Morning Papers - continued

Sydney Morning Herald

The USA has nothing. It’s all lies, you can tell through the ‘uncertainty’ they are putting forward.

US has evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq
Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide "pretty good" evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for militants there, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates asserted today.
Offering some of the first public details of evidence the military has collected, Gates said: "I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found" that point to Iran.
But at the same time, he said he was somewhat surprised recent raids by coalition and Iraqi forces in Iraq swept up some Iranians.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-has-evidence-of-iranian-involvement-in-iraq/2007/02/10/1170524310797.html

Robert Gates is a pandering moron that believes he can sell still another reason for a Neocon war. Why would any raids by USA troops be a surprise in finding Iranians in Iraq. There are lots of Iranians in Iraq. They are there on pilgramages. They are there about family circumstances. They are there for worship with other Shi'ites and they might even be there to find a way to end the war that Bush has no intention of ending.


States sign on to carbon trading scheme
A NATIONAL carbon trading scheme by 2010 now seems a reality, after Queensland and Western Australia dropped their reservations about the state-driven scheme and agreed to sign on.
But the states say they would still prefer the Federal Government to implement the scheme rather than pursue it through co-operative arrangements. "Today we are issuing a national call-to-arms on climate change, signing a declaration on climate change," the Premier, Morris Iemma, said yesterday. "We are speaking with one voice, and it is time to act."
Victoria's Premier, Steve Bracks, said: "Mark this day down. Today is the turning point in the debate on climate change."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/states-sign-on-to-carbon-trading-scheme/2007/02/09/1170524303964.html


Tobacco cheque tops MP's undeclared fund
THE federal Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella has been linked to a secret Sydney supporters' fund which raised tens of thousands of dollars that was not declared to the Australian Electoral Commission.
None of the cash - which includes $15,000 from British American Tobacco - was disclosed on party returns to the commission, the group admits.
Nor did the group disclose its funds separately as an "associated entity" of the Liberal Party.
A spokesman for the group Friends of Indi, named after Mrs Mirabella's Wangaratta-based electorate, admitted it was a "terrible oversight".

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/tobacco-cheque-tops-mps-undeclared-fund/2007/02/09/1170524303985.html


Whaling acid attack terrorist act: Japan
Japan has expressed outrage after anti-whaling activists lobbed acid onto the decks of a whaling ship in the Southern Ocean and slightly injured two crew members, terming their activities "piratical, terrorist acts".
After the clash, two protesters from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an environmental group chasing the Japanese whalers, tied their boat to an iceberg for protection from icy winds as they drifted in fog after the inflatable was damaged.
The Japanese whaling boat, the Nisshin Maru, joined the search for the men, who were rescued safely eight hours later.
The group then resumed its pursuit of Japan's whaling fleet, a senior official at Japan's Fisheries Agency said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Whaling-acid-attack-terrorist-act-Japan/2007/02/09/1170524300133.html


Branson-Gore crusade
Airline tycoon Richard Branson announced on Friday a $25 million prize for the first person to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming.
Flanked by climate campaigners former US Vice President Al Gore and British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell, Branson said he hoped the prize would spur innovative and creative thought to save mankind from self-destruction.
"Man created the problem and therefore man should solve the problem," he told a news conference to reveal the Virgin Earth Challenge.
"Unless we can devise a way of removing CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the earth's atmosphere we will lose half of all species on earth, all the coral reefs, 100 million people will be displaced, farmlands will become deserts and rain forests wastelands."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/bransongore-crusade/2007/02/10/1170524306987.html


Jakarta's future under cloud as water retreats
RECEDING floods across Jakarta exposed a rank, muddy mess of sodden belongings littering countless streets and homes.
The deluge that inundated most of the city also revealed gaping flaws in Indonesian planning and administration, and raised questions of abandoning the capital altogether.
As residents began salvaging and beginning anew, anger grew at the lack of help from officials at all levels. No one took responsibility and relief agencies were unco-ordinated.
The President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, did not intervene but called on governors around the city to co-ordinate future flood mitigation efforts.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jakartas-future-under-cloud-as-water-retreats/2007/02/09/1170524304080.html


China's blue bloods ignore call of politics
READERS who made it to the last paragraph of the recent Herald obituary of the legendary Chinese Red Army marshal Bo Yibo will have learnt an odd, but illustrative, factoid about today's China.
The veteran revolutionary's grandson is attending Harrow, the famous English public school.
The boy's father is China's Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai, who rose to his position via a stint as governor of the Manchurian province of Liaoning, where he was known for his toughness against dissidents.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/chinas-blue-bloods-ignore-call-of-politics/2007/02/09/1170524304074.html



Police mission to Solomons at risk of collapse
THE Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands is close to breakdown, with the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, taking the unprecedented step of appealing directly to the people of the Solomons to stop their Government from expelling the regional police force.
With communication lines broken between Australia and the Solomons Prime Minister, Manessah Sogavare, Mr Downer published his appeal in an open letter in the country's media.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/police-mission-to-solomons-at-risk-of-collapse/2007/02/09/1170524304062.html


Islamists label UK a police state
FIVE men were to appear in court yesterday charged with terrorism offences after raids in Birmingham over an alleged plot to behead a Muslim British soldier and show a video of his execution on the internet.
"Five men from Birmingham have been charged overnight with offences under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and Terrorism Act 2006," a police spokeswoman said. Another man is being held for questioning.
The charges against the men, aged 29 to 43, came amid increasing controversy over the arrest last week of nine British men of Pakistani origin and accusations that Britain had become a police state for Muslims.
On Thursday anti-terrorism police arrested the controversial London Muslim Abu Izzadeen, who last September was watched by millions on television as he heckled the Home Secretary, John Reid, at a public meeting.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/islamists-label-uk-a-police-state/2007/02/09/1170524304068.html


Carr: don't ease rules on new marinas
THE former premier Bob Carr has been so upset by a plan to strip the Maritime Authority of its front-line planning powers over Sydney Harbour that he has lobbied to extract a promise from the Government that the plan will be dumped.
Mr Carr, whose government placed a moratorium on commercial harbour marina development six years ago, was so disturbed at revelations in Monday's Herald about cabinet approving a new draft policy that he has devoted much of his week to lobbying senior Government MPs.
He confirmed to the Herald yesterday that he had "contacted people in the Government seeking clarification of to what extent a new draft policy would depart from the previous one".

