New Zealand Herald
Rival groups keep whalers on the move
5:00AM Monday January 14, 2008
By Greg Ansley
Greenpeace last night claimed to have driven Japan's whaling fleet out of the Southern Ocean hunting grounds after a chase over hundreds of kilometres.
The fleet scattered after the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, following a trail of krill, located the Japanese ships by radar amid fog-shrouded icebergs on Saturday night.
Greenpeace said the Esperanza pursued the factory ship Nisshin Maru over the 60 degrees latitude mark, the boundary of the whale hunting grounds, followed by the catcher vessel Yushin Maru.
Greenpeace says the fleet may refuel soon and offload whale meat that has already been processed on to a tanker, Oriental Bluebird.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486661
Nepalese mourn their hero
5:00AM Monday January 14, 2008
By Lincoln Tan
As a child growing up in Nepal, Giri Kattel listened to his father telling him stories about a man called Sir Edmund Hillary.
"Fathers would tell stories about Sir Edmund to inspire their children to climb life's mountains and aim for greater heights," Mr Kattel said.
"I really enjoyed listening to the stories and reading books in school of the first man who went beyond horizon."
Mr Kattel, 40, who moved to Auckland in 2006, now shares these stories to inspire his daughter.
"Sir Edmund is regarded almost like a man-god with the power to go above the horizons, and is a big legend for the Nepali people," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486671
Left is the best to exit bed, say scientists
12:45PM Monday January 14, 2008
LONDON - Getting out of bed on the left side is the right side.
Sleep scientists, feng shui experts and psychologists put their heads together to analyse the best way to get up in the morning.
Left is best, they decreed in a study undertaken by the hotel chain Premier Inn.
Feng shui expert Jan Cisek said getting out of the bed on the left is associated with all that people hold dear - family and health, money and power.
Psychology and motivation expert Pete Cohen said the left side helps us all to think rationally about the day ahead.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486756
Al-Qaeda plot to kill Queen foiled
12:10PM Monday January 14, 2008
A plot by terrorist group al-Qaeda to kill the Queen during a state visit to Uganda was foiled late last year by security services.
The terrorists had planned to hide inside two outside broadcast vans owned by the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation and then set off bombs during the Queen's visit to Kampala last November.
The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla all travelled to the east African nation's capital for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which was attended by more than 30 world leaders.
Uganda's Minister of Internal Affairs Dr Ruhakana Rugunda said several suspected terrorists were arrested.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486752
Princess Diana's 'Mr Wonderful' breaks silence
8:29AM Monday January 14, 2008
By Paul Majendie
LONDON - Princess Diana's former lover, heart specialist Hasnat Khan, has broken his silence a decade after they broke up and confessed that her death still haunts him.
"Sometimes I feel like screaming. There have been very bad times. I have moved on but it keeps coming back," he said.
Diana described Khan as "Mr Wonderful" and friends giving evidence into her death at a London inquest said she was still pining for him during a summer romance with Dodi al-Fayed.
Dodi and Diana were killed in a high-speed crash in a Paris road tunnel in August 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi photographers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486715
One dead, five missing in northern Italy avalanche
8:09AM Monday January 14, 2008
ROME - An avalanche in northern Italy killed one person and injured six, while another five people are still missing, the fire brigade said on Sunday.
The six injured were dug out of the snow on Mount Maniva, near the city of Brescia, after the avalanche hit them as they were riding on snowmobiles.
A cold wave has swept northern Italy in the past few days, with heavy snow increasing the risk of avalanches. Two young skiers died in the popular resort of Livigno on Saturday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486707
Second execution for 2008
7:15AM Monday January 14, 2008
Saudi authorities beheaded an Indonesian maid convicted of killing her employer, the Interior Ministry announced.
The ministry said the maid used a pillow to suffocate her employer, Aisha Al Makhaled, and then stole her jewellery in the southern province of Asir.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.
The maid is the second person to be executed this year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486669
VW's sex, bribery and free Viagra
5:00AM Monday January 14, 2008
By Kate Connolly
Europe's biggest car company, and the leading symbol of corporate Germany, was embroiled in a widespread scandal involving sex, bribery and pleasure trips, the scale of which the Continent has not seen before.
In a courtroom investigation in Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, details of the ?2.5 million ($4.7 million) affair have been unfolding and the nation has been poring over the lurid details.
