TV3

- Rankin Dismissed - Former WINZ boss Christine Rankin has lost her case in the employment court. She sued for $1.2 million, but will receive nothing. The court threw out the case saying Christine Rankin had no case in law and she should never have brought her evidence to court. Christine Rankin left Wellington for a pre-planned holiday yesterday afternoon.... knowing she and husband Alan Hogg may have to wait for days for the Employment Court to decide her fate. As it turned out, just 24 hours after her departure, Judge Tom Goddard delivered a written decision which was handed out to waiting media, political parties, former politicians and representatives from various law firms. The news for Rankin was not good. Judge Goddard found: "The plaintiff has had a harrowing experience in the service...

- Rankin's View - Christine Rankin has packed her bags and left on a pre-arranged holiday. But before she departed, she talked to Jane Young about the toll the battle has taken on her and her family, and about a future on the speaking circuit. “I don't think anyone understands what it means to lose their privacy until it’s gone,”says Rankin. Why would you want to go on the speaking circuit? 

- Asian Blackmail - Christchurch police are warning Asian students that a Chinese extortion gang is at work in the city. Two Chinese teenagers were admitted to hospital on Sunday night after being given a severe beating. Police say it was punishment for refusing to be blackmailed. Nineteen year old Chinese students Robert Wang and Terry Tan were attacked in the street by around 30 youths armed with knives and...

- Brash Move - The Reserve Bank Governor has fired a shot across the bow of the government's economic policies. In a controversial speech at the Knowledge Wave conference, Don Brash called for tax cuts for business and reform of welfare benefits. But that drew an immediate and frosty response from the Prime Minister saying Brash was entitled to his personal views, but she made government policy. 

- Murder Trial - A man accused of deliberately running down a woman jogger, then kidnapping, raping and murdering her, has been sent for trial. Dartell Maremare James Alder pleaded not guilty to 6 charges arising from the death of a Wellington woman, Margaret Baxter, near Hastings last January. Today the court heard about blood stains on the front of Alder's car, inside the car and in the car's boot.

- Fatal Error - A kitchen fire in Timaru this morning has left 2 people dead and the fire service frustrated that simple precautions aren't being taken. Twenty nine year old Fiona Gardyne and her 3 year old son Shannon, died from smoke inhalation. The fire service says just closing doors could have saved their lives. Sifting through a blackened and burnt-out kitchen... fire investigators are piecing together...

- Banking - First there was telephone banking, then internet banking, now the ASB Bank has launched mobile phone banking.  From the end of August, ASB customers with Telecom 027 phones will be able to view account balances and transactions on screen, transfer funds to other accounts and view mini statements. The new service, called fastnet mobile, will be available to general customers, and small to medium...

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