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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Prime Minister is telling people not to panic over the latest jump in unemployment which is now at a ten year high. Official figures show unemployment jumped from 6 and a half percent to 7 point 3 percent in the three months to December. 18 thousand more people were looking for jobs, about twice what the Labour Department was picking, bringing the total number to 168 thousand. But John Key insists the figures are misleading and unemployment is now close to its peak, CLIP But the Labour Party leader, Phil Goff says the figures are a shocking indictment of Mr Key's failure to protect jobs and look after New Zealand families. CLIP These jobless people agree its getting tougher to find work. CLIP
John Key says not to panic - Employment MInister Paula Bennett agrees. PREREC
Anger has spilled over at the funeral of a taxi driver killed over a 15-dollar fare. Father of two, Herin Mohini was stabbed to death after picking up a passenger at Sky City early Sunday morning.
At his funeral in West Auckland today many of his friends pleaded for the government to instigate tougher sentences to deter people from committing violent crimes. Laura Davis reports. PKG
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Naomi Mitchell
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There's been a dramatic drop in the number of New Zealanders heading over the ditch to live. Latest figures show the net flow of migrants from New Zealand to Australia has almost halved from just over 35 thousand in 2008 to 18 and a half thousand last year.
The figures also show that net migration soared in 2009 soared to almost six times that of the previous year. 65-thousand people permanently departed our shores - while 86-thousand arrived.
Will Hine reports. PKG
A Christchurch woman has described the panic that broke out this afternoon at Orana Wildlife Park when three cheetahs escaped from their enclosure. Lucy Tame says she and her mother were near the animals when they saw three of them jump into a river that borders the enclosure. PREREC
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17.30 HEADLINES
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The unemployment rate hit a 10-year high in the final three months of last year leaping from 6.5 to a surprising 7.3 percent.
But economists still maintain the jobs' market is near a turning point after the pace of lay-offs slowed dramatically. Our economics correspondent, Nigel Stirling, has more: PKG
A man sentenced today for the murder of a young Palmerston North drug dealer whose body has never been located is continuing to protest his innocence. Stephen Hudson, who's 39, was jailed for life and will serve at least 16 years for the murder of Nicholas Pike, who disappeared in 2002. Ann Marie May was at the High Court in Wellington and filed this report. PKG
A New Zealand based group pushing for democracy to be restored in Fiji has welcomed signs of improving relations between the two countries but says the path ahead is fraught with difficulty. Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully met Foreign MInisters from Fiji and Australia last night in Canberra to talk about reinstating High Commissioners in Suva and Wellington following the explusions triggered by the military regime last year.
The Minister says there will be further meetings on re-opening lines of communication but the process is one of small steps.
Nik Naidu is from the Auckland based Coalition of Democracy in Fiji. PREREC
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17.45 TRAILS
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WAATEA
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Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has pleaded not guilty at his second trial for sodomy. His first conviction, over a decade ago, was quashed on appeal in 2004. Mr Anwar has consistently denied all the charges against him, calling them a conspiracy aimed at breaking his increasingly strong political movement.
The BBC's Jennifer Pak is at the courthouse and joins us now.
LIVE
Police have recaptured convicted armed robber Kevin Polwart six weeks after he escaped from Auckland Prison at Paremoremo.
Polwart broke out on the sixteenth of December, cutting through two wire perimeter fences, and taunting the police by leaving the message catch me if you can. He pleaded guilty to escaping custody in North Shore District Court this morning - our reporter Leilani Momoisea was there and joins us now. LIVE
A judge in Sydney has found Internet provider iiNet (eye eye net) cannot be held responsible if its users breach copyright laws with illegal downloads. A consortium of 34 movie studios, headed by Village Roadshow, had hoped to prove iiNet not only failed to take steps to stop illegal file-sharing by customers - but breached copyright itself by storing and transmitting the data through its system. The ABC's Bronwyn Herbet reports: LIVE
Scientists have been able to question a man who was thought to be in a vegetative state by reading his brain activity. The research, carried out in Britain and Belgium, involved a new brain-scanning technique. Awareness was also detected in three other patients previously diagnosed as vegetative. This report by the BBC's Fergus Walsh: PKG
British scientists have released a report suggesting that people who spend a lot of time surfing the internet are more likely to be depressed. Research by psychologists at Leeds university seems to suggest that the more we use the world wide web, the less happy we tend to be. They have also warned that for a few, the internet can become an addiction in much the same way as something like gambling. Jonny Hogg has more: PKG