Greens warn of 'nonsense' Apec approach to climate
5:00AM Friday August 24, 2007By Jeanette Fitzsimons
Jeanette Fitzsimons said the draft Apec document would undermine the Kyoto agreement.
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/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10459544
John Blakeley: Kyoto faces major world opposition
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007By John Blakeley
The outcomes of two international meetings next month may determine whether the Kyoto Protocol lasts even one full year into its five-year commitment period that starts in January.
The first is the Apec summit of Asia-Pacific leaders to be held in Sydney, at which climate change is expected to be top of the agenda.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who will chair the forum, has asked his Apec counterparts to consider how the 21 member countries can support an "emerging practical consensus on a global framework for tackling climate change".
Apec includes the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters - the United States and China - and Howard has proposed a model in which countries set their own objectives in a range of areas which affect climate change, rather than compulsory targets.
Greenpeace has made public details of a leaked Apec draft communique suggested by the US. The draft does not mention targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions but instead proposes solutions based entirely on "new clean technologies" rather than on changes in the way people lead their lives.
The second meeting, in Washington on September 27 and 28, involves the countries that are the major emitters of greenhouse gases.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460370
Get behind geothermal, Contact tells Government
…Contact has plans for two new geothermal plants near its existing Wairakei station as part of a $2 billion renewable energy investment programme but unless it gained consents for them by the second half of next year, it would not be able to construct them in time to meet demand.
Meanwhile, it already has consents for the 400 megawatt gas-fired Otahuhu C station, which, if built, would effectively commit the country to importing LNG as domestic gas supplies ran out.
"If we can't construct the [geothermal] powerstations by the timeframe we've set out, which would require an efficient consenting process, then I think the chances of New Zealand needing that generation [Otahuhu C] are much more likely," Contact spokesman Jonathan Hill said.
Contact remains hopeful the Government will consider its consent applications by way of a "call in" process, which, under the Resource Management Act, allows for a shorter and more cost-effective consent process "while respecting the need to balance national and local issues"….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10460426
Then there were seven - another finance firm folds
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
By Adam Bennett
Richard Agnew
Just a day after Property Finance was placed in receivership, yet another casualty - the seventh of the shakeout hitting the industry - will be announced today.
Richard Agnew of PricewaterhouseCoopers last night said he would be issuing a press release this morning advising of the receivership but refused to confirm the name of the company.
"I want a chance to talk to staff before they read it somewhere," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10460642
Ngai Tahu Seafoods back in profit after difficult times
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
Ngai Tahu Seafood is developing niche markets, with lobster sales to China on the increase. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey
Ngai Tahu Seafoods has bounced back from a $22.8 million loss to post a $9.2 million surplus for the 2006-07 financial year. The $9.2 million earnings before interest and tax was on the back of $76 million in revenue. The previous year's loss was largely due to a $20.7 million balance sheet writedown.
Ngai Tahu Seafoods chief executive Geoff Hipkins said the turnaround was pleasing after a "tough couple of years".
"This last year was about finishing the process of rationalisation we started in 2005-06, especially reducing inventory and operating costs," he said. The company had also focused on consolidating its position in New Zealand and targeted its efforts on key products and developing niche markets.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=44&objectid=10460407
Tourists trying to cut the carbons
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
By Angela Gregory
Overseas travellers feeling guilty about the carbon miles they incur flying to New Zealand are increasingly trying to compensate by demanding eco-friendly tourism when they arrive here.
Carol Maxwell, Landcare Research sustainability adviser, said more and more travellers from the northern hemisphere were wanting evidence of sustainable tourism in New Zealand.
Ms Maxwell, who is speaking at the New Zealand Tourism Industry conference in Auckland today, said the United Kingdom market was particularly strong in requesting such information.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10460454
Pilgrims flee holy city as battles rage near shrines
KERBALA - Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims fled Iraq's holy city of Kerbala yesterday after a day of fierce gunbattles near two of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines killed 52 people during an annual religious rite.
Sporadic and occasionally sustained gunfire could still be heard after dawn in the city, coming from the area around the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas. Sirens of police cars and ambulances could be heard wailing throughout the city and police loudspeakers ordered pilgrims out of the ancient centre.
