Drownings - Powerboat Race Worries - Hawkesby Row -Lisa Blakie - Coke Bust Arrests In Chch - Hijack Ends - Videogame
Champ Too Good
DROWNINGS: Waimate Highschool students today went to back to the spot where two students drowned yesterday for a
memorial service. The water is 6m deep in the black hole. Tapu lifted at the site of the drowning by a friend and mentor
of one of the victims. In a small community few are left untouched by the tragedy.
POWERBOAT RACE WORRIES: The Auckland harbour master is threatening to call off the international offshore power boat
race due to start tomorrow. Police are also very concerned. Racing boats have strayed onto the course and spectators
onto it. Cancellation would be a huge loss to the organisers and the teams involved.
HAWKESBY ROW: TVNZ has further queered its pitch with the Government today putting out a statement defending its
decisions on Hawkesby. The PM says a golden silence would have been better than issuing a statement. "Sometimes the best
PR advice you can get is to shut up," she says. Paul Smith says the board was unwise to issue the statement. Marion
Hobbs has summoned the board to her office for a meeting next Tuesday. Clark wants clarification to the claims that the
board was not involved in the Hawkesby decisions.
LISA BLAKIE: 200 mourners turned out today in Timaru for the funeral of Lisa Blakie. Meanwhile the army is now searching
100kms of roadside for clothing and other connected items. Soldiers are under orders not to move stuff they find.
COKE BUST: Three elderly Christchurch men have been charged in connection with the cocaine smuggling bust in Australia.
HIJACK: More than 70 of the hostages freed at Stanstead airport last night have applied for political asylum in Great
Britain. Detailed chronology of the hostage release. Final hostages leave the plane at around 6am. Unconditional
surrender is how the home secretary described the end of the crisis.
VIDEOGAME CHAMP: NZ's top video game player has been banned from an Australian Quake competition because he is too good.
He is a bit angry about it. He plays six to 18 hours of Quake a day and wants to become a pro. He is a graduate.