Today's Top Scoops - August 13, 2007
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LEAD STORY------------
Race Relations: Harawira Responds To Critics Of His Outback Trip - Will you pay any fines if that is what parliament orders? No fuss. It's not the money that matters, it's the principle, BUT, seeing as how it was NZ First that made the complaint, I suggest a deal. What say I pay back the two days I was up in Alice ... 5 minutes after NZ First pays back the money they still haven't paid back for their overspending from the last election? More>> [1]
ALSO:Green Party - On Balance, Harawira Doing The Right Thing [2] Peace Movement Aotearoa - International Day of the World's Indigenous People [3]
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NZ POLITICS------------
Scoop News: Media Types Gather At 4th Estate's "Journalism Matters" Conference (Day Two) - Audio + Images: Many of New Zealand's top journalists gathered at the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union's Journalism Matters
summit in Wellington this weekend where they discussed the direction of New Zealand's news media and what can be done to
make sure it delivers. The summit held in Parliament followed a series of redundancies in APN and TVNZ due to financial
decisions as well as the rapidly increasing move to staff reduction across New Zealand's media. Image of Nine To Noon host Kathryn Ryan speaking at the conference - by Kevin List. More >> [1]
ALSO:Alastair Thompson - Scoop Images & Audio: Journalism Matters (Day One) [2] Simon Collins - Commercial pressure on journalism [3] David Robie - Pacific Media Centre: Journalism Matters [4] Pacific Media Centre - Summary Of Resolutions [5]
Elections: Coalition Releases Government's Arguments for Anonymous Donation Ban - The Open Government Report released today contains details of the original decisions make by Cabinet several months
ago on election finance reform. The Cabinet agreed that a lack of controls on anonymous donations and secret trusts
would "weaken the integrity of the electoral process". This contrasts with the Government's later decision to remove all
provisions on anonymous party donations from the Electoral Finance Bill. More >> [1]
Immigration: Gordon Campbell On The New Immigration Bill - With the unveiling of the new Immigration Bill, we finally got to see what the Clark government has learned from the
Ahmed Zaoui affair: absolutely nothing. This supposedly centre left government has taken the worst features of its
shabby treatment of Zaoui... and enshrined them as the routine powers to be enjoyed by immigration officials in future. More >> [1]
More Immigration News:Scoop News - Hollow Offer Adds To Hunger-Striker's Confusion [2] Kevin List - Immigration: Classified Info And 'Safeguards' [3]
KiwiSaver: Greater Protection For Savers In Super Schemes - The government is proposing further changes to super schemes in line with its aim of encouraging greater savings...
"The amendments we propose will give those in super schemes that comply with KiwiSaver rules more protection and allow
savers better access to their funds in retirement," the Ministers said. More >> [1]
Broadcasting: Freeview Take-Up Exceeds Expectations - Broadcasting Minister, Steve Maharey, today congratulated Freeview and associated broadcasters on the figures of take
up of free-to-air digital television in the first three months. "At the launch of Freeview in May, I recall General
Manager Steve Browning saying they would be happy if they reached 40,000 householders by the end of their first year. More >> [1]
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BUSINESS SCIENCE & TECH------------
Environment: Baby Tuatara Hatches -- First For Matiu/Somes Island - It's official--tuatara are breeding on Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour. Proof comes in the form of a tiny
baby tuatara which emerged last week from an egg found on the island. It's the first known offspring of 54 Brothers
Island tuatara transferred to the island nine years ago. More >> [1]
Advertising: Great Balls Of Fire Saatchi's Win NZFC Contract - The New Zealand Fire Service has selected M Saatchi Wellington as its new advertising agency partner. M Saatchi won the account in a competitive pitch which had gone out to open tender. More >> [1]
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WORLD------------
Order in the Court: Indian Court Ruling on Medicine Patents Applauded - Medical aid groups, fighting for access to cheap medicines for the poor, are applauding an Indian court's decision to
throw out Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis' challenge to India's patent law, in a case closely watched around the
world. The court in Chennai threw out Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis' challenge to India's patent law. Novartis had
filed suit after its bid to patent a new version of its anti-cancer drug, Gleevec, was rejected earlier this year.
