HEADLINES & NEWS
A teenager has today pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a pizza worker and a bank teller in two seperate robberies last month. Marcus Doig was killed during an armed robbery of the Pizza shop he worked in - later, bank teller John Vaughan was shot dead during a hold up. As well as admitting the two murders, 18 year old Ese Falealii also pleaded guilty to an attmepted murder and eight aggravated robberies. Our reporter Sally Wenley has been at the Manukau District Court - she joins me now. LIVE WITH DROPINS
As many as five hundred Mid Canterbury families are facing another cold night without electricity as the local power company struggles to restore service after this week's big snow storm. Electricity Ashburton says the damage caused by [illegible] big snow is the worst its seen in 20 years. And Katy Gosset reports some homes may have no power before the weekend. PKGE
The Roman Catholic Saint John of God Order says it is appalled by confidentiality clauses in cash settlements of sexual abuse claims against its brothers but admits they may have been used in up to five Christchurch cases. A man who was paid 30-thousand dollars for abuse by a brother at a Christchurch residential home during the 1960s is reported to have felt gagged by his settlement's confidentiality clause. The order's Australiasian head Brother Peter Burke says he deeply regrets the use of such clauses. I asked Brother Burke why they were in the settlements in the first place. PREREC
BUSINESS NEWS WITH TODD NIALL
The National Party has unveiled its solution to the increasingly bitter secondary teachers dispute, promising to pay the teachers an extra two thousand dollars a year if it becomes Government. It would also postpone implementing the next level of the new qualifications framework, the NCEA, for Year 12, or sixth form students. National's Leader Bill English released the new policy [illegible] he finds the dispute's disruption to students' education unacceptable. Our Parliamentary Chief Reporter Kathryn Street filed this report. PKGE
To discuss reaction to National's pay offer, we're joined by the PPTA president, Jen McCutcheon. LIVE
5.30 NEWS HEADLINES
SPORT with ANDREW GREENWOOD
In Papua New Guinea, at least four people have been killed in a violent start to the country's elections. The killings occured in a remote highlands region around Mount Hagen, about five hundred kilometres northwest of the capital, Port Moresby. The violence has forced businesses and polling stations to close - the Australian Associated Press correspondent Jim Baynes told me that although there's also been some violence in the capital, the worst situation is in the Highlands. PREREC
Israel has announced it will re-take parts of the West Bank and hold them as long as Palestinian suicide attacks continue. The statement was issued only hours after Israeli tanks stormed a West Bank bastion of Palestinian militants in response to yesterday's suicide bombing that killed 19 people in Jerusalem. The developments are likely to complicate American plans to spell out its vision for Middle East peace. US President George Bush is expected to advocate a Palestinian state in an upcoming speech - an idea that Israeli officials are already rejecting. Our Washington correspondent Steve Mort reports. PKGE
Midwives and anti-immunisation campaigners are upset at Ministry of Health criticism of misleading immunisation advice being given to new parents. The Ministry says it's received anecdotal information that some lead maternity carers are providing brochures to parents containing inaccurate immunisation advice. Seventy percent of lead maternity carers are midwives and the College of Midwives says it is disappointed with the allegations. And an anti-immunisation group is accusing the ministry of using the issue as a smokescreen to hide failures in the national immunisation programme - Fiona Morris reports. PKGE
The Electoral Commission has allocated 14 political parties their share of the [illegible] million dollars public money available for TV and radio broadcasts. The money comes from taxpayers as parties are forbidden from spending their own funds on broadcasting time. The Commission's chief executive, Paul Harris, says the funding available has not changed since the 1990 election even though there are more parties and broadcasting time is more expensive.
Dr Harris says there are six categories of parties from National and Labour, which have been allocated 615-thousand dollars each down to the very small parties which get 12-and-a-half-thousand dollars. CUT
One of the biggest winners from the Electoral Commission's decision is the newly-founded Outdoor Recreation New Zealand Party. The party was only founded in October last year, but already boasts two thousand nine hundred members. It has been allocated 25 thousand dollars of broadcasting time for its ads and five minutes of free time for its opening and closing addresses. Outdoor Recreation's national secretary, Sherry Mirfin, told me the party's about protecting the interests and heritage of outdoor sports people. PREREC
Cancer specialists say a new study showing no medical link between vasectomy and prostate cancer, confirms what they've always believed. The five year study by researchers at Otago University shows there's no greater risk of prostate cancer, even twenty-five years after the surgery. Sarah Azam reports that while the findings are reassuring for men, expoerts believe they're not likely to have a significant impact on vasectomy rates. PKGE
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