** CKPT RUNDOWN FOR THURSDAY MAY 4 ****
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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TSUNAMI FALSE ALARM: National civil defence authorities are under attack today after failing to warn hundreds of Gisborne people fleeing their home - that a tsunami warning was a false alert. A massive seven point eight earthquake near Tonga had prompted the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre to issue an alert for New Zealand and the Pacific at around half past three this morning. News reports on overseas media that a tsunami would hit Gisborne shortly after 6am prompted hundreds of people to evacuate. (AUDIO)
The cancellation came through by six this morning.
While Civil Defence in Wellington had known for two hours there was nothing to worry about, people along the coastline in and near Gisborne packed their cars and rushed for the hills. Bruce Holm owns the Four Square shop in Tokomaru Bay and says nearly the whole town of around 400 evacuated. (AUDIO)
Chelsea Private Hospital in Gisborne started getting ready to evacuate nine patients after one patient's relative rang just after five o'clock to say a tsunami was coming. It was six o'clock before the hospital knew for sure there was no emergency. Chief executive Julie McCarthy says civil defense should have done more to ensure people knew that the alert coming from overseas news broadcasts was false. (AUDIO).
Gisborne wasn't the only place to be affected by the false warning. Sue Wells - the chair of the Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management Group is fuming. (AUDIO).
TSUNAMI CHAPPELL: Our reporter Heugh Chappell spent the day in Gisborne.
Bruce Holm (see above) (PRE-REC).
TSUNAMI CIVIL DEFENCE: With us now is the national civil defence controller, Mike O'Leary (LIVE).
SOLOMONS NEW PM: Solomon Islands has its second prime minister in three weeks. Manasseh Sogavare is the country's new leader, replacing Snyder Rini who stepped down after riots and arson greeted his election. The Communictions adviser for the Solomon Islands government, Johnson Honimae, says hundreds of people waiting outside parliament cheered at the outcome of the vote. (PRE-REC)
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1720 BUSINESS NEWS WITH SEAN KENNEDY
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TASMANIA MINE: Workers have finished another tricky phase in the delicate operation to rescue two men who've been trapped underground in a Tasmanian mine for nine days. They've drilled a pilot hole - which will guide the drilling of the one metre diameter rescue tunnel. 12 metres of rock separates Todd Russell and Brant Webb from paramedics. ABC reporter Lou Southwell is at the Beaconsfield gold mine. (LIVE).
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1730 HEADLINES
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SPORTS NEWS WITH BARRY GUY
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GOVERNMENT ASSETS: After years of being heavily in debt the Government finally has more money than it owes. The Finance Minister Michael Cullen has announced that at the end of March the Government's net financial assets totalled 400 million dollars. economics correspondent Brent Edwards has been looking at the figures (live).
TSUNAMI POLITICS: The Government has come under attack in Parliament over how a false tsunami warning - which prompted hundreds of people in Gisborne to evacuate their homes this morning - was handled. Here's political reporter Liz Banas.
AUCKLAND ECONOMY: Around a hundred of Auckland's movers and shakers got together today to try to find a fast-track way to boost the region's economic performance. Auckland Correspondent Todd Niall was there.
PUKEHINA DEATH: A man has appeared in the Tauranga District Court on a murder charge after the death of a man at Pukehina Beach in the Bay of Plenty.
29-year-old Julian Williams died at a property near a tavern where there had been an earlier fight involving a group of men. Reporter Monica Holt. (LIVE)
SPAM LEGISLATION: The Government's anti spam legislation came in for a roasting in parliament today. The Commerce Select Committee was considering the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill, which aims to block unwanted messages flooding the inbox of the average computer user. Most people making submissions to the Select Committee today supported the bill in principle, but found faults in the detail: it would be expensive, poorly targeted, and ineffective.
Eric Frykberg reports.
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WAATEA NEWS with ERU REREKURA
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TERRORISM SENTENCING: The only person convicted in a US court over the 9/11attacks has been spared the death penalty. A jury's decided that Zacarias Moussaoui should spend his life in prison - instead of being executed for his role in the hijacked airliner attacks. After hearing the verdict he yelled "America, you lost" - then clapped his hands and shouted "I won". President Bush reacted by saying "evil had been vanquished". (AUDIO)
This full report from US Correspondent - Priscilla Huff. (PKGE)
AUSTRALIA UNHCR: The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is pressing Australia's Government to change its new asylum seeker policy. The government is expanding its so-called Pacific Solution so that all asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat, whether they land on the mainland or not, will be sent offshore to Nauru to have their claims assessed. The ABC's Alexandra Kirk reports from Canberra.
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