**** Checkpoint FOR THURS 23 JULY
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Justice Minister has announced his plan to dump the defence of provocation for people charged with murder. Simon Power is going to cabinet to get the partial defence - which can reduce murder to manslaughter - scrapped. Two high profile cases have brought the debate to a head . That of Clayton Weatherston and a recent jury decision to find Ferdinand Ambach guilty of manslaughter after he said his victim made sexual advances towards him. Here's Justice Minister Simon Power. PREREC
The Government is going to scap rules that prevent the sale of strategic assets to foreigners. The rules were rushed through last year by the previous government to block a takeover of Auckland Airport by a Canadian pension fund. They now look likely to be replaced with a national interest test which the Government says will provide foreign investors with more certainty.Here's the Finance Minister Bill English. PREREC
The Crown has abandoned its case against a man who stood accused of selling his then 12 year old daughter for sex. The man and his partner had been on trial at the High Court in Auckland and faced 16 charges, including sexual conduct with a young person and child cruelty. The latter also involved the girl's seven siblings.
Laura Davis has been covering the trial and joins us now. LIVE
The Prime Minister is questioning the Labour leader Phil Goff's judgement for not revealing that the Auckland man, who Mr Goff said needed a welfare benefit, owned two rental properties. John Key says Mr Goff has been misleading and accused him of using the man as a political football. CLIP Labour's deputy leader Annette King had a pretty sharp response to that comment. CLIP Our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson, joins us now... LIVE
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Patrick O'Meara
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The Government says it will work with the private sector to sharpen up the public service. The Minister of Finance Bill English says it would do this in cases where it can be assured of getting better value for money for taxpayers. The response comes in the wake of a 500 million dollar Public Private Partnership launched today, to inject private capital into the state sector. Eric Frykberg reports. PKG
He's not even in the super city race, but Manukau's mayor, Len Brown, is already upsetting the favourite. He's narrowly beaten Auckland city's mayor, John Banks, in a UMR Research poll on who should be mayor of Auckland's combined council.
Mr Banks is the only candidate to declare his interest so far, but Len Brown is already sounding like a man on the campaign trail. Rowan Quinn reports PKG
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17.30 HEADLINES
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Chinese directors have pulled their films from Australia's biggest film festival in protest over a documentary being screened about the exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer. The move came after the Festival director in Melbourne resisted pressure from Beijing to drop the documentary. Richard Moore is the director - he joins us now. LIVE
Fiji police have charged their highest ranking female Chief Ro Teimumu Kepa and two top Methodist Church ministers with defying the Public Emergency Regulation.
They have been released on bail to reappear in three weeks time and they have had to surrender their travel documents. About one hundred supporters of the Rewa Paramount chief -- who has been charged with incitement -- gathered outside the court in Suva. The charges follow ongoing tussles between the interim government and the church about whether a major annual conference can go ahead. There has still been no official church statement yet to call off the event.
Radio New Zealand International's Nellie Husband reports: PKG
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17.45 TRAILS
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WAATEA
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More now on the Goverment's move to scrap rules protecting the sale of strategic assets to foreign investors. It's expected they'll be replaced with a national interest test which the Government says will provide foreign investors with more certainty.
Critics warn it will drain the country of profits made by companies here.Here's our economics correspondent, Nigel Stirling PKG
While the MetService has issued severe gale warnings for parts of the North Island, and with further wild weather predicted in the South, heavy rain has already flooded four Greymouth homes and threatened several more. The Grey District Council says while rain had been forecast the intensity of it took them by surprise.
Jessica Maddock reports. PKG
The doctor who was with Michael Jackson when he died has had his Houston clinic searched by US drug enforcement agents and the Los Angeles police looking for evidence of manslaughter. One official who refused to be named said the focus of the search was propofol, an anesthetic also known as Diprivan, which has repeatedly been named in media reports as a drug Jackson was said to be taking before he died on June 25. Our correspondent in LA Peter Bowes has more about today's events. PREREC