TV1 News

Currency Union – National Coup – Murder Sentence – Waitara Shooting – Queenstown Landslide – Sydney Olympics

- CURRENCY UNION: A One News poll says most New Zealanders want a common currency with Australia. Prime Minister Helen Clark has said she favours the idea, but her enthusiasm is not shared by the Australian Treasurer, or Labour’s coalition partner. The opposition says currency union is an option, but is not a cure for New Zealand’s current economic woes.

- NATIONAL COUP: ACT leader Richard Prebble has said National MPs are planning a coup to overthrow Jenny Shipley as leader.

- MURDER SENTENCE: Travis Burns, the man convicted of murdering Joanne McCarthy, has been sent to jail for at least 15 years for the crime. He will be 50 before he can apply for parole. The crown case said Burns had all the hallmarks of a loner psychopath, and was likely to offend again.

- WAITARA SHOOTING: The mother and sister of a man shot dead by a policeman in Waitara have appeared in court today, alleged to have harassed the wife of the policeman who shot Steven Wallace.

- QUEENSTOWN LANDSLIDE: Geologists and engineers are trying to deal with a massive landslide on the main road into Queenstown. They need to dislodge thousands of tonnes of rock and have been flooding cracks in the rocks with monsoon buckets from helicopters to break them up. Explosives have also been used.

- SYDNEY OLYMPICS: New Zealand Cyclist Sarah Ulmer has the chance to win bronze at the velodrome tonight, and the New Zealand equestrian team are positioned to take a medal tomorrow. Traffic ground to a halt in Sydney, holding up thousands of spectators. Australia is waiting for Ian Thorpe’s swimming race tonight, which will give him a third gold if he wins it.

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