1New Zealand has joined a host of countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and Sweden in boycotting the United Nations Conference on race relations. The Durban Review Conference begins in Geneva this evening. It is a follow-up to a meeting held in Durban in 2001, where Israel and the United States walked after attempts to label Zionism racist.

2A 15-year-old South Auckland boy and six others aged 13 and 14 are lucky to be alive after the stolen car they were in went off the road during a police chase and smashed in to a tree.

3The Former Labour Minister Taito Phillip Field said "Not Guilty" 35 times in the High Court in Auckland today as he denied bribery and corruption charges. It's the first time these type of charges have been made against an MP and they relate to allegations that Mr. Field have immigration help to Thai men and women for work on his properties.

4The Minister of Housing Phil Heatley has described the condition of some of the country's state houses as a disgrace. The Minister along with Maori Party Co-Leader Tariana Turia visited a state house in Porirua that the Government is upgrading.

5Business News

6The trial of a prostitute accused of stabbing her estranged lover to death has begun in the High Court in Auckland. 39-year-old Dionne Neale is charged with the murder of Reece Shadbolt who was found dead in his Parnell apartment in 2007.

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8A forensic scientist at the David Bain retrial has been cross examined on bloody footprints found at the family home. David Bain is being retried for the murders of his parents and three siblings in Dunedin in 1994.

9The Department of Corrections is tightening security to reduce the risk of people escaping from prison farms or work parties or work release programmes. Its carried out a review and found several inmates should not be working outside prison walls.

10The SPCA has described three men who put live fireworks in the mouth of a sheep as seriously sick. The dead sheep was discovered by police near the base track of Mount Maunganui late last night.

11Waatea News

12A Royal Commission in to the fatal bush fires which swept through the state of Victoria in February has said that victims had no chance as warnings given were inadequate. The Black Saturday bushfires claimed 173 lives, devastated 78 communities and destroyed over two-thousand homes.

13The Dunedin City Council has approved a construction contract for a new controversial multi million dollar enclosed stadium pending the outcome of a High Court heading on Thursday. Councillors voted 10 to 4 in favour of approving the contract after deliberating for eight hours today.

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15New Zealand has joined a host of countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and Sweden in boycotting the United Nations Conference on race relations. The Durban Review Conference begins in Geneva this evening. It is a follow-up to a meeting held in Durban in 2001, where Israel and the United States walked after attempts to label Zionism racist.

16Lawyers for convicted murderer Lipene Sila have told the Court of Appeal that the jury in his trial should have been able to consider the defence of self-defence. The 24-year-old is appealing his conviction and 17 year sentence for the deaths of 16-year-olds Jane Young and Hannah Rossiter.

17In Australia, the Northern Territory Coroner's released provisional autopsy reports on the three asylum seekers who were killed in last week's boat explosion off the north-west coast of the country.

18Business News

19The Prime Minister John Key says New Zealand would only send troops to Fiji as party of a multi-lateral international effort.

20The toxic relationship between the United States and Venezuela has shown dramatic signs of improvement, with President Hugo Ch�vez Fr�as telling Barak Obama that he wants to be his friend.

21The Waikato Regional Council is defending a decision of no Hamilton to Auckland rail service in its latest transport programme.

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23A Royal Commission in to the fatal bush fires which swept through the state of Victoria in February has said that victims had no chance as warnings given were inadequate. The Black Saturday bushfires claimed 173 lives, devastated 78 communities and destroyed over two-thousand homes.

24News from the United Kingdom, including: British economy no longer in free-fall according to two forecasting companies; contuining fall-out from protests at the recent London G20 Summit; UK government's plans for the electric car;

25Waatea News

26South Korea has accepted Pyongyang's invitation for talks, the first dialogue between the two countries in a year. Tensions are running high over what is percieved to be the North's nuclear ambitions and its recent rocket launch.

27The Dunedin City Council has approved a multi-million dollar construction contract for the City's proposed controversial stadium build. Councillors voted 10 to 4 in favour of approving the contract after deliberating for eight hours today. The Chairman of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust Malcom Farry was at tonight's meeting and he is on the line now.

28Author of Empire of the Sun, British writer JG Ballard has died after a lengthy illness.