Due to the live nature of Tonight, we apologise for the lack of captions for some items. He 'stepped outside the legal limits of his power' ` the High Court rules against Minister Gerry Brownlee. Dazed and confused ` disturbing pictures of the Denver shooter in court. Is he faking? And will he face the death penalty? And 'a privilege to be back in Middle Earth', says Cate Blanchett as Peter Jackson reveals some of the biggest sets he's ever built on The Hobbit. Kia ora, good evening. Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee's suffered a setback over his attempts to speed up building following the Christchurch quakes. The High Court's ruled Mr Brownlee overstepped the legal limits of his special powers when he fast-tracked several land zoning decisions last year. He wanted to free up land for quicker development by rearranging housing boundaries. But an alliance of property developers and a supermarket giant, Progressive, sought a judicial review of the process he took when redrawing the boundaries. Christchurch Airport was one group affected by his original decisions. We understood the need created at Kaiapoi and reluctantly accepted that. We will have to consider the matter further to decide what our action is from here. But Mr Brownlee's insisting the ruling won't delay the rebuild because important elements of his decisions still stand. It's been a turbulent day at the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission. An expert witness giving evidence on behalf of CTV Building designers Alan Reay Consulting clashed frequently with the commissioners. Mike Thorpe reports. Just 24 hours after poking holes in a report that found fault in the design of the CTV building, Professor John Mander's own evidence was being heavily scrutinised. Commission Chair Justice Mark Cooper's frustration was obvious. Well` Well, did they, though? Is it your opinion that they did? That's what you're being asked. > OK, yes. Commissioner Richard Fenwick was growing restless. You've got to account for that order of deformation, and don't give me a theoretical answer. > Let's keep this real, please. > OK. And counsel assisting the commission, Stephen Mills QC, took the unusual step of formally reminding Professor Mander of his obligations as an expert witness. < You're not here as an advocate and that you are constantly conscious of the role that you are playing here. The Texas-based engineer is giving evidence on behalf of Alan Reay Consulting, a firm he freely admits he has had a close relationship with, although, for a time today, there was confusion at where he thought the fault lay. You seem to be saying that the CTV design was one that was obviously, uh, inadequate. > No, I'm not saying it was obviously inadequate. I-I believe it was adequate for what, uh, was believed to be the design demands for Christchurch in the day. Witnesses called on behalf of Alan Reay Consulting will give evidence for the remainder of the week, including specialist land experts Tonkin and Taylor. Mike Thorpe, ONE News. And work has begun on a temporary cardboard cathedral for Christchurch. Construction workers are preparing the foundations near Latimer Square. The building will cost $5m and will be used for at least ten years until the city's landmark cathedral is replaced. It'll hold 700 people, and should be open by Christmas. The man accused of killing 12 people in the Batman cinema massacre has made a strange first appearance in court. 24-year-old James Holmes sat in shackles looking dazed and appearing confused about what was happening. The ABC's Jane Cowan reports from the court in Denver. BAILIFF: People v James Holmes. It's an unsettling glimpse of someone many here consider a monster. He's likened himself to a comic-book villain, and his hair was dyed red, like The Joker. But with head bobbing and eyes rolling, the man accused of one of the worst mass shootings in US history mostly looked dazed. At times, the once-brilliant neuroscience student appeared to be falling asleep. < Is he on medication or something? We would have no information about that. That is not something that would be shared with us. Typically a prison will only give someone a medication that they're already taking and they absolutely need. And they certainly wouldn't give him enough medication to make him look like that. So you really have a number of options here. He's either extremely tired, he's got some serious mental defect or he's faking it. The hearing found probable cause to keep holding James Holmes on suspicion of first-degree murder. But there's a long way to go. I would say there's no such thing as a slam-dunk case. Defence lawyers secured permission to inspect the cinema, which is still a crime scene, and to look at Holmes' apartment. The District Attorney wouldn't say whether she's anticipating an insanity defence. A decision on whether or not to seek the death penalty mightn't be made for months. Victims will be impacted by that decision in an enormous way for years. If the death penalty is sought, that's a very long process that impacts their lives for years. And so they will want to have, and we will want to get their input before we make any kind of a decision on that. There won't be any kind of closure here for a long time. The price of basics like bread could be going up soon, because the cost of getting to the shop is going up. Road User Charges are increasing, but transport companies argue the rises are unfair. Arrun Soma has the story. Allan Henderson harvests lettuces for a living, but he says the cost of trucking his produce will start growing too. It's a sh` a bloody lot of money. Under changes to RUC, or road-user charges, he estimates it'll cost him an extra $10,000 annually. Under the old system, truckies were charged according to weight. The heavier the load, the more it costs them to transport it. From next week, similar-sized trucks will pay the same amount, no matter what they're carrying. If I filled my truck with bricks, I'm going to do a lot of damage to the road; I should pay more. If I fill it with balloons, I'm doing very little damage to the road; I should pay