Today's Top Scoops - July 30, 2007

LEAD STORY:

RAM News: Big Crowds Turn Out To Hear George Galloway In AK

NZ POLITICS:

Politics: Key Concerned By Potentially Costly OIA Blunder
Scoop Full Coverage: Benson-Pope's Demise And The Wider Repercussions For Logan

BUSINESS SCIENCE & TECH:

Trade/Envt: NZ Dairying More Efficient Than UK, C02 Included
Media: Applications Closing For Future Reporters -

WORLD:

Nuke News: Briefing on Status of US-India Civil Nuclear Deal
Nuke News: US and India Complete Civil Nuclear Negotiations
United Nations: UN Best-Placed To Tackle Global Problems

COMMENT:

Michael Collins - IMPEACHMENT: "Did The President Ask You To Go?"
Scoop Audio: Mikey Havoc Extended IV With George Galloway
Gonzales Memo: White House Granted Extraordinary Access to DOJ Files
Ramzy Baroud: Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine -

LIFESTYLE:

Film Festival: A Berlin Culture Clash In Cowboys And Communists
Sport: Golden Day for NZ at World Under-23 Rowing Champs

RAM News: Big Crowds Turn Out To Hear George Galloway In AK - On Saturday night 800 Aucklanders attended the Voices of Peace meeting at the Auckland Girls Grammar Theatre in Auckland. The theatre was packed out, while scores more had to be turned away. The evening before, a maximum crowd of 450 had packed an Auckland University lecture theatre for the first Voices of Peace meeting. More >> [1]

ALSO:

• Mikey Havoc IVs George Galloway [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0707/S00353.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00376.htm

Politics: Key Concerned By Potentially Costly OIA Blunder - Finance Minister Michael Cullen must give a personal assurance that there will no further unauthorised releases from his office of highly sensitive documents, says National Party Leader John Key. He says the blunder, in which two top-secret figures relating to the Reserve Bank's currency intervention in the kiwi dollar were released to the Sunday Star-Times among Official Information Act documents, “would have been devastating in the wrong hands”. Answers to blunder needed [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0707/S00493.htm

Scoop Full Coverage: Benson-Pope's Demise And The Wider Repercussions For Logan - The fallout from Madeleine Setchell's brief career as communications manager for the Ministry for the Environment continued today. This morning Minister for the Environment David Benson-Pope fell on his sword after his credibility was irretrievably flayed. Shortly after the Prime Minister announced Mr Benson-Pope had resigned a rather ashen-faced Ministry CEO, Hugh Logan, faced the media. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00392.htm

Trade/Envt: NZ Dairying More Efficient Than UK, C02 Included - The "food miles" efficiency of the New Zealand dairy industry in producing and delivering products for the British market has received new confirmation from a Lincoln University report released today. The report shows that in the production of New Zealand dairy product the generation of greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all implicated in global climate change - is less than in the British dairy system. More >>

Media: Applications Closing For Future Reporters - Applications will close next week for the 2008 journalism internships offered by Fairfax Media. The scheme, now in its second year, will provide both study and career opportunities for up to 20 people with emerging journalistic talent. Applications close on Wednesday 08 August at 12 noon. More >>

Nuke News: Briefing on Status of US-India Civil Nuclear Deal - On-The-Record Briefing on the Status of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative and the Text of the Bilateral Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation (123 Agreement), perhaps the single most important initiative that India and the United States have agreed to in the 60 years of our relationship. It's already become the symbolic centerpiece of a growing global partnership between the two countries. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0707/S00394.htm

Nuke News: US and India Complete Civil Nuclear Negotiations - The United States and India have reached a historic milestone in their strategic partnership by completing negotiations on the bilateral agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, also known as the 123 agreement. This agreement will govern civil nuclear trade between the two countries. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0707/S00390.htm

United Nations: UN Best-Placed To Tackle Global Problems - The United Nations is the best-placed organization for tackling problems in today's interconnected world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, pledging reform measures to strengthen it further. "Global problems demand global solutions," Mr. Ban said in an address to a Town Hall Meeting organized by the World Affairs Council. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0707/S00387.htm

Michael Collins - IMPEACHMENT: "Did The President Ask You To Go?" - On May 18th, “Scoop” reported that the testimony of James Comey, former Deputy Attorney General under John Ashcroft, provided evidence of a crime in which Bush, Gonzales, and Card” were clearly implicated. It was apparent that Bush had ordered his then counsel Alberto Gonzales and adviser, Andrew Card, to the sick bed of an ailing and sedated John Ashcroft. Their mission was to obtain Ashcroft’s signature authorizing warrant-less surveillance of Americans... More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00356.htm

Scoop Audio: Mikey Havoc Extended IV With George Galloway - 95bFM Audio: In an extended interview, Mikey Havoc talks to Firebrand Scottish MP George Galloway about getting kicked out of Parliament, Islamophobia and the state of the Middle East. Mr Galloway spoke to capacity audiences in Auckland on Friday July 27 and Saturday July 28 2007... More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00376.htm

Gonzales Memo: White House Granted Extraordinary Access to DOJ Files - A new wrinkle over the apparent politicization of the Department of Justice (DOJ) emerged on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when a freshman Democratic lawmaker revealed the contents of a May 2006 memo. The memo, signed by embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, granted Vice President Dick Cheney extraordinary authority to review active federal civil and criminal investigations at the DOJ... More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00374.htm

Ramzy Baroud: Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine - - The Hamas government crackdown on Mohamed Dahlan's corrupt security forces and affiliated gangs in the Gaza Strip in June appears to mark a turning point in the Bush administration's foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel. The supposed shift, however, is nothing but a continuation of Washington's efforts to stifle Palestinian democracy, to widen the chasm separating Hamas and Fatah, and to ensure the success of the Israeli... More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00385.htm

Film Festival: A Berlin Culture Clash In Cowboys And Communists - At a corner restaurant in the heart of East Berlin, the lives of a die-hard Communist and an American Cowboy collide. Cowboys and Communists is the story of two clashing political systems, the reality of life behind the Berlin wall, the collapse and aftermath of Communism, the tragedy of Bush’s America and the difference between Sauerkraut and cheeseburgers. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0707/S00282.htm

Sport: Golden Day for NZ at World Under-23 Rowing Champs - Three gold medals and one silver kept New Zealand Rowing’s flag flying high at the World Under-23 Championships in Strathclyde, Scotland today. In fast tail wind conditions, single scullers Storm Uru, Emma Twigg and Joseph Sullivan were the toast of the NZ team, each claiming gold medals within 30 minutes of each other More >> [1]

ALSO:

• Yachting New Zealand - Two kiwis on the podium at OK Dinghy Worlds [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0707/S00283.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0707/S00286.htm

ENDS