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/carr-dont-ease-rules-on-new-marinas/2007/02/09/1170524303922.html


Coalmine 'too noisy for locals'
A DEPARTMENT of Environment recommendation that a giant coalmine in the Hunter Valley not proceed unless nearby residents were bought out has been watered down by a panel of experts established by the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor.
The noise and vibration from the Anvil Hill mine proposed by Centennial Coal represented "an unacceptable impact on an entire community", according to the Department of Environment and Conservation.
Nothing could be done to cut the noise likely to be suffered by people living in 82 nearby homes, so Centennial should buy the houses, said the department.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/coalmine-too-noisy-for-locals/2007/02/09/1170524303955.html


Climate of fear drives Prime Minister's conversion
Call me a narky old cynic, but I can't help thinking that the Prime Minister's new-found interest in global warming has a lot to do with his plummeting opinion poll ratings and very little to do with a sudden, sinking conviction at Kirribilli House that the end of the world might be more nigh than we would like.
For years, Howard and his ministers - cheered on by their claque of right-wing media ratbags - have scorned warnings of climate change as no more than a wicked plot to destroy capitalism. The mounting pile of scientific evidence advancing theory and fact of a warming planet mattered not.
What had their knickers knotted was the sort of people who were sounding the alarm bells. As ever with the Tories, it was not what they didn't like so much as who they didn't like. Aloft in the ivory tower, they could see the class enemy advancing, a Tolkien horde of bearded tree-huggers, drug-addled university students, amazonian women activists in very bad hand-knits, Greenpeace warriors, Herald letter writers, doctors' wives and Senator Bob Brown, all of them to be bucketed out of reflex habit. The pejorative "enviro-Nazis" was flung about with gay abandon.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climate-of-fear-drives-prime-ministers-conversion/2007/02/09/1170524294887.html


Tiger Airways not spoiling tactic
SINGAPORE AIRLINES has denied it is using its part-owned budget carrier Tiger Airways in a plot to undermine the $11.1 billion private equity bid for Qantas.
Four years after Singapore Air abandoned plans to establish a domestic airline in Australia, the carrier rejected any notion on Friday that it was behind Tiger's plans to enter the Australian domestic market.
"We addressed the issue of our future involvement in the domestic market back in 2003," said a Singapore Air spokesman, Stephen Forshaw, who stressed that Tiger Airways was run entirely independently from his airline.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/tiger-airways-not-spoiling-tactic/2007/02/09/1170524296603.html


Inside the $50b battle for America's office empire
"ROSES are red, violets are blue; I hear a rumour, is it true?"
That strained line of poetry set off the fiercest buyout battle since the epic contest for RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s, a struggle that was captured in the book Barbarians at the Gate.
The line, written by the real estate mogul Samuel Zell in an email message last month, invited a rival bid topping a $US48.50-a-share offer for his Equity Office Properties, the biggest office landlord in the nation, with buildings in Manhattan, Chicago, Atlanta and other major cities.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/inside-the-50b-battle-for-americas-office-empire/2007/02/09/1170524296618.html


Mainstream nakedness
As we celebrate the annual festival of overpriced roses in the coming week, it's likely that the 32nd birthday of Australia's first legal nudie beach will go by without a peep.
Granted recent nude news has been dominated by reports of Christina Aguilera spending Sundays at home with her husband stark naked. Then again, there's not much to peep about. But for a relaxed and comfortable country we've made very little public nudity progress since 1975, when Don Dunstan declared Maslin Beach near Adelaide officially bare. Free-range nakedness is relegated to Leunig cartoons, super-leftie protesters and card-carrying naturists.
High culture, strippers and university college "bonding" sessions also get a look-in. But Queensland doesn't even have a legal clothes-optional beach; streakers get arrested at the cricket; and while we don't like banning films for violence, we'll yank 'em out of cinemas quick smart if they show too much naked body.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/mainstream-nakedness/2007/02/09/1170524294875.html


Unholy alliance
Roulla Yiacoumi looks at how the porn industry is driving technology - and vice versa.
EVERY January, thousands of gadget geeks from around the world gather in Las Vegas to witness the unveiling of new toys at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. In an adjacent hall in the Sands Expo and Convention Centre is a show of toys of a very different kind - the Adult Entertainment Expo.
The venue is not the only thing the two shows have in common. Each attracts a predominantly male crowd, both are part of an industry that generates billions in revenue and each are trying hard to get more women involved as consumers.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/an-unholy-alliance/2007/02/07/1170524129445.html


Covers come off Apple's new Sydney store
Detailed plans for Apple's first Australian retail store, soon to pop up on the corner of George and King streets in the Sydney CBD, have been revealed.
The shopfront will spread over three levels of a building being built at 367 George Street, architectural drawings first revealed by website ifoAppleStore.com show.
Each of the levels will have a floor space of around 445-square-metres, and hanging over the store's entrance will be a large white Apple logo, suspended inside a transparent glass facade.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/covers-come-off-apples-new-sydney-store/2007/02/09/1170524276066.html


Murdoch/FOX keen to hang onto MySpace

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/murdoch-keen-to-hang-onto-myspace/2007/02/08/1170524232308.html


