Checkpoint. 2003-07-10

For the second time in two weeks the Government has put a number of companies into statutory management to protect investors. The Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel says that on the advice of the Securities Commission she has just put three Tauranga companies - Asset Protection, the International Investment Unit Trust and Timberlands Trust - into statutory management. Three people associated with the companies are also covered by the move. Two weeks ago (june 20) the Government moved to put eight finance and property companies into statutory management to prevent up to ten families losing their homes. I asked Lianne Dalziel how the most recent scheme has been operating. PREREC
Caltex, BP and Shell are increasing the price of petrol around the country today in the order of 1 to 3 cents a litre.
A spokeswoman for BP, Diana Stretch, says BP has increased the price of 91 and 96 petrol by 2-point-8 cents a litre. She says the hike is due to the climbing international price of refined oil - I asked her how high the prices are going. [illegible]
A new business confidence survey is forecasting more economic gloom even though it indicates the economy has done better during the June quarter than anyone thought possible. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's latest survey of business confidence has found a net 22 percent of firms expect business conditions to get worse. And the institute is calling on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by another three-quarters of a percent to offset the expected economic slowdown. Our economics correspondent Brent Edwards has been looking at the survey and joins us now. LIVE WITH DROPIN
The mother of Stephen Wallace says she hopes the reopening of a coroner's inquiry into her son's death will find someone answerable for what happened. The inquest was adjourned when Mr Wallace's family brought a private prosecution for murder against the police officer who shot him in Waitara in April, 2000.
The officer, Keith Abbott, was found NOT guilty at a subsequent High Court trial. Coronor Gordon Matenga says two issues do need further examination - police policy and procedure in dealing with violent offenders, and the [illegible] of first aid to Stephen Wallace after he was shot. Police didn't want the hearing to continue saying the issues had all been dealt with. Here's Police Association president Greg O'Connor. CUT
Stephen Wallace's mother Raewyn has welcome the inquiry and wants answers to why her son was not given first aid immediately. PREREC
BUSINESS with JOHN DRAPER
Wellington police are looking for a man involved in a road rage incident this morning where a driver was threatened with a machete. Constable Andrew Compton says the incident happened in Newtown after a man overtook on a yellow line, passing a white mitsibushi van that was towing another vehicle. Constable Compton says a few seconds later the offending vehicle stopped in the middle of the road with the boot open. He says the van driver was about to see if the man needed help. PREREC
The Ministry of Health is calling for the public and health professionals to be extra vigilant about checking for the signs and symptons meningococcal disease as this years danger period is about to peak. This follows the deaths of two young people from the disease in the last fortnight. The Ministry says the meningococcal disease has been at epidemic levels for the past twelve years but overall the death rate is just three percent. With us now is Dr Diane Lennon from Starship Hospital and she is also a professor of community and pediatric health, at the Auckland Medical School. LIVE
5.30 NEWS HEADLINES
SPORT WITH STEPHEN HEWSON
As the row over the quality of intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq continues, the BBC is reporting that senior British government officials are saying privately that they do not believe any weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq. Here's the BBC's political editor Andrew Marr. CUT
Meanwhile in the United States, questions are being raised about whether the Bush administration knowingly used a forgery to justify going to war. The White House has acknowledged US President George Bush in his State of the Union speech, should not have charged that Iraq bought uranium from Niger since it was based on false documents. Our Washington correspondent Laura Iiyama reports. PKGE
[illegible] are claims technology like the Internet and mobile phones is enabling paedophiles to commit more crimes. More than 150 computer experts, police and child safety advocates are meeting in Auckland for a conference on Internet safety. Brad Markham was there. PKGE
Police cordons have been removed and the armed offenders squad stood down in the Bay of Plenty town of Taneatua following a gang shooting earlier this week but the hunt continues for the men who started the confrontation. 7 Black Power members have been charged with firearms offences but the police are still looking for around a dozen members of the Mongrel Mob. Sergeant Neil Peterson says it's still not clear exactly who the men are. PREREC
Research undertaken by a Canterbury University psychologist has found that creative genius is expressed early in men but is turned off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children. Satoshi Kanazawa has compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, noting their age at the time when they made their greatest work.
Doctor Kanazawa joins me now. LIVE
[illegible] research institute has applied to grow genetically modified onions in a trial on land around Lincoln in Canterbury. Crop and Food Research has applied to the Environmental Risk Management Authority, ERMA, to field test the onions. They have been modified to make them resistant to a common herbicide, glyphosate, (GLIE-foh-sayt) which is contained in Round-Up. The announcement came on the same day that around 90 of Canterbury's top high school science students gathered at Canterbury University to discuss genetic Modification. Their day began with a role playing exercise where they had to deal with a biosecurity emergency. John MacDonald was there and filed this report. PKGE
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