Top Scoop Stories - 27 February 2008 News Summary

Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 2:00 pm
Article: The Scoop Editor

Today's Top Scoops - 27 February 2008

LEAD STORY:

Trade: Plans For April China Trade Agreement Signing

NZ POLITICS:

Energy: Non-Green Power Use Making Brownlee Mad
Mental Health: Prescriptions For Middle Aged Depressives Causes Anxiety
Fisheries: Environment Groups Dismayed By High Court Decision
Elections & Analysis: Labour Jitters N Poster-Boy Politics

BUSINESS SCIENCE & TECH:

Future Is Now: The Cyber Job Hunt
Statistics: Housing Consents Trend Still Declining
Tobacco, vanilla, toast: Just How Does Wine Get Its flavour?

WORLD:

Dominica: The Caribbean's Next "Terror Island"?
Empress Dowager: Condoleezza Rice With Chinese FM Yang Jiechi
Timor-Leste: Fugitive Timorese Follower Of Alfredo Reinado Surrenders
Doomsday Security: Arctic Vault To Safeguard World's Crop Seed

COMMENT:

Jonathan Springston: APN Guide to Delegates to the Democratic National Convention
Leslie Griffith: U.S. Quietly Breaks United Nations Treaty
Kevin Martin: Obama, Clinton, Dems - Show Leadership, Make Change Happen, End the War Now
Harvey Wasserman: How Swing State Ohio Got Nuked

LIFESTYLE:

Sculpture: The Smiling Windmills Installation
Irishness: Snake Hating Saint's Day Celebration Soon
Comedy: Flight Of The Conchord's Pal On Way To NZ
TV3 Video: Coen Brothers Dominate Oscars

Trade: Plans For April China Trade Agreement Signing - With outstanding technical requirements and processes for the NZ-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on track for completion, plans are underway for New Zealand business involvement in activities around the signing date, Trade Minister Phil Goff announced today. "Finalising this FTA will be a significant achievement for New Zealand. We must make sure we take full advantage of the opportunities it will open up in China," Mr Goff said. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00427.htm

Energy: Non-Green Power Use Making Brownlee Mad - National Party Energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee says the Government's energy strategy is in turmoil, leaving Labour's climate change strategy in tatters. "It's still summer, and stand-by generation capacity has been needed six times in February." More >> [1]

ALSO:

• NZ Govt - Parker: Building a secure and sustainable energy system [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00438.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00440.htm

Mental Health: Prescriptions For Middle Aged Depressives Causes Anxiety - In the last two years the number of anti-depressant prescriptions to middle-aged Kiwis aged between 45 and 64 has risen by an astonishing 69%, according to Ministry of Health figures obtained by UnitedFuture health spokesperson, Judy Turner. More >> [1]

ALSO:

• Greens - Depressed kids need more than pill popping [2]
• Public Address - Public Address 27/2/08 - Drugs Don't (Always) Work [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00434.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00437.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00312.htm

Fisheries: Environment Groups Dismayed By High Court Decision - The Environment and Conservation Organisations today expressed its disappointment that the High Court had overturned a decision of the Minister of Fisheries, Jim Anderton, to reduce the quota for the northern orange roughy fishery. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0802/S00317.htm

Elections & Analysis: Labour Jitters N Poster-Boy Politics - State Of It: Selwyn Manning writes that the latest in a series of polls has shown a trend where Labour is in serious trouble. Can Helen Clark beat off National leader John Key in what is shaping up as a land-slide loss for Labour? And what of leadership coups? More >> [1]

ALSO:

• Alastair Thompson - Multimedia: PM's Post Cabinet Presser 25 February [2]
• (KiwiFM Audio): Wallace Chapman & Selwyn Manning on Labour's Slide [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00281.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00280.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00289.htm

Future Is Now: The Cyber Job Hunt - Starting next week (from March 3), students in their final years of university study will have the opportunity to access a virtual world of graduate career opportunities via the Virtual Careers Fair. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0802/S00062.htm

Statistics: Housing Consents Trend Still Declining - Building consents statistics for January 2008 show a continuing decline in the trend for the number of new housing units, Statistics New Zealand said today. Trends (both including and excluding apartments) have been decreasing since June 2007. More >> [1]

ALSO:

• J P Morgan - Building approvals continue to decline [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0802/S00428.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0802/S00431.htm

