Sydney Morning Herald
Soaring temperatures 'unstoppable'
Immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not halt the continuing damage to Australia's environment, a Federal Government researcher warns.
The CSIRO expects Sydney's maximum temperatures to rise 1.6 degrees by 2030 and 4.8 degrees by 2070.
Average rainfall will decrease by 40 per cent and water evaporation rates will jump 24 per cent by 2040 under the scorching conditions.
By 2050, annual heat-related deaths of people over 65 will increase almost eight times from 176 to 1312.
The results are part of a CSIRO report commissioned by the NSW Government and authored by CSIRO researcher Ben Preston.
Dr Preston predicts temperatures will continue to rise causing drought, flooding and heat waves.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919346716.html?from=top5
Germans seek arrest of American spies
GERMAN police have recommended the arrest of 13 US intelligence agents over the kidnapping, beating and secret detention of a German citizen suspected of being a terrorist.
The agents were part of a CIA team that transported alleged terrorists to interrogation camps around the world. Police say the group handcuffed and blindfolded Khaled Masri, a German of Lebanese descent, and flew him from Macedonia to Afghanistan in January 2004. Mr Masri was never charged with a crime, and was released five months later.
The case has strained US-German relations, prompting a German parliamentary investigation into allegations that its own intelligence agents were involved in the abduction.
Meanwhile, an Italian court is deciding whether to try 26 Americans and nine Italians in connection with the 2003 abduction of a radical Egyptian cleric, Abu Omar. The Italian Government may demand the extradition of the accused Americans, who include the former CIA station chief in Milan, where Mr Omar was snatched from a footpath.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/germans-seek-arrest-of-american-spies/2007/01/31/1169919402479.html
Europe nervous despite US denials it plans to attack Iran
EUROPEAN diplomats are increasingly anxious that the US is planning air strikes against Iran to destroy its suspected nuclear program.
US officials are expected to unveil a secret intelligence dossier this week detailing evidence of Iran's alleged complicity in attacks on US troops in Iraq. Some believe the move parallels the British Government's release of a dossier in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.
"The clock is ticking," one European diplomat said. "Military action has come back on to the table more seriously than before. The language in the US has changed."
John Negroponte, who has been nominated as the US deputy secretary of state, on Tuesday defended the Bush Administration's policy with Iran in a fiery Senate confirmation hearing.
"Do you think we are drifting toward a military confrontation with Iran?" demanded the anti-war Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/europe-nervous-despite-us-denials-it-plans-to-attack-iran/2007/01/31/1169919402482.html
Legends of music spotted at Bono's window
A triumph of reconstruction has allowed some of music's most beloved names to star in U2's latest music video, writes J. Freedom du Lac.
In the breathtaking video for U2's new song, Window in the Skies, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye and a shirtless Iggy Pop take turns singing the lyrics on Bono's behalf.
Instead of the Edge on guitar, you see Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Costello and a very young Keith Richards, back when he looked like a George Harrison doppelganger.
And hey, there's Vladimir Horowitz playing the piano! And that guy from Wilco on bass! And the manic Keith Moon on drums!
All thanks to the magic of editing and copyright clearances.
The Window in the Skies video is a stirring montage that features roughly 100 archival clips of various musicians performing in concert. The footage has been carefully and cleverly edited so the performances sync up with U2's lyrics and music - right down to Frank Sinatra conducting the soaring song to its conclusion.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/legends-at-bonos-window/2007/01/29/1169919274096.html
Cruise line fined for whale death
An international cruise line has been fined over the death of an endangered pregnant humpback whale, apparently struck by one of its ships visiting Alaska.
The Princess Cruise Lines was sentenced for failing to operate one of its ships in a slow, safe manner near Glacier Bay National Park, where the humpback whale was found dead of massive skull fractures.
The body of the 13.5-metre whale, named Snow because of her fluke markings, was found floating in Icy Strait near the mouth of Glacier Bay in Southeast Alaska in July 2001.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/cruise-ship-killed-whale/2007/01/30/1169919320169.html
Harry Potter strips
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has got some parents steaming over his racy new stage play role.
One of the publicity photos for the play shows a topless and buffed Radcliffe being hugged by a naked woman. Another shows him leaning against bales of hay as he stares up at the topless woman. A third has him posing in front of a white horse.
The pictures have been released ahead of the opening of Equus, a controversial Peter Shaffer play showing at London's Gielgud Theatre from next month.
