Top Of The Morning News Digest

Monday, 3 August 2015, 8:53 am
Press Release: NewsRoom_Plus

Top Of The Morning News Digest

* RNZ 7am - Top 5 items for 3 August 2015

1. Police shot and killed a man last night in Myers Park in Auckland. A large marquee has been put up to protect the scene which remains cordoned off. The Independent Police Conduct Authority has been notified and the police will be revealing more details at a press conference this morning.

2. Opposition parties are voicing fears about how much the Government is prepared to compromise in order to be part of a re-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership. The 12 Pacific rim countries trying to seal the trade pact failed to reach agreement after four days of intense talks in Hawaii. The Green Party says any concessions, once made, would be very hard to over-turn.

3. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) says it is alarmed by fresh allegations of doping in athletics and will be investigating. A British newspaper and a German broadcaster have published data they say shows up to 55 golds in endurance events at the Olympics and World Championships over a decade were won by athletes who recorded suspicious tests.

4. A freelance journalist, Beck Eleven, has published photos on her blog of files left in a Christchurch building by Relationships Aotearoa, weeks after the non-government counselling organisation shut down. The building’s owner says the room was left open because the boxes were due to be picked up by liquidator PricewaterhouseCoopers.

5. The future of Southland’s aluminium smelter will be known this morning. The Tiwai Point smelter was saved from closure two years ago by a $30 million Government grant and an undisclosed cut in the price it pays for electricity. NZ Aluminium Smelters has the right to close in 2017, although one analyst expects it will remain open with its main supplier Meridian Energy reducing its supply by a third and Contact Energy or Genesis supplying the balance. Any decision will affect all New Zealand since Tiwai takes one-seventh of the country’s electricity supply. The smelter also provides 800 direct jobs, and more than 2000 indirectly for Southland.

ENDS

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