Checkpoint for Friday 27 May 2011

6:53 PM.News from the Waatea team. Audio

6:40 PM.With just six months to go until the general election, the Labour Party has accepted it is the underdog, and still has a lot of work to do to convince voters it can win. Audio

6:35 PM.An update from the team at RNZ Sport. Audio

6:25 PM.Christchurch has lost all its rugby world cup games but fans will get their own places to party regardless, a big one in Hagley Park and smaller ones in the suburbs. Audio

6:20 PM.Shares in Fisher and Paykel Appliances have jumped almost 10 percent, after it posted a 33-and-a-half million dollar profit for the year to the end of March. Audio

6:06 PM.Asian investors buying into New Zealand are increasingly pushing down the cost to the Government of servicing its billions of dollars of debt. An unconfirmed media report yesterday said China's… Read more Audio

5:53 PM.A new study has found lack of sleep is a bigger cause of childhood obesity than bad diet and lack of exercise. Researchers at Otago University studied almost 250 Dunedin children and found a quarter… Read more Audio

5:50 PM.Neighours say the Napier siege house will be near impossible to sell now the Crown has seized it because of drugs crimes. Gunman Jan Molenaar shot dead one policeman and injured two other officers… Read more Audio

5:47 PM.News from the Waatea team. Audio

5:45 PM.Musicians and artists are calling on the Nelson City Council to abandon plans to spend 30 million dollars on a performing arts centre. The proposal has attracted widespread criticism. Audio

5:42 PM.Anxiety over access to beaches is surfacing again in the Far North as Te Rarawa prepare to claim ownership of Te Oneroa a Tohe - 90 Mile Beach. Audio

5:35 PM.An update from the team at RNZ Sport. Audio

5:35 PM.Aucklanders who haven't prepared for a disaster have been told they could be putting the whole nation at risk. The latest Civil Defence polling shows Aucklanders are the least prepared in New Zealand.

5:27 PM.News from the business sector including a market report. Audio

5:20 PM.This country's largest wind-farm has been given the go ahead. Contact Energy has resource consent to build 168 turbines, between Raglan and Port Waikato, enough to churn out power to run 170 thousand… Read more Audio

5:15 PM.The credit ratings agency Moody's has downgraded New Zealand's major banks. Audio

5:12 PM.The food company Heinz is moving its production from Australia to New Zealand, but is warning the restructuring will only create a handful of jobs in Hawke's Bay. Audio

5:06 PM.A veteran merchant banker is warning New Zealand has just 18 months to prove itself or China will give up on our economy. Beijing based David Mahon says officials there are saying this country doesn't… Read more Audio

5:00 PM.Chinese frustration with NZ rising - banker;Heinz shifts some production to New Zealand;Credit ratings agency downgrades banks;Go ahead for country's largest wind-farm;Aucklanders who haven't prepared… Read more Audio