Tobacco, vanilla, toast: Just How Does Wine Get Its flavour? - Whether you're a wine connoisseur or an enthusiastic amateur, you're bound to be able to discern different flavours in the wines you drink. Berries, leather and even cigar notes can all be detected in different wines. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0802/S00425.htm

Dominica: The Caribbean's Next "Terror Island"? - The most recent Caribbean country to have joined Chávez's alliance is the small island nation of Dominica, which may well become "Terror Island" for the State Department. That institution could soon publicly vent its displeasure over the island's growing ties with Caracas. Tiny Dominica has good reason to be apprehensive over its approaching destiny, whatever that might prove to be. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00398.htm

Empress Dowager: Condoleezza Rice With Chinese FM Yang Jiechi - Madame Secretary and Yang Jiechi had an in-depth exchange of views on how to move forward the constructive and cooperative relationship and also on how to increase communication and cooperation between the two countries. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00396.htm

Timor-Leste: Fugitive Timorese Follower Of Alfredo Reinado Surrenders - The surrendering fugitive was a follower of Alfredo Reinado, the opposition leader who was killed during the attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta, and had also been the target of investigations by the UN Independent Special Commission. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00384.htm

Doomsday Security: Arctic Vault To Safeguard World's Crop Seed - The establishment of the Global Seed Vault was facilitated by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, a global legal framework for conserving and accessing crop diversity, adopted by FAO member countries. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00388.htm

Jonathan Springston: APN Guide to Delegates to the Democratic National Convention
- The Democratic National Convention will host 3,515 pledged delegates and 852 unpledged delegates from all over the country in Denver, Colorado, from August 25 through August 28, 2008. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00305.htm

Leslie Griffith: U.S. Quietly Breaks United Nations Treaty - At a UN meeting in Geneva, the US broke a series of legal promises. Keeping those promises would have proved extremely embarrassing to the US govt by pointing out that human rights abuses are being committed here at home and at US military installations. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00315.htm

Kevin Martin: Obama, Clinton, Dems - Show Leadership, Make Change Happen, End the War Now - While George Bush, aided and abetted by a supine Congress, does his best impersonation of an extremely unpopular yet omnipotent emperor, especially on Iraq and foreign policy, Obama and Clinton are far from powerless in their current positions. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00308.htm

Harvey Wasserman: How Swing State Ohio Got Nuked - Once a great industrial heartland, Ohio's rust belt status has been solidified by billions in excess electric rates driven by four nuclear reactors, and by the state government's inability to make way for a green-powered future. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00301.htm

Sculpture: The Smiling Windmills Installation - A selection of images from the "Smiling Windmills" 2008 installation at Shapeshifter essential New Zealand Sculpture Exhibiton part of the "08 New Zealand International Art Festival" 22nd February - 16th March 2008. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0802/S00295.htm

Irishness: Snake Hating Saint's Day Celebration Soon - You don't have to be Irish to enjoy St Patrick's Day, but to be sure it helps to be one of the 200,000 people in Auckland who lay claim to some Irish ancestry. Still, in Auckland on St Patrick's Day, March 17, heritage never seems to matter. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0802/S00300.htm

Comedy: Flight Of The Conchord's Pal On Way To NZ - Arj Barker crosses the pond to debut in New Zealand; after a sell out season at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Melbourne Comedy Festival 2008. And he is armed with some new classics and some classic classics. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0802/S00298.htm

TV3 Video: Coen Brothers Dominate Oscars - The Oscars ceremony has taken place in the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, Los Angeles. As expected, the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen were the stars of the night with their violent, modern-day western No Country for Old Men. More >> [1]

ALSO:

• TV3 Video - No Country for Old Men Oscar Best Film acceptance speech [2]
• TV3 Video - Day-Lewis Oscar Best Actor full acceptance speech [3]
• TV3 Video - Transformers sound editor to return home empty-handed [4]
• TV3 Video - Transformers sound editor to return home empty-handed [5]
• TV3 Video - The fashion of the Oscars [6]
• More oscar video in the Scoop Television Wire [7]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/entertainment/5348.html
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/entertainment/5349.html
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/entertainment/5350.html
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/entertainment/5351.html
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/entertainment/5351.html
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/entertainment/5362.html
[7] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/television.html

ENDS

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