New Zealand Herald

Wild camels 'mad with thirst' rampage outback
9:10AM Thursday March 15, 2007
By Kathy Marks
Two wild camels in front of rock monoliths known as The Olgas in central Australia. Photo / Reuters
They helped to build the Australian nation and had a cross-continental railway named after their handlers. But now the camel population here is wreaking havoc in the desert and remote communities because a desperate lack of water.
Wild camels, descendants of the beasts that helped early explorers to open up the country's vast arid interior, have rampaged through a settlement in Western Australia, trampling toilets, taps and air conditioners in a frenzied effort to find water.
A severe drought has exacerbated the problems posed by the animals, which cause damage to the environment, agriculture and property. They are "mad with thirst", according to Glenn Edwards, of the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10428924


Global warming affecting investors' decisions
2:42PM Wednesday March 14, 2007
Global warming is starting to impact upon investors' decisions, a UK study shows.
A total 62 per cent of active investors say global warming could affect their investment decisions, following the UK's warmest 12-month period on record.
Some 14 per cent of 1000 active investors polled by Britain's Association of Investment Companies (AIC) said climate change would definitely affect their investment decisions and 48 per cent said it might do.
Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director at the AIC, said: "With 2007 predicted to be the warmest year ever, it's obvious that global warming has become an issue for active investors."
The research, also undertaken among 2000 members of the general public, found that the public's biggest financial concern is another interest rate rise (19 per cent), whereas active investors' greatest worry is a stock market crash (36 per cent).
Some 71 per cent of active investors plan to use their individual savings account (ISA) allowance this year, compared to 31 per cent of the general public, the studies found.
The research was conducted online by YouGov amongst 2374 adults and by Hemscott amongst 1017 private high net worth investors.
- REUTERS



Sparks fly over forestry credits
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By Geoff Cumming
The war of words is generating enough heat to ignite the central North Island forests. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today
To thousands whose retirement comfort hinges on profits from felling trees, Roger Dickie is a white knight, battering down the Government's attempt to steal "their" carbon credits to offset the country's greenhouse gas excesses when our Kyoto obligations kick in next year.
To Agriculture and Forestry Minister Jim Anderton, Dickie - who has spent 30 years persuading mums and dads to invest in forests - is spreading "wilful ignorance and deceit" and needlessly fuelling deforestation.
Consultation meetings on the Government's climate change proposals for agriculture and forestry, unveiled in December, have been hijacked by a well-funded campaign fronted by Dickie's Kyoto Forestry Association and the larger Forest Owners Association. Act leader Rodney Hide and National's climate change spokesman Nick Smith have been fanning the flames in Parliament.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10429169



Chance of a Doha breakthough 'remote'
5:00AM Wednesday March 14, 2007
By Brian Fallow
French Trade Minister Christine Lagarde in Wellington where she met Phil Goff. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The prospects of any decisive breakthrough in the Doha Round of world trade talks this year are remote, says French Trade Minister Christine Lagarde.
"My personal view? It's not impossible, but especially before the [mid-year] expiry of the Trade Promotion Authority [the US Administration's negotiating mandate from Congress] the prospects are remote," said Lagarde, who was in Wellington for talks with her New Zealand counterpart Phil Goff.
"In the areas of services and industrial products we are not making progress. Unless that happens and there is clear indication of progress and opportunities in places where we have offensive [as opposed to defensive] interests it's going to be extremely difficult to expect success. Because it cannot be a one-sided deal."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10428637



Dick Hubbard: Every city can help to save the planet
5:00AM Thursday March 15, 2007
I recently returned from a trip to Kyoto (at no expense to ratepayers) representing New Zealand mayors at a world mayors' conference on climate change. We sat in the assembly room where 10 years ago the Kyoto Protocol was agreed. I think future generations will regard it as a shrine.
Why should mayors be debating issues of world climate change that are seen as the domain of national governments?
Well, half the world's population now live in cities and globally that figure is increasing by one million people a week. Half the world's population uses 70 per cent of the world's energy.
The message from Kyoto is that cities can make a significant difference to greenhouse gas emissions within a short time, often without legislative change, just by changing practices within existing structures.
Small solutions having a major effect, often with no politics involved.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10428795



CIA spy at heart of leak scandal speaks out

WASHINGTON - The ex-CIA spy at the heart of a scandal that snared Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide said today her undercover career was cut short when Bush administration officials revealed her identity.
Speaking publicly for the first time in the four years since a newspaper article blew her cover, Valerie Plame Wilson told a congressional committee: "I felt like I had been hit in the gut."
"I could no longer do the work which I had been trained to do," she said.
The much-anticipated testimony by the striking blonde, the subject of a photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine, drew dozens of reporters and photographers and was shown live on cable TV news channels.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429302



Monitors for dementia patients
New 8:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
The Palmerston North Red Cross is introducing tracking devices for dementia sufferers after two local men disappeared from rest homes last year and were later found dead.
Patients will be given pendants containing VHF transmitters that send out silent beeps to be monitored by an emergency response unit.


