Government moves to encourage more foreign oil explorers to invest in New Zealand; hospital bosses brace for big cuts in Government spending; Author Elizabeth Knox cried "for several days" after seeing the movie adaptation of The Vintner's Luck.
NZ Herald
The paper leads with hospital bosses bracing for big cuts in Government spending next year. These might be as deep as 5% or 10%, according to papers at an Auckland DHB committee meeting.
Hanover owners Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin are tipped to emerge well from a proposed deal to bail out investors, says the New Zealand Herald.
And the paper for the third day in a row favours a main photo from overseas on its front page, this time of Barack Obama on top of the Great Wall of China.
Dominion Post
Under the headline "Flames foil rescue heroes", the Dominion Post describes the rescue of a mother but death of her daughter and friend in a house fire at Foxton. "I want you Mummy, I have a sore chest," are reportedly the last words the woman heard from her three-year-old.
Author Elizabeth Knox says she cried "for several days" after seeing Niki Caro's movie adaptation of The Vintner's Luck. Knox says the director "took out what the book was actually about".
The Press
The paper leads with Government moves to encourage more foreign oil explorers to invest in New Zealand. It has released survey data showing untapped reserves could dwarf anything previously discovered in New Zealand.
The coroner has ruled a baby died in Christchurch Hospital after being shaken, but three years on nobody has been held to account.
Christchurch boy Jesse Pycroft is back at school a year after becoming the first child in this country to undergo a double liver and kidney transplant.
Otago Daily Times
Behind closed doors talks have pushed ahead plans to demolish part of the former art gallery at Logan Park, the ODT reports.
The rescue of a fisherman swept off rocks below the Cape Saunders lighthouse is detailed.
Patients treated since February 2007 by Invercargill private urologist, Sajan Bhatia, are being advised to have their care reviewed as claims about his practice are investigated.
