<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>5:38 nine oclock radio new zealand news i'm robert taylor good evening islamic jihad in beirut says it has released a british hostage the iran based group says the man is john mccarthy and the release follows extensive contacts between iran the united nations and the united states and britain over the past few weeks a story <&>6:00 just to hand says mccarthy is now believed to be on his way to damascus where he'll be handed over to british authorities <,,><&>3 a clash of cultures as new zealand says goodbye to billy t james his wife lyn says his body was taken against her will and as a result she won't attend a tangi at the waihi marae in waikato the body of billy t james was taken to the marae this afternoon after his tribe overruled his wishes for a funeral service in auckland sir howard morrison told television new zealand that billy reaffirmed his wish just an hour before he died but it doesn't work that way he's had his time in the pakeha world <,,> hoki mai ki te wakainga <,> come home to your people come home to your tribe <,> and we'll bury you the way that <.>we respectfully that we should acknowledge you <,> billy doesn't have a say in that <,,> they're taking him home lyn james says she'll be organising a memorial service in auckland next week <&>6:59 <&>item on weather not transcribed <&>7:40 a small group of protesters are on wellington's waterfront tonight demonstrating against the visit of the chilean naval ship the esmeralda the capital's latin american committee says life in chile has improved since the days of the pinochet dictatorship but the military still holds enormous power and hasn't been called to account for human rights abuses <&>8:00 protest spokesman don clark says there's evidence from amnesty international that political prisoners are still being tortured and journalists have been arrested on charges of offending the armed forces <,,> an embassy function is being held on board the ship tonight and don clark is urging visitors to talk to the crew about the esmeralda's role as a torture centre in nineteen seventy three <,,><&>3 there have been moves on interest rates today that could result in relief for home owners banks are blaming high deposit rates as the reason they can't drop their mortgage rates but treasury has now dropped interest rates on kiwi bonds by as much as half a percent the united bank is so pleased chief executive paul young says it's decided to cut its own deposit rates so i think that's er a good move <.>and and one that we called for as well in our statement and i think that um voc that gives further positive encouragement er to banks to reduce their retail deposit rates <&>9:00 mister young warns if the other banks don't match the drop in deposit rates united may have to move them up again australia's opposition coalition has announced it wants an effective common market between australia and new zealand within a year of it taking office but says the plan also depends on the goodwill of japan if implemented the common market plan would remove virtually ALL restrictions on trade in services and investment the federal government has always said the common market plan would stop the free flow of new zealand investment because it would mean japan would have to be given the same right under a nineteen seventy six treaty the coalition says the investment proposal couldn't go ahead unless japan's prepared to amend the treaty so australia and new zealand could be regarded as a single country for investment purposes <,,><&>3 another albanian exodus is under way with a thousand refugees reaching italy by boat today up to seven thousand more are now crossing the adriatic sea in a <&>10:00 collection of commandeered boats and ships in a desperate bid to reach the west however the italians are sending the refugees back as soon as they arrive the current exodus from albania by people dissatisfied with the country's politics is the third this year italian authorities have turned back the tens of thousands who attempted to cross in february and june <,,><&>3 forget egypt mesopotamia or china australian archaeologists now say the cradle of civilisation might be right here in the pacific the discovery of thirty thousand year old tools in papua new guinea with crop residues suggests that pacific islanders were among the first humans to cultivate crops <,> thomas loy of the australian national university says the latest discovery backs up recent evidence that pacific islanders were regularly harvesting major crops between twenty and thirty thousand years ago the evidence challenges the traditional view that agriculture was developed in the middle <&>11:00 east about TEN thousand years ago rather than just growing crops pacific people were long ago harvesting pulping and shredding roots and then roasting them to make them edible regarded as sophisticated behaviour for humans of the time <&>11:13