Air Wars – Pilot Trial – Wellington Rapes – Israel – Gold Mine – Hamilton DJ Fined – DB’s Domain – Wireless School

AIR WARS: The Air Wars have resumed with Air New Zealand announcing it is enlisting some whisper jets in the Domestic market. Air New Zealand wants to take the focus off its problems with 767s. Air New Zealand will be employing an extra 100 staff. The first questions at today’s press conference was about the damaged 767 which had a bit fall off it onto a warehouse in Auckland. 100s of passengers were delayed because of the problems with the aircraft. Air New Zealand has also been having problems with its planes in Australia. The Air New Zealand CEO says that they have 80% of the NZ market at present, but want to grow that. Air New Zealand is being very aggressive.

PILOT TRIAL: The pilot charged with manslaughter for the Dash 8 crash six years ago had begun to give evidence. Lawyer Hugh Rennie first introduced his client Garry Sotheran’s defence. Sotheran is accused of failing to monitor the altitude of his plane before it crashed.

WELLINGTON RAPES: Wellington Police are warning women not to walk in the city at night or during the day alone. Wellington has been seen up till now as a safe place to be. Now a series of rapes and attacks on women has women scared. The latest attack was at 6.30am in the morning on a woman walking to work. Police say that people should walk together in groups. Police have released identikit pictures of two of the attackers.

ISRAEL: Israel has continued attacks on Palestinian positions all day today. Both sides are calling on the US to intervene. Tanks today attacked the house of a Palestinian security chief. Yesterday Israel launched attacks using F16 fighter bombers.

GOLD MINE: A political battle is underway to allow a 300m deep gold mine on the West Coast. The Green Party says that the mine could pollute the Buller River. Conservation Minister Sandra Lee is the only person left whose permission is needed for the mine to go ahead. There are only 200 permanent jobs at present in Reefton. McRaes is promising 220 new jobs if the mine goes ahead. An estimated 16 tonnes of gold is believed to be in them there hills.

HAMILTON DJ FINED: A Hamilton radio announcer’s on-air pranks have caught up with him. He has been fined more than $1000 for impersonating a police officer.

DB’S DOMAIN: DB has won a battle to gain ownership of the domain name www.db.co.nz.

WIRELESS SCHOOL: St Kentigan College in Dunedin has built itself a wireless campus allowing students to use portable computers on the internet from anywhere in the school. The school says the wireless technology is an investment in the future.

© 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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