less. Yet we're blanketed with the same cost. Mr Henderson argues his lettuces cause relatively little road damage. It's the same for other light goods. RUC will increase for some major bread companies too. We're talking many, many millions of dollars extra costs for sending the same goods around the country. And that means basic foods may end up costing shoppers more. We've got to put our price up. The industry's Road Transport Forum says it's an oversight. They almost got it right, but the bits they got wrong are causing some` and will cause some serious anomalies and problems. But the Transport Ministry says it's fair to average out road-user charges. We're not trying to capture money from the amount of trucks on the road. What we're trying to do is to work out how much money we need to pay for the roads and then divvy it up fairly. We're not making any money. We're going to be going backwards with this. For Allan Henderson, transporting leafy greens is leaving him with less green in his pocket. Arrun Soma, ONE News. The Government's defending its decision to pull out of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. It says the $0.5m we give in aid would be better spent closer to home. Political editor Corin Dann reports. With former prime minister Helen Clark heading a UN aid agency, NZ's standing when it comes to the UN is riding high. But that standing may be at risk as our ties to another UN aid agency looks set to be cut from next year. NZ, as a small country, gets benefit from the UN, but we also have to make a contribution. I think this sends a bad signal to the` to the UN system about our commitment to the United Nations. UNIDO helps developing countries to secure resource-efficient, low-carbon growth. UNIDO specialises in boosting sustainable industrial development in poor countries. It has a membership of 174 countries. As a member, NZ contributes about $500,000 a year. In a statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, says UNIDO has a very minor footprint in the Pacific, where our aid programmes are based. He says withdrawing the funding will enable NZ to get better value for money. Oxfam disagrees. This UN agency, uh, isn't doing so much in the Pacific. It's doing more in Asia and Africa. But they're also important in terms of poverty reduction. NZ's been a member of the UNIDO since its inception in 1985. In a briefing to Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledges that some member states may react adversely to NZ now leaving. It says some poorer countries may now view NZ as less engaged in the United Nations. The Greens are concerned the move has come out of the blue with no consultation. I must say I'm surprised. This is a clear case of, uh, international relations by stealth, which is the hallmark now, it seems, of the Key government, especially under Foreign Minister McCully. They say the move may also hurt NZ's chances of getting on the powerful UN Security Council. United Nations Development Programme head Helen Clark is currently working in Senegal and couldn't be contacted for comment. Corin Dann, ONE News. Police are urging motorists in Coromandel and Bay of Plenty to drive with care to avoid debris left by heavy rain. Major slips along State Highway 2 were cleared this afternoon. Road workers between Katikati and Tauranga say it's lucky no cars were in the way when this slip came down. A rescue helicopter came to the aid of a farmer stranded by floodwaters on his Te Aroha property. A bill that allows Fonterra farmers to trade shares amongst themselves has passed its third and final reading in Parliament. The Dairy Industry Restructuring Bill means Fonterra is no longer required to buy out farmers wanting to exit the co-operative. But it was met by opposition from Labour and the Green Party. This bill is crucial to the ongoing growth of NZ's dairy sector, and therefore the ongoing economic prosperity of all NZers. We have seen shares in numerous entities across this country, seen them in SOEs, shares going into overseas ownership, control eventually drift into overseas ownership. We do not want that to happen for Fonterra. The bill also means the Commerce Commission will now oversee how Fonterra sets the farm-gate milk price. The ability to learn Te Reo is now in your pocket thanks to a smartphone app. Just in time for Maori Language Week, Hika will help you learn hundreds of words and phrases. Amy Kelley logged on. ALL SING IN MAORI It's our national language, but only 4% of us speak it fluently. I can say tena koutou. Whanau? Kia ora ` that's about it. Now all you need to nail the basics of te reo fits into your pocket. Hika is a language-learning application, translating more than 600 words and thousands of possible phrases into te reo. So you touch it once, and it does the instant translation. Tau ke! Awesome. Fantastic. The app's developer, uni lecturer Sophie Tauwehe Tamati, says it's about mobilising Maori language. I have teenage children who are taking Maori at high school, so it might help me to be able to converse, maybe, a little bit more with them. I'm Japanese, so, um, this pronunciation is quite similar to Japanese language. So, yeah, it's really interesting. Developers are still deciding whether to charge after that. They also want to roll out the app overseas in languages from Mandarin to Hawaiian. Amy Kelley, ONE News. Just ahead ` President Obama warns Syria about chemical weapons, as we take you into the rebels' ranks. And the perils of polar sightseeing. What happened to a boatload of tourists after this huge glacier began breaking up. ENGINE RATTLES SONIC CRACKLING, ZAPPING Debt comes in all shapes and sizes. SONIC CRACKLING, ZAPPING Sometimes borrowing is a smart thing to do,... SONIC ZAPPING INTENSIFIES ...and sometimes it isn't. SONIC ZAPPING SOARS Shrink your dumb debt. It's all part of being sorted. 