New Zealand Herald
Michael Richardson: Asia in a paddy over rice
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
By Michael Richardson
As the average annual temperature rises in many parts of the world, one of the biggest concerns is the impact on agriculture. Yet relatively little research has been done on how humanity will feed itself in a climate that is warmer and more unpredictable.
This issue is of special concern to Asia where rice is the dominant food crop and relies heavily on fresh water and fertiliser to grow and produce high yields.
Rice is grown in more than 100 countries. But nearly 90 per cent of the land used for rice is in Asia where eight countries - India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and the Philippines - account for 80 per cent of the global rice area.
Since the Green Revolution began just over 40 years ago with the release of the first modern rice variety by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, the global rice harvest has more than doubled, keeping slightly ahead of population growth.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459984
Unknown islands emerging from under melting ice cap
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
By Alister Doyle
Unknown islands are appearing as Arctic summer sea ice shrinks to record lows, raising questions about whether global warming is outpacing UN projections, experts said.
Polar bears and seals have also suffered this year on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard because the sea ice they rely on for hunts melted far earlier than normal.
"Reductions of snow and ice are happening at an alarming rate," Norwegian Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoy said at last week's seminar of 40 scientists and politicians in Ny Alesund, 1200km from the North Pole.
This acceleration may be faster than predicted by the UN climate panel this year, she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10460000
The green test: Dr Nick Smith
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
The weekly environmental friendliness test. This week: Dr Nick Smith, National spokesman on the environment.
What are you doing personally to make a difference?
My household green waste is composted and I separate and recycle the glass, plastic and paper waste. I choose to live next door to my electorate office to minimise my transport in Nelson, and regularly bike and walk with my children. My home and office use eco-bulbs to minimise energy use.
What more could you do?
I want to upgrade my 2-litre Honda to more efficient technology and am exploring solar/heat pump technologies for heating my hot water.
What is your biggest environmental sin?
Flying too much….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=614&objectid=10459991
Greens warn of 'nonsense' Apec approach to climate
5:00AM Friday August 24, 2007
By Jeanette Fitzsimons
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to push for binding targets on climate change at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Australia next month.
The draft of the Apec leaders' environment declaration was leaked to Greenpeace this week and has drawn criticism for not including binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions. Instead it calls on leaders to set goals.
Apec host Australia, with the United States, has so far refused to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol, which carries binding emissions targets.
Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the draft Apec document would undermine the Kyoto agreement, of which New Zealand is a party.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=244&objectid=10459544
Anthony Doesburg: Plenty of technology to save the planet - if we're ready to pay
9:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
By Anthony Doesburg
When it comes to the urgent issue of dealing with climate change, technology is both villain and potential white knight. If the villainous technologies are those that are pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere, the heroic ones are carbon-neutral.
We need more of the latter, says Gareth Renowden, author of a new book, Hot Topic, that outlines the implications for New Zealand of the recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Technology that takes the country towards carbon-neutrality won't undo the damage already done - "I think we are already in for a pretty rough ride" - but it's our best hope for stopping things getting worse, Renowden says.
"There is a lot of technology out there that is directly applicable to the problem. I tend towards the geeky Wired magazine approach to this and get quite excited about the technology that could be deployed to become part of the solution."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10459537
Phone companies urge recycling of mobiles
1:00PM Monday June 04, 2007
Vodafone and Telecom are urging people to recycle their old mobiles.
Vodafone spokesman Raphael Hilbron said an estimated one million mobiles were unused in New Zealand -- "probably sitting in people's drawers or boxes at home".
"The challenge for us is to educate our customers to recycle their unused phones. It's not just the right thing to do for the environment -- someone else in another part of the world could be benefiting from their old phone."
Vodafone had collected about 150,000 phones in the past few years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=614&objectid=10443541
Regulator overrules TransPacific's bid for Envirowaste
1:00PM Thursday May 31, 2007
The Commerce Commission said today it had declined clearance for TransPacific Industries to buy from Ironbridge the South Island solid waste interests of Envirowaste Services and 50 per cent of the shares in Manawatu Waste.
The commission said it would provide a written report on its decision in about two weeks but until then would not provide further comment.
