The New Zealand Herald
RSA attack survivor seeks compo
08.05.05
by Kirsty Wynn
The sole survivor of the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA murders is considering suing the Corrections Department - claiming a series of parole blunders led to the triple-murder.
Susan Couch's likely legal action for compensation has already received a significant boost, with lawyers now able to access previously undisclosed documents detailing the Parole Board's handling of killer William Duane Bell.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10124422
Bain breaks his silence
08.05.05
by Leah Haines
Convicted mass murderer David Bain has broken years of silence to accuse successive courts of mishandling his case as he prepares his last appeal to London's Privy Council.
A decade after he was jailed for slaughtering his entire family on a cold Dunedin morning, Bain has publicly pleaded his innocence, claiming he has the support of most New Zealanders, and fellow prisoners and guards at Paparoa prison,near Christchurch.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10124427
$500,000 speed trap
Herald on Sunday graphic
08.05.05
by David Fisher
The country's busiest speed camera has pulled in around $500,000 in fines in the past six months.
The mobile camera operating on the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway, in Auckland, caught 5255 motorists exceeding the speed limit between October and March.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10124423
Iraqi family lied to enter NZ, says Peters
08.05.05
by Jonathan Milne
A family of more than 15 Iraqis has slipped into Auckland as refugees, carrying fake documents identifying them as being from a "safe" eastern country, Winston Peters says.
The new allegation comes as poll respondents rate his honesty and integrity as second only to that of Prime Minister Helen Clark.
The NZ First leader has leaped to 17.7 per cent in the preferred Prime Minister stakes after last week exposing an Immigration Service blunder in admitting two members of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime to New Zealand.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10124424
Motor neurone sufferer chasing a miracle
08.05.05
by Stephen Cook
First went the hands, then the legs - and then all hope.
Looking back, trying to pinpoint the moment five years ago when he first knew something was wrong, 39-year-old Mike Skinner pauses deep in thought and recalls the ashen face of his neurologist as he broke the news.
"'Mike, I'm sorry to have to tell you but you have motor neurone disease. You probably have eight years at best'."
For a fleeting time, a month or two at most, Mike and his family continued with their lives as if nothing was wrong, the notion of death too difficult to contemplate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10124419
Slashed majority hamstrings re-elected British PM
Tony Blair
08.05.05
LONDON - A slashed majority in parliament could frustrate the ambitions of freshly re-elected British Prime Minister Tony Blair to push his new Labour agenda through parliament and serve out a full third term in office.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124428
Bombers kill 67 Iraqis, pressuring new cabinet
07.05.05 11.00am
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers have killed at least 67 Iraqis in escalating violence that has cast doubts over the new government’s ability to defeat insurgents.
In the deadliest blast, a suicide car bomber struck a vegetable market in a southern Iraqi town, killing at least 58 people and wounding 44, police and hospital officials said.
The attack hit the mostly Shi’ite town of Suwayra, reinforcing fears that guerrilla violence will fuel growing sectarian tensions and ignite a civil war.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124333
Pakistan uncovers Musharraf plot on al Qaeda trail
Abu Faraj Farj al Liby
07.05.05 11.30am
Pakistani intelligence officials said today they had foiled a new conspiracy to kill President Pervez Musharraf with a series of arrests, including the capture of al Qaeda’s third most senior commander.
US agents and Pakistani authorities were interrogating al Qaeda Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants, after he was run to ground in the rugged North West Frontier Province on Monday, officials said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124338
Fifteen feared dead in Queensland plane crash
Herald on Sunday graphic
07.05.05 10.35pm
A plane carrying 15 people has crashed in far north Queensland.
Police have confirmed wreckage of the plane was found just before 7pm NZT, about 9km northwest of Iron Range airport on the Cape York Peninsula.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124388
US military reports increase in sexual assaults
07.05.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - The United States military in 2004 received 1700 reports of sexual assaults in which a member of the armed forces was either the victim or perpetrator, marking a sizable increase over previous years, the Pentagon said today.
The Pentagon said 1012 sexual assaults were reported involving US military personnel in 2003 and 901 in 2002.
But army Lt Colonel Joe Richard, a Pentagon spokesman, said defence department officials do not believe the 2004 figures, contained in a report mandated by Congress, represented an increase in the actual number of sexual assaults committed.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124339
THIS IS CENSORSHIP !!! The 'Dance' is an art form. Cheerleading is a form of dance and is therefore an art form. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. The Supreme Court needs to address this Burka Issue. Inhibition of expression is the same has hiding it under a ton of veils.
Kerre Woodham: Cheerleaders provide a bit of harmless entertainment
08.05.05
I reckon those good ol' boys in Texas have got more in common with the Muslim fundamentalists they want to rid the earth of than they'd care to believe.
Lawmakers in President Bush's home state have voted to ban overtly sexually suggestive routines from cheerleading performances at school-sponsored events.
They claim the pompom girls' bump-and-grind routines are lascivious exhibitions that distract high school students, undermine high school morality (surely a contradiction in terms) and furthermore result in pregnancies and the spread of nasty sexual diseases.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124391
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Snow
-15.0°
Updated Sunday 08 May 8:59AM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
70 °F / 21 °C
Clear
Humidity:
21%
Dew Point:
28 °F / -2 °C
Wind:
9 mph / 15 km/h from the NNW
Pressure:
29.91 in / 1013 hPa
Visibility:
-
UV:
3 out of 16
Clouds (AGL):
Clear -
end
