The New Zealand Herald

Inflation Up - Read Your Tickets- Genetic Testing Wanted- Cruises Up To Auckland- Aiesec Keeps Brains- Woman Bashed- Abuse Highlighted- Release Blocked- New Tax Rules- Ge Inquiry Starts- TV3 Ignores Warnings

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INFLATION UP: Inflation has hit 3 per cent, its highest rate for five years, and is expected to get worse. More than half the items in the basket of goods and services that make up the consumers price index (CPI) cost more in the September quarter, but petrol and tobacco did most of the damage.

- READ YOUR TICKETS: Rule number one when you buy a ticket to anything: read it. Whether it is to a sports match, the theatre or a concert, if you have a ticket you have a contract with the organisers, say consumer experts.

- GENETIC TESTING WANTED: Fertility specialists want to use chromosome testing to screen out faulty human embryos and boost the success rate of test-tube fertilisation. While "efficiency" is the main reason for the planned move, the test would also help to prevent miscarriages and let fertility scientists detect embryos with the chromosome-linked conditions Down's syndrome and Turner's syndrome.

- CRUISES UP TO AUCKLAND: Auckland stands to gain tens of millions of dollars from cruise ships in one of the busiest seasons for years. Twenty-two liners will bring an expected 32,000 visitors to the city this summer, well up on last year's 26,000 visitors.

- AIESEC KEEPS BRAINS: While New Zealand may be lamenting the loss of its young professionals overseas, at least one programme is working to make sure this country reaps the benefits of their international experience. AIESEC, a non-profit international organisation with six branches in New Zealand, sends new graduates to work overseas - and then brings them back to put their experience to work here.

- WOMAN BASHED: A 66-year-old woman was bashed and sexually violated for an hour in her retirement flat in Three Kings, police say. The woman woke about 6am on Sunday when she heard noises in her lounge.

- ABUSE HIGHLIGHTED: New Zealand's child abuse record has again been highlighted, this time at the start of an international week against violence. The campaign, titled Saying No to Violence: YWCA Week Without Violence, is part of an annual week held in more than 40 countries - including Palestine, now on the brink of war with Israel - which New Zealand has joined for the first time.

- RELEASE BLOCKED: A dangerous child sex criminal due to be released from jail will stay locked up for at least six months more because authorities fear he will commit another crime if freed. Former mental patient Stephen Staynor has had his mandatory release blocked by the Parole Board.

- NEW TAX RULES: Finance Minister Michael Cullen plans to unveil new rules on the tax deductibility of research and development spending at a forum with business in Auckland next week. The change would not go as far as Labour's election promise to give tax breaks on all R&D. But it would change Budget provisions, which ruled them out.

- GE INQUIRY STARTS: The world's first substantial inquiry into genetic modification began in Wellington yesterday, with a concession by GE giants that it was impossible to guarantee containment. But the two members of the "big six" multinationals of genetic engineering that put their case on the first day of the 14-week Royal Commission of Inquiry into the new technology, emphasised that they said this only because absolute guarantees were impossible in any endeavour. Any risks, they said, were negligible.

- TV3 IGNORES WARNINGS: A controversial drama about youth suicide is due to screen on television tomorrow, despite calls that it not go to air from the panel set up to monitor the production. Commissioner for Children Roger McClay and youth suicide expert Dr Peter Watson are worried about copycat suicides after the programme is shown.

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