National Radio Midday Report

Kiwi Bank – GM Commission – Ambulance Skills – Govt Accounting – Fiji Constitution – FBI Spy – Missile Shield – Counterfeit Currency – Marie Jamieson – Speed Cameras – Pest Fish

- KIWI BANK: NZ Post is going to court to prevent ACT leader Richard Prebble going public with any information from the leaked business case for the Kiwi bank he has obtained. But no court can prevent Mr Prebble exercising his absolute privilege in Parliament to release the information. The NZ Post chief executive says the SOE will be hiring around 300 new staff for the new bank. Mr Prebble says the leaked report says new staff will not be hired, creating long cues.

- GM COMMISSION: The Jewish Council is calling for the mandatory labelling of genetically modified foods to ensure Jews and other religious groups don’t break their religions dietary laws. The council made the call at the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.

- AMBULANCE SKILLS: The St John Ambulance service looking at whether it needs to improve the skills of its drivers after a driver was found guilty of careless driving causing death.

- GOVT ACCOUNTING: National are accusing the Government of a major shift in the way it accounts to Parliament for its spending programme. National Finance Spokesperson Bill English says it has changed the ground rules by not including contributions to the proposed superannuation fund in its overall figure for the state’s role in the economy.

- FIJI CONSTITUTION: London based Australian lawyer Jeffery Robinson has told Fiji’s Court of Appeal that the country’s 1997 constitution is one of the finest in the world in protecting indigenous rights.

- FBI SPY: A veteran FBI agent has appeared in court in Virginia charged with spying for Russia for over 15 years. The charges could carry the death penalty.

- MISSILE SHIELD: NATO’s secretary General George Robinson has cautiously welcomed Russia’s plan for a European national missile shield to rival the proposed American system, which Russia strongly opposes.

- COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY: Authorities in the Philippines have seized trillions of dollars in counterfeit federal reserve bonds and currencies in a raid.

- MARIE JAMIESON: Police in Auckland believe the body of Marie Jamieson was dumped at the West Auckland site where it was found on Monday, and that she was not murdered at the scene.

- SPEED CAMERAS: Police figures show a big jump in the number of drivers snapped by speed cameras in January. The jump is accounted for by the resetting of speed cameras to automatically catch all drivers travelling more than 10kph over the speed limit, not just the top 15 percent of speedsters.

- PEST FISH: The Conservation Department says it is trying to find out how far two exotic fish pests have spread in the Manawatu. Gambuzia, or Mosquito Fish have been found, as well as Koi Carp.

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