TransPacific executive chairman Terry Peabody said he believed the report would show certain interests could be acquired.
"It is our view that the Commerce Commission's decision means that the commission does not think we should buy them all," he said.
"While obviously we do not agree that the commission should have declined clearance for any of the assets, we are still confident that, once we see the commission's report, the major strategic assets in which we are interested will be available to us."
Envirowaste's South Island interests include ownership of the Fairfield landfill in Dunedin and an interest in a landfill at Kate Valley, north of Christchurch, of which TPI already owns 25 per cent.
TransPacific last year bought Waste Management for $870 million.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=614&objectid=10442885
Students blame cops over riot
7:52AM Monday August 27, 2007
Students Richard Thompson (left) and Kevin Hogg inspect a burnt-out van outside their flat. Photo / Otago Daily Times
Students have claimed heavy handed tactics by police exacerbated the riots in Dunedin over the weekend.
Dunedin District Court will be kept busy in the aftermath of the alcohol-fuelled rampage in the city on Saturday night.
Police were pelted with bottles, drunken students set fire to cars and mattresses, and 69 arrests were made between 7pm on Friday and 7am yesterday.
But the Otago Daily Times today quoted students who said the police brought Saturday night's chaos on themselves after turning up in riot gear and "turfing" people out of their homes for no good reason.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460081
Passenger walks 5km to raise alarm after plane crash
Updated 6:57AM Monday August 27, 2007
By Alanah May Eriksen
The pilot and a passenger of a light plane were rescued last night after the aircraft went down in mountainous terrain in the Southern Alps.
The passenger walked 5km to a hut, where he was found by rescuers.
The pilot was later winched to safety from the crash site and was flown to hospital.
A search and rescue operation was launched after the plane - a two-seater Robin R2120 flying from Christchurch to Mount Cook - was reported overdue at 4pm.
Three hours later searchers found the plane's passenger at a hut in Folk Stream between Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki after he walked about five kilometres from the crash site in steep terrain to try to raise the alarm.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460074
Injured doctor faces days in cave
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
By Beck Vass
A badly injured caver 3km inside one of New Zealand's deepest and longest cave systems could be stuck underground for two days.
Police and search and rescue staff are part way through an attempt to free Motueka general practitioner Michael Brewer, 47, from inside the Greenlink-Middle Earth cave system beneath Takaka Hill.
Dr Brewer suffered head and leg injuries when a rock hit him as he was surveying and mapping the cave system with three companions about 5pm on Saturday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460069
Leaky timebomb fast becoming a flood
5:00AM Sunday August 26, 2007
By Jane Phare
Hundreds of apartment owners may be in for a shock as a multi-million-dollar timebomb of leaky-building problems hits highrise residential buildings.
Experts warn prospective buyers to check body corporate minutes and get a building report before purchase. They warn existing owners to expect a hefty bill particularly if their building has been clad with monolithic-style residential cladding.
One contractor repairing leaky apartments told the Herald on Sunday there was "plenty of work out there". Building consultants expect the next five to 10 years to be busy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=24&objectid=10459878
King memorial dream goes bad after Chinese gets job
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007By Ben Evans
A place has been prepared for a monument to the Rev Martin Luther King jnr on the most hallowed ground in America. But the nature of that memorial is causing a dispute that threatens to sully the memory of a man renowned for his intent to unite people.
The rumpus is over the ethnicity of the sculptor. A Chinese has been chosen to carve a monument three storeys high on the National Mall in Washington, where it will be placed between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. But a growing group of critics is demanding that a black sculptor, or at least an American, should have been chosen. The protesters have been joined by human rights advocates who say King would have abhorred the Chinese Government's record on religious and civil liberties.
Gilbert Young, a black painter from Atlanta who has launched a website and a petition to try to change the project, said: "I believe that black artists have the right to interpret ourselves first. If nobody steps up to the plate to do that, then certainly pass it along to someone else."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460052
Grieving father says there's 'ice water' in royals' veins
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
LONDON - The British royal family must have "ice water in their veins," says the father of Princess Diana's lover who will forever be convinced their deaths in a Paris car crash were not an accident.
"They took a young girl who was only 19 and they made her life hell," said Mohamed al-Fayed, an implacable foe of the House of Windsor, reflecting on Diana's fairytale marriage to Prince Charles that ended in bitter divorce.
