Checkpoint FOR FRIDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2012
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Middle East is on a knife edge amid growing fears that the fighting between Israel and Hamas will erupt into an all-out war. The conflict's taken a dangerous turn with Hamas, for the first time in more than twenty-years, firing rockets at Tel Aviv. A Hamas rocket has also killed three Israelis in the south of the country. At the same time, two days of Israeli air strikes have killed 19 Palestinians - including 12 civilians. Now the Israeli government has given the go-ahead for the army to call up 30-thousand reservists amid speculation that a ground offensive on Gaza is being planned. It points to an escalation in the crisis as the BBC's Richard Galpin reports. PKG
Arsen (are-sen) Ostrovsky is an Australian living in Tel Aviv; he's been in the south today, where he saw the house where a Hamas rocket hit, killing three Israelis. PREREC
A gang member who shot at a police officer in central Auckland while high on methamphetamine has been jailed for eight years and three months. Murray Toleafoa shot at the constable in central Auckland during a traffic stop in June. The bullet missed the officer, but he had burns on his arm, and has still trouble hearing because he was within centimetres of the shot. Olivia Wix was at the High Court in Auckland for sentencing. PKG
200 kilos of cocaine have been seized from a yacht found run aground off Tonga with a decomposed body on board. The body was discovered by divers on the upmarket yacht ‘Jereve’ stuck on a reef at the atoll in the Vava'u (vaa-vaa-ooo) Group. Tonga's Police Superintendent Grant O'Fee joins us now. LIVE
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Jonathan Mitchell
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People are being told to stay away from the crater lake on Mount Ruapehu as the volcano is showing signs it could suddenly erupt. A volcanologist at GNS science, Steven Sherburn says temperature readings at the lake show the surface is colder than it should be at 20 degrees, while a few hundred metres below, the water is more than 800 degrees. He says that could indicate a build-up of pressure which could suddenly be released. PREREC
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17.30 HEADLINES
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The Government has reheated plans put on hold three years ago to make sure some houses at Hobsonville Point are priced under half a million dollars. This comes a fortnight after the Government was criticised for offering few concrete proposals for Aucklanders in its response to a raft of housing affordability recommendations. Labour says today's Hobsonville move is a flip flop designed to steal its thunder. And Gary Taylor, who was a director of the Hobsonville land company until four months ago, says while the move is good it's not enough - that Auckland needs three projects the size of Hobsonville every year just to cope with growth. The Housing Minister Phil Heatley joins us now. LIVE
Environmental groups say New Zealand is grossly underprepared to deal with an oil disaster similar to that of the Deepwater horizon explosion. BP has agreed to pay the United States authorities more than four-and-a-half billion dollars to settle criminal charges stemming from the explosion and subsequent massive oil spill in 2010. Bridget Mills reports PKG
New rules to elect the Labour Party leader are one of the major talking points at the party's annual conference, which has started today in Auckland. Party delegates are also debating policy ranging from the buyback of state assets, compulsory Te Reo in schools and lowering the voting age to 15. Our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson, is there. LIVE
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17.45 MANU KORIHI
Tēnā koutou katoa, good evening,
Labour says too many vacant Crown properties are being vandalised, tagged, and kicked around - and no-one seems to care.
The buildings are held in what's known as a Land Bank - often they're empty schools that could be offered to iwi as part of their Treaty claims.
Gareth Thomas reports:
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A group set up to advance Māori interests in freshwater fisheries says issues over iwi rights and concerns over freshwater must be resolved quickly.
The Land and Water Forum's made recommendations to the government on how it thinks the resource should be managed - but none of its suggestions address the rights of iwi to access water for customary and commercial use.
Andrew McRae reports:
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One of the navigators on board the Waka Tapu expedition heading to Rapanui or Easter Island says they are now doing the most difficult part of their journey as they sail into head winds.
Two double hulled canoes Te Aurere and Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti left Mangareva in French Polynesia last week, their last stop before they to paddle another one-thousand-four hundred kilometres before they reach their destination.
Waka Tapu is retracing the ancient voyages of their Pacific ancestors and completing the last leg of the Polynesian triangle.
A navigator Jack Thatcher says his crew are battling easterly winds.
He says the crew is still munching on the fish the Mangareva locals loaded them up with when they left.
They have just under a thousand kilometres to go before they arrive in Rapanui.
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Young Māori builders have been showing off their skills to royalty in Christchurch.
Seven He Toki ki te Rika - or Māori trades training students and graduates - competed against each other to make planter boxes in front of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.
The finished products will be donated to the community.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a final bulletin in an hour.
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The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have charmed Christchurch crowds during their final day in New Zealand. The royal couple have been visiting New Zealand as part of the celebrations for the Queen's diamond jubilee. Our reporter Marcus Irvine has been among the crowd. PKG
The country's first screening programme for bowel cancer has detected the cancer in more than 33 people in its first year. Doctors running the bowel screening pilot at Waitematā District Health Board say most of them were completely unaware they had the disease. Our Health Correspondent, Karen Brown, reports. PKG
The downfall of CIA director David Petraeus and the questions surrounding the head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen has now prompted the US defence secretary to order an ethics probe. Meanwhile investigators are still examining computer records to see if they point to a wider problem with the handling of classified material. Paul Adams reports from Washington: PKG