Due to the live nature of Tonight, we apologise for the lack of captions for some items. Another boat is missing as the search continues for nearly 100 people on a capsized refugee boat. Holding out on a cold night ` two inmates continue the stand-off at our toughest prison. And bullied for being fat ` now there's a happy ending for the woman tormented by teenagers. There are reports of another missing asylum seeker boat as the search continues for survivors from one which capsized on its way to Australia. It's feared up to 100 people are dead after the vessel, believed to be carrying refugees from Afghanistan, got in trouble off Indonesia's coast. Australia correspondent Steve Marshall is live with the latest. WELL, 4 SHIPS AND 5 AIRCRAFT ARE AT THE SCENE, WITH A SHIP AND SCALED BACK AVIATION SEARCH SET TO CONTINUE COMBING THE AREA THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT. GIVEN THAT THE WATER IS REALTIVELY WARM AND MANY OF THOSE ON BOARD HAD LIFE JACKETS THERE'S STILL HOPE OF FINDING MORE SURVIVORS, BUT WITH EACH PASSING HOUR THE SCALE OF THIS HUMAN TRAGEDY BECOMES MORE EVIDENT. Battered survivors of the latest asylum-seeker boat tragedy arrive on Christmas Island. Many need medical treatment after their boat capsized with up to 200 people on board. Australian Navy boats rushed to help. We found about 40 people that were on top of the upturned hull and other people that were holding on to debris as much as 3 nautical miles away from the scene. A RAAF plane dropped life rafts before merchant ships arrived. More than a hundred people have been rescued, and around 90 remain missing. The Australian and Indonesian leaders are in Rio and held urgent talks. What we do know in relation to this very tragic matter is that we do face a considerable loss of life at sea. A number of bodies have been pulled from the water, and questions are now being asked about events leading up to the tragedy. Australian search and rescue received distress calls from the boat as early as midnight on Tuesday. Further calls early Wednesday placed the vessel off Indonesia, and Indonesian search and rescue takes responsibility. Later that day, an Australian customs plane spots a boat they think distress calls have been coming from. Customs says the boat did not appear to be in trouble. New information yesterday prompted another search, and at around 5pm a plane finds the upturned boat. Shortly after, the dramatic rescue begins. I'm not going to second-guess today the action they've taken, other than to say it looks like they took proactive steps. The incident adds to the growing human toll of people-smuggling. More than 270 asylum-seekers are known to have died making the dangerous journey to Australia in the past two years ` a number that's guaranteed to rise significantly as this latest tragedy unfolds. And, Steve, it appears there may be another boat in trouble? AUSTRALIAN AUTHORITIES HAVE CONFIRMED THAT IT HAD SENT A WARNING TO INDONESIAN AUTHORITIES ABOUT A DIFFERENT BOAT ON SUNDAY MORNING. NOW NO-ONE KNOWS WHAT HA HAPPENED TO THIS SECOND BOAT. SO TONIGHT THERE ARE QUESTIONS BEING ASKED INDONESIA HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF NOT DOING ENOUGH IN THE PAST TO STOP THESE DANGEROUS VOYAGES AND THIS WILL NO DOUBT FORM THE BASIS OF SOME VERY HEAVY DIPLOMACY OVER THE COMING DAYS BETWEEN CANBERRA AND JAKARTA. A stand-off continues tonight at an prison just north of Auckland. Two men are holed up on a tower at Paremoremo, and ONE News has discovered one of the inmates involved is an infamous prison escaper, known as Houdini. Kim Vinnell has more. He's nicknamed Houdini for a reason. Aaron Forden, the man to the left of screen and waving to the camera, is infamous for his ability to give prison the slip. This time, though, he didn't make it over the wire; just to the disused observation tower. His sidekick is understood to be former Black Power member Damian Wereta, jailed for aggravated robbery, but also convicted for threatening prison staff. They have some internal exercise yards, and they were able to... they're quite athletic, and they were able to just scale up the wall and get into this very unused tower. The tower's within D Block, the maximum-security wing of the prison. But the stunt still sent the prison into lock-down. They are within the secure area in the maximum-security prison, which is why we know we have this incident absolutely contained. There is no threat to anyone else inside the prison or outside in the community, because they are inside the maximum security. Forden spent the day soaking in the sunshine and attention and gathering metal strips from the tower. Wereta appeared wrapped in a blanket. It's thought they could also have food. They don't have any demands at this stage. To be perfectly honest, it's just a bit of a nuisance. Forden, who was convicted of assault, is a master escape artist. In 2008, he used a rope made from sheets to shimmy down the side of Mt Eden jail. Last year, he cost the new private prison company SERCO a $150,000 fine when he busted out again. He's also previously escaped from Whangarei District Court. We will probably wait them out. That's the safest option. At some point, they will get cold, tired and hungry, and they will get themselves down. Corrections describes the situation as a nuisance, rather than an embarrassment, but