The Egyptian-born tycoon, who owns the luxury London store Harrods, said in an interview to mark the 10th anniversary of the deaths of Diana and his eldest son Dodi: "The royal family must have ice water in their veins."
He has long maintained that his son and Diana were victims of an establishment conspiracy to prevent them from marrying.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460049
Princes want Camilla at Diana service
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007By Richard Osley
The Royal Family has rallied around the Duchess of Cornwall and moved to quell criticism of her presence at a memorial service next weekend for the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
A note from Clarence House was as polite as Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, probably felt she could be - but the message was blunt: the two princes want me there, now leave me alone.
While most correspondence from members of the public to royals is batted away with a simple acknowledgment, the duchess clearly felt Margaret Funnell deserved a more considered response when she was asked to explain why she had put the service as a date in her diary.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460047
Fears more finance firms will collapse
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
Concerns are mounting that more finance companies will collapse as confidence crumbles in that sector.
"We are definitely in a state where we have a crisis of confidence," said John Grant, business director for Wizard Home loans. He predicted more collapses ahead.
When confidence evaporated, companies that lent long but borrowed short would always have problems, he said.
Christchurch-based Property Finance Group said on Friday it would have to restructure because it could not honour its debts due to the drying up of funds from investors and the wholesale market.
It will make a statement today, but closed its doors on Friday owing 4000 investors more than $80 million. It has a loan book of $630 million.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/12/story.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=10460027
Teen cracks Aussie government's $93m porn filter
1:38PM Sunday August 26, 2007
Tom Wood, a 16-year-old Melbourne student, hacked through the Australian government's new porn filter in half an hour. Photo / Peter Meecham
MELBOURNE - A 16-year-old schoolboy has cracked the federal government's A$84 million ($93 million) internet porn filter.
Tom Wood, a Year 10 student, told News Ltd newspapers it took him about 30 minutes to break through the government's new filter, released on Tuesday.
Tom, who attends a Melbourne private school, can deactivate the filter after several clicks.
His method ensures the software's toolbar icon is not deleted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10459963
Sleepy? Cut out late-night internet and TV
2:40PM Friday August 24, 2007
Internet use affected self-perceived insufficient sleep more than TV watching.
NEW YORK - People who spend more pre-bedtime hours using the internet or watching television are more likely to report that they don't get enough sleep, even though they sleep almost as long as people who spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a computer or television screen, survey findings show.
"While many people use electronic media, such as the internet, it should be noted that the longer media use before sleep can trigger (self-perceived) insufficient sleep," lead researcher Dr. Nakamori Suganuma, of Osaka University, Japan, told Reuters Health.
He and colleagues obtained data on self-perceived sleep problems and the use of electronic media prior to bedtime from a total of 5,875 Japanese respondents to two separate internet-based surveys. Their findings are published in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10459676
Cancer strategy achieving goals but still more to do
5:00AM Friday August 24, 2007
Most of the milestones set for first two years of the Government's Cancer Control Strategy Plan have been achieved, according to a report issued yesterday.
But Health Minister Pete Hodgson said there was a lot more work to do.
"We've still got a way to go in developing a national cancer workforce strategy," he said as he issued the Cancer Control Council report.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10459543
Civilians die in bomb raids
6:15AM Monday August 27, 2007
Residents of a Taleban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan said yesterday dozens of civilians, including women and children, had been killed in aerial bombing.
British and American forces confirmed there had been fighting in the area but the British denied any airstrikes occurred there late on Saturday, while the US military was making checks.
The strike yesterday hit several villages in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, residents said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460056
Trafficked women auctioned in pubs
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007By Jo Revill
A major police operation to tackle the trafficking of women in Britain has discovered that some victims are being "sold" at auctions in pubs before being forced to work in brothels.
In the largest operation of its kind, police in Cambridgeshire raided 73 suspected brothels during the past few months. They have already rescued seven women, some with serious injuries sustained as they tried to escape captivity.
The scale of the abuse has horrified officers and staff from other agencies working with them, who have found women being forced to work in the sex trade in houses in villages as well as city centres. Some were made to have sex with up to 60 men a day, earning thousands of pounds for the gangs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460053
Abkhazia denies downing plane
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
TBILISI - Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia confirmed that an unknown plane went down over its territory last week.
