Sydney Morning Herald
Rats in ranks of rare species
Lisa Carty, State Political Reporter
March 16, 2008
AERIAL rat-poison bombing of Lord Howe Island could endanger humans and kill a rare woodhen, the NSW Opposition says.
The poison will be dropped by helicopter to kill the rodents in preparation for the release of a stick insect once thought to be extinct - the Lord Howe Island phasmid, or land lobster.
Three of the 15-centimetre bugs were found on the tourist island's highest point in 2001 and have been bred in captivity on the mainland.
The Lord Howe Island Board and the National Parks and Wildlife Service have started briefing residents on the aerial baiting proposal.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/conservation/rats-in-ranks-of-rare-species/2008/03/15/1205472157890.html
Five killed, 200 injured in munitions
An Albanian army ammunition has blown up in a series of massive explosions causing hundreds of casualties.
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Albanian officials say at least five people have been killed and 200 injured in a series of blasts at an Albanian army munitions depot outside Tirana.
Government spokeswoman Juela Mecani says 110 people were at the depot at the time of the first explosion.
She says witnesses have reported a 10-minute break between the first and second blasts.
A US company contracted by NATO is helping Albanian troops dispose of surplus or obsolete munitions at the depot.
Defence Minister Fatmire Mediu says about 100-thousand tonnes of antiquated munitions from the communist era remain in the country.
Their destruction is one of the conditions Albania has to fulfil to gain membership to NATO.
AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/five-killed-200-injured-in-munitions-blasts/2008/03/16/1205602157359.html
Blair urges leadership by top polluters on binding cuts
March 16, 2008
Tony Blair has urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United States and China to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
The former British prime minister is heading a new team of experts tasked with bridging the gaps in slow-moving negotiations to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by the end of next year.
"We have reached the critical moment for the decision on climate change," Blair today told a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters in suburban Tokyo.
"Even on the mildest application of the precautionary principles, failure to act on climate change now would be deeply and unforgivably irresponsible," he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/blair-urges-leadership-by-top-polluters-on-binding-cuts/2008/03/15/1205472171815.html
Soldiers gather for 40th My Lai anniversary
March 16, 2008
To the villagers who survived the My Lai massacre and many of the Americans who fought in the Vietnam War, all the anniversaries of the atrocity are important.
But commemorations tomorrow, 40 years after the event, seem especially urgent to many of the Americans who have travelled to Vietnam to attend.
Some see parallels between what happened here on March 16, 1968, and events in Iraq, the site of another controversial war that has drawn US troops to a faraway corner of the globe.
"We're supposed to learn from the mistakes of history, but we keep making the same mistakes," said Lawrence Colburn, whose helicopter landed in My Lai in the midst of the massacre.
"That's what makes My Lai more important today than ever before."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/soldiers-gather-for-40th-my-lai-anniversary/2008/03/15/1205472171798.html
Miner Key
March 16, 2008
Pit closures and factory losses threaten the future of the brass bands in northern England, but young musicians are pitching in to keep the tradition alive, writes Martin Wainwright.
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They look as cool as any streetwise teenager with their low-slung jeans and wary expressions. The only clue to their intentions is in those slender, gleaming tubes of brass.
Fears that brass bands are fast becoming the stuff of nostalgia - brave but doomed mining communities, memorably brought to the screen in Brassed Off - have been checked in Hebden Bridge, in Yorkshire in the north of England.
Walking, or to be more accurate, climbing, the steep terraces of the old Yorkshire centre of fustian weaving, the gentle cadence of a tuba or the piping of a cornet is the only giveaway. In houses with Victorian biblical names but 21st-century Ikea furniture, players practise their scales.
They and their friends in the Hebden Bridge junior band evoke the spirit of Mark Herman's nostalgic film, in which the Yorkshire mining town of Grimley is threatened with being shut down and the only hope for the town's men is to enter their colliery brass band into a national competition.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/brass-bands-in-northern-england-under-threat/2008/03/15/1205472159619.html
Couples hit by gold spike
Caroline Marcus
March 16, 2008
SOPHIE and Craig D'Hyon spent the equivalent of a house deposit on their dream wedding yesterday: they wanted everything to be perfect, including the bling.
But the couple were shocked to discover they would have to fork out an extra 20per cent for Mr D'Hyon's ring because of soaring gold prices.
They were quoted $1800 for the simple white-gold wedding band, from their jeweller, Cerrone, when they first looked at it in November.
