Please note: This is the final edition of Top Scoops & Just Politics for 2003. Full normal service will resume on January 12th.
TODAY’S TOP SCOOPS
LEAD STORY:
Unbundling Local Loop Recommended To Enhance Broadband
Report Released: State Of The Nation’s Health
NZ NEWS HEADLINES:
English Tabloid Reports Saddam Really Captured By Kurds
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES:
SCOOP COLUMNS:
Guest Comment: The Gospel According To St Marketing
Scoop Images: A Virtual Stopover In Bahrain
Hard News Is There!
Martin LeFevre: Time
Bev Harris: Time To Disinfect The US Voting System
A Judge From the Philippines Writes About Human Trafficking
Saddam Capture: Greg Palast Interview On Between The Lines
Saddam Capture: What Price Saddam?
Saddam Capture Cartoon: Rumsfeld's Dream Time
Daily Katya Rivas
OTHER NEWS (Just Politics)
Parliament's "Worst Behaved MP" Delivers A Broadside
ACT's Letter – Christmas Edition
Views On Trade With Thailand Sought By Minister
Anti-GE Campaigners Keep Up The Fight Against Onions
Phil Goff On 'Clean Slate' Law Proposals
Nats Seek Inquiry Into Export Education Problems
Keith Locke's Christmas Wishes
DoC & PM's Mountain Guide Talking Sense - Franks
If Santa Crashes His Sleigh
Transport Plans Falling Apart Already – Dr Brash
TO CHANGE MY SCOOP OPTIONS OR UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST
IF YOU HAVE LOST YOUR PASSWORD
...TODAY'S PHOTO STORY...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00196.htm
Scoop Photo-Essay: Under A Bahrain Sky
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TODAY’S TOP SCOOPS------------
LEAD STORY:
Unbundling Local Loop Recommended To Enhance Broadband
- The Communications Minister Paul Swain has released the Commerce Commission’s final report on unbundling the Local
Loop Network and the Fixed Public Data Network. See... Commerce Commission report on unbundling released [1] and Commission recommends unbundling for broadband [2]
Report Released: State Of The Nation’s Health
- The health system's annual report card is out. The Director General of Health's assessment of the state of public
health finds the health and disability support workforce in New Zealand is busier than it has ever been. See... Health Ministry Details The State Of Public Health [1]
NZ NEWS HEADLINES:
Return Of The King Reigns Over NZ Box Office [1] The worst-behaved MP’s of 2003 [2] GE onion Partner Blamed for Contaminating Tomatoes [3] Average Trade Deficit Recorded for November [4] Trustee elections on the school horizon for 2004 [5] Holiday Period Water Safety Warning Beacon [6]
English Tabloid Reports Saddam Really Captured By Kurds
- A series of stories have been published today , so far in Europe, Australia and Asia, casting the capture of Saddam
Hussein in an entirely new light. If the stories are confirmed true it would appear that the spider-hole story is
another piece of pure United States Military psy-ops propaganda. See... Links: Widespread Claims Kurds Got Saddam First [1]
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES:
Arafat Accuses U.S. Of Backing Sharon's Plan [1] Bush Welcomes Libyan Decision to End WMD Programs [2] Bush Turns Up Fear Factor To High Alert [3] International Solidarity Writes: Rafah Lives [4] Amnesty: China: Brands Peaceful Activists As Terrorists [5] Amnesty: Governments Fail To Protect Human Right Defenders [6]
SCOOP COLUMNS:
Guest Comment: The Gospel According To St Marketing
- Christmas and Marketing… two traditions that are inseparably entwined with one another. You may have heard of the
baby Jesus and the three Wise Men, but the role of Christmas consultants Kuffman, Goldstein & Blum is less understood. See... Guest Opinion: The History of Christmas [1]
Scoop Images: A Virtual Stopover In Bahrain
- Scoop Reporters Abroad... Bahrain, December 2003... See... Photo-Essay 1: From Under A Bahrain Sky [1] - (Part 2) [2] & (Part 3) [3]
Hard News Is There!
