Nuclear Guinea Pigs – Ambulance Assault – Parental Leave – Telecom – Hitchhiking Escape – Italian Elections – National
Party Presidency – Maternity Care Funding – Christchurch Marina
NUCLEAR GUINEA PIGS: The Minister of Defence says he has serious concerns about NZ service personnel being used as
radioactivity guinea pigs in nuclear explosion experiments in Australia and the Pacific.
AMBULANCE ASSAULT: An Auckland Ambulance manager says an assault on four ambulance crew called to a heart attack in West
Auckland meant that the victim could not be resuscitated. One of the ambulance crew was knocked out for three minutes in
the assault.
PARENTAL LEAVE: National’s Jenny Shipley is worried that the parental tax credit may be scrapped to partly fund the
Government’s planned parental leave scheme. She says such a move would hurt low income working families.
TELECOM: TUANZ says a deal between Telecom and Hutchison Whampoa is good news for telecommunications consumers. Telecom
has also announced plans to merge the Xtra and MSN Internet portals. Ernie Newman says in spite of some concerns about
the technology, 3G phones are the technology of the future.
HITCHHIKING ESCAPE: Police say an abduction of a hitchhiker between Hamilton and Auckland could have been a lot worse
had the woman abductee not fought off her attacker.
ITALIAN ELECTIONS: Almost 60% of Italian Voters have cast votes in elections with three hours of voting left. Many
voters have had to wait lon
NATIONAL PARTY PRESIDENCY: Michelle Boag has drawn attention to possible voting irregularities in the race to become the
National Party President. Concerns seem to center around a woman who voted for Mr Slater at two conferences.
MATERNITY CARE FUNDING: The Government is seeking to standardise the way it bulk-funds maternity care.
CHRISTCHURCH MARINA: Lytellton boat owners are cautiously welcoming a recommendation from the Christchurch City Council
that it fund a new marina.