Police sources said Iraqi police and soldiers had seized control of the city centre from the shrines' guards.
Fighting, apparently among Shiite factions in the holy city, killed 52 people and wounded 206, a senior security official in Baghdad said.
The general director of the al-Hussein hospital in Kerbala, 110km south of the capital, said it had received 34 bodies and treated 239 wounded.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460643#Scene_1
Taleban release 12 Korean hostages
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Taleban insurgents freed 12 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan overnight, a day after reaching a deal with Korean and Indonesian negotiators on the release of the 19 Christian volunteers.
Three South Korean women were released first, followed by four women and a man - handed over to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ghazni province, Reuters witnesses said.
A third batch comprising three women and a man were released later on Wednesday, they said.
Wearing long, traditional headscarves, the three women who were first to be freed wept as they sat in an ICRC vehicle.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460686#Scene_1
One-in-ten Aussies 'living in poverty'
9:21AM Thursday August 30, 2007
CANBERRA - Even though the economy is booming, almost two million Australians, or 10 per cent, are living in poverty, a report has found.
The Australia Fair campaign, which was established by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), today released a report comparing Australia to the rest of the developed world in 10 key areas.
The areas are community, education, environment, health, housing, reconciliation, rights, services, welfare and work.
Using an international measure that defines the poverty line as 50 per cent of median income, the report found the number of Australians living in poverty rose from 7.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent of the population between 1994 and 2004.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460700#Scene_1
Turkey elects former Islamist despite secularist opposition
ANKARA - Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was sworn in as Turkey's president today despite the objections of a powerful military that fears a creeping subversion of the country's secular order under the former Islamist.
Gul, who enjoys popular support, is the first politician with a background in political Islam to win the symbolically important post in Turkey's modern history.
In contrast to past inaugurations, the army top brass and much of the secular elite, including the main opposition Republican People's Party, stayed away from Gul's swearing-in ceremony.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460550#Scene_1
Charges upgraded after Undie 500 riots
Dunedin police are upgrading charges against students caught up in the major disturbance in the university campus area over the weekend.
Sixty-nine people were arrested for disorderly behaviour but 21 of them have had their charges upgraded to the more serious crime of rioting, TV3 reported last night.
Canterbury University's annual Undie 500 motor run to Dunedin descended into mayhem after couches were burned, bottles thrown at police and firefighters and more than $12,000 in damage was caused to emergency equipment. Police were combing through video footage to see if any other charges could be laid.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460661
Payout for broken promise
8:15AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
A Malaysian court has ordered a man to pay his ex-fiancee a fine of 70,000 ringgit ($29,138) for breaking his promise to marry her.
The Star newspaper reported yesterday that the high court in the northern Perak state ruled that R Punnosamy, 41, had caused his former fiancee S Nagamah, 38, mental anguish and loss of reputation and honour when he broke his promises of marriage.
Nagamah sued Punnosamy after finding out he had married another woman.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460443#Scene_1
Teachers plan to strike over pay negotiations
High school teachers will go on strike for a day and are threatening more industrial action including more strikes, marking bans and refusals to take overcrowded classes.
Secondary teachers in pay negotiations with the Government gave notice yesterday of a national strike on September 12, if they don't get an improved offer on their pay claim.
The strike will be the first of its type since 2002.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460669
Students protest as professor resigns
A top Ivy League professor has resigned as head of the Auckland School of Architecture, telling students a deep "misalignment" of views between her and faculty management is behind her premature departure.
Professor Peggy Deamer, who was assistant dean at New York's prestigious Yale University's School of Architecture, took up her position in February. She was appointed with much fanfare by Professor Sharman Pretty, dean of Auckland University's National Institute of Creative Arts, in December.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10460638
Children learning better food choices
Elijah Wilkes' eyes have been opened by a new obesity-busting programme set to hit classrooms across the country.
"I never really thought lollies would be that bad for you," the 11-year-old says.