says there'll be an investigation. Aaron Forden's father, Stephen, told ONE News he hasn't spoken to his son for several years and that he doesn't know why his son is doing this. He says he's tried to get his son help over the years, but to no avail. He also says he doesn't think prison is the right place for his son, but that it's making him worse. Kim Vinnell, ONE News. The parents of the man accused of killing Scott Guy have given evidence at his trial for the first time. Ewen MacDonald's mother and father say their son was upset and crying when he called to tell them Scott Guy had been killed. Simon Bradwell has been in court. For Ewen Macdonald, guns are a way of life. The boys, from a very young age, Kerry put a firearm in their hands, > just for curiosity's sake and to show them the safety of firearms. > We're not allowed to show you Ewen Macdonald's parents, but both gave evidence that he grew into a keen hunter, going on deer-stalking trips to Taupo or, on this occasion, Stewart Island. And it was on these trips that Ewen Macdonald would sometimes wear diving boots. We just used them as camp shoes, so if you were hunting during the day, often your hunting boots got wet, > so you'd take them off and let them dry out. > The Crown says whoever killed Scott Guy in July 2010 was wearing a distinctive pair of diving boots, and they say Ewen Macdonald had bought just such a pair from his father's hunting shop. But Ewen Macdonald's wife said she thought she threw them out when they moved house in 2008, well before the murder. We were going to move and I said to Ewen, 'We're not keeping them. 'We're not taking that down.' Because we were just having a big clean-out, a big throw out. And Marlene Macdonald said the boots weren't there when she stayed at her son's house shortly before Scott Guy's murder. So it wasn't there in June of 2010 when you were there? No. > How sure are you about that? I am positive. > I would swear on the Bible. > Police gave evidence today that despite an extensive search of the Guy property, they never found the dive boots or the Labrador puppies they say Ewen Macdonald stole to make police think the murder was a burglary gone wrong. Ewen Macdonald's parents also recalled their son was crying when he broke the news to them of Scott Guy's death. I said to him, 'Do you know how he was killed? And he said, 'I think his throat might have been cut.' > Contradicting the Crown's claim that Ewen Macdonald told people his brother-in-law had been shot, even before police knew that's how Scott Guy died. Simon Bradwell, ONE News. The only person in the country to have been convicted of organising overseas child sex tours will spend another month behind bars. Paedophile David Wales was sentenced again after a police sting found hundreds of images of young boys on his computer. The 48-year-old was convicted 16 years ago in Australia for sexually abusing underage boys, and is right now serving three years in jail. He says he has grave fears for his safety. The combination of cold weather and cold homes appears to be pushing Christchurch's damaged health system to the limit. Several wards at the city's main hospital are close to gridlock, with the winter illness and influenza peak yet to arrive. Health reporter Lorelei Mason has more. The cubicles are full at the emergency department. Staff are flat out. They're also tight for space outside in the ambulance bays. Christchurch's quake-battered ill are lining up for care. The effects of this earthquake are continuing, because living in cold or damp environments definitely has an influence on people's health. An influence too on Canterbury's damaged hospital system. 30 beds at the main public hospital are still out of action. Non-clinical spaces are under repair, causing disruption for all. We've moved a number of our acute medical wards across to Princess Margaret, which is not ideal. It makes things more difficult. So we're really challenged. Here at the hospital's nerve centre, nurse managers monitor the live occupancy board, juggling bed space. Intensive care is at red, so it's full? It only has one bed at the moment, which means we can take the next patient, but we need to be identifying people to move out after that. Just hours ago, the entire hospital was near gridlock with flu, respiratory and cardiac illness. We were really full. We had not one bed, and we had some concerns about where we were going to put the next patients. The emergency department's been full to capacity several times over the past week. That's meant moving patients in ambulances across town to the 24-hour clinic to help ease the load. Hi, Lewis. I'm just about to do your blood pressure. So far, that backup system's worked well. When there's really really awful gridlock occurring on any occasion, then there'll be contingency plans to actually get folk to the best care available. Right, I'll just take your temperature. Doctors say patients should call their GP for advice if they're not well,... Some folk get too stoic for their own good. ...but they must still come to hospital if it's an emergency. Lorelei Mason, ONE News. The Automobile Association is predicting further cuts to petrol prices. Falling oil prices and a steady exchange rate have already resulted in pump prices dropping 20 cents in the last month. It's the first time since last August that