1The former Labour MP, Darren Hughes, will not face charges following a police investigation into a sexual complaint from an 18-year-old man. The police say they have finished their investigations and "the evidence did not reach the evidential threshold required to bring charges". Darren Hughes' statement says he expected this outcome and ... "resigning from my portfolios and parliament was a high price to pay but the frenzied media attention left me with no choice'...

2The rooftop protest at Hawkes Bay prison is over. The protest began last night after a prisoner was told he was being reclassified to maximum security status, because of his bad behaviour. Twelve_inmates protested and five joined the stand on the roof.

3The Prime Minister is warning trade unions they won't be happy with employment law changes the National-led Government will make if re-elected in November. The goverments is working on making labour laws more flexible, including extending the 90-day probation period. Union representatives say that the changes they have made already have not worked and unemployment is increasing.

4Business news, including a market report.

5Lawyers for the convicted murderer Scott Watson will get to have their say before a decision's made on his last-ditch plea for mercy. He is serving a life sentence for killing Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in 1997. He applied for the Royal Perogative of Mercy in 2008 and QC Christie MacDonald has made her final report on the application.

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7The head of Auckland's council-owned water company says he believes the reticulated gas supply was the source of a fatal explosion in the city. One woman was killed and six men injured as they carried out work to connect two-water mains in Onehunga on Saturday.

8The Government is being asked to make urgent changes to significantly boost New Zealand's ability to conduct clinical trials. This is because ethical reviews of clinical trials are far too slow and bureaucratic which slows early access to beneficial medicines or proceedures. However this needs to be done while still ensuring patient safety standards still remain high.

9For the first time, authorities in Japan have sugggested that the situation at the stricken Fukushima power plant may be worse than a nuclear melt down. They are describing the situation as a "melt through' when the nuclear fuel melts through the damaged pressure vessels.

10Waatea News

11The lawyer for the man accused of murdering a Whanganui woman says his client's explanation for the death is so unbelievable it might be true. Although he has not given five-versions of what happened murder accused Dean Mulligan says that another person murdered Maurice McGregor and Dean kept quiet about it as he feared for the safety of his family.

12The Department of Conservation plans to limit the number of tourists who can land in Nelson's Abel Tasman National Park and also the number of commercial operations. The park gets about 150-thousand visitors each year and boat owners say this will make it unsafe for visitors who will have to wade ashore.

13The British government has a new strategy for dealing with home grown terrorism based on confronting the extreemist ideology that inspires it. This was prompted after the 2005 London bombings.

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15A prison guard says the Hawke's Bay roof-top protest got out of hand because they weren't allowed to use batons and pepper spray on the inmates. The guards think that these tools could have been used without harm to either themselives or the inmates.

16The Minister of Finance says imposing restrictions on foreigners taking stakes in part sales of state assets has been looked at by the Government and has also reaise the possibility of incentives to encourage local investors, such as asset sales.

17Muammar Gaddafi has vowed never to surrender despite the heaviest day of NATO led air raids. He says martyrdom will be preferable to giving in.

18Business News including: Mighty River is committing 466-million dollars to a 82-megawatt geothermal plant north of Taupo, which will be complete in mid 2013

19A union is claiming civil servants are being forced to work longer hours for no pay to make up for the Government's public sector cuts. A Victoria University survey says women in particular are doing the extra work. The on-line survey was completed by about 7,500-members of the Public Service Association.

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21Opponents of the controversial pest poison 1080 are threatening to increase their protest action but the Department of Conservation says they have no hope of getting it banned. A new report out today says it is safer than many people think and recommends using more of it to save native birds and animals. Opponents say it is out of step witjh public opinion.

22Most work on killing possums focusses on the use of poisons but little concentrates on shutting doen the amimal's reproductive systems. Most of this research was shut down last year as the funding body, The Foundation for Research Science and Technology, though the resaearch ws not getting anywhere. There is furthur work to be done but the focus had come back to poisons.

23Spanish farmers have rejected a compensation package of 200-million dollars claiming it bears no resemblance to what they have lost after Germany falsly accused them of supplying vegetables carrying e-coli.

24Waatea News

25MPs have been told if police and prison officers are to be better protected under the law, the public should also get better protection from them. The parliamentary committee considering a change in the law has been told that both assults on police and assults by police should both be considered in sentencing.

26The head of the country's probation service wants greater use of satellite tracking systems to monitor prisoners on parole but says at the moment the technology is just not good enough.