They involve a string of expensive hookers, sex parties and expense-account shopping trips which took place over the best part of a decade, endorsed by a management keen to buy the support of union officials and the shopfloor at a critical time for the company.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10486639
Sydney Morning Herald
Government killed Bhutto: poll
January 14, 2008 - 6:09AM
Nearly half of Pakistanis suspect that government agencies or government-linked politicians killed Benazir Bhutto, an opinion poll showed, highlighting the popular mistrust of the country's US-allied president ahead of elections next month.
Bhutto, an opposition leader and former prime minister, was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on December 27.
The government of President Pervez Musharraf has blamed Islamic extremists for the assassination, who had already reportedly threatened to kill her. Bhutto was a secular politician popular in the United States and other Western countries for her vocal opposition to hardline Islam.
But her political party and family members have repeatedly made vague allegations that elements within Musharraf's government may have been involved. Musharraf has denied any role in the slaying.
The opinion poll showed that 23 per cent of Pakistanis suspected government agencies in the slaying, while 25 per cent believed government-allied politicians were behind it. Only 17 per cent suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/government-killed-bhutto-poll/2008/01/14/1200159308625.html
President calls for Bhutto autopsy
January 14, 2008
WASHINGTON: The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, has called for the body of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to be exhumed as he rejected charges that the Government was complicit in her assassination.
In a wide-ranging interview with Newsweek published online, Mr Musharraf also expressed his refusal to let the United States stage CIA operations against al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
Pakistan has been in turmoil since Ms Bhutto's assassination on December 27 and her Pakistan People's Party has challenged the Government's reports on her death. No autopsy was conducted.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/president-calls-for-bhutto-autopsy/2008/01/13/1200159278204.html
Birdflu fears as 20,000 chickens die
January 14, 2008 - 5:38PM
Nearly 20,000 chickens have died in eastern India in the past week, triggering fears of an outbreak of bird flu, officials said today.
Samples from dead birds have been sent to a laboratory in central India to determine if the deaths were due to the H5N1 virus.
"The dead birds showed the flu symptoms," said SK Bhowmic, the chief health officer of the affected district in eastern West Bengal state.
The poultry deaths were reported from farms in the state's Morgram village, about 125 kilometres from state capital Kolkata.
Preliminary tests suggest bird flu to be the cause of the deadly infection, state animal resources development minister Anisur Rehman said. A final report was expected later today.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/birdflu-fears-as-20000-chickens-die/2008/01/14/1200159352617.html
Tribunal judges visit Khmer stronghold
Top officials from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal have travelled for the first time to the regime's former stronghold today to allay fears of mass arrests of former rebels.
Judges investigating the murderous Khmer Rouge regime joined other court officials for the three-day visit to the western Pailin region to "meet and talk" with former rebels, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.
"The aim of the meetings is to explain to them about the role of tribunal and its mandate - that this court will only try the most senior and the most responsible Khmer Rouge leaders, and the ordinary Khmer Rouge officials should not be worried," he said.
The visit also aimed to clear up misunderstandings about the joint Cambodian-UN tribunal in the hope of convincing many to give evidence for the prosecution in upcoming trials, Reach Sambath said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tribunal-judges-visit-khmer-stronghold/2008/01/14/1200159351949.html
Bombs kill two as Sri Lankan peace talks open
A roadside bomb attack on a van filled with explosives in northern Sri Lanka killed two soldiers and one civilian today, the military said. The attack coincided with a round of peace talks with a visiting Japanese envoy.
Yasushi Akashi arrived yesterday in the capital, Colombo, to conduct talks with Sri Lankan leaders as the international community stepped up pressure over Colombo's decision to abandon a truce with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Japan, the biggest bilateral donor to Sri Lanka, has hinted that foreign aid could be withheld if violence continues to escalate in the island's long-running ethnic conflict that has already claimed thousands of lives.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bombs-kill-two-as-sri-lankan-peace-talks-open/2008/01/14/1200159351067.html
Across the creek after a very long paddle
Damien Murphy
January 14, 2008
JAMES CASTRISSION and Justin Jones, the two Sydney kayakers who rowed into New Zealand and the record books yesterday, were super-conscious that they were paddling in the wake of Andrew McAuley throughout their historic 62-day crossing of the Tasman Sea.
