1The Minister of Social Development, Paula Bennett was under fire in the house today, and has admitted she regrets the ugly response two single mothers have received from the public since she released details of their benefits.

2Today Paula Bennett talked to Jennifer Johnston - one of the women who had the details of her benefit payments made public by the Minister.

3Remarks made by the ACT MP David Garrett to submitters in a select committee hearing this morning are being labelled "Bennett Mark Two" by the Labour Party. Mr Garrett said that their submissions to the committee would stop them getting a job in a privately run prison.

4The police say a man they shot and wounded in Auckland appears to have engineered the confrontation. Actor Rob Mokaraka was shot outside his house last week before a taser could be delivered to the scene.

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6The judge in the High Court trial of former MP Taito Phillip Field has told jurors they must put aside any feelings of sympathy or prejudice. The former MP is accused with 35 charges including bribery, corruption and obstruction of justice.

7The days of frustrating lengthy traffic jams for holidaymakers heading to the Coromandel will soon be numbered with the first sod being turned on a new Kopu Bridge.

8Fourteen new charges have been laid against an Auckland man Glen Mills accused of knowingly infecting people with the AIDS virus. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation says there has been a 40% increase in people seeking tests since the case was made public.

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10More than 140 jobs have been axed today by three companies around New Zealand - bringing the total number of positions slashed this week to more than 300.

11The couple who sparked an Armed Offenders' Squad callout in the East Otago town of Palmerston in February, have pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them at a depositions hearing.

12Construction industry representatives say figures showing the lowest number of new building consents in forty four years, aren't as grim as they appear.

13Waatea News

14The Australian state of Victoria has been told that bushfire conditions for the coming summer could be worse than those which caused the devastating Black Saturday fires in February.

15Despite strong local opposition, the fast food giant McDonald's has been given to go ahead to build a restaurant in the Auckland suburb of Balmoral.

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17The number of building consents issued in the year to the end of June is the lowest in forty four years. Figures from Statistics New Zealand show that in the year to June, just over 14-thousand building consents were issued, the lowest number since 1965.

18The Australian government is considering lowering the voting age from 18 to 16.

19A report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says bulk exporting of New Zealand wine is starting to hurt the demand for premium bottled wine.

20Investigators in United States have now raided the Las Vegas home and office of Michael Jackson's personal doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray.

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22Sunbeds are being denounced as carcinogenic by cancer specialists in a renowned medical publication. Writing in the oncology journal The Lancet, researchers are claiming that they increase the rick of skin tumours.

23News from China, including: reaction to trade talks with the United States; concubine resurgence;

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25The Nigerian government ordered in its troops today to try to put an end to the violence in the north of the country which has resulted in the death of more than 150 people.

26A Sudanese woman who could be sentenced to 40-lashes for wearing trousers has invited hundreds of journalists and observers to her trial. Lubna Hussein, a former journalist herself says she aims to show up a law on public decency.

27A former vice-president of Fiji says the retirement of the president is enabling the interim government to consolidate its power.

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29A United Kingdom based private prison contractor is calling for radical changes in the way prisons are run. Gary Sturgess is in New Zealand to brief academics and officials on the benefits of 'new generation' prisons.

30In a fiery outburst the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, has used his televised birthday address to deny claims that his country supplied arms to the Colombian guerrilla group, the FARC.

31The security situation in Iraq may not be perfect but it's a whole lot better than it was - this according to Secretary of Defence Robert Gates.

32What is an appropriate level of compensation to pay British soldiers for their physical and mental injuries received on duty?