Radcliffe,17, plays a troubled stablehand who one night blinds six horses with a hoofpick.
He features in numerous nude scenes with co-star Joanna Christie, the woman in the publicity shots.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919374719.html?from=top5
Marine poisoned for implants
A woman has been convicted of murdering her US Marine husband with arsenic so she could cash in on his $US250,000 ($A324,317) life insurance policy, some of which she used to have her breasts enlarged.
Prosecutors argued that Cynthia Sommer, 33, wanted a more luxurious lifestyle than she could afford on her 23-year-old husband's $A2,205 monthly salary and saw his military life insurance policy as a way to "set herself free".
In addition to the breast enlargement surgery, Sommer's friends and co-workers testified, she threw wild parties and had casual sex with multiple partners in the weeks after her husband's death and the payment of the insurance policy.
Sgt Todd Sommer was in top condition when he collapsed and died on February 18, 2002, at the couple's home on the Marine Corps' Miramar base in San Diego.
His death was initially ruled a heart attack. Tests of his liver later found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal.
Cynthia Sommer, who was arrested in December 2005, swallowed and stared as the verdict was read, while her mother burst into tears.
She faces an automatic life sentence. Formal sentencing was set for March 23.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919376209.html?from=top5
Dog walker's deadly slip on cliff top
Beachgoers watched in horror as a Sydney woman fell 40 metres to her death yesterday.
The 45-year-old woman was walking with her dog along a track at the rear of her property near the Bungan Beach headland about 5pm when the accident happened, police said.
"It appears she's slipped and fallen," Inspector Paul Devaney said.
"She fell about 40 metres. Witnesses have seen her fall and rendered assistance to her. They only saw the end of her fall.
"One of the witnesses raced back up the cliff and called triple-0."
A trauma team from the NRMA CareFlight helicopter was called in to treat the woman, who was unconscious when they arrived at 5.45pm.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919377575.html?from=top5
New Zealand Herald
Climate change in Australia will worsen before it improves – scientists
SYDNEY - Immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not halt the continuing damage to Australia's environment, a federal government researcher warns.
The CSIRO expects Sydney's maximum temperatures to rise 1.6 degrees by 2030 and 4.8 degrees by 2070.
Average rainfall will decrease by 40 per cent and water evaporation rates will jump 24 per cent by 2040 under the scorching conditions.
By 2050, annual heat-related deaths of people over 65 will increase almost eight times from 176 to 1312.
The results are part of a CSIRO report commissioned by the NSW government and authored by CSIRO researcher Ben Preston.
Dr Preston predicts temperatures will continue to rise causing drought, flooding and heat waves.
"What's important for people to understand is that this is not simply a lot of hand waving, there's quite a bit of scientific research and effort both within Australia and internationally that goes into producing these estimates," Dr Preston told ABC Radio.
"And the problem there is that future climate change is already built into the system.
"So the warming we've been experiencing in recent years is really a function of greenhouse gases we emitted a few decades ago.
"Although there's a promise that large-scale reductions in future greenhouse gas emissions on the international basis will forestall ... large-scale warming by the end of the century, we've already sort of committed ourselves to additional warming and downstream climate change and consequences over the next few decades."
He said while past climate change was "natural in origin", the world's population is now living a "climate of our own making".
"We have to look at this as sort of long-term preventive care for the environment," Dr Preston said.
"Reducing emissions over the next couple of years isn't going to prevent any sort of climate catastrophe from occurring over the near term."
But all measures to combat climate change must go forward which mean burning fewer fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
And proposed measures to battle the long-standing drought will be crucial to weathering the shortage in more extreme climate conditions.
"Australia has demonstrated in the past that it has quite a significant capacity to cope with rainfall, water scarcity and pretty significant rainfall variability but maintaining a healthy and sustainable water supply over the future independence of climate change is obviously going to require some considerable reforms in terms of how we use water and how we price water," he said.
- AAP
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/10/story.cfm?c_id=104&objectid=10421763
Asia tops disaster deaths in 2006, Europe up – report
GENEVA - Asia was the world's most dangerous region for natural disasters in 2006, accounting for three-quarters of more than 21,000 deaths, a UN-backed report said today.
The report, compiled by the Belgian-based research centre CRED and the UN's disaster reduction agency ISDR, covered disasters such as floods, tidal waves, landslides, storms and earthquakes.
