Scoop: Top Scoops + Just Politics

Friday, 11 February 2005, 5:56 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

TODAY’S TOP SCOOPS
LEAD STORY: NZ Supports Case By Case GE Terminator Tech. Assessment
Unemployed NZers Becoming An Endangered Species
MORE NEW ZEALAND HEADLINES:
Annan Calls On DPR Of Korea's Partners To Bring It Back To Nuclear Talks
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES:
STORY OF THE WEEK: Democracy In Crisis In Nepal

SCOOP COLUMNS:
A Week Of It: Hawkins Gets A Towelling
Scoop Images: Bye Bye Bodge
Hard News Is There!
Fighting Talk From Fighting Talk
Upton-on-line's Diaspora Edition
Meditations On The Beginning Of Lenten Observance
Anthony Ravlich: Complaining To The UN
Ramzy Baroud Grapples With The MSM
Genevieve Cora Fraser Waxes Poetic In Jaffa
Mary Pitt On Where On Sticks One's Feet
Evelyn Pringle: Bush Makes War - Crooks Get Contracts

OTHER NEWS (Just Politics)
PM Happy For Prince Charles And Camilla
United Future Gets Exercised About Rates Hikes
Calling All Those With 111 Problem Experiences
Liberty Belle Takes A Break From Her Lunacy Watch
Gerry Brownlee Revels In Winston's New Treaty Bill
English Wants Dud Exam Fees Refunded
Small Business Suffers As Nats Hold Kiwibank To Fire
More NZ Education Online
Parker Backs Call For Oamaru's Status To Be Enhanced
$$$ To Clean Up Contaminated Sites

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...TODAY'S PHOTO STORY...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00137.htm
Photo Essay - Bye Bye Bodge

LEAD STORY:
NZ Supports Case By Case GE Terminator Tech. Assessment

- New Zealand has no firm view on the merits of new organisms involving seed sterilisation technology but supports their case-by-case assessment rather than a blanket ban, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said today. See... NZ supports case-by-case assessment [1] MORE: - Maori Party - Maori Party Appalled At Support Of Terminator Tech [2] - GE Free NZ - NZ Govt. Caught In Secret Deal on Terminator Genes [3] - GE Free NZ - ''Stop Terminator!'' Government Urged [4] - Greens - Govt Urged To Back Down On Terminator Technology [5] - Libertarianz - Tariana Seeks Return to Stone Age [6]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00251.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00270.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/SC0502/S00036.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/SC0502/S00035.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00238.htm
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00119.htm

Unemployed NZers Becoming An Endangered Species

- At 3.6%, New Zealand's unemployment rate is now the lowest in the developed world and the lowest ever recorded by the Household Labour Force Survey. See... NZ unemployment lowest in OECD [1] MORE: - Statistics NZ - Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.6 Percent [2] - Progressives - Progressive policies deliver low unemployment [3] - ACT - Employment figs. good news - but let's build on it [4] - National - Time for tax cuts and a new focus on welfare [5] - Libertarianz - 3.6% Unemployment - Worth Celebrating? [6]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00262.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0502/S00141.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00263.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00271.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00266.htm
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00117.htm

MORE NEW ZEALAND HEADLINES:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00120.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00116.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00115.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00112.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00105.htm
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00099.htm
[7] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0502/S00138.htm

Annan Calls On DPR Of Korea's Partners To Bring It Back To Nuclear Talks

- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the partners of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to bring the country back to the negotiating table as quickly as possible following its announcement that it had pulled out indefinitely from six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme. See... Calls on DPR of Korea's partners: nuclear talks [1] and State Dept. Daily Press Briefing for February 10 [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00322.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00317.htm

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES:

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00347.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00341.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00339.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00333.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00326.htm
[6] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00324.htm
[7] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00319.htm

STORY OF THE WEEK: Democracy In Crisis In Nepal

Dipta Shah Takes Issue With Some Heraldic Opinion - This is a response to Gwen Dyer's opinion piece entitled " Royal Tyranny creates threat beyond Nepal. " Mr. Dyer's piece shows substantial insight into the prevailing geo-political significance of Nepal as a buffer zone between India and China. See... Response To NZ Herald – Re: Gwynne Dyer On Nepal [1] MORE: - Kamala Sarup - After The King's Take Over - Media And Democracy [2] - TUC - Protest for democracy at Nepalese Embassy, London [3] - ITF - Unions protest suspension of democracy in Nepal [4] For Much Much More see...STORY OF THE WEEK: Democracy In Crisis In Nepal [5]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00130.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00126.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00337.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0502/S00336.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00124.htm

SCOOP COLUMNS:
A Week Of It: Hawkins Gets A Towelling

This week the opposition bullying squad set out to give Police Minister George Hawkins a veritable parliamentary towelling. See... A Week Of It: Crime And Parliamentary Punishment [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00136.htm

Scoop Images: Bye Bye Bodge

- The nostalgia riddled back bar of Wellington's Bar Bodega met something worse than a Chris Knox solo show yesterday as the venerable back-yard bar became another victim of modern living. See... Wrecking Ball Brings Progress To Te Aro [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00137.htm

Hard News Is There!

