1The Minister of Justice has announced his plan to dump the defence of provocation for people charged with murder. Simon Power is taking a proposal to cabinet which will see the partial defence--which can have a charge of murder reduced to manslaughter--scrapped.

2The Government is going to scrap rules that prevent the sale of strategic assets to foreigners. The rules were rushed through last year by the previous Labour government to block a take over of Auckland International Airport by a Canadian pension fund.

3The Crown has abandoned its case against a man who stood accused of selling his then 12 year old daughter for sex.

4The Prime Minister is questioning the Labour leader Phil Goff's judgement for not revealing that the Auckland man, who Mr Goff said needed a welfare benefit, owned two rental properties. Mr. Key is claiming that Mr. Goff is being misleading.

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6The Government says it will work with the private sector to sharpen up the public service. Minister of Finance Bill English has said he would look at doing this only where it was obvious savings could be made.

7He's not even in the super city race, but Manukau's mayor, Len Brown, is already upsetting the favourite. He has been placed ahead of John Banks in a UMR research poll as the preferred mayor of Auckland's combined councils.

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9Chinese film directors have pulled their films from Australia's biggest film festival in protest over a documentary being screened about the exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

10Fiji police have charged their highest ranking female Chief Ro Teimumu Kepa and two top Methodist Church ministers with defying the Public Emergency Regulation.

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12The Government is making a move to scrap rules protecting the sale of strategic assets to foreign investors. It's expected they'll be replaced by a 'national interest' test which the government says will provide foreign investors with more certainty.

13While the MetService has issued severe gale warnings for parts of the North Island, and with further wild weather predicted in the South, heavy rain has already flooded four Greymouth homes and threatened several more.

14The doctor who was with Michael Jackson when he died has had his Houston clinic searched by US drug enforcement agents and the Los Angeles police looking for evidence of manslaughter.

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16The Minister of Justice has announced his plan to dump the defence of provocation for people charged with murder. Simon Power is taking a proposal to cabinet which will see the partial defence--which can have a charge of murder reduced to manslaughter--scrapped.

17Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown says her office has upheld more than 80-percent of the complaints it has received against the investment company, ING, but warns it's too early to draw conclusions.

18A new way of dealing with temporary work permits will help New Zealand's tourism and hospitality industry with seasonal staffing problems.

19Chaotic scenes have erupted in South Korea's parliament, resulting in at least one person being sent to hospital after a bill on media reform was introduced to the house.

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21President Obama and his Iraqi counterpart have been taking steps to redefine their relationship during talks at the Whitehouse.

22An Australian foreign policy think tank says China's aid programme in the pacific is secretive, short- term, takes no account of debt burdening and so erratic that it makes long term planning for the region difficult.

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24Scientists in the US believe there is growing evidence that there could be life elsewhere in the universe. They've discovered strongest proof yet that there is water flowing below the surface of one of Saturn's moons.

25United States President Obama has used a prime time media conference to try to engender more support for his health care reforms. Polls have indicated a drop in support for his economic and health policies.

26In Idaho, conservationists are on the hunt for an elusive giant native worm they want declared a protected species.

27Waatea News