1Alastair McWhannell, the director of adventure tourism company Crag Adventures, has been found guilty of manslaughter. McWhannell was tried in the Palmerston North High Court following the death of Catherine Peters, the teenager who plunged to her death from a Manawatu bridge on 7 March 2010.

2The debate about partial privatisation of state-owned assets has been re-ignited, this time by the state coal miner Solid Energy.

3The government has had a change of heart over a five million dollar budget allocation to the Pacific Economic Development Agency, saying now that it may be possible for other organisations to apply for the money. Last month in the Budget the private company was directly awarded the money to improve the economic well-being of Pacific people over four years.

4ASB is the first cab off the rank to hike interest rates following the Reserve Bank decision last week to raise the benchmark interest rate from 2.50 to 2.75 percent. The other major banks are still to move.

5Business News

6Blazej Kot, the New Zealander sentenced today to 25 years in an American prison for murdering his Irish-born wife Caroline Coffey, has told a court in New York state that his life is a living hell because of what he's done and he just wants to die.

75:30pm News

8Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission is accusing the state's top cop, Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson, of presiding over a culture of self-protection, and has given him two weeks to act against officers who investigated the death in custody of Aboriginal man Cameron Doomadgee in 2004.

9A growing number of protestors are gathering outside the inner-city Auckland hotel where Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is staying while in the country for three days for trade talks.

10The government has changed its mind and will now fund a popular collection scheme for computer waste. The future of the national e-Day has been in doubt since a bid for $1.5 million to pay for the scheme this year was rejected earlier this week.

11Waatea News

12Under intense pressure from United States President Barack Obama, BP is setting up a 29 billion dollar fund for damage claims from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil giant also says it will sell assets and suspend dividend payments to shareholders.

13Farmers are crying foul over the way local council rates are levied, saying its grossly unfair.

14A landmark court case over whether gay people should have the right to marry is coming to a close in California. The outcome could have implications across the United States.

156:00pm News

16Alastair McWhannell, the director of adventure tourism company Crag Adventures, has been found guilty of manslaughter. McWhannell was tried in the Palmerston North High Court following the death of Catherine Peters, the teenager who plunged to her death from a Manawatu bridge on 7 March 2010.

17The government has had a change of heart over a five million dollar budget allocation to the Pacific Economic Development Agency, saying now that it may be possible for other organisations to apply for the money.

18The Whitehouse says that BP would not have voluntarily created the 20 billion US dollar compensation fund for the Gulf of Mexico oil leak without President Barack Obama's intervention. The fund is likely to be just the first installment from the oil company as BP has yet to pay for the environmental clean-up and the fines that might follow.

19Business News

20The humanitarian crisis in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan appears to be worsening.

21A team of earthquake scientists has returned from Chile with a warning that New Zealand is not well prepared to cope with a massive quake similar to the one that devastated the South American country in February. Nearly 500 people were killed and 200,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in the magintude 8.8 quake.

226:30pm News

23The wine growing industry is delighted that this year's harvest is smaller than usual since this goes some way to rebalancing the industry's oversupply.

24Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson was grilled today by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee about whether she was being a good advocate for the conservation estate, given the controversy over the government's proposal to mine it.

25New Zealand research into the damage different weapons do to the clothing of a stabbing victim may make a real difference in forensic investigations.

26Waatea News

27A High Court jury has been told there is overwhelming evidence that caregiver Patricia Pickering killed 3-year-old Dylan Rimoni in 2008 and that she inflicted beatings over a long period of time.

28A whaling research group in Japan says conservation groups should push governments to sign a deal on whaling, instead of adding more ideas to stall the process.

29One of the sectors that has been severely damaged by the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexcio is the seafood industry, with large areas now closed to fishing. Tourism has also been affected, as oil and lumps of tar wash onto beaches along the coast.

30South Africa is determined to show visitors during the Football World Cup that it is a safe place to visit. For the next three weeks, crime is being punished fast in late-night court sittings.