In Europe, it said, deaths caused by extreme weather rose 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the global total.
"Asia, with its millions of poor people living in vulnerable areas in flood plains and river basins, is still the continent most hit by disasters triggered by natural hazards," Debarati Guha-Sapir of the CRED told a news conference.
Last year, she said, "there was a small increase in extreme temperature events -- heatwaves and freeze-ups -- and Europe was specially badly hit". Guha-Sapir, a professor at Brussels University of Louvain, was presenting an advance version of the report to be issued later this year. The report said 21,342 people died in natural disasters in 2006.
Guha-Sapir said that Europe's fatality figures had been pushed up by last July's heatwave which resulted in 1000 deaths in the Netherlands and 940 deaths in Belgium. Cold spells had also killed 801 people in the Ukraine.
She added Europe in general was not doing enough to prepare and reduce the impact of such events.
"Countries need to have a detailed plan in place to mitigate the effects of temperature extremes," Guha-Sapir said -- although she noted France had taken measures to prevent a repetition of the widespread heatwave deaths in 2003.
Bangladesh had made huge advances, setting up early warning systems for cyclones which had saved thousands of lives in recent years by ensuring people left danger-zones quickly.
"The small rise in extreme events indicates that we might have to suffer more from the negative impact of climate change in the future," said ISDR Director Salvano Briceno.
"We need to be better prepared globally and not only in Asia and Africa," he said.
- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/10/story.cfm?c_id=104&objectid=10421511
Watch the weather, climbers cautioned
New Zealand's changeable weather can lull climbers into a false sense of security, warns Mountain Safety Council alpine programme manager Paul Chaplow.
He was speaking after two Japanese climbers plunged 500m to their deaths during a descent of Mt Cook on Wednesday night.
The bodies of Takao Futono, 52, and his female friend Meguru Inoue, 31, were recovered by rescuers on Thursday.
A 28-year-old Japanese survived when a falling rock cut off a strap attaching him to his companions, stopping him being pulled down with them. Despite his traumatised state, the man completed the descent of the mountain in the dark and reached Plateau Hut early on Thursday to raise the alarm.
Mr Chaplow said yesterday that climbers needed to gather as much information as possible about river levels, mountain and track conditions, and weather because New Zealand's changeable climate often caught out trampers and others.
"The Tongariro Crossing is a classic where people can head off on a beautiful day with inadequate spare clothing and then get caught up on the top with a change of weather and they have no way of getting through that," he said.
Meanwhile, a female climber broke a leg in a fall at Ball Hut on Mt Cook yesterday and was taken to Timaru Hospital.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/10/story.cfm?c_id=104&objectid=10421082
US congress has power to stop Iraq war - legal experts
WASHINGTON - The US Congress has the power to end the war in Iraq, several high-powered legal experts including a former Bush administration attorney told a Senate hearing today.
With many lawmakers poised to confront President George W. Bush by voting disapproval of his war policy in the coming days, four of five experts called before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee said Congress could go further and restrict or stop US involvement if it chose.
"I think the constitutional scheme does give Congress broad authority to terminate a war," said Bradford Berenson, a Washington lawyer who was a White House associate counsel under Bush from 2001 to 2003.
"It is ultimately Congress that decides the size, scope and duration of the use of military force," said Walter Dellinger, former acting solicitor general -- the government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court -- in 1996-97, and an assistant attorney general three years before that.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421733
Sovereignty flag should fly, says Maori Party
The Maori Party say it is time New Zealand "grew up" and allowed Maori to fly sovereignty flags on Waitangi Day.
The party is unimpressed that a request by a Maori sovereignty group to fly the Maori independence flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day was rejected by Transit.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said the flag should be allowed.
"I thought the flag story was really interesting given that Australia accepts the Aboriginal flag and the rangatiratanga flag will be flying on St Monica's beach over in America on Waitangi Day," she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421769
Maori education resource goes online
In the week before Christmas, as shoppers were wrapping up the last of their gift buying, Mark Fell quietly watched his new online store go live.
Fell describes it as the scariest moment in a six month project to launch the Haemata web store, an online business selling Maori language educational products.
The online store is the latest extension of the Wellington-based company Fell has run with partner Hineihaea Murphy since 1999.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421699
Nats turn to YouTube to win hearts
Social networking website YouTube has launched the career of many hot, new music acts - now middle-aged politicians are joining the hip, young things in cyberspace.