"We have only got a small, small idea of what Andrew went through out there," James Castrission said of McAuley, who disappeared last February while attempting the same crossing solo after sighting the New Zealand coast.
"Some nights when we were out there, we had each other to hold through the difficult moments."
Escorted into Port Taranaki by Maori canoes, the pair jumped into the water at Ngamotu Beach on New Zealand's west coast about 8.20am and started to wade ashore as the 5000-strong welcoming crowd cheered and clapped. A band started playing Waltzing Matilda.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/across-the-creek-after-a-very-long-paddle/2008/01/13/1200159278180.html
Blind marathon man heads for Sydney in record attempt
January 13, 2008 - 11:31AM
A blind British man will pound the streets of Sydney in an attempt to become the first disabled person to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.
Dave Heeley, who likes to be known as "Blind Dave", has chosen Sydney as the fourth leg of his record-breaking mission, which begins in April in the Falkland Islands and ends in London.
The laid-back 50-year-old father of three is currently undertaking a rigorous training schedule and hopes his "Seven Magnificent Marathons" mission will raise millions of dollars for guide dogs and raise awareness about visually impaired people.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/blind-marathon-man-heads-for-sydney-for-record/2008/01/13/1200159260664.html
A regal encounter on New York Harbour
Three of the world's best-known ocean liners steamed out of New York harbour together late yesterday, sailing out of the same port for the first and only time in their history.
The Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth 2 and newly-launched Queen Victoria slipped past the Statue of Liberty together under the cover of darkness as fireworks burst overhead, offering maritime history fans a unique opportunity.
"This is the first time they've all met," Carol Marlow, president of Cunard Line, which operates the three ships, told reporters in New York.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cunard-queens-rule-the-waves/2008/01/14/1200159338802.html
"Ipswich Ripper" trial to start
January 14, 2008 - 1:12PM
A forklift truck driver goes on trial today, accused of murdering five women, all aged under 30 and who worked as prostitutes, during a killing spree carried out at a pace never seen before in Britain.
The 2006 murders led to one of the country's biggest manhunts, drew comparisons with infamous 19th century serial killer "Jack the Ripper", and threw a spotlight on Britain's murky underworld of drugs and illicit sex.
Steve Wright, 49, is accused of killing Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, whose naked bodies were found dumped at rural locations around the eastern town of Ipswich in Suffolk.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/ipswich-ripper-trial-to-start/2008/01/14/1200159331878.html
Gitmo should close says US military boss
January 14, 2008 - 12:24PM
The top US military officer said he would like to see the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed because its image has damaged America's international standing.
"I'd like to see it shut down," Admiral Mike Mullen said yesterday. "I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it's been pretty damaging."
But Admiral Mullen, the chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said closing the prison posed major legal problems.
"There are enormous challenges associated with that," he said. "There are enormously complex, complicating legal issues that are way out of my purview."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/gitmo-should-close-says-us-military-boss/2008/01/14/1200159327576.html
Saddam's men ushered back into power
Richard Oppel in Baghdad
January 14, 2008
THE Iraqi Parliament has passed a bill to allow some former officials from Saddam Hussein's party to apply for government positions, in the first of the so-called political benchmark measures to pass after months of US pressure for progress.
The measure, which is expected to be approved by the presidential council and become law, was described by its backers as opening the door for the reinstatement of thousands of low-level Baath Party members barred from office after the 2003 US invasion. The Bush Administration had urged the Iraqi Government to pass such a measure to help mend the deep rifts between Sunni Arabs who used to control the government under Saddam and the Shiites who now dominate politics.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/saddams-men-ushered-back-into-power/2008/01/13/1200159278226.html
Dutch soldiers 'killed in combat' in Afghanistan
January 13, 2008
Two Dutch soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan after coming under fire near their base, the Dutch Defence Ministry says.
The men, a 20-year-old soldier and a 22-year-old corporal, were killed yesterday by what the ministry called opposing militant forces near the Dutch base at Deh Rawod in Oruzgan province.
Hundreds of Dutch and Afghan troops were carrying out a military operation to better map out the Dutch area of operations.