When they returned to the store last month, they were told the ring would cost $2200 - because of the gold price rise.
For the first time, gold traded above $US1000 an ounce on Thursday, up 15per cent since the beginning of the year and more than 50per cent since the end of 2006.
Mrs D'Hyon, a 27-year-old human resources adviser, said she thought the $400 price increase was "enormous".
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/15/1205472165568.html
Jodie Foster stalker arrested after bomb threats
March 12, 2008 - 1:57PM
A man who sent Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster threatening letters for several years was arrested on Tuesday on charges of mailing a bomb threat to a Los Angeles airport.
Michael Smegal, 42, of Holliston, Massachusetts, was charged in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts with mailing a threatening letter to Van Nuys Airport in early December.
The letter was one of more than 100 nearly identical letters with references to Foster mailed to celebrities, business executives, airports and other locations around Los Angeles from September 2007 to January 2008, an affidavit said.
Foster, a two-time Oscar winner who won her first Academy Award playing a rape victim in 1988's The Accused, received anonymous letters from Massachusetts beginning in 2004. In 2005, Smegal admitted to police he had sent the letters and promised to stop, the affidavit said.
If convicted, Smegal faces up to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/jodie-foster-stalker-arrested-after-bomb-threats/2008/03/12/1205125992144.html
Hitler's big plans for Berlin
2008-03-16 11:05:23
Adolf Hitler's meglomaniac plans to pack Berlin with giant buildings has been revealed in a new exhibition.(01:38)
Massive blast caught on camera
2008-03-16 11:03:01
An Albanian army ammunition has blown up in a series of massive explosions causing hundreds of casualties.(01:28)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=36344
Bear Stearns bailout hits Wall St.
March 15, 2008
US stocks plunged for the third day this week after Bear Stearns Cos. required a bailout from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to avoid collapse.
Bear Stearns, the second-largest underwriter of US mortgage bonds, tumbled the most ever after the brokerage said it ran short of cash. The announcement overshadowed economic reports showing inflation remained stable while consumer confidence beat forecasts. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. also led declines as all 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell.
The S&P 500 retreated 27.34, or 2.1%, to 1,288.14 and slid 0.4% in the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 194.65, or 1.6%, to 11,951.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 51.12, or 2.3%, to 2,212.49. Nine stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
http://business.smh.com.au/bear-stearns-bailout-hits-wall-st/20080315-1zll.html
Lehman next to be squeezed?
March 15, 2008
Wall Street is all about trust, and Lehman Brothers appears to still have it -- for now, anyway.
Fear that the company could suffer the same fate as Bear Stearns Cos hit its stock hard on Friday.
But a half-dozen hedge funds that Reuters spoke to were not unwinding their trades with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and said they had no trouble trading with it. Two dealers said they were conducting business as usual with Lehman.
Bear, heavily exposed to the faltering US mortgage market, burned through cash and lost access to funding this week as clients pulled out assets and unwound trades.
Lehman, the fourth-largest US investment bank, is more diversified than Bear, the fifth-largest. It has more than $US195 billion ($208 billion) of assets at its ready disposal and says it can fund its operations for 12 months without outside financing.
http://business.smh.com.au/lehman-next-to-be-squeezed/20080315-1zme.html
Qantas tips $1bn rise in fuel costs
Mathew Murphy
March 15, 2008
QANTAS chief executive Geoff Dixon has warned staff that the airline's fuel bill could skyrocket by more than $1 billion a year.
In a private email to senior management, obtained by BusinessDay, Mr Dixon also issued a hiring freeze across the Qantas group, unless authorised by himself or chief financial officer Peter Gregg.
While Qantas' fuel costs are fully hedged for this financial year, the airline has only 25% hedged from July, at $US83 a barrel ($A88).
"Consequently, our operating costs will increase significantly," Mr Dixon said in the email. "At current market prices, our fuel bill for next financial year will be more than $1 billion higher than for this current year."
Oil's climb shows no sign of easing, the spot price yesterday finishing at $US110.33 a barrel in New York.
It puts Qantas at a competitive disadvantage with rival Virgin Blue, which has 70% of its fuel bill hedged for next financial year at $US76 a barrel.
http://business.smh.com.au/qantas-tips-1bn-rise-in-fuel-costs/20080314-1zhz.html
Oil hovers near record $111
March 15, 2008
Oil prices held near all-time highs today, capping a tumultuous week of surging prices attributed to a sliding dollar and choppy world stock markets.