"I've started to get a little bit more into sweetcorn, which I never liked. I still don't like salads though."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10460466
Green MP lambasts delays in testing toothpastes
It has taken too long for the Ministry of Health to test 16 brands of toothpaste found to contain a toxic substance used in antifreeze, Green MP Sue Kedgley says.
The ministry released test results yesterday, 11 weeks after its warning not to use Chinese-made toothpastes out of fears they contained the ingredient diethylene glycol.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460660
Castro's tip: Clinton-Obama the winning ticket
HAVANA - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is tipping Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to team up and win the US presidential election.
Clinton leads Obama in the race to be the Democratic nominee for the November 2008 election, and Castro said they would make a winning combination.
"The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," he wrote in an editorial column on US presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460543#Scene_1
Free trial offers chance for 40 to ditch their glasses
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
By Martin Johnston
For those sick of reaching for their reading glasses, a new type of eye surgery is on the horizon - but it is likely to carry a high price tag.
Up to 40 New Zealand patients, half in Auckland and the rest in Christchurch, will be sought for a trial of tiny polymer eye implants, inserted using now-standard laser technology.
"There's been a lot of excitement about this procedure around the world," Auckland ophthalmologist Dr Dean Corbett, a participant in the international trial, said yesterday. "It may well go very well."
Short-sighted people with a spare $3000-plus per eye have long had the option of ditching their specs in favour of laser eye surgery, but for those whose near vision becomes blurry as they get older, glasses or contact lenses have been the only option.
The age-related loss of focusing power, called presbyopia and linked to loss of elasticity in each eye's lens, is universal; almost everyone needs corrective lenses for reading, knitting and computer use by the age of 50.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460667
Fall in sex convictions 'disturbing'
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
Alleged offenders of sexual crimes now have more chance of walking free than being convicted.
Answers to parliamentary questions from National's police spokesman Chester Borrows show the proportion of sexual offending allegations resulting in a conviction dropped from 55.6 per cent in 1999 to 44.6 per cent last year.
Most of the drop occurred over the past three years with the biggest drop - from 54.8 per cent to 46.7 per cent - occurring between 2003 and 2004.
Notes accompanying the figures say the system used to log cases was updated in 2004 - the year in which the largest decline is obvious.
"Accordingly, extreme caution should be used when making inferences based on any change between 2003 and 2004."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460662
Rapist gets 16 years
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
A man who raped a woman at knifepoint after breaking into her home has been jailed for 16 years with a non-parole period of 10 years.
Tony Daniel Adamson, 22, was sentenced yesterday by Judge Allan Roberts in the New Plymouth District Court.
The attacks was Adamson's second on the night of June 29. Both victims were known to him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460674
'Yellow robber' forces safety issue
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
Kiwibank is being urged to tighten security at the New Zealand Post outlets it operates after a string of robberies.
The calls come after a man police call the "yellow robber" this week struck the same Post Shop in South Auckland he targeted two weeks ago.
Another man, also suspected of robbing Post Shops, was arrested in Auckland on Monday after being recognised by police in a fastfood restaurant.
Union representatives said it was time for Kiwibank to reassess security systems at Post Shops.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10460648
Au revoir, and bring it home (+photos)
The All Blacks left New Zealand late last night carrying the weight of a nation's hopes and dreams.
But a Herald-Digipoll survey reveals that, for once, the team may not be over-burdened with expectations - one in four people have doubts about the All Blacks' chances of winning rugby's World Cup.
More than 28 per cent of those polled said they were not confident the team would bring home the Webb Ellis Trophy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/event/story.cfm?c_id=522&objectid=10460605
Trapped miners survive on coal, urine diet
BEIJING - Two Chinese brothers who tunnelled their way out of a coal mine collapse after being trapped for nearly six days survived by eating coal and drinking urine, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.
Brothers Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou became trapped while working at an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan District late Saturday, August 18, the latest in a series of disasters to strike the world's deadliest coal mining industry.
Two days later, rescue efforts were called off and relatives began burning "ghost money" at the entrance of the mine for the dearly departed.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460536#Scene_1
Republican Senator says not gay after guilty plea for 'lewd conduct'
BOISE, Idaho- Republican US Senator Larry Craig of Idaho said today he was not gay and had made a mistake in pleading guilty to disorderly conduct following a June arrest at a Minnesota airport men's toilet.
