1The Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith has ordered a report on the dumping of lead contaminated soil at a public landfill in Wainuiomata near Wellington.

2Today more than 85-percent Allied Farmers shareholders voted in favour of a proposal which will involve the rural services company giving shares to Hanover investors, in exchange for the finance firm's loanbook, and that of its subsidiary, United Finance.

3The first day of the Copenhagen climate talks have closed with a declaration that the 12-days of negotiations represent an historic opportunity for the world but deep divisions between delegates have already emerged.

4New Zealand journalist Gary Cunningham, and four Australian and British colleagues, were killed in the lead up to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975. Now a retired Colonel Gatot Purwanto, has given details of the incident to the news magazine Tempo saying the men were executed and their bodies burned.

5Business News

6The New Zealand poet and short story writer Bub Bridger has died at the age of 85. She was well known for her performance poetry, was a member of the women's comedy group Hens' Teeth, and wrote for television and radio.

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8Labour MPs are rallying around their leader Phil Goff, saying they had a positive discussion in caucus today about his nationhood speech. The speech criticised the governments dealings with the Foreshore and Seabed Act and the Emmissions Trading Scheme and was called racially divisive by the Maori Party

9A doctor faces the prospect of prosecution following a botched circumcision of a four-year-old boy.

10Reports are emerging of growing dissent in North Korea after the communist regime revalued the currency wiping out many people's savings.

11The public's health watchdog has ruled against a surgeon who carried out an 11-hour long prostate operation on a 69-year-old man who subsequently developed deep vein thrombosis in his leg and needed ten further operations.

12Waatea News

13The Prime Minister's being accused of breaking a longstanding convention by suggesting the police should ignore complaints about the MP Hone Harawira. The police are investigating two complaints against the Te Tai Tokerau after he was shown on television riding a motorcycle on Parliament's forecourt with no helmet.

14Residents in a tiny South Canterbury settlement are already discussing how to spend up to $25-thousand that may be heading their way.

15In Brazil, thieves who spent months tunnelling their way into a cash delivery firm in Sao Paulo have made off with eight million dollars - timing the raid for football championships which had most of the country glued to the TV.

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17The Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith, has ordered a report on the dumping of lead contaminated soil at a commercial landfill in Wainuiomata. Two truckloads of soil containing twice the safe concentration of lead were dumped in late October.

18As the climate change conference in Copenhagen gets underway, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States has concluded that greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The Obama administration has said that it will regulate greenhouse gas emissions even if Congress doesn't approve the legislation.

19PHARMAC says its hard-nosed approach to drug-buying has saved the country more than $400-million over the past decade. In its annual review released today its said the often contentious deals done with pharmaceutical companies have allowed it to increase its range and stay within budget.

20An Auckland High Court jury in the trial of a police officer charged over the death of a man in Manukau in 2004 has retired for the night. Constable Clinton Hill is on trial for the manslaughter of George Harris in 2004 who was killed by a street sweeper as he ran away from police.

21Business News

22New Zealand journalist Gary Cunningham, and four Australian and British colleagues, were killed in the lead up to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975. Now a retired Colonel Gatot Purwanto, has given details of the incident to the news magazine Tempo saying the men were executed and their bodies burned.

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24If you're planning to build a new house or need any renovation work done, now's the time to book a builder. That's the advice from the Registered Master Builders Feberation.

25A series of bomb attacks in Pakistan has killed at least 46-people. Two went off within minutes in the city of Lahore.

26Eyewitnesses in Iran say dozens of people have been arrested in Teheran during anti-government demonstrations. There were reports of the security forces firing live ammunition in the vicinity of the demonstrators.

27Waatea News

28A United States man has been charged with being involved in last year's deadly Mumbai terrorist attacks.

29The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been outlining plans to cut the cost of government by nearly $7-billion a year.

30The campaign group Human Rights Watch has said that the gains made by women and girls in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban eight years ago are under serious threat.