Internet-savvy conservatives can watch John Key relaxing at home last weekend in shorts and t-shirt, discussing his upcoming state-of-the-nation speech over a cup of coffee.
The National Party leader joins David Cameron, leader of Britain's Conservative Party in providing video insights into their political life and musings.
A spokesperson for the National Party confirmed the videos are part of a strategy to attract younger voters and women to the party.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421766
Serial killers more likely in certain areas – study
Serial killers target victims from areas where more divorced people, single parents and unemployed live, a study shows.
A study of 151 male serial killers by academics, including Jane Prochnow from Massey University's College of Education, explored variations in rates of serial killings in states in US.
"The incidence of male serial killers varies widely among the US states. But little effort has been devote to attempting to explain the reasons for state difference," the Male Serial Homicide study said.
The study found some explanations of variations in the incidence of serial killings but said more work needed to be done to understand if the culture and social structure of an area created serial killers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421754
Settlement, dating 2600 BC, found near Stonehenge
LONDON - Evidence of a large settlement full of houses dating back to 2,600 BC has been discovered near the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge in southwest England, scientists said today.
They suspect inhabitants of the houses, forming the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain, built the stone circle at Stonehenge -- generally thought to have been a temple, burial ground or an astronomy site -- between 3,000 and 1,600 BC.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421743
British footprint database to help catch criminals
LONDON - Britain is launching a database of thousands of shoes and shoe types next month to help track down criminals, thought to be the first of its kind in the world.
The Footwear Intelligence Tool will be similar to the database of genetic samples that Britain created in 1995, which now has millions of DNA profiles.
"Footwear marks at the scene are the second biggest evidence type behind blood and DNA," said Dr Romelle Piercy, of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in London.
Like fingerprints, hair, blood or fibres, footprints are left at many crime scenes -- on carpets or bodies as well as in earth or mud -- and are often highly distinctive.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421500
New high tech Hubble telescope stops working
The newest, most high-tech camera on the Hubble space telescope stopped working last weekend and two of its main capabilities - gaining ultra deep views of the universe and detailed data on individual stars - are unlikely to recover, Nasa officials said today.
The failure, described as a "great loss" by scientists, occurred when the telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which photographs huge expanses of sky, shut down after a fuse failed as a result of a short circuit.
Two of the instrument's three channels - its wide field and high-resolution channels - were unlikely to be restored, engineers said.
The ACS has taken the clearest pictures ever seen of the cosmos, but will only be fully functioning again when Hubble receives a new camera during a planned servicing mission by space shuttle in 2008.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421706
Video: Virtual mirror allows shoppers to try on multiple outfits
Inventors in New York have developed an interactive mirror, giving shoppers the chance to quickly try on multiple outfits.
The computer controlled device also allows images to be sent to friends, providing instant feedback before a purchase is made.
Watch the Reuters video of every shopper's dream.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421535
Gene test clue to ADHD therapy
SYDNEY - A genetic test may help to stop hyperactive children being overdosed on psycho-stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, Australian research suggests.
About 50,000 Australian children are prescribed stimulants to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but problems getting the dose right mean many are initially over-drugged.
Studies in adults with the condition show there is a gene which makes some more sensitive to the medication and prone to the "zombie-like" side-effects of overdose.
But overdose affects children in the same way, making them obsessive, introverted, highly focused and unable to change their attention from one thing to another.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421585
Guilt-free coffee for expectant mothers
Drinking several cups of coffee need hold no fears for pregnant women.
Research shows caffeinated drinks pose no risk to unborn children, which should reassure expectant mothers.
Previous studies have found conflicting evidence about the risks, some suggesting a high caffeine intake can lead to lower birth weights and an increased risk of premature birth.
To settle the issue, Danish researchers monitored more than 1200 women who drank more than three cups of coffee a day - a high caffeine intake - throughout their pregnancies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421583
Warning signs of blindness
NEW YORK - People who experience severe, rapidly progressing loss of vision should seek immediate medical help because this may signal elevated pressure in the brain that could lead to permanent blindness.
In the journal Neurology, Dr Madhav Thambisetty of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues report on 16 patients with this condition, fulminant idiopathic intracranial hypertension.
IIH usually worsens fairly slowly, and rapid progression is usually due to a secondary cause such as a blood clot in the brain or meningitis. But in the 16 patients described, no secondary causes were identified.