New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, shed 12 cents to close at $US110.21 ($117) per barrel a day after hitting a fresh intraday record of $US111.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for April held unchanged at its record close of $US107.54, slipping off record highs earlier in the day of $US108.02.
''The dollar sentiment remains negative,'' said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
''Dollar-denominated commodities are still well-supported by the weaker greenback, making them relatively cheaper for foreign investors.''
Alaron Trading analyst Phil Flynn highlighted the impact of the credit crisis.
http://business.smh.com.au/oil-hovers-near-record-111/20080315-1zm4.html
Be seated: turbulence ahead
March 15, 2008
Budget airlines cost us more than we bargain for, writes Clive Dorman.
Flying has never been cheaper, but that is coming at a cost. The arrival of Tiger Airways in Australia has accelerated the commodification of every part of the air travel experience, with a range of unexpected new charges. This has attracted the scrutiny of governments, with Victoria launching an inquiry into the practices of the low-cost airline industry, following passenger strandings by both Jetstar and Tiger.
Consumer Affairs Victoria says complaints against low-cost carriers now "significantly" outnumber those against full-service airlines such as Qantas, even though low-cost carriers carry only about half Australia's air travellers.
Following the launch of Tiger Airways last year, the number of complaints to the tribunal against low-cost carriers jumped from nine in December to 23 last month in Victoria - nearly one a day.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/more-than-you-bargained-for/2008/03/13/1205126084566.html
Ex-terrorist base to become honeymoon hotspot?
March 14, 2008 - 10:22AM
Once a lovers' getaway, Habaniya Tourist Village in western Iraq became a refugee camp during some of the fiercest fighting since the fall of Baghdad. Now Amr al-Dulaimi hopes to turn it into a romantic haven again.
Dulaimi runs the crumbling tourist resort, formerly a favourite wedding and honeymoon destination for Iraqis. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, it found itself next to an al Qaeda stronghold and centre of a bloody Sunni insurgency.
But as security slowly improves in Anbar, potential investors plan to visit Habaniya this month to decide whether the village almost every Iraqi remembers as a place of love, romance and fun family days out, can be resurrected.
"It was beautiful. My wife and I would walk by the lake. I'm so sad about what it's become," said mechanic Alaa Naji, who got married in the village in 1999.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/middle-east/exterrorist-base-to-become-honeymoon-hotspot/2008/03/14/1205126162029.html
Shaking the tree: flora and fauna v humans
Miranda Devine
March 16, 2008
ONE balmy Sunday evening last month, when the Queen Victoria and QE2 cruise ships came to Sydney Harbour, Neutral Bay mother Phionna Tomaszewski gathered with friends in a park at Cremorne Point to watch.
Her six-year-old daughter was climbing trees and swinging off branches with other children when an "irate, elderly woman" berated her for "damaging" a coral tree and threatened to call council rangers.
Tomaszewski found her daughter "bawling her eyes out ... My daughter (all 20-odd kilograms of her) ... was reduced to tears by a stranger when all she was doing was playing in a tree" she wrote in a letter last week to The Mosman Daily, where a lively feud has continued ever since.
But in another letter to the paper, Margaret Watson, a friend of the elderly woman, defended her interference by saying the children had been "swinging on the branches, breaking one off ... After another branch broke, my friend approached and requested that they cease".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/miranda-devine/shaking-the-tree-flora-and-fauna-v-humans/2008/03/15/1205472149592.html
Rio pushes Malaysian smelter as Coega stalls
Jamie Freed and Jake Saulwick
March 15, 2008
RIO TINTO has advanced its plans to build a $US2 billion ($2.2 billion) aluminium smelter in Malaysia, and a power crisis in South Africa is likely to delay its $US2.7 billion Coega project.
The Malaysian smelter, which could produce 550,000tonnes of aluminium a year starting at the end of 2010, will be fuelled by the Bakun hydroelectric dam being built in Sarawak province in Borneo.
Rio this week took analysts to its smelters in Quebec's Saguenay region, focusing in part on the great advantage of having a clean energy source for power-intensive aluminium operations as policy-makers start to place a price on emissions.
The Malaysian project, owned by Rio before its $US38.1 billion takeover of Canada's Alcan last year, yesterday received a manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority. Rio last month signed a heads of agreement with Sarawak Energy Berhad to start negotiations on the power supply for the smelter, which eventually may be expanded to 1.5 million tonnes of production a year.
http://business.smh.com.au/rio-pushes-malaysian-smelter-as-coega-stalls/20080314-1ziy.html
Staff fired for peek at Britney's records
March 16, 2008
A medical centre in the US will fire some employees and discipline others for snooping at the confidential medical records of Britney Spears, who was hospitalised in its psychiatric ward, a hospital official told The Associated Press.