First elected to the US Senate in 1990, Craig was arrested by a plainclothes police officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in the men's public restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
"I am not gay, I never have been gay," he told reporters in Boise, Idaho, and apologized to the people of Idaho for what he said was a "cloud" placed over Idaho because of the incident. "I did nothing wrong," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460497#Scene_1
Noriega to avoid justice at home
PANAMA CITY - A US judge's decision to extradite Manuel Noriega to France has denied Panama the chance to hand justice to the former strongman for killing opponents during his rule in the 1980s.
Noriega will face money-laundering charges after his term in a US prison ends next month. The 73-year-old was sentenced in absentia in his homeland for the 1985 beheading of outspoken critic Hugo Spadafora and for the killing of nine soldiers who tried to topple him in 1989.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460618#Scene_1
Rebel fighters refuse to talk
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
By Ed Cropley
Malay rebels in southern Thailand are prepared to continue their armed struggle for an independent Muslim homeland for another five years before they contemplate talks with Bangkok, a leading rights group said yesterday.
In a 104-page report on the Muslim-majority region where 2400 people have been killed in the last four years, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the BRN-Co-ordinate group that appears to mastermind the unrest had more than 7000 "youth members".
New York-based HRW said it had made rare contact with members of the BRN-Co-ordinate, which has never made its aims public, and been told the group had "no plans to give up the armed struggle for Pattani Darulsalam".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10460423#Scene_1
Mugabe's main foe downunder
5:00AM Tuesday August 28, 2007By Greg Ansley
CANBERRA - Zimbabwe's Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai began a Government-sponsored tour of Australia yesterday urging a global anti-apartheid style campaign against the regime of President Robert Mugabe.
His Australian visit, under Canberra's special visitor's programme, is seen as another diplomatic slap in the face for a regime Australia describes as repressive and corrupt.
Tsvangirai's agenda includes a meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, whose May decision to cancel a tour by the Australian cricket team was welcomed by Tsvangirai as a positive step that would ensure international focus remained on his troubled nation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10460238#Scene_1
Posters a test of Swiss tolerance
5:00AM Tuesday August 28, 2007By Tom Armitage
Switzerland's most popular political party has added a hard edge to the campaign for a parliamentary election in October with a controversial initiative to extradite foreigners who commit serious crimes.
The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), which won over a quarter of the vote in the 2003 parliamentary election, has plastered towns and cities with cartoon-like posters calling for the "black sheep" in Swiss society to be booted out.
The party is seeking 100,000 signatures in support of the so-called "Extradition Initiative", enough to force the issue to a referendum. However, the posters and flyers sent to four million Swiss homes are also likely to influence October's vote.
The SVP has in the past campaigned against bogus asylum seekers and warned of the "Muslimisation" of Switzerland. Its campaign for the 2003 election was criticised by the United Nations' refugee agency for its racist overtones, and the latest campaign has also ruffled official feathers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10460228#Scene_1
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.
"We do expect results, as do the Iraqi people, and our support is not a blank check," he told reporters in Baghdad.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10459239#Scene_1
Officer found not guilty of Abu Ghraib abuse
WASHINGTON - A court-martial has ruled a US Army officer was not responsible for abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but was guilty of disobeying an order not to discuss an investigation into the case.
Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the only US military officer to face court-martial over the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, denied the charges against him and argued he was made a scapegoat for the scandal, which provoked worldwide outrage.
The military court at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, convicted Jordan of willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, the Army said in a statement.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460489#Scene_1
Insurer FMG hit by storms
4:30AM Thursday August 30, 2007
Rural insurer FMG yesterday reported its March year net profit halved to $13.53 million, with last year's extreme weather storms hitting its performance.
It was hit by a $10 million general insurance claims increase with $16.4 million of claims from extreme weather events, including the snow storms in Canterbury and floods in Northland.
As well it suffered a $5.1 million drop in investment income from record highs in 2005-6 and a $5.9 million write off from a discontinued software project.
These setbacks were offset by $8.9m from the sale of the Australian businesses and FMG's life insurance business in New Zealand.
