1Violent crime is up 8-percent although the country's overall crime rate is slightly lower than it was a decade ago. The police figures for last year take in to account population growth and show yet again family violence is a huge problem. Drug crime is up 13-percent; a small drop in sex attacks; and burglary, car theft, dishonesty offences, property damage and white-collar crime, are all down.

2The police have this year also released a report on the victims of murder and manslaughter which shows men in their 20s are most at risk, followed by children under five. Women are twice as likely as men to be killed by their partner.

3In the next few hours the New Zealand whaling protester Pete Bethune will found out if he's to walk free from the Tokyo prison where he's been held since his arrest three weeks ago.

4A group of Norwegian hunters who filmed themselves shooting native pigeons in the South Island could face firearms charges because they did not have a hunting permit for the West Coast.

5Business News

6President of the United States Barak Obama has announced plans to open up large new areas of America's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling.

7The gunman at the centre of a two day siege in Napier, Jan Molenaar, told police minutes before he shot himself, that he wasn't going to sit in prison for 20 years.

8Some retailers are planning to break the law again this year and open their doors for trading over the Easter weekend.

95:30pm News

10The international community is backing a multi billion dollar recovery plan for earthquake stricken Haiti.

11A British parliamentary inquiry has cleared the climate change scientists at the centre of last year's email hacking scandal of conspiring to hide evidence.

12Health workers and patient advocates are questioning how the Capital and Coast District Health Board can cut spending by $27-million without effecting services.

13Waatea News

14Easter traffic is already starting to build up as people in the cities escape for the long weekend.

15The Government says most New Zealanders would notice little change if its proposed foreshore and seabed reforms go ahead. Opposition parties have called the plan nothing more than a repackaging of the 2004 legislation.

16Environmental and recreational groups say part of new legislation passed last night, will threaten Canterbury's iconic rivers.

17Plans have been unveiled in London for a new curving, swirling, tower over a hundred metres tall to commemorate the 2012 Olympics.

186:00pm News

19MP's were hot under the collar in parliament this afternoon, as each side of the House tried to blame the other for the increase in crime. Violent crime is up 8-percent although the country's overall crime rate is slightly lower than it was a decade ago. The police figures for last year take in to account population growth and show yet again family violence is a huge problem. Drug crime is up 13-percent; a small drop in sex attacks; and burglary, car theft, dishonesty offences, property damage and white-collar crime, are all down.

20A pro-democracy MP in Tonga is calling on the government to resign following the Royal Commission's report into the sinking of the Princess Ashika.

21Chechen rebels have claimed responsibility for the two suicide bombings that killed 39 people on the Moscow metro this week.

22A group of Native Americans has apologised to the descendents of Chinook salmon taken from their local rivers and brought out to New Zealand.

23A group of British and Canadian scientists says it has identified a potential treatment for sleeping sickness, which kills thousands of people in Africa every year.

24Business News

25A lawyer in America has filed a legal suit to have the Pope questioned over sex abuse.

26A study has found that 13-year old boys are the most likely to be at risk of poisoning in schools.

276:30pm News

28Focus on Politics: This week the Government released a discussion document it hopes will finally resolve the disagreement over the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This comes as the Maori Party voted against changes to social welfare legislation, and replacing Environment Canterbury with commissoners.

29Waatea News