petrol has been under $2 a litre at most service stations. I mean, the prices are coming thick and fast at the moment, and really, we can't fault the pace of those reductions, but if we were to be a little bit critical, maybe we could criticise the actual size of those reductions. The AA says we could expect another cut of around 3 cents per litre in the next week. Grandparents who raise their grandchildren are calling for the same rights as foster parents. It comes as the government launched a celebrity-studded DVD that'll be sent to more than 5000 grandparents. Charlotte Whale reports. The aim is to help you understand. It's practical parenting advice, all nine hours of it. I wanted to do my small bit in trying to provide some assistance. The Social Development Minister told a room full of grandparents that the Government's giving away the DVDs, costing taxpayers $600,000 a year. The grandparents say thanks, but it's not nearly enough. When they get to college, it's, you know, really expensive for their uniforms and books and things. Our financial situation is deteriorating, but their needs is increasing. More than half of all grandparents raising children are doing it alone, and they're mostly women. They depend on the $15,000 a year that get from superannuation and, if they're lucky, around $170 a week from the Unsupported Child Benefit. That's just a total of $24,000 a year. It's not easy getting that benefit, though. Grandparents must meet a whole lot of criteria, and there's often long periods of time where they don't receive any financial assistance. Foster parents, though, don't have that problem. And grandparents are wanting the same. They get add-on extras, which might be clothing allowances. It might be school fees paid for. Grandparents don't get that. There is always more that we could and can do, and we are constantly looking at it and trying to get our priorities right. Like foster parents, grandparents often deal with difficult kids. It's managing the emotions of these sometimes very angry children. And although the rewards out-weigh the rocky patches,... I'm on Danielle's team, and she's on mine. Yeah. (LAUGHS) ...they say it's time more's done to help make life easier. Charlotte Whale, ONE News. Hollywood has given the tarantula a bad reputation ` now dozens more of the poisonous spiders will be starring in our zoos and museums. The first shipment's just arrived in the country. Arrun Soma faced his fears to check them out. (YELLS) SCREAMING It's just like Christmas. A present for Wellington Zoo ` six species of tarantulas. 106 poisonous spiders in all. They're amazing animals. They are such cool, amazing creatures. You can see things on a tarantula that you can't see on the little house spiders you get at home. Their journey began as 'spiders on a plane', imported from Wales and costing $15,000. Being potential cannibals, they've been individually packed. Tarantulas don't tend to get on well with each other. They'll be shared between six NZ zoos and museums. Over time they'll be bred to create a sustainable tarantula population. Zoo staff here reassure me these spiders aren't dangerous to humans. The most you'll feel is something like a bee sting. But you'll probably faint before you're bitten. I must look so nervous, cos I am. LAUGHTER The shipment's being checked over. Make sure they're safe and also make sure the species that were approved to come in are actually those that are being brought in. Another 30 tarantulas which are endangered are due to arrive here in the next two months. Arrun Soma, ONE News. Just ahead ` a controversial motorway project comes a step closer for Wellington. Caught on camera ` how parents reacted when their teens were caught tormenting this woman. And the sky lights up in Queenstown as thousands celebrate the start of Winterfest. The controversial Transmission Gully project near Wellington has been given environmental protection authority approval to go ahead. The highway is aimed at easing congestion on a major route in and out of the capital. The 27km stretch will cost $930m. There has been strong opposition over the years because of damage to the environment. The plan still needs to go through the funding process before construction can begin in 2015. Our quake-prone capital city has welcomed a world first in architecture and engineering designed by NZers. The new Massey University Arts building has flexible wooden frames and walls that sway and move in the event of an earthquake. It's also got cables running through it which pull the walls back together again. It's probably one of the most safe buildings for an earthquake in the country now, and what it means in practise is if there's a big earthquake in Wellington, it can move about 29Degrees either way. It's hoped the same design will be used in the new buildings going up in Christchurch. In Afghanistan, a siege at a hotel popular with tourists and wealthy locals is now over. This is as close as cameras have got to the lakeside resort, near Kabul. Police say 13 people have been killed during a prolonged firefight, including five Taliban militants. Heavily armed gunmen held dozens of people hostage after storming the hotel. A leader described as a 'heroine for humanity' is appealing for help to bring democracy to Myanmar, also known as Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi