1The Minister of Finance Bill English has been cleared of any wrong doing over his accommodation allowances. The Office of the Auditor-General says it will not investigate any further.

2The Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide has failed to secure Cabinet support to introduce referendums designed to give ratepayers a say on major council projects.

3A 14-year-old has appeared in court charged with the indecent assault of a woman in Mangere, but the police say they're keeping an open mind about other attacks in the area.

4Business News

5The Minister of Finance Bill English has been cleared of any wrong doing over his accommodation allowances. The Office of the Auditor-General says it will not investigate any further.

6Police are investigaing the suspicious death of a two-year-old boy in Wanganui over the weekend.

75:30pm News

8The new anti-organised crime agency, OFCANZ, is claiming a body-blow to the gang trade in methamphetamine or 'P' after a series of raids in Auckland and Northland today.

9Parliament has given the police powers to collect DNA samples by force from people they haven't yet charged and without approval from a judge. Only the Green and Maori Parties did not support the bill that was passed under urgency this morning.

10Waatea News

11The Labour Party is saying that advertising promoting a TVNZ 7 series on the economy featuring the Minister of Finance, looks and sounds like a party political broadcast. Labour has lodged a formal complaint with TVNZ about its 'Plain English' promo.

12A jury at the High Court in Auckland has heard secret recordings of a couple discussing the suspicious death of their 11 week old baby.

136:00pm News

14Gang-busting raids in Auckland and Northland today have ended months of collaboration and detective work by six government agencies. The new anti-organised crime agency, OFCANZ, is claiming a body-blow to the gang trade in methamphetamine or 'P' after a series of raids in Auckland and Northland today.

15Three United Nations staff have been killed in an attack on a United Nations guest house in the Afghan capital Kabul.

16The Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide has failed to secure Cabinet support to introduce referendums designed to give ratepayers a say on major council projects. Under new requirements released today, councils will be required to focus on core services such as roads, waste disposal, libraries, recreation and disaster management.

17A High Court jury in Wellington has heard that a man accused of murdering a young Palmerston North drug dealer had earlier pulled a gun on him. 39-year-old Stephen Hudson is charged with murdering Nicolas Pike in 2002.

18Business News

19Two men who killed more than half the birds in Temuka's public aviary have been sent to jail.

20The Blue Mountain Lumber Mill near Tapanui in west Otago is to close, with the loss of 45-jobs.

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22An emotional Sue Bradford has delivered her valedictory speech to Parliament. Ms Bradford has resigned after ten years service as a Green Party MP. Video recording of full speech available on VA 14909.

23There's a warning that social conditions in New Zealand will get worse before they get better as the effects of the economic recession start to bite.

24After ten days on an Australian Customs vessel, 78-Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board the Oceanic Viking are refusing to leave voluntarily, as the deal between Australia and Indonesia to take the group appears to be unravelling.

25Waatea News

26The government is to review the performance of the Canterbury Regional Council saying it has no confidence in the dysfunctional authority to sort out its own problems.

27A rahui, or ban on violence, in a Bay of Plenty township appears to be easing some of the tensions between rival gangs.