Checkpoint is a drive-time news and current affairs programme on Radio New Zealand National. It broadcasts nationwide every weekday evening for two hours and covers the day’s major national and international stories, as well as business, sport and Māori news. This recording covers the first hour. The following rundown is supplied from the broadcaster’s news system:
Checkpoint FOR WEDNESDAY 2 APRIL 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Two people are dead and at least three seriously injured after a massive 8 point 2 magnitude earthquake struck off Chile's north coast this afternoon - triggering tsunami waves of more than 2 metres. The quake centred 95 kilometres northwest of the mining port of Iquique (ee-KEE-kay) near the Peruvian border, was shallow - at a depth of less than 20 kilometres. The entire length of the Pacific coast of south and central America is on tsunami alert - and people in their homes up and down the length of the Chilean coast have been ordered to evacuate. Kurt Hertrampf (hurt-ramp), was at home in the town of Arica (A -REE-KA) - just north of where the quake was most strongly felt:
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Here's Al Jazeera's correspondent in Santiago - Lucia Newman:
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The Government is offering its largest-ever zone of land and sea to the energy industry for oil and gas prospecting. It covers 405 thousand square kilometres, double the area made available last year. Environmentalists say this is irresponsible, coming just days after new warnings on climate change from the United Nations. Eric Frykberg reports.
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Lawyers say hundreds of leaky homes have had to be repaired for a second time after initial work failed. They say even though repair work has improved in the decade since the leaky buildings crisis came to light, mistakes and cost-cutting mean some homeowners still face years of legal fights. Lauren Baker reports.
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A 38 year old Otaki man has been charged with sexually violating and murdering a Christchurch woman, and attacking and robbing two tourists while armed with a metal bar. The man, who has been granted name suppression, appeared before Judge Noel Walsh in a bedside hearing at Christchurch hospital this afternoon. A Christchurch court reporter, David Clarkson, was the media representative and says the man was wheeled into a waiting room-like area for the hearing.
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Our reporter Jemma Brackebush is covering the story
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
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A news conference outside the Labour leader's electorate office had to be abandoned this afternoon, when an irate member of the public stopped his car and started yelling abuse at David Cunliffe. Mr Cunliffe was responding to a pre-budget speech delivered by John Key earlier in the day. Here's our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson.
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Shotput world champion Valerie Adams is upset at her drug-taking Olympic rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk (pron NARD-ZAY-A OST-AP-CHOOK) being banned from competing for four years. It's retrospective and ends in August 2016 in the middle of the next Olympics, but effectively bars the 33 year old Belarussian from qualifying for Rio. Ostapchuk, who topped the podium in London in place of Adams before her cheating was discovered, is named on the latest list of banned athletes put out by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Adams tweeted in response today saying "4 years is not enough. . W. T. F!!! Oh well, it doesn't change what I do tomorrow!!! " She leaves in two days for seven months abroad and wouldn't be interviewed. Instead, we're joined by her manager Nick Cowan.
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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More now on the 8 point 2 earthquake off Chile that's triggered a tsunami sweeping down the Pacific coast. It's also sparked a tsunami advisory for Hawaii, two steps down from an actual warning. A duty physicist from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii Victor Sardina.
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A Napier woman who let her elderly mother lie in faeces and develop a huge maggot infested ulcer has been found guilty of neglect and could be jailed for up ten years. Jo-Anne Quinn was charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life to her mother Maureen who died in 2011 after finally being taken to hospital. That only happened because Quinn's sister in Australia pressured her to ring a doctor. The elderly woman spent all her time on a couch and part of a blanket had become fused with her ulcerated leg. Detective John McGregor lead the investigation - he was at the house shortly after Maureen Quinn was taken to hospital.
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Two families have lost their homes and eight others are paying higher mortgage payments then they should after falling victim to a 3. 9 million dollar mortgage scam. Ramni Kumar was at the centre of the fraud and was sentenced today at the Auckland District Court to a year's home detention and 250 hours community service. Our reporter Edward Gay was in court for the sentencing.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia hiwa rā, kia hiwa rā - he aituā!
A champion of the Māori language and indigenous rights has died.
Dr Merimeri Penfold of Ngāti Kahu was an academic, a writer and a poet and is described by her peers as a rangatira in her own right.
She was born in Te Hāpua in the Far North in 1920 and was 94 years old.
Dr Penfold was a member of the Māori Education Foundation, the Auckland University Marae Establishment Committee, and an executive member of the Broadcasting Commission from 1989 to 1991.
She was also part of the editorial team that worked on the seventh edition of the Williams' Dictionary of the Māori Language.
Another of her jobs was being a Human Rights Commissioner.
The Chief Commissioner, Richard Rutherford, says Merimeri Penfold was a wahine toa, AND an unforgettable person who's left an unforgettable legacy.
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The Taranaki peace settlement of Parihaka's been spared in government plans for more onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration.
Companies are being urged to bid for permits to conduct searches, including on land around Dannevirke and on the West Coast.
The Energy Minister, Simon Bridges, says iwi and hapū have been consulted - and the feedback was diverse.
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Simon Bridges says the surface of the country's oil and gas potential's barely been scratched.
He says the Taranaki petroleum basin makes money, but 17 other regions are under-explored.
Permits will be awarded at the end of the year.
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The Minister for Whānau Ora, Tariana Turia, is satisfied the National Urban Māori Authority, whose chair was previously criticised for controversial sex abuse comments, is capable of leading the social welfare scheme.
The Authority's new branch, Te Pou Matakana, has been picked as the Commissioning Agency for the North Island.
The Ministry of Māori Development's assured the government the right choice has been made.
Mrs Turia's supporting the selection.
She says Te Pou Matakana had to go through a very stringent application process.
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The Mana Party leader, Hone Harawira, says its organisation on the ground in Waiariki is strong enough to win the electorate.
The party president, Annette Sykes, came second in the seat to Te Ururoa Flavell in 2011 by 18-hundred votes.
Hone Harawira told Radio New Zealand Ms Sykes is expected to stand again this year.
Mr Harawira says she's already door knocked the entire Waiariki electorate with positive responses.
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Hone Harawira says the workforce, coupled with the Māori Party's relationship with National, puts Ms Sykes in a good position to win.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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The chief executive of General Motors still cannot explain why her company ignored complaints about faulty ignition switches for a decade, resulting in the deaths of 13 people. In a hearing today, Mary Barra apologised to a crowded room on Capitol Hill, including family members of people who died. She also spoke of a disturbing statement by an employee who rejected a proposed fix for the flaw because it was not cost effective. 2-point-6-million cars have now been recalled to search for the faulty switches. Controversially, General Motors cannot be prosecuted for the accidents because its agreement with the government as part of its bailout gives it legal immunity. Our Capitol Hill correspondent Alice Ollstein (ole-steen) was at the congressional hearing.
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The Chinese leadership's urge to deal with corruption appears to have spread from party officials to high-ranking military figures. Prosecutors have charged a former senior army officer with corruption and abuse of power. But for all the apparent clean-ups, there are reports that some senior leaders are concerned about whether the campaign could go too far. From Beijing, here's Damian Grammaticas :
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A standoff is developing between councils and the Government over the sale of synthetic cannabis. South Island mayors are criticising the Psychoactive Substances Act passed by Parliament last year as weak and unworkable. But the law's main proponent says they should stop sniping and get on with the business. Here's our Otago reporter, Ian Telfer.
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Kenyan police have arrested more than six-hundred-and-fifty people in Nairobi after grenade attacks yesterday in which at least six people were killed. Tommy Aledipo reports
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Meg Fowler, Mei Yeoh