National Radio Midday Bulletin

PETROL HIKE: Petrol prices have risen by three cents per litre in response to increases in crude oil prices. The four key New Zealand players have all taken the move and the rest are expected to follow suit.

LEGISLATION: Parliament has voted to send legislation proposing a new mega dairy merger to a select committee for further debate.

CPI DROP: The Consumer Price Index has experienced its biggest annual drop since 1932, falling by .4 per cent.

HOUSING NZ: A pensioner who barricaded himself into a Housing NZ flat on a rent strike has been forcefully evicted by police today after a two year stand off.

FIREARMS REGISTRATION: The public are going to have a say on legislation proposing that all firearms be registered.

PHARMAC: Pharmac, the governments drug buying agency, are defending their move to stop funding a drug used for treating Schizophrenia because it is too expensive and too many people want it.

NURSES PRESCRIBING: The government is pushing ahead with legislation which will allow nurses to prescribe some drugs.

MEATWORKS: Two hundred employees at a Northland meatworks have been treated with antibiotics after three staff members developed meningitis.

IRELAND: The Prime Ministers of Britain and Ireland are frustrated at another impasse on the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

PERU: Peru has capture the leader of the Shining Path rebels which launched a campaign of violence in 1990.

WATSON: The jury has been told that Watson hassled women and grabbed the arm of one woman at Furneaux Lodge last New Years Eve..

RICHWHITE: The lawyers of merchant Banker Faye Richwhite have slammed Winston Peters as irresponsible and have said he has no evidence to justify his Winebox allegations.

TREATMENT: A new treatment has been found that is effective in preventing mothers passing on the AIDS virus to their babies. It is cheap and 50 per cent more effective than other treatments.

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