National Radio Midday Report

Skyhawks – Sade Case – Chatroom Hero – Wallace Shooting Inquiry – Macedonia Coalition – Army Rape Case – Power Price Rise – Pope’s Pilgrimage – Child Trafficking – Search – Lundy Murder Case – Heroin Room – US Off Drugs Board – Train Treasure

- SKYHAWKS: National is promising to reverse any axing of the Air Force’s fighter jets. The Skyhawks will be gone well before the next election, in the most controversial of the decisions in a defence review that will be released by the Government this afternoon.

- SADE CASE: The social worker assigned to look after Sade, a child bashed so severely by her grandmother Patricia Bisset she is now brain damaged, had only nine days experience in social work when the case was allocated to her last year.

- CHATROOM HERO: An Auckland teenager who may have helped to avert a high school shooting after chatting to a disturbed and armed US youth in an Internet chat room and alerted police has been given an award by the FBI.

- WALLACE SHOOTING INQUIRY: The New Plymouth coroner has withdrawn from the inquest into the officer who killed Stephen Wallace because of his professional involvement with many people involved with the case.

- MACEDONIA COALITION: The main political parties in strife-torn Macedonia have agreed to form a grand coalition government of national unity. The Nato Secretary General has described rebels as murderous thugs whose objective is to destroy a united Macedonia.

- ARMY RAPE CASE: The woman complainant in the trial of an army officer accused of rape during training has taken the stand in the Palmerston District Court this morning. The name and rank of the officer is suppressed. The defence says he had a relationship with the defendant that was consensual.

- POWER PRICE RISE: First Electric, one of the country’s biggest power companies, is increasing prices for thousands of customers in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch.

- POPE’S PILGRIMAGE: Pope John Paul has prayed for peace in the Middle East amid the ruins of the Syrian village Kinetra – a past scene of heavy fighting between Israel and Syria.

- CHILD TRAFFICKING: Police in the West African country of Togo have arrested 10 suspected child traffickers.

- SEARCH: A helicopter with infrared capabilities will soon join in on the search for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease sufferer Kevin Allen in dense bush in the Marlborough Sounds.

- LUNDY MURDER CASE: Mark Lundy, the Palmerston North man accused of killing his wife and daughter, will face a pre-trial hearing on the 16th of July.

- HEROIN ROOM: The church operating the heroin injecting room in Sydney’s Kings Cross says so far the room has been a success, despite only a handful of users using the room.

- US OFF DRUGS BOARD: There has been another setback for Bush administration on the international scene. Authorities in Washington have confirmed the US has lost its seat on the International Narcotics Control Board.

- TRAIN TREASURE: Hungarian holocaust survivors and their heirs are suing the US Government for seizing treasures on a Nazi train in Austria during WWII and not making an effort to return goods and lying to Hungarian Jews who sought information on their lost property after the war.

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