- The only good thing that can be said about the skimming and scamming we now know to have taken place within the UN Oil for Food programme is that the UN has commissioned what appears to be a genuinely independent inquiry... See... Public Address 11/03/05 - The Other Scandal [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00135.htm

Fighting Talk From Fighting Talk

- I discover - via National Radio's breakfast show though apparently the Dom Post broke it - that as part of a week-long trial posties in Petone and Eastbourne have been talking into microphones as they go. Recording notes about the paint on the houses. ... See... Fighting Talk - Ripped From Yesterday's Headlines [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00131.htm

Upton-on-line's Diaspora Edition

- A 100% New Zealand content issue in which upton-on-line dissects an issue of The New Zealand Herald , wonders what attempts to redesign the New Zealand flag will mean for the nation’s coat-of-arms and commends a recent report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on the sustainability of intensive farming. See... Upton-on-line Diaspora Edition - 8th February 2005 [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00134.htm

Meditations On The Beginning Of Lenten Observance

- It’s Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent used to mean penance, fasting, and rituals galore. Compelled to go to Mass most days before school and on Sunday as a child, the 40 days of Lent were when you really got the full dose. See... Meditations (Spirituality): Emergent Zone [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00133.htm

Anthony Ravlich: Complaining To The UN

- At the United Nations New Zealand maintained its distance from the American camp which is opposed to a complaints procedure (Optional Protocol) for those suffering serious social injustices i.e. violations of economic, social and cultural rights. See... UN Divided Over Complaints for Social Injustices [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00125.htm

Ramzy Baroud Grapples With The MSM

- How can Arabs influence Western media, combat its inherent bias and grotesque misrepresentations of the Arab and Muslim world? See... R. Baroud: How Can Arabs Influence Western Media? [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00132.htm

Genevieve Cora Fraser Waxes Poetic In Jaffa

- I sought sanctuary : Shaken to the core : Within Saint Peter's : Roman Catholic : Church in Old Jaffa : The sign read : Under Franciscan : Custody in the Holy : Land as strains of Old : Satchmo Louie : Armstrong wafted : Along the harbor-side : See... Old Jaffa Palestine at Sea in the Belly of Israel [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00129.htm

Mary Pitt On Where On Sticks One's Feet

- In meetings regarding business and public policy, we are encouraged to ''put the shoe on the other foot'', to ''think outside the box'', to explore ways to solve problems by considering things that have never been done before. See... Mary Pitt: On The Other Foot....... [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00128.htm

Evelyn Pringle: Bush Makes War - Crooks Get Contracts

- The main companies that were awarded billions of dollars worth of contracts in Iraq have paid more than $300 million in fines since 2000, to resolve allegations of fraud, bid rigging, delivery of faulty military equipment, and environmental damage. See... Evelyn Pringle: Bush Wars - Crooks Get Contracts [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0502/S00127.htm

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0502/S00128.htm
DB Searches For Beer Archaeologists

PM Happy For Prince Charles And Camilla

- Prime Minister Helen Clark today welcomed news of the announcement of Prince Charles' forthcoming marriage in April to Mrs Parker Bowles. See... Prime Minister welcomes Royal engagement [1] MORE: - Monarchists - Prince of Wales to marry [2] - Republicans - Republicans Offer Best Wishes to Prince Charles [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00269.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00108.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0502/S00114.htm

United Future Gets Exercised About Rates Hikes

- On the back of Auckland City Council's announcement of a possible massive rates hike, United Future local government spokesman Larry Baldock today expressed concern at the reported increase for residential ratepayers nationwide of 7.4% from June 2003-04. See... Baldock: rates burden becoming oppressive [1] and Rates hike shows folly of GST on rates [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00284.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00282.htm

Calling All Those With 111 Problem Experiences

- Police Minister George Hawkins today issued an invitation to all members of the public who have concerns and complaints about specific emergency 111 issues to contact the Police Commissioner. See... Complainants should contact the Commissioner [1] MORE: - United - Dunne: independent 111 inquiry imperative [2] - NZ First - Commissioner Must Act [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00283.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00265.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00260.htm

Liberty Belle Takes A Break From Her Lunacy Watch

- A break from Lunacy Sightings today – here are some edited extracts from my speech in the debate on the Prime Minister's Statement. See... Liberty Belle 11 February 2005 [1] MORE COLUMNS: - Newman Online - Motherhood [2] - Labour Party - Beehive Bulletin - Fri, 11 Feb [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00278.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00274.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00267.htm

Gerry Brownlee Revels In Winston's New Treaty Bill

- National Party Maori Affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee says the Labour Government should tell New Zealanders which way it will jump on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill. See... Labour faces real test on 'Treaty principles' [1] EARLIER: - NZ First - Peters' Treaty Principles Bill Before House [2] - National - The End Of The Line For The Treaty Gravy Train? [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00272.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00235.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00243.htm

English Wants Dud Exam Fees Refunded

- National's Education spokesman, Bill English, says students who have already paid for their scholarship exam papers to be reassessed should be refunded. See... Scholarship fees must be refunded [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00275.htm

Small Business Suffers As Nats Hold Kiwibank To Fire

- The National Party is doing untold damage to small businesses' confidence with its stance on Kiwibank, says Progressive MP Matt Robson. See... National's Kiwibank stance = unfair uncertainty [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00273.htm

More NZ Education Online

- Prime Minister Helen Clark today launched Project ACTIVate, an educational network that will link together schools from Auckland and Southland through the use of interactive whiteboards and high-speed internet connections. See... Interactive technology linking schools around NZ [1] and Mobile technologies support learning [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00268.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00264.htm

Parker Backs Call For Oamaru's Status To Be Enhanced

- Otago MP David Parker today threw his weight behind calls for World Heritage Status to be granted to Oamaru’s harbour and historic buildings. See... David Parker Backs Oamaru World Heritage Status [1] Two New Judges - Attorney-General Margaret Wilson today announced the appointments of David Burns as a Family Court judge and Susan Thomas as a District Court Judge. See... Family and District Court appointments [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00254.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00281.htm

$$$ To Clean Up Contaminated Sites

- More than $300,000 has been allocated towards cleaning up two former gasworks sites, an old timber mill, a contaminated stream and a former sheep dip site, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs announced today. See... Grants to help clean up contaminated sites [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0502/S00280.htm

ENDS

© 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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