"Although fulminant IIH is rare, it affects young, otherwise healthy women, who often become legally blind over the course of a few days," Dr Thambisetty and his team write.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421581
Lahar alert rises as Crater Lake swells
Mt Ruapehu's Crater Lake has swelled to within 1.5m of its unstable lip, boosting the emergency agencies' alert level for the lahar expected to burst down the mountain's eastern slopes any time soon.
After a visit on Saturday to the volcanic lake near the summit of the North Island's tallest mountain, scientists reiterated that the huge and long-predicted slide of mud and boulders could happen as soon as Thursday.
"It is still expected the earliest the dam might start collapsing to create a lahar down the Whangaehu River is February/March," said the Department of Conservation.
DoC scientist Dr Harry Keys said: "The lake level has increased by 0.4m since the last visit to the crater [eight days earlier] and was expected given the period of warm weather creating steady snow-melt."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421377
Car pollution serious threat to young lungs
Parents who teach their children to take care crossing the road may be neglecting a greater danger - living next to it.
Researchers have found that young people growing up in homes within 500m of a main road suffer significant damage to their lungs from exhaust fumes.
Compared with those who live at least 1.5km away the breathing of those in homes closer to the traffic is neither as deep nor as vigorous and their lungs do not develop as well.
The poorer condition of their respiration puts them at greater risk from asthma, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as adults and weakens their sporting ability, the research suggests.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421308
Hospitals cull waiting lists by thousands
More than 35,000 people were removed from elective surgery waiting lists in one year - far more than previously disclosed - in the Government's "clean-up" of its hospital rationing system.
In the 12 months to October 31, more than 13,000 patients were sent back to their GP, after earlier being promised treatment within six months, or put on active review, the waiting list for patients who are not quite sick or disabled enough to qualify but who might be soon.
That number of patients told to go back to their doctors is more than four times higher than four years previously. In 2002, 3129 patients were taken off waiting lists.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421381
Sharples calls for tougher line on gang problems
Pita Sharples wants communities to initiate a crackdown on gangs and is threatening to name and shame individual leaders and chapters and to investigate banning gang insignia if they don't respond.
The Maori Party co-leader also says he will identify schools that are failing to acknowledge and tackle gang-related problems.
Dr Sharples has worked with gangs for 30 years in various capacities, most recently through a community programme he initiated, designed to shed light on the impact of increased P and methamphetamine usage.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421380
Christian youth leader dies at swimming spot near festival
The man who died after jumping from a bridge into the Waikato River was today described as a committed Christian and a youth leader in his church.
The 22-year-old Aucklander was one of an estimated 28,000 attending the Parachute 07 Christian music festival at Mystery Creek in Hamilton when he went missing yesterday.
He was swimming with friends at Narrows Landing, on Airport Road, around lunchtime when he decided to jump from Narrows Bridge.
He did not resurface and a police dive squad from Wellington began a search at 5.15pm, recovering his body just before 8pm.
Police have not yet released his name.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421372
Even politicians are popular at huge Christian music fest
When politicians draw crowds to rival those of the country's top musicians you know you're not at just any music festival.
Yet that was the case at the Parachute Music Festival yesterday with politicians, including National deputy leader Bill English and the Greens' Sue Bradford, packing Hamilton's Mystery Creek main pavilion with more than 5000 listeners jammed in eager to hear their political pitch.
Then again it may have just been the chance to escape the searing midday sun, and a quiet spell in the musical line-up, that had festival-goers by the thousands warmly applauding the centre-right soothing of Mr English.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10421364
Wind sends Aussie race duo Bellies-up
The opening of the Offshore Powerboat racing championship ended in spectacular fashion for Australian duo Bruce Sanders and Colin Craven when their boat flipped on Lake Taupo.
The pair were competing in the Superboat Light class in their boat Red Bellies - a 28ft craft which reaches speeds of more than 160km/h.
Fortunately neither man was hurt - and even the boat came through relatively unscathed.
"There was a gust of wind as they were approaching into the corner and the boat just rolled," said course officer Paddy Lowry.
The Red Bellies team have enjoyed success in Australia, including six championships in eight years, but they came unstuck in the first of the eight round New Zealand championship - regarded as one of the toughest in the world.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421378
Plain sailing for Silver Ferns as captain takes the helm
Silver Ferns captain Adine Wilson grabbed the helm of America's Cup yacht NZL41 yesterday to treat her teammates to a trip around Waitemata Harbour.