Jeri Simpson, a director of human resources at UCLA Medical Center hospital, who was involved in the investigations of the confidentiality breach, confirmed the action but could not say how many employees were affected.
The hospital did not say when the snooping took place or which of Spears records were looked at.
The Los Angeles Times reported on its website today that the breaches stemmed from incidents before Spears' most recent hospitalisation, but did not elaborate.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/fired-for-peek-at-brits-records/2008/03/15/1205472171692.html
New Zealand Herald
MP: Government must take clear stance on Tibet (+photos)
12:23PM Sunday March 16, 2008
New Zealand cannot sign a free trade agreement with China while it continues to suppress Tibetan people, the Green Party said today.
Ten civilians are reported dead, although the Tibetan government-in-exile puts the figure at more than 100, following violent clashes between Chinese authorities and Tibetan independence protesters.
Tensions between the two have been escalating all week since the 49th anniversary of a failed upraising against China's rule.
Green MP Keith Locke says it's important the Prime Minister speaks up now, as the situation continues to deteriorate.
Mr Locke says the country must take a clear stance against oppression before signing a free trade agreement with China next month.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10498480
Fiordland rocked by 4.3 earthquake
7:38AM Sunday March 16, 2008
Are you - and the authorities - prepared for a disaster?
Parts of Fiordland were shaken by an earthquake early this morning, GNS Science reported today.
The quake, which struck just after 5am, was centred 40km west of Milford Sound at a depth of 5km and registered 4.3 on the Richter scale.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10498465
Eleven year-old evades kidnap outside pet shop
11:47AM Sunday March 16, 2008
Havelock North police are appealing for witnesses to an attempted kidnapping outside a pet shop.
A man described as dark-skinned and of medium build, allegedly grabbed an 11-year-old boy yesterday afternoon and tried dragging him into his car.
He had been parked near the shop in a tan-coloured Ford vehicle. The man was last seen wearing a pink t-shirt with the words 'Porn Star' written in black.
- NEWSTALK ZB
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10498478
Houndman wasn't stupid, says alleged victim
5:00AM Sunday March 16, 2008
By Carolyne Meng-Yee
Online, he seemed the perfect gentleman.
At their first meeting, over a cheap Chinese meal, the man who called himself Houndman "seemed really nice".
"He was quite quiet, polite," the woman allegedly raped by Gregory Burnside, aka Houndman, told the Herald on Sunday this week.
"He wasn't stupid. He could hold a good conversation ... not so much romantic, but friendly."
On Monday, the man who seemed the perfect online catch appeared in Huntly District Court charged with the rape of two women he had met through the web. Burnside entered no plea, later telling the Herald on Sunday: "I never raped them."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10498461
Deerstalkers call for hunter to be charged
10:51AM Sunday March 16, 2008
By Alice Hudson and Anna Rushworth
Police could lay charges over hunting death. Photo / One News
The Deerstalkers's Association says the hunter who shot and killed 18-year-old Napier man Aaron Colin Timms should face a manslaughter charge.
Taupo Deerstalkers Association's Dave Comber last night told the Herald on Sunday there was almost never any excuse for mistaking someone for a deer.
"Aside from someone draping a deer skin around them, or displaying antlers and looking like a deer, there is very, very seldom, any mitigating factors, particularly when it's from within the same hunting party," Comberlast said.
The teenager died instantly from a single gunshot to the chest after the man - believed to be in his 50s - mistook him for a deer. The man, his 24-year-old son and the victim were on a hunting trip in the Tarawera region, northwest of Napier, when the tragedy happened around 7am.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10498456
Crane falls on New York building, at least two dead (+ photos)
10:17AM Sunday March 16, 2008
NEW YORK - A construction crane fell on a residential building in Manhattan on Saturday, killing at least two people and injuring several others, the New York City Fire Department said.
The giant crane reportedly separated from the side of a skyscraper under construction and smashed into a block of residential buildings.
A Reuters photographer on the scene said the crane had completely crushed a building of several stories and cars on the street were also under rubble. The crane also damaged some neighbouring buildings.