Abkhazia's Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said that according to information from witnesses the plane came from the Black Sea and went down two minutes later in the mountains in Upper Abkhazia.
"We believe it was a Georgian plane. It has in the past repeatedly violated our airspace. It went down by itself, no one downed it," Shamba said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460008
From RIA Novosti
Georgian police looking for downed plane in Kodori
TBILISI, August 25 (RIA Novosti) - A special group of Georgia's Interior Ministry left for the Kodori Gorge Saturday to look for a plane allegedly downed in the area after Georgian airspace violation August 21.
The Rustavi-2 TV company reported Friday citing eyewitnesses that an aircraft could have fallen near the Lata village, but locals said they were unable to approach the site due to complicated weather conditions.
A Georgian Interior Ministry representative said Georgia fired on a plane that allegedly violated the country's airspace August 21, but an aide to the Russian Air Force commander called Tbilisi's statements a provocation, denying any flights by Russian planes at that time.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry delivered a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry Wednesday claiming Georgian airspace had been violated from Russia the day before. Russia has denied the claim.
Georgia has also accused the Russian Air Force of violating its airspace and dropping a missile on a village August 6, a claim Russia has also denied.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20070825/74551058.html
From New Zealand Herald
Chill wind blows toward new Cold War
5:00AM Monday August 27, 2007
By Anne Penketh
Analysts say the tense situation could deteriorate into an armed conflict in the time it would take President Putin to remove his shirt. Photo / Reuters
If there is a rifle hanging on the wall in the first act, in the third act, the rifle will be fired.
KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky is musing on the words of the Russian dramatist Chekhov as he considers Vladimir Putin's latest strategic moves, which he fears could lead inevitably to all-out military conflict.
"When Putin came to power, it was clear what was going to happen," says Gordievsky of his former KGB colleague. "I warned John Scarlett [Gordievsky's former handler in Moscow who now heads MI6], I warned the Foreign Office, I warned journalists. Now they believe me," he thunders.
Not content with hanging up a rifle on the wall, the Russian President has lined up a whole array of weaponry, including nuclear-capable strategic bombers while ratcheting up his rhetoric, prompting talk of a "new Cold War".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459979
Sunshine Coast flood waters recede
12:13PM Sunday August 26, 2007
BRISBANE - Clean-up efforts are underway across Queensland's Sunshine Coast as flood waters begin to recede, authorities say.
Emergency Management Queensland regional director Peter Twomey said flood waters peaked at 6pm (AEST) yesterday, with only limited damage thanks to early preparations including the laying of 2,000 sandbags around Noosa.
"Throughout the evening, flood levels remained steady and they are now beginning to fall in some areas," Mr Twomey said.
"Major flooding has affected residents in the Noosa River, Lake Cooroibah and Lake Cootharaba area and even though we are confident the worst is now past us, it may take several days for waters to return to normal levels."
The State Emergency Service (SES) are continuing to monitor outlying communities such as Boreen Point, where flood levels remain steady, he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459956
Father calls for media restraint in missing Madeleine case
10:44AM Sunday August 26, 2007
By Kate Holton
EDINBURGH - The father of missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann has called for the media to show more restraint, saying they had never expected so much coverage and it had now become out of control.
Madeleine went missing from her bedroom on May 3 as her parents were dining nearby at a resort in southern Portugal.
Despite an international search and high-profile publicity campaign involving such figures as Pope Benedict, J.K. Rowling and David Beckham, there has been no sign of her since.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459949
Schoolboy slaying may have been gang initiation (+ video)
2:26PM Sunday August 26, 2007
By Tony Thompson
LIVERPOOL - Police are investigating the theory that Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old boy shot dead on Wednesday, may have been the victim of an initiation or blooding ritual where rival gangs fire guns across each other's territory in lethal shows of strength.
The theory suggests that Rhys's killer could have been firing randomly rather than targeting the boy who had no obvious links to the local gang culture.