In all, 14 Dutch soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, either accidentally or in combat.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/dutch-soldiers-killed-in-combat-in-afghanistan/2008/01/13/1200159260598.html
Man sodomises stepson to avenge daughter's rape
January 13, 2008
A US father sodomised his 18-year-old stepson to avenge the teenager's alleged rape of the man's eight-year-old daughter, police in Texas say.
The father, 32, turned himself in to authorities yesterday and was released from jail today after posting a $US17,500 ($19,560) bond. He faces a charge of aggravated sexual assault.
The stepson was arrested on January 2 and charged with suspicion of aggravated sexual assault.
Police say the father caught him assaulting his daughter, and a subsequent examination at a hospital revealed the girl had been sodomised.
Sergeant Cheryl Johnson, supervisor of the Fort Worth sex crimes unit, said in a story posted today on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's website that people need to "allow the criminal justice system to work for them."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/man-sodomises-stepson-to-avenge-daughters-rape/2008/01/13/1200159269823.html
Veterans relive trauma of war in home streets
Deborah Sontag and Lizette Alvarez in New York
January 14, 2008
LATE ONE night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed to a 7-Eleven store in the seedy Las Vegas suburb where he had settled after leaving the US Army.
By day, the area looks depressed but not menacing. By night, in the words of a local homicide detective, it becomes "like [the Iraq town of ] Fallujah".
Plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, Sepi said he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when he put a trench coat over his slight frame - and tucked an assault rifle inside it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/veterans-relive-trauma-of-war-in-home-streets/2008/01/13/1200159278220.html
Hunt for marine accused of raping and killing pregnant colleague
A manhunt has been launched for a US marine suspected of murdering a 20-year-old pregnant colleague he was accused of raping before burning and burying her body.
Marine Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean, 21, had been spotted outside his home state of North Carolina, where the killing occurred, and CNN reports he may be heading for Texas.
The burnt remains of Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child were discovered at the weekend buried in a fire pit in Laurean's garden.
She was eight and a half months pregnant and purportedly carrying Laurean's child.
Laurean, 21, fled after leaving behind a note in which he admitted burying her body but claimed she cut her own throat in a suicide.
Onslow County Sherriff Ed Brown doesn't believe it and challenged Laurean to come forward and defend his claims of innocence.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hunt-for-marine-accused-of-raping-and-killing-pregnant-colleague/2008/01/14/1200159345772.html
Indonesia ready for the funeral as Soeharto clings on
Lindsay Murdoch in Solo, Indonesia
January 14, 2008
THE funeral has been planned, the grave is being readied. Passes have been issued to the media and preparations made for an influx of world leaders.
There is only one thing missing as Indonesia marks the passing of the former dictator Soeharto: his death.
He appears to be holding on to life as stubbornly as he once gripped power. On Friday doctors had to revive the 86-year-old and connect him to a ventilator to save his life, as his family indicated the end had come. They were "ready and would accept whatever takes place".
Doctors said Soeharto had regained consciousness and improved slightly. Though stable, he was still in a "very critical" condition, said Mardjo Soebiandono, the chief of the team treating him.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/general/indonesia-ready-for-funeral-as-suharto-clings-on/2008/01/13/1200159278177.html
Kenya death toll tops 700: police
A prominent US-based rights group has called on Kenyan authorities to lift a ban on political rallies ahead of new demonstrations this week, as the death toll from political violence topped 700.
Police gave the fresh death toll from violence in the wake of the December 27 presidential election after four people died in overnight clashes in the Rift Valley and after 89 more bodies were discovered.
Human Rights Watch urged the government to allow rallies, led by opposition leader Raila Odinga, which are due to start on Wednesday to protest against alleged vote rigging that led to President Mwai Kibaki winning a second five year term.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/kenya-death-toll-tops-700-police/2008/01/14/1200159308482.html
Body found kilometres from bridge
MOBILE, Alabama: A duck hunter found the body of the youngest of four children allegedly thrown from a coastal bridge by their father, raising hopes that the bodies of the other children would be recovered, a sheriff said.
A search for the children - ranging in age from a few months to three years - began on Tuesday near the mouth of Mobile Bay after prosecutors said the father, Lam Luong, confessed.
The duck hunter found the body of an infant about eight kilometres west of the bridge in a marshy area on Saturday.
"The inevitable nightmare we have feared has now been confirmed," the Mobile County Sheriff, Sam Cochran, said.
