SCOTT WATSON TRIAL: The Dominion leads today with the headline "Sex the motive - Crown: Prosecutor tells of party pickup lines". The story reports tat sex was the motive that led Scott Watson to invite Olivia Hope and Ben Smary to spend the night on his yacht and to later kill them, ;prosecutor Nicola Crutchley said in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. (Inside the paper includes a full page of trial coverage.)

The front-page picture shows Ms Crutchley and a photo of what the crown says is a fingernail scratch on the hatch cover of Scott Watson's boat.

Also on the front page:

- KOSOVO: a report that NATO troops advancing through Kosovo faced increasing violence from departing Yugoslav troops establish control over the battered Serb province;

- SOLOMONS: a report that two people had been killed and thousands driven out of villages on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, as tensions between islanders worsened, diplomatic and media sources said yesterday;

- a report that Wellington City Council may consider selling a city icon - the cable car;

- a report that Porirua police are appealing for witnesses to a hit-and-run that left a 14-year-old with a fractured skull and two broken legs at the weekend.

Inside the paper:

Political News (p2):

- Power price rise ignored by Bradford;
- Shipley silent on Clinton call on lamb;
- Law Reform select committee split on Home Invasion law;
- The office of Tourism and Sport has survived a high-level review by a new Tourism Minister.

EDITORIAL: The editorial talks about the parental duty to vaccinate children.

© 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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