Phillida Bunkle Cleared – Yellow Ribbon Windfall – Prime News Closes In Chch – President Bush Under Fire On Climate – Relationship Property Law Changes – Monteiths – Overstayers Amnesty – Coup Leaders Unwelcome In US - Oklahoma Bombing

PHILLIDA BUNKLE CLEARED: The Registra of Electors has decided that she doesn’t believe Bunkle has breached the Electoral Act. JANE YOUNG: Leaders of the Alliance and Labour will be reading this report over the weekend. The registra has found that given the complexity of the case she will come to no conclusion about the validity of the enrolment in Wellington Central. Bunkle says there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by her. Bunkle’s political opponents say she has not been cleared by the report. ACT Leader Richard Prebble says Bunkle is lucky. Jim Anderton is unwilling to comment. Bunkle claims she has been cleared but a cloud will continue to hang over her. You cannot read this in the political arena as a clearance, yet anyway.

YELLOW RIBBON WINDFALL: The boxing benefit for youth suicide screened on TV3 last night raised $1 million for the Yellow Ribbon campaign. No slap and tickle in these fights. Mark Graham and Mark Todd are pleased with how the night went. Not everyone was convinced that boxing should have been linked with suicide. Dean Lonergan was also pleased with the night. The ratings for the show were a knockout with 76% of those viewers was targeted at – young males – watching.

PRIME TV NEWS CLOSES IN CHCH: Prime TV News is pulling out of Christchurch.

PRESIDENT BUSH ON GREENHOUSE GASES: New Zealand has joined nations from around the world in condemning the US President’s decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. Phil Goff will be travelling to Washington to put across NZ’s view point. Environmentalists now admit that it will take international pressure to bring the US back into line.

RELATIONSHIP PROPERTY LAW CHANGE: From the beginning of next year new laws will control how you fall in and out of love. The bill passed last night will apply to all couples who live together for more than three years. All property will be divided equally under the new law unless one part of the couple has given up a career to look after children. Some lawyers are very concerned that people will only know what the law is once the courts have made some decisions.

MONTEITH’S: DB has warned that there will still be some redundancies in Greymouth, though all workers have been invited back on Monday. DB’s workers are delighted. DB says all will be revealed after consultation with employees. Employees say this is a victory for little towns.

OVERSTAYERS AMNESTY: Almost 6000 overstayers have taken advantage of an opportunity to stay in NZ. An amnesty was announced to coincide with new tough laws to combat overstayers.

COUP LEADERS UNWELCOME: Fiji coup leader George Speight has been black-listed for entry to the US along with lots of other coup leaders. The announcement was made by Colin Powell.

OKLAHOMA BOMBING: Timothy McVeigh has spoken for the first time about why he blew up the FBI building in Oklahoma. He says in a book due to be published shortly that he, and he alone, was responsible for the bombing.

© 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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