Police arrested a further six teenagers yesterday, including two girls, bringing the total number arrested to nine. Two have been released on police bail; seven remain in custody. But detectives are still battling against the public's fear of the gunmen, and pleaded for witnesses to come forward. The pleas, in the main, fell on deaf ears.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459966
Six more teens held over schoolboy's murder
8:35AM Sunday August 26, 2007By Peter Griffiths
Six more teens have been arrested in connection with the murder of Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones, 11. Photo / Reuters
LONDON - Liverpool police have arrested six more teenagers, two of them girls, in connection with the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones and renewed appeals for help in finding his killer.
Three boys aged, 15, 16, and 19 and two girls aged 15 and 18 were detained in Liverpool on Saturday morning, a Merseyside Police spokesman said. Another 19-year-old male was arrested later in the day.
Detective Superintendent David Kelly said one of the boys was injured during the arrest when he fell from a window through which he was trying to escape. He said the injuries were not life-threatening.
He called for a dark-haired woman seen pushing a pram in the area at the time of the shooting to come forward.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459939
Brutal Manhunt game given green light
9:59AM Sunday August 26, 2007
Manhunt 2 will go on sale in the United States.
SAN FRANCISCO - Manhunt 2, a brutally violent video game that was effectively banned in the United States, has risen from the grave in a modified form and will go on sale for Halloween, its publisher says.
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc said a new version of the game, which features an insane asylum escapee killing enemies in gruesome ways, had won a "Mature" rating from the US Entertainment Software Ratings Board, meaning it is meant for players aged 17 and over.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10459946
Bombs kill 38 in latest Indian attack (+ video)
9:10AM Sunday August 26, 2007
HYDERABAD - Three bombs within minutes, one at a street-side food stall and two in an amusement park, have killed at least 38 people in a southern Indian city in the latest in a series of attacks on urban centres.
More than 70 people were wounded in the blasts in Hyderabad, a city with a history of communal violence, and where nearly a dozen people were killed when a mosque was bombed in May.
There was no claim of responsibility.
"The blasts took place almost simultaneously and we are still counting the number of dead," said Balwinder Singh, the city's police commissioner.
Several bodies taken to the city's main hospital were missing limbs or decapitated, illustrating the force of the explosions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10459938
Quake rocks lower North Island
2:27PM Saturday August 25, 2007
An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 has rocked the lower North Island.
The quake hit at 1.43pm and was located 40km west of Foxton. It had a focal depth of 50km.
GNS Science said it was felt widely throughout the lower North Island. There were no immediate reports of damage.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10459836
Two quakes hit South Island
6:17PM Friday August 24, 2007
Two earthquakes struck the Hanmer Springs area today.
GNS Science said the first quake, measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, struck 10km south of Hanmer Springs at 1.30pm at a depth of 5km.
The second, measuring 3.7, occurred 5km south of Hanmer Springs at about 4pm at a depth of 10km.
GNS Science said the quakes would have been felt in northern Canterbury near Hanmer Springs.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10459713
Turban check upsets Sikhs
5:15AM Monday August 27, 2007
The largest civil rights organisation of American Sikhs is outraged with a new US airport security policy that allows arbitrary searches of turbans, a sacred headdress for members of the religion.
The Sikh Coalition said that it had been told that turbans could be subject to manual pat-downs even if their wearers had passed a metal detector test.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10460055
Overthrown PM can return to Pakistan - court
7:45AM Friday August 24, 2007By Kamran Haider and Simon Rabinovitch
ISLAMABAD/LONDON - Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can return home after seven years in exile in a decision he hailed as a victory against dictatorship.
Sharif, a two-time prime minister overthrown by army chief General Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has vowed to oppose a bid by President Musharraf for another term in office.
"This is a victory for democratic struggle. Dictatorship has lost, democracy has won and the constitution of Pakistan has won," he told reporters in London.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459615
Campaign begins for Sierra Leone run-off
10:39AM Sunday August 26, 2007
FREETOWN - Campaigning has started in Sierra Leone for a presidential election run-off on September 8 between main opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma and Solomon Berewa of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP).
No candidate gained the 55 per cent needed to win office outright in the opening round of the polls on Aug. 11, the first since United Nations peacekeepers left the former British colony two years ago following a 1991-2002 civil war.
Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC) took 44.3 per cent and Berewa won 38.3 per cent, according to the official final results announced on Saturday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459948
Pro democracy activists stage rare protest in Myanmar
9:10AM Thursday August 23, 2007
By Andrew Buncombe
People hang of the back of a crowded passenger bus in Yangon. Myanmar's secretive military government raised fuel prices by up to 500 per cent without warning on Wednesday. Photo / Reuters
Hundreds of demonstrators have defied the military junta in Myanmar to stage a rare protest march despite the arrests 13 leading pro-democracy activists.
According to witnesses around 300 people staged an hour-long march before being dispersed by gangs of unidentified men - believed to be members of the regime-created Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
The march followed a series of midnight raids aimed at confronting growing protests over rising fuel prices in the country formerly known as Burma.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459416
Mayor fumes as council okays parade
5:00AM Saturday August 18, 2007
The popularity of last year's Boobs on Bikes parade was at odds with the official reaction. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard says the Boobs on Bikes parade is "morally repugnant", even more so because organiser Steve Crow is using it in his bid for the mayoralty.
Mr Hubbard was speaking yesterday after the Auckland City Council granted a permit for Wednesday's inner-city parade of topless models on the backs of motorcycles promoting next weekend's Erotica Expo at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane.
Last year the council tried to stop the parade.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10458475
Tit-for-tat battle over boobs on bikes
5:00AM Thursday August 23, 2007
By Bernard Orsman
Thousands of spectators pack Queen St to ogle the models at the annual Boobs on Bikes parade yesterday. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Mayoral candidate Steve Crow drew a crowd of tens of thousands to central Auckland yesterday - but it was sex, not politics, the hordes had come for.
Smiling to the lunchtime crowd from a hotted-up convertible Bentley with the number plate Evil, the porn king led the Boobs on Bikes parade down Queen St to promote this weekend's R18 Erotica show in the city.
"This is me with my Erotica hat on. I'm not campaigning for mayor," Mr Crow said.
However, the businessman could not resist a dig at Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard by towing a large billboard accusing him of trying to ban fun in the city.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459310
Kiribati goes to the polls
11:45AM Wednesday August 22, 2007
AUCKLAND - The tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati goes to the polls today.
One hundred and forty-six candidates are contesting the election for the 44-seat parliament.
Most come from either the ruling Boutokan te Koaua (Pillars of Truth) party or the main opposition party Maneaban Te Mauri (Protect the Maneaba).
Deputy clerk of the Kiribati government Eni Tekanene said both major parties had policies of seeking Australian help to fund education programs.
"Both parties are seeking more funding from Australia in terms of education. The two parties always agree on that," Tekanene said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459215
Vote of confidence in role of military
5:00AM Tuesday August 21, 2007
BANGKOK - Voters in Thailand appear to have approved a new constitution for the country - in a vote widely billed as a referendum on last year's coup that ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
Exit polls yesterday suggested around 70 per cent of voters had approved the new charter that also reduces the role of politicians and could help the military retain a behind-the-scenes influence for years to come. The country's electoral officials estimated that 60 per cent of eligible voters participated.
Yesterday, Thailand's Prime Minister, Surayud Chulanont, the civilian face of the military-backed Government, said the high turnout and approval were "the first step in moving forward to full democracy".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10458904
Exiled PM lives a cut above rest
5:00AM Saturday August 18, 2007
By Andrew Buncombe
Ousted Thailand PM Thaksin Shinawatra has bought a British football team, Manchester City. Photo / Reuters
The former Thai Prime Minister's taste for the high life is continuing to make headlines as warrants are issued for his arrest. The life of an exile is never easy. The Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero was banished in 58BC and it caused him to fall into a deep depression; Napoleon died on St Helena, never to see his native France again; while the Egyptian politician Mahmoud Sami al-Baroudi so hated his exile to what is now Sri Lanka that he wrote a series of poems full of lament and misery.
But all of these hardships are nothing, surely, compared with the tribulation confronting billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand and a man whose life in London has been made miserable by that most pernicious of urban challenges - finding a decent barber.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10458383
Tories prepare for snap poll
5:00AM Tuesday August 21, 2007
LONDON - Conservative leader David Cameron has put party workers on alert for a snap October election and made the breakdown of British society a key plank in the Tory platform.
