr McGeorge says the door out to the courtryard had a faulty lock which Greer obvioulsy knew about but staff didn't. He can't say how long the lock had been broken for, but Greer escape was also helped by a couple of pateints who created a distraction. PRE-REC.
The military government in Myanmar has freed pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest. The 56 year-old is due to leave for her party headquarters in about half an hour. The BBC's Fergal Keane - PKGE.
The student loan scheme is shaping up as a major election issue with the Students' Association criticising options that are being suggested by both major political parties. The Minister responsible for Tertiary Education, Steve Maharey has confirmed that the student loan scheme is set for a major revamp.
Nathan Mills PKGE.
BUSINESS NEWS WITH TODD NIALL
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has arrived in Washington to discuss Middle East peace proposals as hopes emerge that a bitter standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity could soon be resolved. A 35-day Israeli army siege of the Church of the Nativity looks close to ending with a deal that would exile [illegible] of the Palestinian militants holed up inside to Europe or the Gaza Strip. Back in Washington, the Americans are warning that Mr Sharon had better accept the Palestinian leader will be representing his people in any peace negotiations. Jessie Brandon PKGE.
France has dealt a landslide defeat to Jean-Marie Le Pen in its presidential election, returning conservative Jacques Chirac with more than four fifths of the vote in an outpouring of opposition to the extreme right. Re-elected by the biggest margin France has ever seen Jacques Chirac told his supporters and the nation that France had refused to cede to the temptation of intolerance. Meanwhile the defeated Jean Marie le Pen described the result as a stinging defeat for hope in France. Jacques Chirac will now choose an interim government to run the country until the parliamentary elections next month. Our correspondent in Paris Elaine Cobb says Chirac is now talking about a government with a new mission. PRE-REC.
The standard of Dunedin's urban passenger buses is being slammed in the wake of what some are calling a "shake up" of the industry. Last week the Land Transport Safety Authority ordered six buses operated by Southeastern off the road after a snap safety audit. Maureen Lloyd PKGE.
5.30 NEWS HEADLINES
SPORT with STEPHEN HEWSON
New Zealand is taking more Afghan refugees who've been shunned by Australia. Last year, New Zealand accepted 131 Afghan asylum seekers who were rescued at sea off the Tampa and turned away by Australia. Other Tampa refugees have been held on Nauru as part of Australia's "Pacific solution" to the numbers of [illegible] seekers trying to get to its shores. A 140 Afghan and Iraqi refugees from Nauru, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and are due to arrive this week. Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel LIVER.
A controversial application by the Christchurch City Council to discharge treated wastewater into the city's Avon-Heathcote Estuary has been granted. But while the Council was seeking a consent period of 15 years, commissioners for the consents authority have limited the allowable period to just five years. The City Council says that's absurd and its considering appealing the decision. But the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the decision and says the council now needs to move towards implementing an ocean outfall to dispose of its waste water. Councillor Denis O'Rourke from the Christchurch City Council and Peter Townsend, Chief Executive of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce. DOUBLE LIVER.
The Prime Minister Helen Clark and Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri have today held a media confernce. Helen Clark is in Jakarta for talks with the president as international tensions with the Indonesian capital ease, with East Timor heading peacefully towards formal independence later this month. The visit takes place against a background of steadily rising trade, with Indonesia now New Zealand's 15th biggest export market. Erik Frykberg is in Jakarta - LIVER.
A phone counselling service for children has logged 169-thousand calls in its first seven months, far more than organisers expected, with bullying emerging as the number one problem for 7 to 12 year olds - the phone line's target group. The "What's Up" line was set up by the Kids Help Foundation last [illegible] - the latest figures are to the end of March, and executive director Grant Taylor says he'd been expecting to get about a hundred thousand calls over 12 months. Mr Taylor says the lines are so busy half the people calling won't get through on their first attempt but the service cannot afford more than its present staff of 15.He says when the phones do open between noon and midnight, counsellors take up to ten calls an hour. PRE-REC.
CLOSE & THEME