Cervical Inquiry Ordered - Taiwan Quake - East Timor: Jakarta and Dili - Otago Ship Grounding - Wigram Murder - Netball Champs

(Scoop apologises for not posting a midday news monitor today...National Radio was off air in Wellington for an hour.)

CERVICAL INQUIRY ORDERED: Wyatt Creech has announced a full inquiry into how a pathologist failed to get 80% of the cervical smears he checked right.

TAIWAN QUAKE: More than 637 have died in a huge quake in Taiwan. 2900 have been injured and many more are trapped in collapsed buildings. Hundreds of buildings and houses were toppled in the quake.

EAST TIMOR - JAKARTA: Indonesian President B.J. Habibe has spoken to the Indonesian Parliament and has called on people to accept the result of the East Timorese ballot for independence.

EAST TIMOR - DILI: Heavily armed Australian troops were cheered today as they arrived in East Timor.

OTAGO SHIP GROUNDING: Otago Regional Council says the official report in the grounding of a boat in Otago Harbour has been too slow in coming and that legal action is now not possible.

WIGRAM MURDER: An unemployed man charged with murder of Christchurch man has been remanded in custody after appearing in court in Dunedin. He has been charged with shooting a man found dead in Wigram last week.

NETBALL: Botswana and Pakistan have withdrawn from the Netball World Champs in Christchurch. NZ play their first game tomorrow night against Canada.

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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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