Outgoing chairman Peter Jensen said the highlight of the result was a 7.2 per cent growth in premiums, ahead of the market average.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10460647#Scene_1
Blue note on Bourbon Street
5:00AM Tuesday August 28, 2007
NEW ORLEANS - Musicians marched a silent "second line" through the French Quarter yesterday to protest the state of New Orleans' famed music scene nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
About 50 musicians carrying trombones, trumpets, guitars and drums drew stares from mystified passersby as they strolled along Bourbon Street without playing a single note.
The "second line", or procession, was organised to raise awareness that almost two years after Hurricane Katrina, the storm is still giving the local music industry the blues, said guitarist and musicians union president "Deacon John" Moore.
"It ain't easy in the Big Easy any more," Moore said before the march began at Louis Armstrong Park. "Musicians are struggling to survive."
"The situation is dire enough to put in doubt the future of music in New Orleans, where jazz began and music-loving tourists contribute heavily to the economy," he said.
New Orleans will mark on Thursday the second anniversary of Katrina, which flooded 80 per cent of the city when it struck on August 29, 2005. Only about 60 per cent of the pre-storm population of nearly half a million has returned.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10460224#Scene_1
Friends try in vain to save fire hero
5:00AM Sunday August 26, 2007
By Catherine Woulfe
Lachlan McLean died after helping his friends escape a fire at their flat.
The mother of the teenage "hero" who died after helping his friends escape a fire yesterday says he was still her "baby boy".
Lachlan McLean (18) died yesterday in an early-morning blaze that gutted a flat in Oamaru.
He and another youth, who were sleeping in the lounge, heard the smoke alarms first, witnesses said. Together, they woke the four flatmates and helped them from the burning house. But McLean, an apprentice joiner, succumbed to the smoke.
It is understood that the five youths who escaped the fire tried desperately to reach McLean as the house burned, even breaking a window when it was not possible to get through the doors.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10459893#Scene_1
Rudd calls for debate with PM on industrial relations
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has been challenged by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd to a public debate on industrial relations, just a day after Labor released its controversial policy on the issue.
Rudd yesterday reiterated Labor's determination to phase out Australian Workplace Agreements, as well as committing to a balanced system of flexibility and fairness.
Now the Labor leader wants to have a public debate with Howard on the workplace system.
"Let's have a debate on industrial relations, let's have it now - himself, myself - let's get to it," Rudd told ABC radio.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460621#Scene_1
Quake hits Tonga
8:32AM Tuesday August 28, 2007
A magnitude 5.7 quake hit the South Pacific archipelago of Tonga on Monday, the US Geological Survey reported.
The USGS said the quake, very shallow at a depth of only 10km, occurred at 1712 GMT (0512 NZT) and had an epicentre located 230km northeast of Neiafu in Tonga. It gave no further details.
Sammy: The Incredible Journey of Mahatma Gandhi at SkyCity Theatre
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007By Dionne Christian
ON STAGE
What: Sammy: The Incredible Journey of Mahatma GandhiWhere and when: SkyCity Theatre, Aug 31-Sep 1
After a brief visit to Auckland last year, India's Prime Time Theatre returns with an award-winning production which puts the nation's modern founding father centre stage.
Sammy: The Incredible Journey of Mahatma Gandhi traces the transformation of Mohandas Gandhi - as he was known - from stumbling lawyer to shrewd politician and finally Mahatma, Sanskrit for "great soul".
Prime Time Theatre founder and Sammy director Lillette Dubey says the timing of the New Zealand visit is perfect, as this month marks India's 60th year of independence.
She feels Sammy has a special relevance given the continued threat of global terrorism.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10460580#Scene_1
Spain: Pilgrims' progress to the Apostle
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
By Geoff Cumming
You see them ambling along the side of highways, on their own, in pairs or threesomes, weighed down with backpacks. They don't want a lift, thanks, they are pilgrims.
The giveaway is the telltale sign on their packs: a scallop shell. It is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James), a route followed by pilgrims since the ninth century.
Their holy grail lies in Spain's western-most province, Galicia, where the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela contains the tomb of St James the Apostle. At least, that's what the pilgrims believe.
