National Radio 9am Bulletin

Thursday, 17 February 2000, 9:14 am
Article: Alastair Thompson

Student Troubles – Northern Ireland – ACC – Nato and Russia – GE Moratorium

STUDENT TROUBLES: The Minister of Social Services is worried that the CEO of Winz has not come forward to explain why her department has had problems with the student loans. Steve Maharey says Christine Rankin needs to explain what is going

NORTHERN IRELAND: Northern Ireland’s political parties have finished a crisis meeting with Tony Blair without making any progress. David Trimble is blaming the republicans. Jerry Adams is blaming the British Government.

ACC: A union with 60,000 workers says its workers have experienced no improvement in work safety as a result of privatisation in ACC. The Engineers Union says that rather emloyers have introduced incentive schemes to report work accidents as non-work accidents.

NATO: NATO has thawed its relationship with Russia following a visit by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson to Moscow. We have moved from from “permafrost to slightly softer ground”, he says,though they still have disagreements over Chechnya.

GE MORATORIUM: The head of a proposed experiment in genetic engineering says years of genetic research is at risk if New Zealand imposes a moratorium on field trials. AgResearch says it wants to make a “meatier” sheep without a gene which inhibits muscle growth.

© Scoop Media

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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