British Airways introduces baggage charge
British Airways (BA) introduces new baggage charges next week which have been criticised by Help the Aged charity which says they will hit older customers.
From Tuesday, passengers face paying up to 240 pounds ($A608) if they want to check in more than one bag on a long haul return flight.
BA said the new baggage policy, announced last June, would be simpler and only affect 2 percent of its customers.
"We are changing some of our excess baggage policies from next week, but our overall baggage allowances remain highly competitive when compared with other airlines," a BA spokesman said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/british-airways-introduces-baggage-charge/2007/02/09/1170524269057.html


'Australia' up for sale
A Kuwaiti firm has said it was negotiating with regional and international investors to sell all or part of the "Australia" segment it had purchased in Dubai's The World property project.
Investment Dar, a publicly-quoted company on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, two years ago bought the Australian continent on The World, some 300 islands shaped like a world map off Dubai's coast.
The company said in a statement posted on the KSE website that its subsidiary, Oqyana Real Estate, which is managing the project is "holding talks to sell all or significant parts of Australian continent."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/australia-up-for-sale/2007/02/08/1170524205827.html


Upsurge of violence in resort town
More than a dozen armed assailants staged and videotaped simultaneous attacks against two offices of the state attorney general in Acapulco on Tuesday, killing at least seven people in this Pacific resort plagued by drug violence.
The attacks took place in two neighborhoods about nine miles north of the tourist zone before 11 a.m., said Enrique Gil Mercado, special prosecutor for the attorney general's office in the state of Guerrero, which includes Acapulco.
The gunmen were dressed in military uniforms and pretended to be conducting a weapons check, said Erit Montufar, director-general of the attorney general's investigative police offices in Guerrero.
Montufar said an assailant in one office asked: "Are you the only ones here?" At the other office, a gunmen asked: "Are these all the weapons you have?"

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/upsurge-of-violence-in-resort-town/2007/02/08/1170524200529.html


Tourist goes on anti-Semitic rampage
An Austrian court sentenced a 24-year-old Croatian man to 15 months in jail on Wednesday for smashing up a Jewish school with a crowbar in an anti-Semitic rampage last year. The man, whose name was not released pending a possible appeal, told the court "there are two many Jews in this country" and justice officials said his failure to show any remorse for the attack contributed to the jail sentence.
He was convicted of causing severe property damage, which insurers put at 150,000 euros ($190,000). The Lauder Chabad School was unoccupied at the time and no one was injured.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tourist-goes-on-antisemitic-rampage/2007/02/08/1170524205687.html



New Zealand Herald

Climate challenge tipped to heat up the global economy

Climate change will boost the global economy and dominate financial markets over the next 25 years, a leading investment bank has predicted.
In a new report, Barclays Capital challenges the conventional wisdom that global warming will have a devastating impact on economic growth.
It believes the need to increase energy capacity by 50 per cent by 2035, while simultaneously reducing dependence on hydrocarbons, will spark an "energy revolution" reminiscent of the technology revolution which led to the dot.com boom.
"If ever the time were ripe for such an energy revolution, it is now," said Tim Bond, global head of asset allocation at Barclays Capital, and author of the report.
"And like all historical adoptions of general purpose technologies, the process should prove immensely stimulative to economic growth."Mr Bond says that those who couch the climate change debate in terms of the cost to growth are underestimating the impact of an energy revolution.
Last year's Stern Review concluded that if temperatures rise by five degrees celsius, up to 10 per cent of global output could be lost.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10422999


Branson puts up cash for clean air
Virgin Airlines boss Sir Richard Branson has announced a multi-million pound prize for the best way of removing thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The prize - around £10 million ($28.5 million) - will go to the most convincing invention for actively absorbing and storing the globally warming gas in the atmosphere.
Sir Richard has drawn up a distinguished panel of judges to oversee the prize, including James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia theory; James Hansen, the Nasa researcher who first warned the US Government of climate change; and Tim Flannery, the acclaimed Australian zoologist and explorer.
Last September, Sir Richard announced at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York that he would invest all his profits from his five airlines and train companies - which he estimated to be US$3 billion over 10 years - into ways of developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423232



Whalers and protesters join to search for missing activists
Japanese whalers joined anti-whaling activists in the cold oceans around Antarctica in the hunt for two missing activists in an inflatable.The pair, an American and an Australian, disappeared in heavy fog while operating from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd's vessel Farley Mowat.The ship and her Zodiacs were confronting the Japanese whaling fleet.The Sea Shepherd Society sought help from both the whaling fleet and New Zealand authorities to find the missing dinghy. The pair have since been found.A spokesman for the Sea Shepherd said the pair were well but happy to be found."They had radio problems and were making there way back to the ship when the fog set in. They huddled down and waited to be found," he said.The inflatable was carrying a GPS locator and VHS radio.The fog prevented Sea Shepherd from using helicopters to undertake an aerial search.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423192


Survivors rope in iceberg's aid
Two anti-whaling protesters lost in frigid Antarctic waters lassoed an iceberg to protect them from the wind as they drifted in heavy fog.
Karl Nielsen of Perth and American John Gravois were found yesterday afternoon seven hours after becoming lost in the inflatable boat they had been using to frustrate Japan's annual whale hunt.
Mr Gravois said they had been trying to foul the propeller of a Japanese whaling ship with a net, but got too close and their small craft collided with the ship's massive hull.
The inflatable - part of an ongoing protest by the Sea Shepherd conservation group - soon began taking on water and could not keep up with other, similar craft involved in the campaign.
The pair were quickly left behind but the real blow came when they found their radio would not work, Mr Gravois said after being hauled safely on board Sea Shepherd's flagship, the Farley Mowat.
The Los Angeles man said yesterday that the hours spent in icy temperatures, enveloped in fog and cut off from any form of help, had been "pretty hairy".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423308


Snow in winter takes UK transport by surprise
LONDON - Millions of commuters were braced for delays on their journey home after heavy snow caused delays on planes, trains and roads on Thursday.
While the cold snap gave many children a surprise day off in the snow, passengers at several airports endured long waits as workers struggled to clear runways.
Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Luton and Stansted were closed for part of the day because the wintry showers made it too dangerous for planes to take off or land.
The Met Office said many areas received 5 to 10 cm of snow, although the snowfall eased during the day.
Stansted Airport was among the worst affected.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423138


Snow start to day in the UK
Friday February 09, 2007
Britain was hit by travel chaos yesterday as much of the country was covered by a thick blanket of snow at morning rush-hour.
Luton Airport had to be closed for up to four hours and one lane of the M25 motorway was blocked in Hertfordshire.
Birmingham and Gatwick flights were also affected. Schools were closed in Birmingham.



