Poll - Lomu Back To Stay - Prebble Ambushed - ACT Reaction - Te Tai Tokerau Poll - Turkish Quake - French Floods - World's Largest Whitebait Patty
Yesterday

(Note: reposted into correct wire.)

Yesterday

POLL: TV1/Colmar Brunton Poll Result: Party Vote: National 33%, Labour 34%, Alliance 9%, Act 11%, NZ First 6%, Green 2.4%. Poll of 1000 margin of error 3.2%.

Today

LOMU BACK TO STAY: Jonah Lomu home to stay and play. Best news since the All Black loss in the World Cup semifinal. The most wanted man in world rugby is here to stay. He has signed a two year contract to the All Blacks with an option on another two. "I thought of the things that were closest to me and that's my family and the All Blacks", says Lomu. Girlfriend Teina Stace - who Jonah turned to for advice - said the focus was happiness for Jonah - "and what makes me happy is playing for the All Blacks," says Jonah. Jonah has put the dream of being an All Black above all else say All Black management. Wellington is the hot favourite for Jonah's services in the Super 12.

PREBBLE AMBUSHED: ACT Leader Richard Prebble ambushed by protestors at economic policy launch. Prebble wants to sell TVNZ and cut $2.7 billion from the budget for new initiatives. ACT says expenditure should only increase in line with inflation. "All other parties are planning to increase government expenditure faster than the CPI," says Prebble. Welfare beneficiaries targeted with a plan to reduce the total numbers to 300,000 over three years. Jenny Shipley says she won't comment on flat tax proposal.

ACT REACTION: ACT's policy drew scorn from other parties. Helen Clark says people are wary of the loony policies of ACT. Jim Anderton says we have sold enough. Winston Peters says ACT is an off-the-wall extremist.

TE TAI TOKERAU POLL: Marae Digipoll shows Dover Sammuels on 40%. Henare on 19.6%. NZ First on 19.5%. Alliance 7.6%. National on 4% in Te Tai Tokerau. Henare says polls are only a snapshot of what people are thinking at that time. In the poll 47% thought he had done a poor or very poor job as an MP.

TURKISH QUAKE: Turkey struggling to cope in aftermath of another earthquake. Agony on agony. Turkey is reeling again from the blow of a powerful earthquake. Hundreds of patients treated outside. Rescue teams are arriving in Istanbul.

FRENCH FLOODS: Severe flooding in France. 22 dead so far. Thousands evacuated.

LARGEST WHITEBAIT PATTY: West Coast town claims prize for world's largest white bait patty. Prepared in a front end loader. Pan to be erected on Haast's main street.

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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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