**** CKPT FOR WED 28 JAN 2009
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Fonterra today slashed its milk payout forecast for the current season from six dollars per kilogram of milk solids to 5 dollars and 10 cents blaming collapsing prices, a volatile dollar and the international financial crisis.The predicted payout compares to last season's record payout of seven dollars 90 and could cost the economy 2 .4 billion dollars. Fonterra's Chairman, Henry van der Heyden, joins us now LIVE
Federated Farmers dairy section chair Lachlan McKenzie is remaining optimistic. CUT
The police have located the vehicle they say was used to fatally injure a teenager in a hit and run in the Bay of Plenty town of Murupara last night. The 16 year old boy died from multiple injuries, after a utility taken from his property was used to pursue him. Detective Sergeant John Wilson, explains what happened overnight. PREREC
A hui called to respond to the world economic crisis has called on Māori economic organisations to co-operate more closely with one another. It has also repeated calls for better skills training for Māori, particularly in raising literacy levels. The hui was called by the Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples, who says he's pleased with what it achieved. CUT
Our political editor Brent Edwards was at the hui and joins us now. LIVE
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BUSINESS NEWS
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Fiji's interim Prime Minister says the Pacific Islands Forum is going to have a long wait for the military-led regime to set a date for parliamentary elections. The Forum has given Fiji a deadline of May the 1st to announce a date for elections, which it says must happen by the end of year. If it doesn't happen, Fiji will be suspended from Forum meetings and blocked from member benefits. Radio New Zealand International's Megan Whelan reports. PKG
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17.30 HEADLINES
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Fonterra is coming under pressure to release documents it says will prove it told Sanlu executives no level of melamine in milk was acceptable. The former Sanlu chief executive convicted over the contamination scandal says she was acting on a document given to her by Fonterra, which said a small amount of melamine was not harmful. Six babies died and 300-thousand became ill after drinking the tainted milk last year. Rowan Quinn's been at a media conference on the latest allegations. PKG
Police have revealed that the man arrested after last Friday's Auckland motorway shooting had an accomplice. In a statement released today, the police say the 19-year-old woman, Margaret Mann was arrested on Friday in the early stages of the high-speed police chase. An innocent bystander, Halatau Naitoko, was mistakenly killed by police in a subsequent shoot out on Auckland's Northwestern motorway. Fifty year old Stephen McDonald faces multiple charges relating to Friday's events. I spoke to Detective Inspector Peter Devoy. PREREC
The police in Hastings have arrested a gang associate in relation to the death of a Hawkes Bay contractor they say stepped in to save a woman from a beating. 34 year old Mark McCutcheon was fatally stabbed shortly after he intervened in a dispute on Friday night outside a hotel in the township of Ongaonga. Our reporter Heugh Chappell has just been to a police media briefing in Hastings, and joins me now. LIVE
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WAATEA NEWS
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Israel has carried out air attacks on the Gaza Strip and sent tanks and bulldozers across the border. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the air strikes targetted tunnels used for smuggling goods and weapons between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The action came in response to an attack by Palestinian militants on an Israeli military vehicle on the Gaza border, in which one soldier was killed and three wounded. The BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from Gaza City: PKG
New Zealanders accessing their personal files held by the National Security Intelligence Service have been surprised by the amount of mundane personal detail that's been recorded. This comes after the SIS adopted a new archives policy in 2003 to make available as many of its old files as possible. Vinnie Wylie reports. PKG
To the Australian Open where the world's top tennis players are battling it out in temperatures which are at their highest in a hundred years. Joining us now from Melbourne Park is our correspondent, Dave Luddy. LIVE
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