Flood hit Far North towns reconnected
A temporary crossing over a stream in the Far North has been created, reconnecting communities cut off from the rest of New Zealand by flooding this week.The Mitimiti Bridge, north of Te Kao, was closed on Wednesday after severe flooding washed away an embankment.The collapse effectively cut off several communities -- about 500 people -- as the bridge is part of State Highway 1, the only major road in the isolated area.Transit NZ's northern operations manager Joseph Flanagan said a temporary stone crossing had been laid across the stream next to the bridge."This crossing has allowed us to reopen SH1 and communities who were previously cut-off to the north of the Mitimiti stream have access once more," he said."We have also successfully repaired the cracks in the Mitimiti bridge and work is progressing well on restoring the southern embankment. Work will be completed by Sunday as planned when the bridge will be reopened."Mr Flanagan, who visited the worksite with Associate Minister of Transport Judith Tizard today, said Transit was also repairing a number of slips to the north of the bridge.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423219



Flood-hit bridge to be ready by Sunday
Transit New Zealand said today repairs to a bridge linking Cape Reinga and other far northern areas with the rest of New Zealand should be finished by Sunday.
The Mitimiti Bridge, north of Te Kao, was closed yesterday after severe flooding washed away the embankment.
The collapse effectively cut off several communities -- about 500 people -- as the bridge carries State Highway 1, the only major road in the isolated area.
Transit's Northern operations manager Joseph Flanagan said today repairs were expected to be complete by Sunday so the road and bridge could be reopened.
"We are fortunate that it is the embankment and not the bridge that has been damaged by the flooding as we are able to get the job completed much faster this way.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10423029


20 die in floods, more rain on the way
JAKARTA - Indonesia's capital faced more misery yesterday from floods that officials estimate have killed at least 20 people and displaced 340,000, as swollen rivers and canals spilled muddy water on to the city streets.
The flooding in parts of the tropical city of nine million people has been up to 4m deep, causing blackouts, cutting telephone lines and blocking key roads.
Floods are common in Indonesia during the rainy season but the devastation of recent days has been the worst in five years and meteorologists have warned the city could suffer heavy rains until the end of the month.
"In Jakarta, Bekasi and Tangerang, 340,000 people have been displaced," Rustam Pakaya, a Health Ministry official, said by telephone, referring to two areas around the capital.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10422596



Science great mourned by two nations
New Zealand and American flags flew at half-mast outside the Hunter Building at Victoria University's Kelburn campus yesterday to mark the passing of one of New Zealand's greatest scientists.
Nobel Laureate Professor Alan MacDiarmid, a Victoria alumnus, died on Wednesday after a fall at home in Philadelphia while preparing to travel to New Zealand. He was 79.
In 2000 Professor MacDiarmid became the country's third Nobel Prize winner (after Sir Ernest Rutherford and Maurice Wilkins), winning the chemistry prize for his work with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa on making plastics conduct electricity.
The breakthrough paved the way for cheap plastic batteries and light-emitting diodes used in television screens and cellphones, among other things.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10423058



Winner of fishing contest bolts as organisers investigate
Organisers of a fishing contest are offering a reward after they suspect foul play in a competition.
They are offering a $500 reward to anyone who can prove the winning fish in the Mokihinui angling competition was actually caught in a set net and was not fair game on the end of a hook.
The Fishing Paper editor Daryl Crimp, of Nelson, said the judges were highly suspicious of the person who had claimed the $600 prize for the biggest overall snapper just one hour before the 10-day competition officially ended.
However, they felt obliged to pay out."
What happened was that someone rang up about 2.30pm on the last day of the competition and asked whether it was still open. He then registered at 3pm and 'caught' the winning snapper a little later," Mr Crimp said.The "winner" was within the designated boundaries -- but some distance from other anglers -- when the fish was landed and he was not known as a "rod and reel man".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423200


Downer warns Solomon Islanders of threats to peacekeeping
HONIARA - Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned Solomon Islanders that attempts are being made to undermine Australian efforts to help their country.
In a letter to Solomon Islanders published in the country's newspapers today, Downer said obstacles were being placed in the path of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (Ramsi).
He also warned against Solomons government plans to re-arm the nation's police against the wishes of most Solomon Islanders.
Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been embroiled in a series of diplomatic spats with Canberra since his election in May and has threatened to oust the Australian component of Ramsi.
The mission arrived in mid-2003 to restore law and order and good governance following years of ethnic unrest.
Downer said the Solomons was once again at a crossroads but most Solomon Islanders supported Ramsi and wanted the mission to stay.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423183


NZ Super Fund invested in nuclear bombs making – Greens
The Green Party dropped a bombshell today, saying the New Zealand Super Fund is investing taxpayers' money in nuclear weaponry manufacturing.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the fund had invested millions of dollars in businesses that the Norway Pension Fund refused to support, for ethical reasons.
Dr Norman has produced a report comparing investments between the New Zealand and Norway fund.
"There are 12 companies that the NZ Super Fund invests in that Norway has blacklisted for ethical reasons," he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423170


