Hospitals short of cancer doctors; health officials urge smoking ban on from beaches; Ngai Tahu will not fly the tino rangitiratanga flag on Waitangi Day.
NZ Herald
Women were the big winners at the Halberg Awards. Shot putter Valerie Vili won the annual title, with rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell named sports champions of the decade.
Health officials are calling for increases in tobacco tax and bans on smoking in outdoor public areas such as beaches.
Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee has some explaining to do after leaving three library books on a Pacific island.
Dominion Post
Four cancer specialists are stepping down from posts at public hospitals within months of each other.
A police officer was choked with his own radio cord by a burglar as he tried to call for help.
The Press
Ngai Tahu will not fly the controversial tino rangitiratanga flag on Waitangi Day. A tribe member says the flag is nothing but trouble.
A bus carrying schoolchildren was shot at three times and had windows smashed in northern Christchurch. No-one was injured and two youths have been arrested.
Three cheetahs escaped from their enclosure and roamed in the public area of Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park for half an hour. Park management describe the breach as the most serious incident they'd had. No-one was hurt.
Otago Daily Times
The Otago District Health Board has voted unanimously to merge with the Southland DHB but Southland doctors are still critical of the plan.
Shrek has competition in the sheep celebrity stakes - another sheep called Bear is the star of a short film that was playing for one night only in Glenorchy on Friday.
Stuntwoman Emily Carne claims to be the world's only female professional cannonball. She gets fired five storeys high and admits to being a little bit crazy. She was performing at a stunt show in Dunedin on Friday night.