The Camino became one of the great pilgrimages in medieval times after a hermit supposedly guided by a star found a silver ark which, it was claimed, contained James' ashes. A magnificent cathedral was erected in Santiago in 829AD in honour of the discovery. Ever since, pilgrims from throughout Europe have converged on the town following various well-documented trails.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10460206#Scene_1
Ex-astronaut Nowak to rely on insanity defence
8:45AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
ORLANDO, Florida - Former Nasa astronaut Lisa Nowak will claim she was insane when she stalked and attacked a romantic rival during the unraveling of a love triangle with a fellow ex-astronaut, her lawyer said in court papers released on Tuesday.
Nowak claims she is competent to stand trial but that she was suffering from mental disorders when she allegedly armed herself with a knife, pepper spray, a wig and trench coat and raced from Houston to Orlando, Florida to meet Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman's plane at the airport, the papers said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460490#Scene_1
Hindus strike over bomb attacks
5:00AM Tuesday August 28, 2007
HYDERABAD - Investigators were pursuing leads yesterday from materials used to make bombs that killed 40 people in a southern Indian city, while Hindu nationalists called a strike to protest against the attacks blamed on Islamic militants.
The twin blasts on Sunday in Hyderabad, an emerging information technology centre, wounded about 80 people and authorities suspect Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan or Bangladesh.
No arrests have been made so far but city police chief Balwinder Singh said people had been questioned.
He said a chemical substance called "neogel" had been used to make the bombs.
"It is used for blasting and mining purposes. It is produced under restriction in Nagpur," he said, referring to the central Indian city in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra, which is about 350km north of Hyderabad.
Angelina Jolie visits refugees in Iraq
8:30AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
GENEVA - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has traveled to Iraq to visit refugees and appeal for more international support for the millions of people uprooted by war and violence.
Jolie, who has been to more than 20 countries since becoming a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency six years ago, visited a makeshift camp housing 1,200 people in Iraq and spent hours speaking with Iraqis now living in Damascus.
"I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to this humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners," the actress said in a statement released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"It is absolutely essential that the ongoing debate about Iraq's future includes plans for addressing the enormous humanitarian consequences these people face," she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=359&objectid=10460487#Scene_1
Troops kill 33 insurgents
6:15AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
United States and Iraqi troops killed 33 insurgents in an airborne assault and airstrikes at Khalis, 80km north of Baghdad, aimed at reopening a major irrigation canal that had been seized by gunmen, the US military said yesterday.
Residents in Khalis, a religiously mixed town, said insurgents had shovelled earth into the irrigation canal some days ago, cutting off water to farmland. Residents last week called for a greater security presence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460440#Scene_1
Exiled oligarch blamed for critic's murder
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007By Shaun Walker
It is hinted by proscecuters that exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky may be behind Anna Politkovskaya's murder.
Moscow is pointing the finger at one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's biggest opponents over the murder of a leading journalist.
Russian prosecutors hinted exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky may be the mastermind of Anna Politkovskaya's murder.
The Russian prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika yesterday announced a breakthrough in the hunt for the killers of crusading journalist Politkovskaya, who was a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin.
The announcement came three days before what would have been Politkovskaya's 49th birthday. She was shot dead in a hail of bullets in the lift of her Moscow apartment building last October.
Chaika said at a press conference that 10 arrests had been made in the investigation, including the direct organisers, accomplices and the assassin.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460436#Scene_1
Britain hits low point in opium war
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
Poppies are flourishing in Afghanistan where opium production is 34 per cent higher than last year. Photo / Reuters
KABUL - Britain faces a war on two fronts in Afghanistan, following the revelation that the province where British troops are deployed has become the biggest source of illicit drugs in the world.
In an annual survey of opium production released this week, the United Nations reported that Helmand province had produced 48 per cent more opium compared to its record-breaking crop last year.
Opium production in Afghanistan as a whole had reached a "frighteningly new level" at 8200 tonnes, 34 per cent higher than last year, the report said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460429
Concern at US poppy spraying tactic
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
By Anne Penketh
When William Wood, America's Ambassador to Colombia, was named envoy to Afghanistan a few months ago, there was concern he would bring with him the United States' crop eradication technique of choice.