Guarded hope greets North Korea nuclear proposal
BEIJING - With guarded optimism in the air, six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program will consider a draft agreement on Friday that promises rare but limited steps towards curbing Pyongyang's atomic ambitions.
Envoys to the talks in China's capital saw hope that North Korea would accept initial measures to rein in its nuclear activities in return for aid and security assurances broadly spelled out in a September 2005 deal.
China was due to circulate the draft late on Thursday or early on Friday, the chief US negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, told reporters. Russia's RIA news agency said it was already in negotiators' hands.
"We hope we can achieve some kind of joint statement here," Hill said. "The delegations are coalescing around some of the themes that we believe should be the basis for a first step in implementing the September agreement."
Even if agreement is reached, it will be just one part of a complicated puzzle involving financial disagreements, North Korea's energy and economic needs, and distrust between Pyongyang and Washington over their ultimate intentions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423189


Iran says it will target US interests if attacked
TEHRAN - Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday the Islamic Republic would target US interests around the world if it came under attack over its disputed nuclear programme.
His comments came as an Iranian naval commander said Revolutionary Guards had test fired missiles that could sink "big warships" in the Gulf, the waterway where a second US aircraft carrier is now heading. The White House said it did not see that as a direct assault on US ships.
Iran and the United States are locked in a war of words over Tehran's nuclear energy programme, which Washington says is being channelled into bomb-building, a charge Tehran denies.
"(Iran's) enemies know well that any aggression will lead to a reaction from all sides in the Iranian nation on the aggressors and their interests around the world," state television quoted Khamenei as saying.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423135



Five men arrest in UK on terror charges
Five men have been charged under anti-terrorism laws after a series of police raids in the central English city of Birmingham last week, British police said on Friday.
A sixth man was released without charge, while another man was still being held for questioning. Two other men were released without charge earlier this week.
"Five men from Birminghamn have been charged overnight with offences under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006," police said in a joint statement with the Crown Prosecution Service. No immediate details of the charges were available.
The men, aged 29, 30, 31, 36 and 43, were due to appear in court.
Detectives investigating a suspected plot to kidnap a British Muslim soldier arrested nine men in raids on Wednesday last week in Birmingham, Britain's second largest city and one of its most ethnically diverse with a large Muslim population.
Britain has been on its second highest alert level since four British Muslims killed 52 people on London's transport system in July 2005 in Western Europe's first Islamist suicide bombings.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423207


White House says 'we're not invading Iran'
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush and his administration are not contemplating invading Iran, the White House said overnight.
"I've said it, the secretary of defence has said it, the president has said it: We're not invading Iran," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday his country would target US interests if it came under attack.
"He's spinning a hypothetical about something that is not contemplated," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423124


Muslim cleric's arrest prompts 'witch hunt' claims
A radical cleric who said Muslim members of the British armed forces should be executed has been arrested by police, sparking claims of a 'witch-hunt' against his community.
Abu Izzadeen, 31, also gained notoriety when he denounced John Reid as "an enemy of Islam and Muslims" when the Home Secretary visited east London last year.
Scotland Yard said he was being questioned on suspicion of allegedly encouraging terrorism.
But the radical Muslim leader, Anjem Choudhury, said the arrest was further proof of a "witch-hunt" against the community.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423129


Three Iraqi diplomats seek asylum in Australia
CANBERRA - Three Iraqi diplomats and their families have asked for humanitarian asylum in Australia, refusing orders to return to their conflict-racked country.
Chief defence attache Brigadier-General Sabah al-Kareen Zebon Fureje and two staff, Colonel Kamal J Askander and Ala' al-Amiri, refused to go home after the defence office within the Canberra Embassy was shut down in mid-December.
The claim may embarrass the Australian Government, which insists that Iraq is making progress towards democracy, despite the country's bloody post-war insurgency.
The bad news yesterday continued unabated in Iraq: seven people died and 12 were wounded in two bombings last night at Suwaira, south of Baghdad; all seven crew members and passengers aboard a United States Marine helicopter were killed, the fifth such aircraft to crash in Iraq in less than three weeks. And with the promised military surge under way in Baghdad, US-Iraqi forces last night raided the Health Ministry and arrested deputy health minister Hakim Zamili. He is a senior member of the political group loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
…But al-Sadr, the nationalist Shiite cleric whom the Mehdi army follows, is determined to avoid a military confrontation with US forces implementing the new security plan to regain control of Baghdad. Sadrist officials say they would allow the US Army into their bastion of Sadr City, home to two million people, but this probably (PROBABLY. That is a word all too conveniently used to maintain the hate of the Shi’ites.) means the militiamen would just go underground. (There is no proof anyone is going underground.)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423071


Former Aceh rebel gains new cause
Friday February 09, 2007
BANDA ACEH - A former separatist leader was sworn in as governor of Indonesia's once-rebellious Aceh province yesterday, further cementing a peace deal that ended almost three decades of war.
Irwandi Yusuf, 46, who escaped jail when the 2004 tsunami struck his prison, was sworn in with a copy of Islam's holy Koran above his head, pledging to be loyal to Indonesia's state ideology and constitution. Hundreds of Acehnese who came to the Parliament building in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh to witness the ceremony applauded after the swearing-in.
Yusuf won with 38 per cent of the vote, defeating seven other candidates including two former generals.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423062


US helicopter crash near Baghdad kills seven
BAGHDAD - All seven US troops aboard a military helicopter were killed when it crashed near Baghdad on Wednesday, the fifth such aircraft to be lost in Iraq in less than three weeks, a US defence official said.
"I can tell you that the initial report was seven," the official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official did not say what caused the crash, but Iraqi witnesses reported seeing the helicopter in trouble during gunfire from the ground.
Five such aircraft have been lost in Iraq in nearly three weeks, killing 28 US servicemen and private security contractors. The US military said on Sunday it was adjusting its tactics after four helicopters had been shot down.
The high number lost in such a short time has raised questions about whether militants have changed tactics or are using more sophisticated weapons.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10422989