The team were able to enjoy glorious sunshine in a bonding session as part of a four-day training camp.
It was a bit of respite from fitness testing and a match against the New Zealand netball A team, and the players were also able to take in the semifinals of the Auckland Match Racing Cup.
The harbour will come alive again today for the 167th Auckland Anniversary Regatta - one of the world's biggest one-day regattas.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421382
Weather doesn't deter Anniversary Day yachties
Heavy rain and windy squalls are not dampening the spirits of the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta as the midday flotilla of tug boats made their parade through the Viaduct Harbour.
Action has gone without a hitch with a Parade of Sail including around 500 vessels including classic yachts and vintage tug boats starting at the Viaduct.
Organiser Eric Henry speaking from The Royal New Zealand Navy Frigate Te Kaha says the 20 knot winds have made for some great yachting and the tug boats have been a spectacular sight racing between North Head and Rangitoto.
He says the midday Tugboat parade is a highlight of the days celebrations and he believes it is a world first.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421400
Sinn Fein backs Northern Irish police
DUBLIN - Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein voted to end decades of opposition to Northern Ireland's police force on Sunday, removing a key obstacle to the restoration of a regional power-sharing government in the British province.
The party, political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which killed nearly 300 police officers during a 30-year campaign against British rule, voted overwhelmingly at a special meeting in Dublin to back the Protestant-dominated force.
The vote, a momentous step for Sinn Fein, could end political stalemate in Northern Ireland after the suspension in 2002 of a power-sharing assembly between majority pro-British Protestants and a Catholic minority who want a united Ireland.
Backing for the rule of law is required by the province's biggest pro-British Protestant grouping, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), before it will consider sharing power in a Belfast-based assembly set up under a 1998 peace deal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421389
US, Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf
NAJAF, Iraq - US and Iraqi forces killed 250 gunmen in a fierce battle involving US tanks and helicopters on the outskirts of the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf on Sunday, a senior Iraqi police officer said.
The day-long battle was continuing after nightfall, Colonel Ali Nomas told Reuters, as tens of thousands of pilgrims converged on the nearby city of Kerbala for the climax of the Ashura commemorations.
A US helicopter was shot down in the fighting, Iraq security sources said. The US military declined comment. A Reuters reporter saw a helicopter come down trailing smoke.
Shi'ite political sources said the gunmen appeared to be both Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites loyal to a cleric called Ahmed Hassani.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421387
Clinton attacks Bush's 'irresponsibility' on Iraq
DAVENPORT, Iowa - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Iowa today President George W. Bush should find a way out of Iraq before he leaves office and called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.
"The president has said this is going to be left to his successor," the New York senator said during a jammed rally in a fairground exhibit hall in Davenport as she concluded a two-day campaign swing in the state that kicks off the 2008 presidential campaign.
"I think it's the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it," she said. "This was his decision to go to war, he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421398
Palestinians agree to Mecca talks
GAZA - Saudi Arabia has invited feuding Palestinian factions for urgent talks in Islam's holy city of Mecca to try to end the fiercest internal fighting since Hamas's election victory a year ago.
Both sides agreed to attend the meeting but no date was set as the death toll from three days of Gaza infighting rose to 26 with the killing of a Hamas militant in clashes in Gaza City and a civilian who died of wounds he had sustained earlier.
Spiraling violence has derailed unity talks between the ruling Islamist Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
In the latest in a string of tit-for-tat abductions, gunmen loyal to the governing Hamas movement kidnapped and later released Brigadier General Sayyed Shabban, the head of National Security Forces in central Gaza, a security source said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421399
Could the crash happen again? Nobody's saying never
At the start of 1987 the sharemarket bears gained an unusual ally.
When former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon took the podium at the Orewa Rotary Club for the 19th year in a row, the surging stock market sat squarely in his sights.
Advising investors to at least pull half of their money out of the market high-flyers, he described what he saw as a "speculative mania" in the growing divide between share prices and their fundamental value.
The investment companies that bore the brunt of the collapse were starting to "look uncomfortably like a form of pyramid selling scheme".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421329
Last man standing counts costs
The Shoe Sheriff on Newmarket's Broadway stands alone in the midst of a glitzy multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the shopping strip.