A Fire Department spokesman said two people were confirmed dead and a third was in critical condition in hospital. Others were injured and the rescue operation was ongoing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498472
From corner shop princess to billionaire wife
5:00AM Sunday March 16, 2008
By Jared Savage
Her parents owned a corner dairy - now Claire Kelly is living the lifestyle of the rich and famous as the wife of a royal billionaire.
Nearly a decade ago, the Taranaki woman, now in her mid-30s, packed her bags for the bright lights of Paris and later married playboy Prince Jefri Bolkiah, a Brunei royal with a penchant for fast cars and flash houses.
The former model became his fifth wife - the 53-year-old has two others and has been divorced twice - and is happily married with two young children, living in a London mansion "the size of Eden Park".
But despite once being one of the wealthiest men in the world, Prince Jefri has told the Wall Street Journal he fears becoming homeless and forced into bankruptcy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498458
Sex hormone relieves schizophrenia - study
4:20PM Sunday March 16, 2008
SYDNEY - Hormone patches used to help older women through menopause can also radically improve the most debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia, a trial on Australian women has found.
A study to be presented at a major international women's mental health conference tomorrow in Melbourne has shown for the first time that the female sex hormone, oestrogen, dramatically reduces hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder in women with the severe mental illness.
"This is revolutionary because it shows without a doubt that it really works to help these women," said study leader Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, director of the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre in Melbourne.
"It's the strongest sign yet that we have a new mode of treatment for schizophrenia using reproductive hormones."
Oestrogen, a potent neurosteroid, is a key component in hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a controversial treatment found to relieve the hot flushes and mood swings suffered in menopause.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498489
WELL, THIS IS A SWITCH. BUSH ACTUALLY FINDS CRITICISM OF 'CROOKED ELECTIONS' IN HIS FAVOR !!! THAT'S LIKE THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK, ISN'T IT?
US says Iran election results 'cooked'
4:25PM Saturday March 15, 2008
WASHINGTON - The United States, at loggerheads with Tehran over its nuclear programme, cast strong doubt on the fairness of Iran's parliamentary elections on Friday and said any outcome of the poll would be "cooked."
"In essence the results are cooked. They are cooked in the sense that the Iranian people were not able to vote for a full range of people," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the poll.
Iranians voted on Friday in an election likely to keep parliament in the control of conservatives after unelected state bodies barred many reformist foes of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the race.
"They are given the choice of choosing between one supporter of the regime or another supporter of the regime," McCormack told reporters. "They were not given the opportunity ... to vote for somebody who might have had different ideas."
Ahmadinejad has shrugged off criticism about the election.
After the polls closed, McCormack released a statement saying Iran had "once again failed to meet international standards on the conduct of democratic elections."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498370
German police shoot US soldier dead
11:29AM Saturday March 15, 2008
BERLIN - A US soldier stationed in southern Germany was shot dead by police after threatening an ex-girlfriend and then going on the run armed with an assault rifle, authorities said on Friday.
The 30-year old, who was serving in the 2nd, "Dagger", brigade of the US 1st Infantry Division, broke into the woman's house late on Thursday, threatened her and tied her up, police in the Bavarian region of Unterfranken said.
She was able to free herself and alerted the police, who began a search using a commando unit and a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging equipment.
Officers found the soldier several hundred metres from the woman's house and tried to arrest him but he threatened them with the semi-automatic rifle and was shot, police said.
He died in hospital early on Friday, according to a statement from the "Dagger" Brigade Chain of Command.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498361
Tibet burns as independence protesters shot dead (+ photos)
12:23PM Saturday March 15, 2008
BEIJING - Independence protesters burned shops and cars in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Friday and Chinese police were reported to have shot dead at least two people, in the fiercest unrest in the region for two decades.
China accused supporters of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of "masterminding" the uprising, which shatters its carefully-cultivated image of national prosperity and harmony in the buildup to the Beijing Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama appealed to China to stop using force and begin dialogue with Tibetans. Similar protests in the past have been crushed by security forces with gunfire and mass arrests.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498363
Supreme Court to rule on right to carry guns
5:00AM Saturday March 15, 2008
By James Vicini
For the first time in 70 years, the US Supreme Court will take on the question of whether individual Americans have the right to keep and bear arms or whether it's a collective right for service in a state militia.
That question is at the heart of a long, impassioned debate about how much power the Government has to keep people from owning guns and it could soon be decided by the US Supreme Court in a case about one of the nation's strictest gun control laws.