made history by becoming only the second women since the Queen to address both Houses of Britain's parliament. Speaking at Westminster Hall, Aung San Suu Kyi appealed for practical help for her country and its people. She warned that while Myanmar has made gains, there's still a long way to go. If we do not use this opportunity, if we do not get things right this time around, it may be several decades more before a similar opportunity arises again. The Nobel Peace Laureate received a rare standing ovation at the end of her 30 minute speech. There are a few embarrassed parents in New York after their sons were caught taunting an elderly bus monitor because of her weight. Cellphone pictures of the grandmother being bullied were posted on Youtube, but it turns out that wasn't the smartest of moves. The ABC's David Muir explains. It is 10 minutes and 9 seconds long ` the cellphone video of a painful bus ride, now travelling at lightning speed online as parents and their children now watch bus monitor Karen Klein (68) taunted by four middle school students. The boys took aim near Rochester, New York, at the bus monitor who's been on the bus with them all year. The verbal jabs appear to become physical. One student appears to poke her there with his book. Then they turned to a story they had heard about her son who committed suicide, making fun of that too. The grandmother-of-eight told us she didn't want to break down in front of them. I didn't get... angry. I just... kind of tried to ignore them; just look out the window of the bus and... say, 'Bye, guys.' But they just kept it up. At one point, she urged them to stop. Tonight, the video is sparking reaction across this country and as far away as Australia. I was so upset and so disturbed. What is wrong with these kids of this generation? The father of one of the boys told us it was hard for him to watch. What did he say to him? I think I was crying at the time. I... You know, 'I can't believe you could do this to somebody.' And... It was pretty emotional. Tonight, we're also hearing from one of the boys, who says he took that video. I had no clue that it would go this far. I feel bad about how, like, they're making fun of her and everything. And this evening, the kindness of strangers is pouring in. A Canadian man who saw the video started a drive online ` 'let's give Karen the bus monitor a vacation.' He was hoping to raise $5000; he has raised more than $300,000. Those donations just keep rolling in, and Karen now has enough to retire on. Just ahead ` your weekend weather, plus another top award for an All Black captain. And a late-night threat for thousands, as Winterfest fires up in Queenstown. It's annoying when things aren't complete, especially when you've got all the symptoms of cold and flu. Lemsip All in One is designed to help a chesty cough,... headache, fever, blocked nose and sore throat. It's our most complete remedy ever. So you get all the help you need. Available in hot drinks or convenient capsules. Combine NZ's trusted brands so you don't lose a day. A former All Black captain who dedicated his working life to teaching has received another top honour for his achievements. Sir John Graham received the Sir Peter Blake Medal at a ceremony in Auckland tonight. Chris Chang was there. Black-tie dress, with a nod to the late Sir Peter Blake at his trust's leadership awards. A year on from receiving a knighthood, Sir John Graham's been recognised once again in a celebration of NZ's leaders of today and tomorrow ` this time, the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Medal. A leader has to have a fantastic number of people who support... And I owe any accolades that I've received to of the quality of NZers I've been surrounded by. In an international rugby career spanning six years, he pulled on the All Blacks Test jersey 22 times. ARCHIVE: He takes the catch and dives over! Sir John Graham captained the side on three of those occasions. But he's always remained adamant his decades in education and pushing his students to achieve excellence were the most rewarding. His influence hasn't gone unnoticed. He's been a great, great role model. Sir John's been chairman of the rugby union while Richie's been captain. They've had a great relationship. He's incredibly humble, considering what he's achieved in his life. Achievements in a black jersey and at the blackboard. Very few leaders think they'll be leaders; certainly most good ones don't. But for the latest recipient of the Sir Peter Blake Medal, it's official. Sir John Graham ` All Black legend, educationalist, leader. Chris Chang, ONE News. Now to the weather. A moist northwest flow precedes an active trough moving over the South Island tonight and tomorrow, followed by a cooler southwest flow. For weather, see tvnz.co.nz/news The Queenstown Winter Festival's got off to an explosive start, with fireworks entertaining a crowd of lakeside spectators. The 10-day event is expected to attract 50,000 people and help boost the sluggish tourism sector. Absolutely amazing. I've never seen any better fireworks. The festival has a solid foundation this year, with 40cm of snow on Coronet Peak already. That's it from us here on Tonight. Thanks for watching. Pomarie, goodnight. Captions by Lauren Strain and Richard Edmunds. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air.