"We believe, certainly now, that the father of these children threw these children off the Dauphin Island Bridge."
Mr Cochran said a police chaplain had informed the children's family of the discovery.
Their mother, Kieu Phan, 23, had gone with Luong to report them missing last Monday evening.
When told that the infant's body had been found, Ms Phan wept. Through an interpreter, she said: "Why didn't he kill me instead of the children? It's too much hurting."
Mr Cochran said searchers using sonar technology saw images on Friday that they believed were three bodies, but the currents were too strong for divers to reach the location.
Divers re-entered the water on Saturday and worked until darkness forced them out. The search was set to resume yesterday.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/body-found-kilometres-from-bridge/2008/01/13/1200159278214.html
Second body found in search for children tossed off bridge
January 14, 2008 - 6:05AM
A second body was recovered on Sunday in the search for four children allegedly thrown from a coastal bridge in Alabama by their Vietnamese father.
The body was found by a search team near where a duck hunter found the body of an infant about five miles west of the bridge in a marshy area on Saturday, said Mobile County sheriff's Sergeant Jerry Taylor.
The search for the children - ranging in age from a few months to three years - began on Tuesday near the mouth of Mobile Bay after prosecutors said the father, Lam Luong, confessed.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/second-body-found-in-search-for-children-tossed-off-bridge/2008/01/14/1200159308456.html
Taiwanese humiliate maverick President
Mary-Anne Toy Herald Correspondent in Beijing
January 14, 2008
Advertisement
TAIWANESE voters have rebuked the ruling party for its confrontational push to make the self-ruled island formally independent of China.
The Democratic Progressive Party of the outgoing President, Chen Shui-bian, won just 27 of the 113 seats in Taiwan's slimmed-down parliament, the Legislative Yuan; the opposition Kuomintang won 81.
Mr Chen has intensified the drive for independence to revive support for the DPP, whose popularity has dived as the economy enters its sixth year of lacklustre performance, and parliamentary gridlock frustrates decision-making.
Mr Chen had threatened to hold a referendum on whether the Government should apply for United Nations membership under the name Taiwan at the same time as the March 22 presidential elections. He is not eligible to stand again, having served two four-year terms.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/taiwanese-humiliate-maverick-president/2008/01/13/1200159278194.html
L'amour the merrier, but Sarkozy loses nation's love
Gethin Chamberlain and Susan Bell in Paris
January 14, 2008
NICOLAS SARKOZY is paying a heavy political price for his very public wooing of the former model Carla Bruni, a poll has revealed.
The poll, published in Le Figaro on Saturday, showed public confidence in the French President has dipped to 49 per cent after hitting 64 per cent six months ago.
But although the romance appears to be a turn-off for the public, that has done nothing to dampen fevered speculation about the relationship.
Rumours that Ms Bruni was pregnant circulated widely after she was allegedly seen leaving the exclusive American Hospital in Mr Sarkozy's former fiefdom of Neuilly, though the news organisation behind the reports dropped the claim, which appeared to have been generated by an internet blogger.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/lamour-the-merrier-but-sarkozy-loses-nations-love/2008/01/13/1200159278208.html
Brown backs move to remove organs unless patients refuse
Patrick Hennessy and Laura Donnelly in London
January 14, 2008
Advertisement
THE British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has backed a move to allow hospitals to remove organs from dead patients without explicit consent.
Writing in London's The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Brown says that such a facility would save thousands of lives and that he hopes such a system can start this year.
The proposals would mean consent for organ donation after death would be automatically presumed, unless individuals had opted out of the national register or family members objected.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/brown-backs-move-to-remove-organs-unless-patients-refuse/2008/01/13/1200159278197.html
The refrain in Spain is mainly very plain
January 14, 2008
Advertisement
MADRID: It might have only four uninspiring and old-fashioned verses, but Spain has finally found the words to match its national anthem, which has been lyric-less since 1978, three years after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco.
But despite their seemingly lacklustre nature, the lyrics are bound to cause controversy in a country made up of numerous regions with distinct languages and identities which have a difficult relationship with the Spanish state.
Last year Spain's Olympics committee held a competition to find suitable lyrics to ensure that the country's sportsmen and women had something to mumble along to before international football matches or when they pick up medals.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-refrain-in-spain-is-mainly-very-plain/2008/01/13/1200159278211.html
continued...