Palestinians reach deal on unity government
MECCA, Saudi Arabia - Rival Palestinian factions agreed on the formation of a unity government at crisis talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, an official said.
"We have agreed to form a national unity government. The agreement will be signed very soon," Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jamal al-Shobaki said.
The Islamist group Hamas, which won the last Palestinian elections, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction earlier agreed on the distribution of key cabinet posts.
Abbas, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met for the crisis talks after internecine fighting that has killed more than 90 Palestinians since December.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423126



Nelson cannabis grower gets to keep property
A Nelson man has been jailed after being caught running a sophisticated cannabis growing operation but was spared having to forfeit his property.
In the High Court at Wellington today, Kelvin Russell Proctor, 49, was sentenced on two charges of cultivating cannabis and one of illegally possessing a pistol.
The court was told police raided his Nelson property in August last year and found two separate growing areas, one of which had six cannabis plants about 30cm tall.
The growing areas included a concrete tank with fans and lights installed, and an outside room with hydroponic growing equipment inside but no plants.
While searching Proctor's house and property they also found a loaded .22 calibre rifle that had been fashioned into a pistol next to his bed, and the remains of harvested cannabis plants in a compost heap. There was also a security camera on the property.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423193



Arthritis drug 'has fewer side-effects'
A new arthritis drug made by Merck & Co. causes fewer stomach disorders and complications than an older painkiller, researchers said today.
They analysed the results of three clinical trials to assess the safety of Merck's drug etoricoxib -- sold under the name Arcoxia -- as compared with diclofenac.
Arcoxia is a COX-2 inhibitor while diclofenac belongs to an older class of therapies known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs, which includes aspirin and ibuprofen.
"Our results indicate that the rate of clinically important upper gastrointestinal events was lower with the COX-2 selective inhibitor etoricoxib than it was with the traditional NSAID diclofenac," said Dr. Loren Laine of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
There were fewer ulcers in patients taking the new drug and more patients continued to take the treatment, she added.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10423176


Cullen takes aim at mortgage holders
Finance Minister Michael Cullen has floated the idea of a levy on mortgages to drive down inflation.
Fixed rate mortgages mean that Reserve Bank interest rate rises take a few years to have an impact while a levy would be an additional interest rate charge on all borrowers.
The idea was raised in a Treasury-Reserve Bank report and Dr Cullen said it had merit.
"I think that's one area which is worth further investigation at this point," he told Radio New Zealand today.
"Even then my strong reservation is it impacts primarily upon homeowners with substantial mortgages and there's a degree of inequity in that but then that's always been true of monetary policy."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10423144


Almost no chance of levy on mortgages – economist
A leading bank economist sees almost no chance of a levy being introduced on fixed rate mortgages.
Today Finance Minister Michael Cullen said such a levy was worth further investigation.
But BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander was sceptical about the chances of it being introduced.
"I put the chances of a fixed rate levy coming in close to zero because it would affect something like 1.2 million people out there, or at least that's the number of loans we have," he told Radio New Zealand.
"There wouldn't be many votes in it."
Dr Cullen's comments on Radio New Zealand today caused a dip in the value of the NZ dollar, from around US68.65c shortly before 8am to about US68.40c, 30 minutes later.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10423154


YouTube founders split US$650m from Google payday
SAN FRANCISCO - YouTube's two founders stand to divide shares of stock now valued at around US$650 million, Google said in a regulatory filing today detailing the payout from its US$1.65 billion acquisition.
Chad Hurley, chief executive of the online video sharing phenomenon, received 694,087 of Google common stock worth around US$326 million, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Co-founder Steve Chen received Google common stock valued at a similar amount, including 625,366 shares directly owned and another 68,721 shares held in a trust.
Sequoia Capital, the sole venture capital backer of YouTube, stands to receive around US$442 million in Google shares based on the US$470.01 closing price of the Web search leader on Wednesday.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10423137


Veterinarian monitored for possible bird flu
LONDON - A worker involved in the cull of 160,000 turkeys in Britain's first outbreak of deadly bird flu is being monitored in hospital with a mild respiratory complaint, the Health Protection Agency has said.
British media said the person was a government veterinarian, but the agency would not confirm this.
It said a number of tests were being carried out, one of which was for possible contamination with the H5N1 avian flu virus.
"It is a person who was involved after the outbreak so would have been issued with full protective gear and already be on a course of antivirals, an HPA spokesman said.
"The person is not seriously ill - it could be normal winter flu - and it is highly unlikely was exposed to H5N1. Among the tests is one for H5N1. We should get the results tomorrow," he added.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10422825


Cats can spread bird flu, UN agency warns
ROME - Cats should be kept away from areas affected by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus as they can pick up and spread the disease, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday.
Cats at infected farms should be kept indoors, the agency said, as evidence from Indonesia and other countries showed they could catch bird flu from eating infected poultry or wild birds.
The worst fear is that cats could become a host for the virus where it could mutate into a form that may cause a human pandemic, the FAO said.
"Cats could act as intermediary hosts in the spread of the H5N1 virus between species," said FAO's Assistant Director-General Alexander Mueller.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423125



Fire destroys Argentina's 'Cardboard City'
BUENOS AIRES - A fire devastated a shantytown on the edge of the Argentine capital on Thursday, forcing about 300 families from their makeshift homes and injuring several residents, officials said.
Television pictures showed weeping residents rushing to save furniture, refrigerators and other goods from their homes, as black smoke billowed over the shantytown, built under a highway on the fringes of Buenos Aires.
"There's a team looking for a place to take the people so they can have a bit of peace and get treated by psychologists and social workers to help them get through this terrible moment," a city government spokesman said.
The city government's health service said 31 people were taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and emotional distress.
The shantytown is known as "Cardboard City" because most of its residents make a living by gathering discarded cardboard boxes and selling them to recycling centres. It is common to see entire families sifting through trash throughout Buenos Aires.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423174


S.Africa launches biggest Aids vaccine trial
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa, burdened with one of the world's major HIV/Aids epidemics, unveiled plans on Thursday for its biggest Aids vaccine trial.
The government-backed South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) said the Phambili trial would be conducted on 3000 HIV negative people aged between 18 and 35.
It will test whether the MRKAd5 HIV-1 vaccine developed by drug firm Merck & Co either prevents HIV infection or lowers HIV levels in those who become infected, SAAVI said in a statement.
It will also measure the effectiveness of the drug on the C strain of HIV prevalent in South Africa, whose population of 45 million has an HIV infection rate of around one in nine.
The vaccine was developed for the B strain and has undergone testing elsewhere in Africa, the Americas and Australia.
"This test vaccine is one of the most promising currently available internationally," said Professor Anthony MBewu, president of the state-funded Medical Research Council.
"South Africa's conduct of this trial is a significant and exciting step forward in our search for a successful vaccine against HIV/Aids."


