National Radio Midday Bulletin

SNOW PROBLEMS: The cold front moving up the country has caused havoc across the country. Roads are shut in both Islands and power is out on Mount Taranaki. Snow flurries are still falling in the central North Island and the ski fields are excited. The Desert Road is closed and no-one is sure when it will reopen. Three schools are closed in Christchurch.

SHOPPING: Nearly all shops will close at the start of the new millennium, ruining our seven day a week reputation. Some supermarkets and the Warehouse will open for some hours only.

AA SLAM PETROL HIKE: The AA say Shell’s petrol increase of three cents per litre is unacceptable. The other petrol companies are still waiting to decide whether to join Shell in hiking their prices.

GISBORNE HEALTH: The Gisborne Public Health service will launch an aggressive campaign tomorrow urging women to have smears, following some slides being misread up till 1996. Of the 1700 women targeted for smears, 1300 have failed to respond.

ADULT SUSPENSION: A computer technician has been suspended from a Raglan school after downloading inappropriate material. No children had access to the material.

SHOOTING: The security guard who was shot in an Auckland robbery yesterday is out of hospital. Witnesses are being spoken to and forensics are involved.

PI RESIDENTS: 650 representatives are at a conference on problems in health and housing that Pacific Islanders face in New Zealand.

SHELTER WARNING: There is an urgent warning for ethnic Albanians to source shelter after they fled their homes and returned to find them destroyed. The UN has launched a programme of long term and short term housing solutions to the shelter crisis.

PALESTINIAN SPEAKER IN ISRAEL: The speaker of the Palestinian parliament has visited the Israeli Parliament. He did not address the assembly but it is being applauded as a brave initiative necessary to forge peace.

INDIA – PAKISTAN: India say all Pakistanis in Indian held Kashmir have been cleared out of the area.

GE COALITION: A coalition protesting genetically engineered food has been launched in New Zealand and Sydney. The coalition has been launched as the company that makes Vegemite announced they cannot confirm whether their product is GE-free.

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