News and Current Affairs.
Main Stories:
The Court of Appeal has thrown out Titewhai Harawira’s claim that she shouldn’t have been convicted of assaulting a mental patient. Harawira and members of her family are in jail after a jury found they bashed patient Charlie Matthews at the controversial Whare Paia health unit last year. Despite this Harawira has an injunction preventing the Auckland Area Health Board from closing down the unit, but a deal on the troubled unit may be worked out. Speaker: Sheryl Stankovich (Maori Health Worker).
In China there is no sign of any let up in the executions of pro-democracy demonstrators. Two reports.
A coalition of many organisations from business. local government and unions has made an angry last ditch attempt to get the Government to drop its land tax before the budget. They claim land tax increases as high as 1000% will ruin the human scale of cities like Auckland, forcing out small business and destroying small buildings. An examination of the tax through the eyes of Auckland’s flamboyant property developer Les Harvey. Speakers: Phil Warren (Deputy Mayor Auckland), Les Harvey (Developer), Kevin Harvey (Developer), Michael Barnett (Chamber of Commerce), Tony Adcock (Le Brie Restaurant), Wei Li (Fairview Restaurant).
Other Stories:
The Pacific island of Niue plans to cut some of its links with New Zealand. The island’s Parliament has voted to do away with New Zealand’s Governor-General as part of a major overhaul of its constitution. Speaker: Hunukitama Hunuk, Russell Marshall (Foreign Minister).
Vince Gason, a Christchurch businessman in jail in Somalia because of a failed business venture, is likely to be released in a few hours.
The couple accused of the Peter Plumley-Walker murder, Renee Chignall and Neville Walker, have been committed for trial in the High Court.
Zeebruge ferry disaster.
German battleship Bismarck.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani visit to the USSR.
Auckland city traffic is back to normal after a huge Police emergency disrupted peak hour traffic last night, when a man took over a city bank claiming to have a bomb.