Mugabe accuses own officials of plotting with the West
8:30AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Robert Mugabe
HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe accused officials in his own party of joining a Western-backed plot on Friday as the main opposition chief left hospital after treatment for what he said was an orgy of police beatings.
Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had been treated for a head wound and other injuries following his arrest on Sunday at an anti-Mugabe protest. He said he would fight on to end Mugabe's long rule.
"Freedom is not cheap," the 55-year-old Tsvangirai, who has challenged Mugabe in several elections, told Reuters at his home in the capital Harare shortly after he was discharged.
Images of a badly bruised and limping Tsvangirai on his way to the hospital earlier this week fuelled international outrage and threats by the United States and other nations to tighten sanctions against Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean officials.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429303


Khmer Rouge trial rules agreed at last
8:30AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Tourists look at pictures of child victims of the Khmer Rouge on display at the Toul Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. Photo / Reuters
PHNOM PENH - The trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders moved a big step closer on Friday as international and Cambodian judges said they had finally agreed on the rules of the tribunal.
"The review committee discussed in exhaustive detail many points and resolved all remaining disagreements, although some fine tuning remains to be done," they said in a statement at the end of 10 days of talks.
Disagreements which had held up the start of the tribunal, set up last year by Cambodia and the United Nations, ranged from admissibility of evidence and witness protection to the height of the judges' chairs.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429304


Ripped off for their art
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By Nick Squires
Some Aboriginal artists work in reputable art centres, while others are in squalor. Photo / Getty Images
Ngarlie Ellis applies the finishing touches to an intricate dot painting, its yellow and ochre patterns depicting an ancient Dreamtime story of a kangaroo spirit visiting a desert waterhole.
The 32-year-old is fortunate her canvas will be sold to a respectable gallery by the art centre in which she works in the isolated settlement of Ltyentye Apurte, 80km down a corrugated dirt track from Alice Springs.
But many other Aborigines are being ripped off by unscrupulous dealers who pay them with alcohol, drugs and worn-out second-hand vehicles, or corral them into squalid sweatshops where they are forced to churn out poor-quality paintings.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429240


Prison smuggling mystery
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By Elizabeth Binning
The doctor accused of helping a convicted rapist smuggle sperm out of Rimutaka prison has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The Department of Corrections launched an investigation two weeks ago after it was revealed Peter McNamara's partner Joanne Percy had given birth at Tauranga Hospital in January.
The convicted rapist, who was granted leave from prison for the birth, initially told officials a prison-contracted doctor had helped smuggle his sperm out of prison.
This week a lawyer acting for the doctor wrote to media and Corrections saying his client had "absolutely nothing to do with it and had no knowledge of it whatsoever".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10429267


Man arrested for biting off reporter's ear
9:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Doug Laing after the assault yesterday. Photo / Hawke's Bay today
Police have arrested a Lower Hutt man for the home invasion of a Napier journalist who had part of his ear bitten off.
Acting Detective Sergeant Nic Clere said a 27-year-old was arrested late yesterday afternoon after a house near the victim, Hawke's Day Today newspaper reporter Doug Laing's residence, was searched.
The man had been charged with wounding with intent and burglary and would appear in Napier District Court today.
Laing was at his home soon after midnight yesterday when a man smashed his way in and attacked him, biting part of his ear off.
Laing said he tried to fight off his attacker, who was "growling like an animal" and seemed intent on hurting him.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10429307


Star NCEA school looks at new exam
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By Claire Trevett and Elizabeth Binning
St Cuthbert's College - considered a poster-school for the NCEA because of its academic success and staunch defence of the qualification - is now considering offering an overseas qualification.
The private girls' school in Auckland has supported the National Certificate of Educational Achievement since its introduction and is one of the top performing schools under the system.
It is now considering whether to offer the Cambridge International Examinations or the International Baccalaureate as well as the NCEA.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10429284



Shagadelic - and the more the merrier
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By James Ihaka and Jon Stokes
Opening sequence still picture from the programme The Sex Life of Us.
Move over, younger generation. The middle-aged really do rock - when it comes to group sex, that is.
A Maori Television documentary, The Sex Life of Us, will show 15 per cent of those aged 45 to 54 have had group sex more than once, and up to 10 times.
The Sex Life of Us, presented by comedian Mike King and Stacey Morrison, bares all on the sexual preferences of the nation and looks at other matters going on between the sheets.
The show surveyed 1000 people, 400 of whom were Maori. The TNS-led research has a margin of error of 4.9 per cent.
While the figures don't quite match up with a claim by Clint Rickards' lawyer that "half the country is doing it", figures suggest that one in six Maori have had group sex more than once, compared with one in 10 non-Maori.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10429278



