Turkish Hostage Drama – Community Services Card – Veterans Package – Four Year Old Missing – Qantas Collapse – Police Cost Cutting – Waterfront Wars – Montenegro – Foot and Mouth

TURKISH HOSTAGE DRAMA: A NZer who was held hostage in Turkey says he hid out in his room during the siege watching the drama on CNN. When the hostage takers gave themselves up he emerged and had some breakfast. Two other Kiwis were held during the crisis.

COMMUNITY SERVICES CARD: The Health Minister Annette King says that it is likely to scrap the Community Services Card. She says the system does not deliver primary health care to low income families well. Meanwhile Kevin Hackwell says that the Community Service Card system is a mess and too complicated.

VETERANS PACKAGE: Veteran and POW groups have welcomed the government’s $9 million programme for veterans. However there are concerns that a large number of Vietnam veterans children will miss out.

FOUR YEAR OLD MISSING: Police searching for a four year old boy in the Auckland suburb of Ranui are concentrating their searches on a stream. Christian Crawford has gone on walkabout before.

QANTAS COLLAPSE: There have been calls for a law change to make the priority for redundancy payments rank higher during receiverships.

POLICE COST CUTTING: National says that official papers say there has been lots of pressure on the police to cut costs. Tony Ryall says that up to 200 positions in the police are now vacant. George Hawkins says an extra $100 million has been put into policing.

WATERFRONT WARS: Carter Holt Harvey and Mainland Stevedoring have pulled out of mediation over the South Island ports dispute. The companies CEO of CHH says the union failed to respond to its latest offer. But the lawyer for the WWU says

MONTENEGRO: Montenegro’s ruling political alliance has narrowly won elections but may not have enough support to push ahead with plans to split from Yugoslavia.

FOOT AND MOUTH: Environmental groups are calling for an immediate stop to the incineration of Foot and Mouth culled stock in giant pyres. The pyres are thought to be sending lots of carcinogens into the environment.

© 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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