Discussing possible new strategies for coping with the record increase in opium production in Afghanistan, Wood said spraying poppy crops with herbicide was a possibility.
The Government of President Hamid Karzai has rejected crop spraying in the past, as do the British, who have the unenviable responsibility for dealing with poppy production in troubled Helmand province.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460427
Stone turns to My Lai
5:00AM Thursday August 30, 2007
The rest of Hollywood might be training their camera lenses on the war in Iraq, but veteran director Oliver Stone is reportedly preparing to re-enlist for Vietnam.
Stone, who won best director Oscars for his Vietnam War-related dramas Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, is planning a new film about the investigation into the 1968 My Lai massacre, Daily Variety reports.
The 60-year-old director is close to sealing a deal with United Artists to finance the film, titled Pinkville, while actor Bruce Willis has been confirmed to play the Army chief who led the investigation into the killings.
Musharraf sizes up Bhutto
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007
LONDON - Pakistan's leader, General Pervez Musharraf, has dispatched envoys to London to try to secure agreement over a power-sharing with one of the country's former prime ministers.
One of the general's ministers confirmed yesterday that the Pakistani leader had sent representatives to talk to Benazir Bhutto, who has previously had a face-to-face meeting with Musharraf about a power-sharing deal.
Musharraf's actions suggest he is very concerned that Bhutto will back away from such an arrangement for fear that siding with him will cost her political support.
Her concerns may have been triggered by a decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court last week that opened the way for another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to return to the country. Many of Bhutto's aides are apparently concerned that by seeming to side with the increasingly unpopular Musharraf, she could see her support slide to Sharif.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10460432
Is the money spent on the Queen St trees a waste?
9:32AM Thursday August 30, 2007
The nikau palms gracing Queen St have cost $454,000, but nursery owners say ratepayers have snared a bargain.
Small groupings of the fully grown palms are giving a sense of the new $43.5 million Queen St, although it will be 10 years before an avenue of smaller, exotic liquidambars begin to create a dense canopy to rival the exotic trees that were cut down.Here is the latest selection of Your Views:
Aripoff (Christchurch)Yes i feel sorry for the ratepayers in Auckland ;its time Dick Hubbard shoved his head into the cornflakes' is there no more accountability in this country.
Mike Adams (New lynn)I do not consider trees in Queen St a waste of time but question the $8000+ each, for babysitting and transporting these Nikaus. The grower got $562.50 each, which is reasonable but whose relation has interests in the Speciman Tree Co to justify that level of additional payment.I would just love to see the justification for charging $8235.50, for each tree ! Come on council, show us what was done to justify this $387068
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/466/story.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10460682
US probes missing weapons, contract fraud (click here)
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's independent watchdog has launched a probe into the military's inability to account for weapons in Iraq after reports that Kurdish militants were using US arms to attack Turkey, the Defence Department said.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the department's inspector general will go to Iraq next week with an 18-member assessment team to investigate the problem.
"Since January, the inspector general's office has been thoroughly investigating reports of unaccounted-for weapons as well as allegations of arms ending up in the wrong hands," Morrell said....
Osama/Jesus artist asks critics to look closer (click here)
CANBERRA - The artist behind a controversial work depicting terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden morphing into Jesus today invited those considering her work to look a little more deeply than the obvious comparison of good and evil.
Queensland artist Priscilla Bracks denied she had deliberately set out to be offensive.
"Absolutely not, no, no. I am not interested in being offensive. I am interested in having a discussion and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept and what we don't accept," she told ABC radio....
Bush doesn't impress Aussies (click here)
CANBERRA - Australians care more about tackling climate change than terrorism and a majority like Americans but not necessarily their president, a new foreign policy survey shows.
And as Sydneysiders gear up for a week of upheaval as Asia Pacific leaders descend on the city, their opinion of US President George W Bush isn't likely to improve.
Mr Bush's early arrival on September 4, three days before the official start of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders' summit, is set to cost NSW taxpayers an extra A$4 ($4.69) million for security....
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