1 There's been a major development in the UK phone hacking scandal this evening. Two former editors of The News of the World, Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, will be charged with offences related to phone hacking. Six other former senior journalists from the paper will also be charged. Revelations that the paper hacked into the phone of a murdered schoolgirl led to the closure of The News of the World. The scandal has laid bare the collusion between senior politicians, police and the media. President Obama's warned the Syrian regime it will be held accountable if it uses chemical weapons on foreign troops intervening in Syria's civil war. The warning comes as fierce fighting rages near the capital, Damascus. The BBC's Paul Wood is with rebel fighters. For these rebels, this is the only way into Syria. The regime's fighting for its life. It's managed to close every other smugglers' crossing from Lebanon. So these men undertake a back-breaking trek over the mountains. They don't have much ` just a determination to fight. But that might decide the outcome of this war. GUNFIRE RUMBLES We're heading for Zabadani. It's ringed by Syrian tanks. They fire at will. GUNFIRE RUMBLES People say the shelling has got much worse over the past few days. They accuse the government of taking revenge for the rebel assaults in Damascus last week. People here also say there are far fewer government troops around. It's claimed they're being withdrawn from places like this to defend the capital. BOOM! The rebels say the army no longer attacks them with soldiers; only shells. These men are Islamists ` fighting as much for God as for democracy. They believe they're getting closer than ever to getting rid of President Assad. (SPEAKS ARABIC) 'Before Damascus, the regime could crack down where it wanted,' he says. 'Now they're weak. Their soldiers are mercenaries. They fight only from a distance. 'Of course, we have few resources, so the regime is holding on.' (SPEAKS ARABIC) 'We are fighting for a cause,' he says. 'They are not. 'We know what we're fighting for. That's the difference.' GUNFIRE RUMBLES Government heavy weapons fire at the rebels hiding in the orchards on the fringes of Zabadani. It may look like stalemate, but the rebels say their offensive is not over. They too are moving men to the capital. It is there, they believe, that the uprising will succeed or fail. Hong Kong has been hammered by a powerful storm. Typhoon Vincette slammed into the Chinese territory, injuring more than a hundred people, disrupting communications, and bringing businesses to a standstill. WIND HOWLS Dozens of flights were either cancelled or delayed. The Hong Kong stock exchange was forced to suspend trading for a few hours and ferry services halted. The typhoon has moved on to mainland China, bringing fierce winds and heavy downpours to Guangdong province. There was a brush with death for a boatload of sightseers admiring Greenland's glacial coastline. The threesome clearly thought they were safe as an iceberg avalanche began. MAN: Wow! Wow! CLATTERING I've never been this close to dying. I have never been this close to dying before. Happily all survived, to post the clip on Youtube. Collectors and museums have had a rare chance to get their hands on pieces of NZ's own Wonder of the World, the Pink and White Terraces. 70 fragments of the terraces were sold at an auction in Auckland. This pink piece went for $11,000. The fragments were collected before the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886. Even though they've discovered part of the Terraces underneath the lake, it's tapu to take pieces from it, so you can't get any more of it. So what was collected before the eruption is it. So I think those who don't have them would love a piece of NZ history. Two Charles Blomfield paintings of the Terraces also went under the hammer, selling for $14,000 each. Just ahead ` Sir Peter's world of the Hobbit. Fans get a new look at behind-the-scenes footage. And I'll be back with a cool change for the south. The first American woman to fly into space has died. Sally Ride broke the gender barrier at NASA, flying into orbit on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. At 31, she was also the youngest woman in space. Sally Ride was 61 and had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. Sir Peter Jackson has given us another peek behind the scenes of The Hobbit. The clip, released on his Facebook page, follows the final days of the 18-month shoot as the actors reflect on making the two fantasy films. Greetings from the very heart of Middle Earth. A really amazing moment for me, I guess, was the first time we stepped on to Bag End. It's become so embedded in your psyche from what you've seen before. We were all ready to go, and Ian came on for the first time. And you look at him, and you go, 'My God. That's Gandalf.' I look back on that with fondness, because we got to know each other on Bag End and we really got to know each other as dwarves. ALL LAUGH One of the most exciting things, I think, for me was working on these sets that, kind of, are part of our history. And there was I, working on Rivendell with some incredible actors. Just watching Cate Blanchett act, it was very moving. We had shivers down our spines. It was absolutely astonishing. It's been a privilege being back in Middle Earth. That was one of the, uh... the larger sets. It rivals some of the biggest sets we've ever built, which would have been Minas Tirith and Helm's Deep, I guess, in the old days. The city of Dale was such a huge set, you were able to just wander around as if you were in some abandoned city that you've always wanted to visit. The first Hobbit movie premieres in Wellington in November. Weather time now with Renee. Hi, everyone. Low pressure systems to the north and east usher in the moist rain-bearing air. This is what brought the fog to Auckland today also. The combination of the low and its fronts is expected to move slowly southwestwards tomorrow, with the rain about eastern areas easing too. Meanwhile, a ridge of high pressure over the South Island drifts northwards reaching central NZ by Saturday. For weather, see onenews.co.nz And that's your weather. I'll see you tomorrow. That's it from us here on Tonight. We'll see you tomorrow. Pomarie, goodnight. Captions by Richard Edmunds and Sam Bradford. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air.