New Zealand Herald

Peacekeeper Killed - Cancer Battle - Kiwis In Aussie - Violence Techniques - Todd Allegations - Businessman Banned - Nazi Probe - Mum Awarded

PEACEKEEPER KILLED: An Australian peacekeeper has been killed in a shooting incident near the East Timor border town of Maliana. The Australian military says the man died about 10 pm yesterday but it has released no futher details.

- CANCER BATTLE: Barbara Peters is winning her battle against cancer, but only after her children mortgaged their house to pay for treatment that the public health system refuses to finance. The 65-year-old woman has been forced to pay $23,000 for potentially life-saving treatment because she lives in Auckland - the only region that has a policy of not funding new cancer therapies from the public purse. Under health policy, each of the country's six hospitals

- KIWIS IN AUSSIE: Finance Minister Michael Cullen has raised the politically sensitive issue of reciprocal citizenship rights for New Zealanders and Australians. In a forthright speech in Melbourne yesterday, Dr Cullen said the image of the Kiwi dole bludger on Bondi Beach was wrong and Australia gained massively from the inflow of skilled, taxpaying New Zealanders.

- VIOLENCE TECHNIQUES: Just months before he killed Auckland journalist Kylie Jones, Taffy Hotene teamed up with a notorious child murderer to teach anti-violence techniques to fellow prison inmates. The Herald has learned that rapist Hotene - who this week admitted murdering Miss Jones - was "mentored" inside Paremoremo prison by Paul Dally, killer of Hutt Valley schoolgirl Karla Cardno.

- TODD ALLEGATIONS: Former Olympic silver medallist Dick Quax admits he smoked cannabis in the 1970s but still insists that Mark Todd should withdraw from the Olympics over drug claims. Quax yesterday admitted to the Herald that he smoked the drug on a casual basis between major competitions in the 1970s along with "most people" of his generation.

- BUSINESSMAN BANNED: Colourful Auckland businessman Michael Helsby-Knight has pledged to fight his unprecedented ban on ever doing business in New South Wales and prove himself to New Zealand consumers. Mr Helsby-Knight is the first man to be permanently barred from trading in the Australian state. Its Department of Fair Trading dubbed him the

- NAZI PROBE: Waikato University capitulated yesterday and moved to set up an independent inquiry into the enrolment of an alleged neo-Nazi student. The inquiry, opposed by vice-chancellor Bryan Gould, will investigate Hans-Joachim Kupka's enrolment and supervision for a doctorate.

- MUM AWARDED: A woman who claimed she was denied tenancy of a house because she was pregnant has been awarded $5000 in damages. Landlord Mario Miletich was found to have breached the Human Rights Act by refusing the woman the chance to take over the lease of the Auckland property, understood to be in Sandringham.

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