National Radio Midday Report

Doone Decision – Timberland’s Action Maori Pledge – Doone Decision – Japan Trade – America’s Cup – United Threat – Chechnya – Time-Warner Merger – Immigration Investigation – Rural Action – Bank Heist - Landslip – Oil Spill

DOONE DECISION: The government has reached an agreement with Police Commissioner Ptere Doone over his future with a decision to be announced early this afternoon.

-TIMBERLANDS ACTION: Legal Action over government plan to end logging on the West Coast has begun with companies contracted into relations with SOE Timberlands annoucing they will sue.

-MAORI PLEDGE: Education Groups are welcoming Prime Minister Helen Clark’s announcement that she will head a new committee to address the social and economic gaps between Maori and Pakeha.

-JAPAN TRADE: The Exporters Institute says New Zealand’s opposition to scientific whaling will not affect NZ’s $2.8 billion annual trade with Japan.

-AMERICAS CUP: The first race in the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup been postphoned because of poor weather conditions.

-UNITED THREAT: The Papakura District Water Supplier United Water has threatened users with disconnection unless consumers pay their waste-water charges.

-CHECHNYA: There are growing doubts are on the accuracy of official Russian casualty numbers in Chechnya which an independent television station says could be ten times higher than reported.

-TIME-WARNER MERGER - There is disagreement over whether US Time Warner’s Music Division’s merger with British Company EMI could spell the end of CDs to internet based music technology.

-IMMIGRATION INVESTIGATION: Ministry of Immigration is investigating a firm Manukau Legal Services who may have been giving illegal advice to people seeking citizenship.

-RURAL ACTION: Rural Action New Zealand says it will protest against a power company moving from the West Coast.

-BANK HEIST: Auckland Police says more than $100,000 has been taken in a spate of bank robberies which may have been committed by the same gang.

-LANDSLIP: A family evacuated from their holiday home on the West Coast after a landslip made the premises unsafe are awaiting their return. 70mm of rain fell in two hours yesterday.

-OIL SPILL: Brazil has imported thousands of bouys to contain a leak of over 1.2 million litres of oil in Rio’s harbour.

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