Catholic Brazil to put condom machines in schools
BRASILIA - Brazil's health ministry vowed on Tuesday to proceed with plans to put condom vending machines in schools and sought to defuse criticism with a new study showing that parents in the world's largest Roman Catholic nation approve of the idea.
The study, conducted by the United Nations body UNESCO, concluded that two-thirds of the parents surveyed like having the government offer teenagers free condoms and sex education.
The findings could come as a surprise to some Brazilian parents. Most of the population of 185 million is Catholic and the church, which remains influential despite losing ground to fast-growing evangelical churches, is opposed to birth control and preaches sexual abstinence until marriage.
Brazil's health ministry has been offering free condoms and sex education for more than a decade in some schools as part of an Aids-prevention programme that has been recognised worldwide for its success in avoiding an epidemic of the sexually transmitted disease.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10422770


Priest gunned down
5:15AM Friday February 09, 2007
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels have shot dead a Hindu priest who welcomed President Mahinda Rajapakse to a former guerrilla bastion in the island's east.
Selliah Parameswar was dragged out of his house in Batticaloa district and shot dead by a group of unidentified gunmen.


US soldier to be tried over agent's killing
ROME - A Rome judge has ordered a United States soldier to stand trial for killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005 while he was escorting a freed hostage to safety.
Mario Lozano, of the US Army's 69th Infantry Regiment, was charged with voluntary homicide for shooting Nicola Calipari at a checkpoint near Baghdad Airport.
Lozano will almost certainly be tried in absentia. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said it was "a fair assumption" the US military would not hand over Lozano for trial.
"As far as the Defence Department is concerned, we and the Ministry of Defence in Italy consider this a closed matter." Both countries have called the death an accident.
Italy's independent prosecutors disagreed and Judge Sante Spinaci granted their request to charge Lozano also on two counts of attempted murder - one for the other Italian agent driving the vehicle and the second for the freed hostage inside.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423063


Giuliani likely to face attack for 9/11 effort
Email this storyPrint this story Friday February 09, 2007
By Daniel Trotta
Former New York Mayor and presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani gained fame for his performance after the September 11 attacks, but charges he also made serious blunders could give ammunition to rival candidates.
Republican Giuliani has all but formally declared his candidacy and polls show he is a strong contender, largely due to his steely and comforting leadership that day in 2001.
But Giuliani made mistakes handling emergency services that may have cost lives, say the co-authors of a book last year Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11. Of the 2992 people killed in the hijacked plane attacks, 2759 died at New York's World Trade Centre.
Such criticism raises the possibility the former Mayor may be attacked on his perceived strength, as 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry was when his Vietnam War record was called into question.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423059


Clark, Howard not banned from Fiji
Neither Prime Minister Helen Clark nor Australian Prime Minister John Howard is banned from Fiji, says the acting head of the Fiji Prime Minister's Office, Parmesh Chand.
Nor is Foreign Minister Winston Peters, he said.
Mr Chand is himself banned from New Zealand along with other senior officials.
It was also reported last week after TV3 interviewed the military commander and interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama that Mr Peters was banned.
But in a statement to the Herald yesterday, Mr Chand said: "I can confirm that NZ's Foreign Affairs Minister, Winston Peters as well as Prime Ministers Helen Clark and John Howard are not on any list as such of people either restricted from entering or departing Fiji. This is the official position of Fiji Government."


A Kiwi in the White House
When Peter S. Watson talks, it's a discourse that follows a looping arc - so long it sometimes circles the globe before it gets to the point. Such convoluted conversation normally loses the listener, but this is strangely absorbing.
Then again, it's not every day you meet a New Zealander who's served in the White House, reporting directly to the President of the United States.
Watson was in New Zealand last month to receive an award, with broadcaster Paul Holmes, from the Woodrow Wilson Centre - "a living memorial to American president Woodrow Wilson", the icon of one-worldism.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423252


Renaissance of the dark arts
When Raphael Kogun's uncle fell ill two years ago, his brothers knew exactly what to do. They called in a witchdoctor to find out who was responsible for their relative becoming "bagarup" - pidgin for sick, from the English "buggered up".
The finger of blame was pointed at a middle-aged couple from Kogun's village in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, who were accused of being possessed by evil spirits and placing a curse on the man.
"We ran after them and we chopped their heads off with an axe and a bush knife," said Kogun, a 27-year-old farmer from Goroka, in Eastern Highlands province.
"I felt sorry for them but they were witches, they deserved to die. If they were still alive they could hurt people with their magic."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423203


Tracey Barnett: Click of a mouse takes you into the war zone
All I have to do is click on to my home computer and suddenly I'm there, inside war. This is no game. It is real, like television gone helter-skelter.
There are no filters, no news editors, no context. I don't know anything about what I'm seeing, I just know I can't take my eyes off the screen.
I watch as a young, slightly overweight man with glasses smiles and jokes with the cameraman. There is an Arabic logo and titles against a backdrop of emotive, traditional singing.
He gets into a fairly nondescript car and the camera zooms in to a close-up of his face, relaxed and laughing. It pans to the seat beside him and we see explosives filling both the passenger side and the back foot well. He waves to the camera.
We cut to a military roadblock in the distance. His car enters the frame as we hear chanting by the cameraman get louder and louder.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423230


