New Zealand Herald

Police Shooting - Escaper Surrounded - Siamese Twins - Name Suppressed - Syringe Threat - System Scrapped - Te Puke Tragedy - Internet Banking - Kids Smoking- Witch Discrimination - Green Threat - Disabled Equestrian - Tv3 Wins - Dot.Com Generation

POLICE SHOOTING: WAITARA - The officer many Taranaki people say gunned down Steve Wallace is believed to be in hiding after police moved him for his own safety.
The policeman and his family shifted from their Taranaki home just hours after 23-year-old Mr Wallace was killed early on Sunday.

ESCAPER SURROUNDED: Surrounded by dozens of police marksmen and with a rifle in his hands, prison escaper Travis Burns found himself at a crossroads yesterday. In the end it may have been an emotional telephone call to the mother of his child that convinced the murder accused to choose peaceful surrender, a relative believes.

SIAMESE TWINS: Faith and Hope Emberson have answered their parents' prayers. Sharing a heart and lungs, the Siamese twins were born weighing only 4kg at National Women's Hospital yesterday morning.

NAME SUPPRESSED: The policeman believed to have shot dead Steve Wallace took extraordinary legal action last night to stop the Herald naming him. His lawyer, Susan Hughes, roused Judge Christopher Harding from his home for a special injunction hearing in the New Plymouth District Court after 9 pm.

SYRINGE THREAT: WHANGAREI - Nearly 600 Northlanders have been told they may have been infected with hepatitis or HIV because a former Whangarei anaesthetist wrongly reused disposable syringes. Northland Health has written to 590 patients who were anaesthetised by Dr Annesley Perera in three Whangarei hospitals between February 23 last year and February 23 this year.

SYSTEM SCRAPPED: HAMILTON - Health Waikato has scrapped its $11.4 million computer and a third of its board has been sacked for buying a system which was never switched on after 16 months of testing. Health Minister Annette King yesterday dumped Margaret Evans, David Wickham and Shane Solomon for buying the controversial American computer Shared Medical Systems (SMS).

TE PUKE TRAGEDY: TE PUKE - Three separate tragedies are casting a shadow over Te Puke High School as the new term gets under way. Kirsty Robinson, the remarkable survivor of nearly 30 hours lost at sea, resumed sixth-form classes this week, taking her first steps back to normality a month after her father and two other fishing companions drowned.

INTERNET BANKING: WELLINGTON - Internet banking, once the sole preserve of ASB and its BankDirect offshoot, has taken off, with all major banks now operating sites. At the end of March, 118,985 people had embraced the concept, consultants KPMG said yesterday, releasing previously unavailable data. Growth seems to be exponential.

KIDS SMOKING: Nearly half of fourth-form girls and 39 per cent of boys smoke tobacco, according to a survey that has shocked anti-smoking lobbyists. The survey findings, released at a conference in Wellington yesterday by the Action on Smoking and Health group, suggest teenage smoking is rising, creating fears of a future increase in smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer.

WITCH DISCRIMINATION: HAMILTON - Environment Waikato is standing by its decision to refuse a tenancy to a self-styled witch and says its only mistake was revealing its reasons for doing so. It refused a tenancy to Hamilton witch Lynette Muggeridge because her shop, Forever Now, which sells mainly crystals, oils and incense, also promoted paganism, witchcraft and numerology classes.

GREEN THREAT: The Greens have threatened to curtail cooperation in Parliament with the minority Government after Finance Minister Michael Cullen accused them of behaving like Zimbabwe's leader, Robert Mugabe. Coming hard on the heels of ructions over genetic engineering, the latest argument over West Coast rimu logging contracts illustrates continuing tension and personality clashes between senior Coalition figures and their supposed parliamentary allies.

DISABLED EQUESTRIAN: When Jayne Craike lost the use of her right leg in an equestrian accident she threw away 10 years' worth of trophies and sold her horse, vowing never to ride again. More than 20 years later, Mrs Craike, of Karaka in South Auckland, will be New Zealand's only equestrian representative at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics Games in October.

TV3 WINS: A High Court judge yesterday gave TV3 the go-ahead to screen a 20/20 programme about the death of a Northland man pepper-sprayed by police. The documentary was put on hold last month after Bay of Islands coroner Heather Ayrton suppressed the names and occupations of witnesses to last year's incident.

DOT.COM GENERATION: Watch out New Zealand - the Dot.comers are coming. The generation born in the past quarter-century may in the next 20 years significantly reshape our country, accelerating and at times modifying changes already under way.

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