- Of the things that warmed my heart this past weekend, none was toastier than the sight of Daniel Vettori making his
maiden test century in front of a home crowd in Hamilton. He still displays the odd goony-bird flourish, but the shots
he played ... See... Public Address 23/12/03 – Summer [1]
Martin LeFevre: Time
- We humans have a problem with time. Existentially and philosophically, time is both a trap and a mystery. See... Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere [1]
Bev Harris: Time To Disinfect The US Voting System
- An embezzler who specialized in sophisticated alteration of records of computerized systems was programming our
voting system, and also had access to the printing of the ballots, and ties to the private company that sorts King
County absentee ballots. See... Bev Harris: Embezzler Programmed Voting System [1]
A Judge From the Philippines Writes About Human Trafficking
- A girl child in the Philippines is discriminated upon early in life due to culture-based and family reinforced gender
biases. See... Guest Opinion: Trafficking Of Women And Children [1]
Saddam Capture: Greg Palast Interview On Between The Lines
- Interview with Greg Palast, BBC-TV investigative reporter, conducted by Scott Harris See... Greg Palast: Saddam Capture & Iraqi Insurgence [1]
Saddam Capture: What Price Saddam?
- Agence France Press reports that Saddam was, for purposes of revenge for a rape by his son, held prisoner by the
Kurds then drugged and stashed, as a prisoner, in a "spider hole" he couldn't escape from. See... Did Bush Sell Out Iraqis as Part of Saddam Deal? [1]
Saddam Capture Cartoon: Rumsfeld's Dream Time
- Cartoon by John Chuckman See... Cartoon: Rumsfeld & The Ghosts Of Christmas [1]
Daily Katya Rivas
- Little children, I want to hear your FIAT; I want to change your lowly wills with My Supreme FIAT. See... Katya Rivas: Wait Attentively for My Return [1]
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OTHER NEWS (JUST POLITICS)------------
Parliament's "Worst Behaved MP" Delivers A Broadside
- Rt Hon Winston Peters has laughed off Peter Dunne’s worst–behaved MPs list, describing it as an attention seeking
device from the most ineffective and boring politician in Parliament. See... Self Righteous, Self Serving, Peter Who? [1] and The worst-behaved MP’s of 2003 [2]
ACT's Letter – Christmas Edition
- LAND GRAB Over 12,000 owners will have some of their property confiscated by the government's foreshore policy.
Buried in the package is the announcement that Labour will use the mean spring high water mark for measurement. See... Richard Prebble’s The Letter [1]
Views On Trade With Thailand Sought By Minister
- Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton today released an information paper on the proposed Closer Economic
Partnership between New Zealand and Thailand and invited business people and other interested parties to comment on the
proposed agreement. See... Submissions on proposed Thai CEP called for [1]
Anti-GE Campaigners Keep Up The Fight Against Onions
- ERMA has failed on all counts with it’s approval of the GE Onion Trials, according to Charles Drace, author of
‘Everything You Need to Know About GE but the Government Won’t Tell You - a genetic engineering resources book.’ See... ERMA Fails On All Counts [1] MORE: - GE Free NZ - ERMA decision fails the test of good science [2] - GE Free NZ - GE onion Partner Blamed for Contaminating Tomatoes [3]
Phil Goff On 'Clean Slate' Law Proposals
- 'Clean Slate' will help people get on with their lives Legislation due to be passed by Parliament early next year
will allow thousands of New Zealanders with minor convictions to finally put past mistakes behind them. See... Clean Slate to help people get on with their lives [1]
Nats Seek Inquiry Into Export Education Problems
- The Government's attempt to blame private training establishments and international students for the problems in the
export education sector will simply make those problems worse for everyone involved in the industry. See... MP wants inquiry into $1.7 billion industry [1]
Keith Locke's Christmas Wishes
- Green MP Keith Locke wants New Zealand to give two presents to asylum seekers this Christmas. See... Green Xmas wish welcome asylum seekers free Zaoui [1]
DoC & PM's Mountain Guide Talking Sense - Franks
- What a pleasure it is to hear the Conservation Department's Mt Cook manager agree with the Prime Minister's mountain
guide, that DoC should not decide who should climb Mt Cook, ACT New Zealand Sport & Recreation Spokesman Stephen Franks said today. See... DoC Shows Sense, Firefighters Don't [1]
If Santa Crashes His Sleigh
- ACT New Zealand Health Spokesman Heather Roy today expressed hope that Santa did not fall out of his sleigh while in
New Zealand, as his chances of receiving quality healthcare would mean that children throughout the world would miss out
on their Christmas presents. See... Careful, Santa [1] MORE ON CHRISTMAS HEALTH: - National - Patients pay for summer surgery shutdowns [2] - ACT - Waiting Lists: Where Patients Go To Die [3]
Transport Plans Falling Apart Already – Dr Brash
- National Party Leader Don Brash says the Government's transport plan is already falling apart at the seams as
predicted. See... Transport plan falling apart already [1]
ENDS