Top Stories for Thursday 1 June 2017
Dramatic images have emerged of an incident aboard a Malaysian Airlines plane which was forced to turn back to Melbourne airport after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit. The Sydney Morning Herald's Latika Bourke said she had spoken with a passenger who described seeing the man behaving erratically and threatening to blow up the plane before he was pinned to the floor and subdued by other passengers. Kabul correspondent Josh Smith describes the crater left following yesterday's bomb attack and the scenes of carnage in the aftermath of the deadly attack. Groups supporting the homeless are bracing for a worse winter than last year as new Social Development Ministry figures show those in urgent need of housing has doubled over the past two years. Sharon Brettkelly talks to those helping the homeless. The Minister of Social Housing, Amy Adams says there's no doubt housing pressures have increased, but she says the register also reflects an awareness-raising campaign the MSD ran and a review of the housing list. Department of Conservation staff are going to extreme lengths, even dangling out of helicopters, to preserve the seeds of native trees in the case of myrtle rust spreads even further. Alan Ross is the DOC's threats manager and says dozens of staff across the country have been working in a variety of ways to protect our native trees. The Bluff oyster industry is worried a new bonamia parasite found in oyster farms at Stewart Island will find its way to the rest of the fishery and cause major destruction. Graeme Wright of the Bluff Oyster Management Company says the new strain has devastated oyster stocks elsewhere in the world, especially Europe. ACT leader David Seymour claims the government nicked his idea and have done a pathetic take of it so far. He says it's disappointing and a cynical, vote-buying policy which won't improve the situation. A push for New Zealand to spend more on defence could be one of the topics when America's top diplomat Rex Tillerson visits New Zealand next week. Security analyst Paul Buchanan from 36th Parallel Assessments talked to us.