Set for arguments next Tuesday and with a decision expected by late June, the nation's highest court could resolve once and for all the much-disputed meaning of the Second Amendment of the US constitution.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498240
Death Star coming to Earth as apartment block in Dubai
5:00AM Saturday March 15, 2008
The 44-storey sphere building is proposed for a planned 'global city' on an artificial island off Dubai.
It looks like something from a galaxy far, far away. But it could become a reality right here on Earth.
Renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, has drawn up plans for a 44-storey sphere-shaped building as part of a "global city" on an artificial island off the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The unusual building will be the centrepiece of the city, which will be home to 1.5 million people and has been described by the New York Times as a "sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centred on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties".
While Koolhaas says the building will be a self-contained urban neighbourhood, others, including Guardian art and architecture blogger Sean Dodson, think it looks like something "from George Lucas's drawing board" - the Death Star from Star Wars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498266
Australia zoo defends its koala rescue policy
4:22PM Friday March 14, 2008
BRISBANE - The Irwin family's Australia Zoo has defended its record of releasing rescued koalas in the wake of claims it broke environmental laws.
The zoo's Australian Wildlife Hospital is required to release treated and recuperated koalas within 5km of where they were found.
News Limited today quoted a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as saying the hospital had failed to do so on at least eight occasions last year.
The spokesman said EPA officials had met the hospital to discuss the matter and was "monitoring compliance".
The EPA was being sought for further comment.
But Australian Wildlife Hospital director of veterinary services Jon Hanger said while the hospital did its best to release koalas into their natural habitats, increasing infrastructure and housing developments meant this was not always possible.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498233
Dinosaur for sale in Paris (+video)
3:58PM Friday March 14, 2008
A 65 million-year-old dinosaur goes on sale in Paris next month.
A team of palaeontologists took eight hours to reconstruct the four-legged, three horned dinosaur whose bones had to be shipped in giant separate boxes.
The three-horned triceratops dates back to the end of the Cretaceous period between 67 million and 65 million years.
This skeleton was discovered in North Dakota in 2004. It weighs almost 2 tons.
And it doesn't come cheap - at 500,000 euros this skeleton should be one expensive conversation piece.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498230
Iceland likely to start whaling again
1:11PM Friday March 14, 2008
Your Views
Is there a case for 'scientific' whaling?
STOCKHOLM - Iceland is likely to start whaling again this summer in a move certain to draw the ire of conservationists, the BBC said on its website yesterday.
Iceland ended its ban on commercial whaling in 2006, but in August last year its fisheries ministry said it would not issue new quotas until market demand increased and an export agreement with Japan - where whale meat is popular - was in place.
The BBC said that a government official had confirmed that quotas would probably be issued again soon with whaling starting in May.
"We are not expecting any big quotas, but we are likely to see in the relatively near future some quotas for minke whales," it quoted Stefan Asmundsson, a senior official in Iceland's fisheries ministry, as saying.
"The most important factor is to ensure the quotas are within sustainable limits."
Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, the head of Iceland's minke whaling association said he hoped for a quota for 100 of the whales, which grow up to 9m and weigh around 10 tonnes.
In 2006, Iceland said it would allow up to 30 minke whales and 9 fin whales to be hunted, ending a ban in place since 1986.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498211
2012 London Olympics to revamp Eastern suburbs
3:14PM Friday March 14, 2008
By Martyn Herman
LONDON - Commuters travelling into London from the eastern suburbs are treated daily to the sight of construction vehicles, yellow lights blinking in the winter gloom, snaking across huge mounds of earth.
At first glance it appears a bleak, unpromising landscape, but in four years' time this previously neglected part of the English capital will become the centre of the sporting world.
While the focus now is thousands of kilometres away in Beijing, where preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games are entering the home straight, London's organisers (LOCOG) are setting a steady pace and preparing to lengthen their stride.
A small delegation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) visited LOCOG headquarters last week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498224
EU to set the pace in fighting climate change
3:03PM Friday March 14, 2008
By Ingrid Melander and Darren Ennis
BRUSSELS - EU leaders agreed on a timetable for action yesterday to tackle climate change that they hope will enable them to set the pace in global talks next year, but some voiced unease about the methods.
The European Union sees itself as a world leader in the fight against global warming after EU countries agreed last year to cut emissions by 2020 and increase the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power in electricity output by the same date.
After chairing the first day of a two-day summit, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told a news conference all 27 leaders agreed to adopt a liberalisation of the European energy market in June and a package of measures to fight global warming and promote green energy in December.
"We must reach agreement in the first months of 2009 at the latest," said Jansa.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10498221
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