TV3 News

Wednesday, 24 January 2001, 8:16 am
Article: Alastair Thompson

Margaret Baxter Murder – Nuclear Waste Protests – PM Press Conference – Climate Change – Galapagos Oil Spill – Truck Crash 1 – Truck Crash 2 – El Salvador – Fortune For A Weekend

MARGARET BAXTER MURDER: Police have released new information about the death of Wellington woman Margaret Baxter in Hastings. Police say she did not die as a result of injuries in the car accident but rather due to blows received from a weapon after the car accident. A 23-year-old man from Hastings was arrested and charged with murder yesterday. He was granted name suppression. Police say they have found parts of a murder weapon. Other parts were found inside the Black Galant a policeman says.

NUCLEAR WASTE PROTESTS: Protests were directed today across the Tasman over a nuclear waste shipment headed out of Sydney. NZ was not officially told of nuclear waste shipped through the Tasman Sea last night in advance. The protest in NZ is at a diplomatic level. The Australians have provided no assurances that they will notify in future. NZ benefits from the Lucas Heights research into cancer but Phil Goff says this is irrelevant to safety concerns.

PM PRESS CONFERENCE: Helen Clark says that public servants should be paid wages. She says she was stunned at the widespread use of bonuses in the public service. What’s the biggest challenge for the PM? Jane Young: Firstly getting the Maori policy back on tracks. Secondly is giving the Alliance their place in the sun. They have to show they are a partnership.

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CLIMATE CHANGE: A UN report into climate change says the 1990s was the warmest decade for 1000 years.

GALAPAGOS OIL SPILL: Experts are fighting a losing battle to prevent an oil slick in the Galapagos Islands making landfall. The islands where Charles Darwin formed his theory of evolution. The Coastguard will try to pump oil off the stricken tanker.

TRUCK CRASH 1: Officials say the environment will be damaged by a spillage of 21,000 litres of industrial solvent into a river in Taranaki by a Mobil tanker. Eight firemen have been taken to hospital overcome by fumes. The driver was killed. There are dangers to fish and bird life. Mobil has sent an expert team to the site.

TRUCK CRASH 2: In South Canterbury a tar tanker and a truck loaded with fertiliser collided concerning firefighters about an explosion.

EL SALVADOR: Searchers in El Salvador find a man alive in a building buried for nine days. More and more bodies are still being brought out dead. A quarter of a million Salvadorans live on aid. 750,000 people are homeless. The world has stopped here. The people’s plea to the world - not to be forgotten.

FORTUNE FOR A WEEKEND: Mr and Mrs Fortune of Rangiora become multimillionaires for a weekend. With $62 million in their account due to a bank error Mrs Fortune was surprised when she rang her bank’s phone banking system for a balance. The bank BNZ says it was a human error at the Wellington processing centre that caused the mistake. The bank sent a manager to apologise in person. The Banking Ombudsman says that the money would not have been allowed to be spent by the Fortunes.

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.

Contact Alastair Thompson

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