TV3 News

Wednesday, 7 June 2000, 6:18 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

Solomon Islands - Fiji Coup - Death Wish No More - Olympic Torch - Auckland Murder - Christchurch Picket Death - Diabetes

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Violence erupted again today in the Solomon Islands with one claim that up to 100 people have been killed. Phil Goff is considering visiting. Andrew Nori claims that between 50 and 100 people have been killed. He wants NZ and Australian forces to mount an armed intervention to stop the fighting. Phil Goff however says that peace-keepers will not be sent unless there is peace to keep. Today a police gunboat shelled a village and a school. Doreen Prebble says that she thinks it is serious. The ethnic tension has proved too much for at least one Kiwi who is planning to come home. Almost 20,000 people have left Guadacanal already. The Solomon Islands Parliament will sit next Thursday and debate a no-confidence action. A frigate is on its way to the area.

FIJI COUP: The Commonwealth has suspended Fiji from its decision making councils. Several of Speight's supporters are in custody after a looting spree. The looters were receiving cover from a machine-gun mounted in the Parliamentary compound. Fear has become too much for one resident who has had his house ransacked twice. The lawlessness continued as the Commonwealth took its first actions removing Fiji from the decision making bodies. Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon says that the Commonwealth will not kick Fiji out yet. Coup leader George Speight says he is cooperating and trying to control his supporters. In the west of Fiji chiefs are meeting to consider creating a breakaway province.

DEATH WISH NO MORE: A tetraplegic lying in hospital in Christchurch has changed his mind about having his ventilator turned off. On last night's Holme's Show he said he wanted to die. Today he is not so keen. Dr says his aim is to get Brian home. The interview was recorded 13 days ago. Another doctor says that the problem of people changing their minds is ever present.

OLYMPIC TORCH: A teenage girl was run over by a bus today as the Olympic Flame visited Auckland. Beatrice Faumuina carries the torch. A 17-year-old girl was run over by a retrieval bus. Even Auckland's traffic chaos couldn't stop the relay. Susan Devoy had to run to the summit of One Tree Hill and got puffed. Dick Quax and Rod Dixon are pleased to carry the flame. The flame will be flown to Sydney tonight.

AUCKLAND MURDER: A woman journalist is found naked in a park in Glen Innes. Handbag and contents found near the body. The woman hasn't yet been identified. The woman was 23 years old. The woman traveled home by bus around 6.30pm last night. Residents near the reserve say they heard a high pitched scream. A post-mortem will be held tomorrow.

CHRISTCHURCH PICKET DEATH: Three witnesses deny seeing a car driver being threatened before he drove over and killed a woman on a picket line in Lytellton. A policeman says the man's face was injured. The man has been committed to trial.

DIABETES: A huge breakthrough in diabetes is hailed. A diabetic who has been given a new life says he is delighted to be free of having to watch his insulin. Transplanting cells from healthy patients to the pancreas of diabetics is the key to the treatment that has so far worked for eight.

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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