HEADLINES & NEWS
A fatal bomb blast outside a Pakistani hotel where the New Zealand cricket team is staying has claimed the lives of nine people and wounded 22 others. None of the team were injured in the explosion but the cricket tour has been cancelled and the players will now return home. Thomas Jones is the general manager of the Pearl Continental Hotel where both the New Zealand and Pakistan teams were staying. The Sheraton Hotel across the road was also hit. Thomas Jones says talk on the street is that the bomb is the work of fundamentalist forces opposed to the pro-Western direction taken by President Pervez Musharraf since the September 11 attacks in the United States. CUT
Radio Sport's cricket commentator Brian Waddel, is travelling with the team. PRE-REC.
The Middle East looks set for a new round of bloodshed as another sucide bombing claimed the lives of at least 15 people in Israel, and the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cut short his US visit to return home vowing vengence for the latest attack. The devastating blast at a billiards hall in the town of Rishon Letzion, raises questions about the effectiveness of Israel's military campaign in the West Bank which Sharon has said would wipe out the Palestinian's ability to carry out suicide attacks. Speaking at a news conference before he left Washington the Prime Minister said Israel's strategy was the right one and it would continue. CUT
The death toll from the bombing is likely to rise as police say at least 60 people were injured in the blast some critically.
Witnesses say they noticed a stranger with an odd expression walk into the building and then detonate the exposives. Our correspondent Inigo Gilmore is at the scene. PREREC
The Solomon Islands is at risk of turning itself into a toxic dump if it accepts industrial waste from a Taiwanese company. Last week the nation's cabinet approved a deal which could see a license issued to a Taiwanese company, Primeval Forests, allowing them to dump a total of 3 million tonnes of hazardous waste in Makira Province. The waste contains lead, mercury, and arsenic from garment factories and would see the company paying 460 milion dollars in a down payment and 80 million dollars per shipment. The Solomons foreign minister Alex Bartlett said today the idea of importing hazardous waste into the country will be discussed again by the cabinet. But he was unable to say whether a licence, which was expected to have been issued this week, had been granted. CUT. The dumping proposal would flout the Waigani Convention which bans the importation into Pacific countries of hazardous and wastes. The Solomons ratified the convention in 1998 and it came into force last year. But the pollution prevention co-ordinator at the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme in Samoa, Bruce Graham says the convention doesn't have teeth. PRE-REC.
BUSINESS NEWS WITH JOHN DRAPER
Television New Zealand is to get 12-million dollars a year in Government funding to meet the costs of its new charter. The charter increases the role of TVNZ as a public broadcaster with social and, cultural obligations. The Government has also announced a 6-million dollar a year budget increase for the broadcasting funding agency New Zealand on Air. Kathryn Ryan PKGE.
A Levin woman banned from owning race horses because her husband had a criminal conviction for assaulting her has won a seven year long battle with the racing industry. Under the old rules anyone with a criminal conviction was not allowed to enter a race course or own a race horse, and neither was their spouse. In 1995 Erin Lamb was fined for breaching the rule but took New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing to the Human Rights Commission. The Commission agreed the rule breached the Human Rights Act but the battle continued with the fight going all the way to the Court of Appeal which has now found in Ms Lamb's favour. She's delighted. PRE-REC.
5.30 NEWS HEADLINES
SPORT with STEPHEN HEWSON
Returning now to our lead story, the New Zealand Cricket Team are to abandon their tour of Pakistan after a bomb exploded outside their hotel in Karachi, killing nine people. The Chief Executive of New Zealand Cricket Martin Sneddon [illegible] no one from the team or their entourage has been hurt in the explosion. But he says the team's safety is paramount and they will fly out of Pakistan tonight. Martin Sneddon LIVER.
A series of initiatives targeting schools with high suspension rates appears to be paying off. Latest figures from the Ministry of Education show that the number of school suspensions fell last year. As Kirsty Jones reports, that's because many schools have adopted radical programmes to discipline students within the school grounds. A former National MP has been convicted of impersonating a police officer and assaulting a truck driver, after appearing in the Hamilton District Court today. Ross Meurant, who was an MP for nine years, was also convicted of inconsiderate use of a motor vehicle. He was [illegible] a total of 800-dollars and court costs of nearly 400-hundred dollars. Our reporter, Andrew McRae was in court and I asked him to background the case. PRE-REC.
Two of the country's largest marine farms have been approved by regional councils in Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty, but they still need the final tick from the Government. Despite a two-year moratorium on new marine farm ventures these latest two have snuck through the resource consent hearing process. Jane Patterson PKGE.
The Minister of Corrections Matt Robson says restorative justice programmes for prison inmates, are playing an important part in changing New Zealand for the better. He told graduates of the Sycamore Tree Project in the Hawke's Bay Regional prison, it's important people realise the line between victim and offender is often blurred. Heugh Chappell PKGE.
MANA NEWS
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