British PM Gordon Brown has ordered his election planning team to prepare an options paper on an early poll to exploit the "Brown bounce" that has given Labour a 10-point lead over the Conservatives.
Labour MPs still expect Brown to delay until May but Tory party chairwoman Caroline Spelman believes the PM could use his keynote speech at next month's Labour Party conference to call a general election in October.
- Independent
75,000 people off voter rolls
8:00AM Monday August 20, 2007
The Electoral Enrolment Centre has removed more than 75,000 people from the rolls for the October local authority elections.
It is warning voters they have until Friday to get enrolled in the normal way and will need special voting papers after that.
The centre's national manager, Murray Wicks, said that during the six-week enrolment campaign a record 75,159 people had been removed from the rolls and 32,351 new enrolments had been processed.
People are taken off the rolls when their forms are sent back from their old address and the centre does not know where they have moved to.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10458748
US envoy says Iraq making poor political progress
BAGHDAD - Iraq has made "extremely disappointing" progress toward reconciling its warring sects, the US ambassador has said, just three weeks before he is due to present a pivotal report on Iraq to the US Congress.
In some of the bluntest language used by a US official toward Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fractured coalition government, ambassador Ryan Crocker also warned that US support for Maliki's administration was not open-ended.
"Progress on national level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned, to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself," Crocker said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459239
Bush piles pressure on Iraqi PM
5:00AM Thursday August 23, 2007
By Leonard Doyle
President George W. Bush referred publicly to the growing United States frustration with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki yesterday, but said the Iraqi people would have to decide whether to continue supporting him.
His remarks fell short of the glowing endorsement Maliki is accustomed to receiving from the US President and followed demands by the powerful Democratic Senator Carl Levin for the Iraqi Assembly to throw out Maliki.
Senator Levin is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and his comments on Tuesday that the Maliki Government is "non-functional" sent shockwaves through the political establishment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459326
Top Republican says US should announce Iraq pullout
8:45AM Friday August 24, 2007
WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush should announce on September 15 a small initial pullout of US troops from Iraq to spur the Iraqi government to take steps toward political reconciliation, an influential Republican senator has said.
Virginia Senator John Warner said Bush should "announce on the 15th that in consultation with our senior military commanders he has decided to initiate the first step in a withdrawal of our forces."
Warner, a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who has pressed Bush to change his Iraq policy, suggested a withdrawal of "say 5,000" troops, who could be home by Christmas in December of this year.
Warner said the United States needed "to show that we mean business" when it says its commitment to Iraq is not open ended.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459620
Obama takes anti-war stance to US war veterans
8:05AM Wednesday August 22, 2007
KANSAS CITY - Senator Barack Obama has told US military veterans who largely back the war in Iraq he is committed to pulling the troops out - something his Democratic presidential rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, played down when she spoke to the group earlier.
Some among the thousands at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City yesterday gave the Illinois senator high marks for confronting the issue loudly and up-front, even if many didn't agree with his stand.
Obama, 46, praised US soldiers serving in Iraq as having performed brilliantly, but reiterated a call to withdraw combat troops, saying "there is no military solution in Iraq."
"One reason to stop fighting the wrong war is so that we can fight the right war against terrorism and extremism," focusing instead on fighting terrorist roots in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama told the group.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459176
Blog: We all love war
11:32AM Monday August 20, 2007By Tim Shadbolt
Despite the fact that Auckland City will be virtually fielding a full rugby team of Mayoral candidates in the forthcoming elections, first prize for bizarre political duck-shoving would have to be awarded to the six Government departments that all knew we were taking Aussie troops to Iraq, but failed to inform a single Cabinet Minister about our involvement in the war.
I've always claimed that 'Yes Minister' was a documentary rather than a comedy show. Basically the primary function of bureaucrats whether they are in local government or central government is to keep politicians as ignorant as humanly possible; distract them with trivia at every opportunity; leak embarrassing information on them so that they remain constantly insecure or paranoid; and maintain the status quo so that their own jobs are secure.
American democracy recognises this. All senior bureaucrats are sacked when there is a regime change, but in New Zealand we tend to follow the British system and senior bureaucrats remain in office regardless of who wins the elections.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10458796
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