Indian law denies patents for minor improvements to existing medicines. More >> [1]
Brazil Analysis: A Scandal A Day At Home, But Lula Enjoys His Caribbean Tour - President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva returns home from his six-day five-nation trip, however, it will only briefly
mask the shameful state of Brazil's public life as well as Lula's treasonous acts against his own professed system of
values. Since Lula took office in 2003, scandals galore have invoked the names of judges, police commanders, members of
the Brazilian Congress, all who have been scarred by the corrosiveness of corruption. More >> [1]
Back in the Day: America's Extensive Islamic Heritage Detailed in Popular Exhibition - The story of Islam in America reaches back much further than most people imagine. One account begins with Estevanico,
a Moor, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, and accompanying Spanish explorers in 1527 to what would become Southwestern
United States. Slavery only enters the story of Islam in America with the early European settlement. In every war the
U.S. has fought, Muslims have played a role. Two Muslims who fought with distinction in the American Revolutionary War,
Peter Salem and Salem Poor, have been honored on U.S. postage stamps. More >> [1]
Survival News: United Nations Experts To Probe Killing Of DR Congo Mountain Gorillas - A United Nations-supported expert mission is going to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to investigate the
apparently senseless slaughter of mountain gorillas, a highly endangered species living only in national parks on the NE
border with Uganda and Rwanda. Seven mountain gorillas have been shot and killed this year, four of them last month, in
the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park. Political and military improvements on the ground in recent
years have failed to contribute to the conservation of World Heritage properties in the DRC. More >> [1]
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COMMENT------------
Glen Ford: Barack Obama the War Monger - The Senator from Illinois masquerades as a "peace candidate" - and then proposes the Americans invade Pakistan, the
only Muslim nation that has The Bomb. After the U.S. has propped up the military regime for generations, and stunted
democracy in a country of 165 million, Obama now thinks he can just walk into western Pakistan... More >> [1]
Matt Renner: Blue Dog Democrats, Staunch Bush Allies - A tightly-knit group of self-styled moderate and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives known as the
Blue Dog Coalition supported controversial legislation granting the Bush administration expanded powers to spy on
Americans. The group was instrumental in passing legislation that was opposed by a vast majority of Democrats... More >> [1]
Bruce Dixon: "Terror War" Terrorizes Spineless Democrats - When Democrats compete to adopt the phony "global war on terror" as their own, and promise they can do it "better" or
"smarter" than Republicans, they erase what little difference remains between the parties. "Terror Democrats" have
abandoned the politics of hope for the politics of fear, and turn the political process into one that threatens to elect
the candidates who frighten us the most... More >> [1]
Carolyn Baker: The Joyride That Was The American Empire - A few days ago a friend called me just after hearing Michael Panzner on the Thom Hartmann show on Air America. My
friend wanted me to read Panzer's book, Financial Armageddon and see what I thought. Apparently, Panzer's radio
interview remarks were filled with passion and a sense of urgency, and upon reading the book, I experienced the same... More >> [1]
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LIFESTYLE------------
Cultural Richness: Tickets A Steal To Last Days Of Crossings Festival - We invite you to a magical blend of India's rich history and kiwiana Two of India's finest Vaishali Samant, India's
beloved 'Queen of Pop' and Papon, an exciting new singer/song writer, will collaborate with Wellington jazz and
electronica artists More >> [1]
Theatre: Who Needs Sleep Anyway? - New Zealand's best-known and most successful playwright, Roger Hall, joins forces with daughter Pip Hall for the
first time to create this delightful comedic celebration of 100 years of bringing up babies in New Zealand. More >> [1]
Amenities: Who has best loo? KNZB busting to find out - It's not quite toilet brushes at fifty paces but local bodies and citizens around New Zealand are squaring up again
this year for the Best Loo Competition. It's one of the many projects the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Society runs to
give a lead to its aims of cleaning the country up. More >> [1]
Fashion: Call for entries 2007 Villa Maria Cult-Couture - Avid fashion designers and artists are invited to submit entries in the 2007 Villa Maria Cult-Couture Awards. More >> [1]
ALSO:Manukau City Council - Manukau Arts - Arts in the City [2]
And those were the Top Scoops on this day, August 13, 2007
:)
ENDS