Minister to marry in gay union
Conservation Minister Chris Carter is marrying his long-term partner Peter Kaiser today in a civil union attended by Prime Minister Helen Clark.
The ceremony is understood to be taking place at the Waitakere City Council building, with 180 guests.
The Speaker of Parliament, Margaret Wilson, and Cabinet ministers are also attending, as are many of Mr Kaiser's family, who have made the trip from Holland. Mr Kaiser, the principal of Tirimoana Primary School in Te Atatu South, has Dutch ancestry.
Last night, Mr Carter said: "It is a chance to celebrate our relationship with our friends and family."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423319


Child's Horror Life
Social workers came under fire after an investigation into the abuse of a disabled 4-year-old girl described by a detective as "one of the worst cases" he had seen.
The girl, who has cerebral palsy, suffered at the hands of her mother, Kimberly Harte, 23, and her boyfriend, Samuel Duncan, 27, from west London, who were sentenced to a total of 22 years in jail.
The "systematic violence" included pouring boiling water over her hands, kicking her in the groin and locking her naked in the lavatory every night, sometimes forcing her to eat her own faeces.
Although the girl was initially removed by Westminster City Council's social services after domestic violence between Harte and Duncan, she was returned home despite the concerns of her foster carers. Within four weeks, Duncan broke her arm.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10423236


Peaks, sounds, parks and islands tops in Kiwi eyes
Visiting Mitre Peak and Milford Sound is the country's No 1 "must-do" experience - but most Kiwis reckon there's no great reason to visit Parliament.
Or so says a 101 must-do list of the best sights, attractions and adventures on offer in New Zealand.
The Automobile Association five-month survey garnered 20,000 votes from the public which resulted in few surprises among the top choices such as Doubtful Sound, Bay of Islands, Fiordland and Abel Tasman National Park.
At the other end of the scale, Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa and the Rugby Museum in Palmerston North rate just above the Beehive. And all of them rate lower than the Hundertwasser toilet in the Far North town of Kawakawa.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423289


Aroha is missing her Key friend
Aroha Ireland returned to Auckland's Wesley Intermediate this week to be mobbed by schoolmates wanting her autograph.
"Some were teasing me and kept coming up for autographs," said the 12-year-old plucked from obscurity a week ago by National Party leader John Key to attend Waitangi Day.
"They were just joking. I didn't sign anything."
The quiet Year 8 student from McGehan Close - labelled by Mr Key as a street of hopelessness - had to cope with the death of her 13-year-old cousin, living in nearby Mt Albert, in the Starship hospital on Thursday.
But last night she was still in good spirits, saying her trip to Waitangi was "all right".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10423291


Finding land for new cash cow
A New Zealand firm is growing gold kiwifruit south of Rome, PGG Wrightson is setting up farms in Uruguay and Fonterra has a big dairy project planned for China.
Kiwi farming is embarking on a big OE and senior agriculture figures say the overseas investment wave is ready to swell as available land here dwindles.
Opotiki Packing and Coolstorage set up its 8ha, Zespri-supplying kiwifruit operation in Italy six years ago.
The multi-million-dollar business is described by Tauranga sharebroker and company director Neil Craig as "certainly the largest in Italy" of its kind. Opotiki Packaging also has a 60ha Californian operation.
Last year, Craig's firm ABN Amro Craigs also played a role in PGG Wrightson's New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay offer, which raised $105 million for beef and dairy farming in the South American country.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10423277


Rugby: NZ female ref at Twickenham
New Zealand referee Nicky Inwood will make history tomorrow when she becomes the first woman to officiate in the Six Nations women's rugby match and the first woman to referee at Twickenham.
Inwood, 37, of North Canterbury, will control the match between England and Italy, the curtain-raiser to the men's Six Nations match between the same countries.
New Zealand Rugby Union high performance refereeing manager Keith Lawrence said Inwood was a standout referee.
"This is an outstanding achievement and is further recognition of her successful refereeing at last year's women's Rugby World Cup," he said.
"Nicky has performed consistently well over the last seven years at international and regional level."
Inwood, a former Canterbury and Wanganui player, represented the Black Ferns from 1989 to 1991.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10423323


Gorbachev's plea to Gates
MOSCOW - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom.
In an open letter, Nobel Peace Prize winner Gorbachev said the teacher, Alexander Ponosov, from a remote village in the Urals, should be shown mercy because he did not know he was committing a crime.
"A teacher, who has dedicated his life to the education of children and who receives a modest salary that does not bear comparison with the salaries of even regular staff in your company, is threatened with detention in Siberian prison camps," read the letter, posted on the internet site of Gorbachev's charitable foundation www.gorby.ru. "We ask you to show mercy and withdraw your complaint."
Prosecutors accuse Ponosov, headmaster of an intermediate school, of violating Microsoft's intellectual property rules by using computers in his school that contained unlicensed copies of the firm's software.
Russia has been mounting a high-profile crackdown on piracy as part of its efforts to join the World Trade Organisation.



Survey says 40% of kids see porn online
CHICAGO - About four in every 10 US youngsters age 10 to 17 report they've seen pornography while on the internet, two-thirds of them saying it was uninvited, according to a study published on Monday.
Many of the encounters with online pornography, both sought-out and accidental, were related to use of file-sharing programs to download images, the report from the University of New Hampshire in Durham said.
"Although there is evidence that most youth are not particularly upset when they encounter unwanted pornography on the internet (it) could have a greater impact on some youth than voluntary encounters with pornography," the study said.
"Some youth may be psychologically and developmentally unprepared for unwanted exposure, and online images may be more graphic and extreme than pornography available from other sources," it added.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10422829