Exclusive Brethren's 'Elect Vessel' tours NZ
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By Louisa Cleave
Bruce Hales is rarely photographed.
The world leader of the Exclusive Brethren is touring New Zealand on a private jet, meeting members who know him as the Elect Vessel and the Man of God.
Sydney-based Bruce Hales was in Tauranga last night and his tour includes meetings at churches and private homes throughout the North Island, including Whangarei, Lower Hutt and Wanganui.
It is believed the publicity-shy Mr Hales is travelling with a personal bodyguard who has previously guarded Prime Minister Helen Clark as a member of the police diplomatic protection squad.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10429286


Cost of London 2012 Olympics soars to $25.9b
5:00PM Friday March 16, 2007
By Adrian Croft
A computer-generated view of the Aquatics Centre during the 2012 Games. Photo / Reuters
LONDON - The government more than doubled the estimated cost of staging the 2012 London Olympics to 9.3 billion pounds ($25.9 billion) today, drawing charges of "massive financial incompetence" from an opposition party.
Sports minister Tessa Jowell's announcement confirmed that the expense of staging the Olympics would be far higher than thought when Britain was awarded the games in July 2005.
London's bid estimated the cost of building the main Olympic sports infrastructure in east London at about 3 billion pounds and threw in another 1 billion pounds for regeneration of the dilapidated surrounding area.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429130


Fiji must hold elections by August next year, forum decides
7:00PM Friday March 16, 2007
South Pacific governments have decided to tell Fiji's military rulers they must hold free and fair elections by August next year.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said after a meeting of South Pacific Forum representatives in Vanuatu today there was no tolerance of the coup last December that ousted Fiji's civilian government.
"I think the Fijian interim government knows that the international community means business, and so does the forum," he told NZPA.
"The decision taken today means, in effect, that they will be requested to have elections by August 2008."
Ministers representing 16 Forum member states considered a report prepared by an Eminent Persons Group of four respected regional figures which recommended Fiji return to democratic rule within 18 to 24 months.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429159


'Presidential' wines probed for fraud
\5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
A bottle from the Jefferson collection.
Three of the most expensive bottles of wine ever to be sold, each one worth more than $280,000, are at the centre of an FBI and US Justice Department investigation into the international trade in vintage wine after allegations of fraud. The inquiry also focuses on the role played by Christie's auction house in London.
The investigation will examine Christie's relationship with a controversial German wine merchant, Hardy Rodenstock, a former pop promoter who has a reputation for unearthing rare vintage wines that sell for huge sums. Rodenstock had a close relationship with a director of Christie's who was present at many of his exclusive vintage wine tastings.
In December 1985, Christie's sold one of Rodenstock's wines to US billionaire Malcolm Forbes for the record price of £105,000.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429217


Obituary: Hero Cherokee saw action in Vietnam
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Billy Walkabout, a Cherokee Indian whose actions in Vietnam made him one of the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War, has died, aged 57.
Walkabout received the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart, five Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars. He was believed to be the most decorated Native American soldier of the war, according to US Department of Defence reports.
Walkabout died of pneumonia and renal failure. He had complications related to his exposure to the Agent Orange defoliant used during the Vietnam conflict and had been on a kidney transplant waiting list, having dialysis three times a week.
"War is not hell," Walkabout said in 1986, "it's worse."



Iranians help Hamas brace for attack
5:00AM Saturday March 17, 2007
By Abraham Rabinovich
Israel has drawn up detailed plans for a large-scale incursion. Photo / Reuters
Hamas is busily fortifying the Gaza Strip with the help of Iranian expertise and funding for what may be the fiercest fighting that embattled enclave has ever seen.
"They're digging bunkers and tunnels 20m underground equipped with air conditioning," said Brigadeer General Shalom Harari, a retired Israeli intelligence officer. "That's something the Iranians taught them."
Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza a year and a half ago, hundreds of Hamas fighters have made their way to Iran for intensive military training sometimes lasting months, according to the head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin. Iranian experts have also reportedly reached Gaza.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429205


Four soldiers killed in Shiite Baghdad
New 8:15AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Four US soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad and the military said it found a sophisticated weapon at the site of the type Washington believes is being supplied by Iran to Shiite militias.
Car bombings also struck Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 14 people.


Prince sues Fox News for fraud claims
7:15AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Prince Frederic von Anhalt has sued Fox News and talkshow host Bill O'Reilly after the latter called him a fraud for claiming he could be the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby.
Von Anhalt, who is married to Zsa Zsa Gabor, filed the defamation suit seeking at least US$10 million ($14.5 million) in damages on Thursday.


Maoists kill officers in Indian jungle
6:15AM Saturday March 17, 2007
Forty-nine Indian policemen and local tribal militias were killed yesterday in an attack by Maoist guerrillas on a jungle security camp in the east of the country.
The rebels used hand grenades and petrol bombs in an attack that was said to underline the presence of Maoists in much of rural India where they have formed a "red corridor" stretching from the southern tip of India to Nepal.

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