Three arrested after entering NZ satellite base

Australia's ABC Radio reports that three people have been arrested in New Zealand after peace activists invaded an intelligence base at Waihopai, near Blenheim at the top of the South Island.

The group, calling itself ANZAC Ploughshares, managed to avoid electronic sensors while cutting through fences and razor wire, before allegedly puncturing one of the large white domes that house two satellite dishes.

The base is a satellite communications monitoring facility, but the peace campaigners say its part of a global signals interception network called, Echelon.

The protesters say the Waihopai site is an important part of the US government's global spy network and their aim is to close it down

It's believed one of the three people arested is a Dominican priest

The prime minister, Helen Clark, has condemned the attack as a senseless act of vandalism.