Four years ago the cobbler's shop - owned by Peter Croad - won a courtroom battle to stay on the premier retail drag opposite Westfield's 277 shopping mall, facing down a rich land owner who wanted him out.
The shop has held its ground as all the neighbouring buildings have vanished, including the Patel family's dairy, a toy store and a bookshop.
Those shops were pulled down to make way for Broadway Junction, a project on the leasehold land by award-winning developers Newcrest Group.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421330
Biofuels plan draws overseas interest
Running New Zealand's entire vehicle fleet on home-grown and manufactured biofuels is the big vision behind a research project involving two state-owned agencies and a US-listed company.
Forestry research institute Scion and AgResearch are teaming up with Diversa Corporation to look at converting New Zealand "biomass", such as pinus radiata, eucalyptus and grasses, to feedstocks for biofuels, such as ethanol.
"The key point is [that it could be] something we can do here in New Zealand that is hopefully going to enable us to balance the challenge of renewable energy sources with sustainable land use," said Scion's chief executive Tom Richardson.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421331
Goff sees fresh hope for global trade talks
DAVOS - Ministers from around the world met at the weekend in Switzerland hoping to revive struggling global trade talks, amid growing pressure from political and business leaders to break the impasse.
The so-called Doha round of talks was launched in 2001 to boost the international economy and ease poverty. The talks were suspended last July due to sharp differences over how much the United States should cut farm subsidies and how much the European Union should reduce farm import tariffs.
About 30 trade ministers gathered in a hotel ringed by riot police in the ski resort of Davos, where the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is taking place.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421316
Ideas from edge of internet give small firms big chance
AMSTERDAM - Internet companies are becoming more important to people than those that operate in the real world, a poll has found.
The annual survey, by online branding magazine brandchannel.com, found Google kept its title as the world's most influential brand and video-sharing site and YouTube and online encyclopedia Wikipedia catapulted into the top five at the No 3 and 4 spots.
Although brandchannel's survey is not uncontroversial as it asks 3625 branding professionals and students: "Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?", rather than measuring economic impact, the evidence of the result is everywhere.
Visitors of technology and telecoms tradeshows, for instance, may be forgiven for thinking that photo-sharing site Flickr, blogging software firm Vox, internet calling service Skype and YouTube are multibillion-dollar companies, because no company from the old world announces anything without them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421313
48 hours: Raw power no match for elegance and class
Serena Williams has taken women's tennis forward in some respects, and backwards in others.
The Australian Open in Melbourne may mark the first occasion in which it was claimed a player's supporter, the player being Williams, distracted an opponent by shining a watch in her eyes. The claim was made by a commentator, who endured the subsequent glare of publicity with no support at all from Williams' opponent.
Never mind. It is almost certainly the most memorable tournament in which a player has shone a dress in opponents' eyes.
Screaming Green screamed past the Scream Queen in the women's final, where Williams destroyed Maria Sharapova, the new World No 1, from the lofty height of a pre-tournament ranking of 81. Williams won in just an hour and three minutes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10421362
Satellites help keep Earthlings up to date
China's new 'Star Wars' weapon recently blew up a satellite for target practice. That one was disused, but there are hundres of others we couldn't live without.
WEATHER SATELLITES
Orbit level low (around 800km above Earth)
How many are there?
About 40. The satellite recently destroyed by China was one of the thousands of disused (or "sleeping") weather satellites in low-Earth orbit.
Satellite-borne instruments have allowed researchers to track weather patterns, changes in sea levels and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When the Orbiting Carbon Observatory lifts off in 2008, it will be the first Nasa spacecraft designed to make precise measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide from an Earth-orbiting satellite. Ability to track retreating polar ice, shifting patterns of drought, winds and rainfall and other environmental changes is "at great risk" because of failures to replace satellite-borne sensors.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421317
Rocker hustles for human rights cause
Peter Gabriel would like you to see unpleasant things on the likes of YouTube - human rights abuses.
The veteran rock star, goateed and relaxed in casual gear, cut a different figure among the business suits at the World Economic Forum.
More than a quarter of a century after energising a generation against South Africa's apartheid system with the chill-inducing song Biko, he has been "hustling", as he calls it.
Gabriel has been trying to get the businesses gathered to come up with cash or technology for Witness, a group he founded which seeks to use video from cameras or phones to bring human rights abuse to light.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421315
