Two a penny

.

Finance Minister Bill English says he appreciates the support he gets from taxpayers, which saw him claim close toly $1000 a week to live in his family house in Wellington.

Mr English today defended the payments, saying it was within the rules and was the same as other ministers were getting.The English’s family trust owns the $1. He had made the best option for his family and the cheapest for taxpayers.Mr English, the MP for Clutha-Southland, is entitled as an out-of-Wellington minister to either a crown-owned house or an accommodation allowance.2 million house in Karori.Other costs are also covered – including power and cleaning – which saw Mr English claim more than $23,000 for living in the house for the six months to June 30.He has six children and his wife works as a GP in WellingtonHe said Prime Minister John Key had capped the accommodation rate at $700 a week for rent, which was previously unlimited.He said most people thought politicians were paid too much, their cars were too big and their travel costs too extravagant. As deputy prime minister he earns $276,700 a year.”I get the same deal as everyone else. .”Mr English has come under attack for the claim at the same time as he has called for “permanent restraint” in the public sector. This isn’t about the money this is about the support I get which I appreciate that enables our family to be together.Meanwhile, at the National Party caucus in Christchurch today high profile delegate Wira Gardiner’s bid for the presidency fell at the first hurdle, when he failed to secure a seat on the party’s governing board.But he said the Government had shown leadership including a cap on the amount that could be claimed, and a cap on the number of staff in the Beehive. The front-runner is Auckland businessman Peter Goodfellow.The board will select a president tomorrow to replace Judy Kirk who is stepping down after seven years.He told reporters he did not rule out a capital gains tax, though he said it would be hard to persuade a National Government a capital gains tax was a good idea.In his speech to the conference Bill English warned the party it must be prepared for possible tax changes that they would be uncomfortable with.Prime Minister John Key’s speech to the conference tomorrow will include a package of youth employment initiatives, likely to include details of its youth guarantee policy.The Government needed to get as much revenue in over the next five years without raising the tax burden.

.

The police national dive squad has started a grid search for the 22-year-old man who went missing in Lake Te Anau early earlier today.

Police said earlier today they presumed the young man, from Cromwell, had drowned.

Senior Sergeant Richard McPhail said this afternoon police understood three people on a small dinghy that sank shortly before 3.Early police inquiries suggested the missing man, along with another man and a woman, had taken a dinghy from the foreshore and rowed to a floatplane moored close to the jetty area.30am had been drinking before they decided to row out to a float plane moored not far from shore.One of the men and the woman had managed to swim back. The dinghy was swamped and sank as they rowed back to shore, Mr McPhail said.The alarm was raised when they could not find their companion.

The submerged dinghy and other gear had been found during the initial search, which had involved police and volunteers in a helicopter, boats and on foot. .A helicopter continued the search earlier today until the divers arrived from Wellington early this afternoon. However, there was still no trace of the Cromwell man.Police had contacted the missing man’s family in Cromwell. They had started a grid search of the lake, helped by search volunteers in boats.Mr McPhail said none of the group in the dinghy had life jackets or were authorised to take the boat or go on to the jetty or float plane.Mr McPhail said none of the group in the dinghy had life jackets or were authorised to take the boat or go on to the jetty or float plane.”Police were interviewing witnesses to the incident. ”Inquiries are continuing with the group but it appears to have been an alcohol-related act that has ended in tragedy.

.

About a dozen protesters faced the rain today to stick a summons on Social Development Minister Paula Bennett’s door.

The protest, organised by Socialist Aotearoa was over National’s cutting of the Training Incentive Allowance (TIA) and Ms Bennett’s revealing of beneficiaries’ private information.

The mothers said without it they would not be able to continue courses which would help them get jobs.

Ms Bennett has been under fire this week for revealing the welfare payment details of two solo mothers, on benefits, who complained about the Government’s decision to scrap the TIA.

“We think it’s disgraceful that people are trying to scapegoat on the poor and the unemployed and single mothers for the problems in society,” said Socialist Aotearoa member Joe Carolan.

The protesting group, a coalition of community, disabled and trade union groups, was at Ms Bennett’s West Auckland office today. .

“We are in a huge economic crisis at the moment where 50,000 people are going to lose their jobs so we need more support and more training for the unemployed in this period. We need all the help we can get, not to be yet again discriminated against by the Government.

“As a single parent and a student myself I know how hard it is to try and complete some training.

“It’s going to significantly affect my ability to keep studying.”

She said the cut would mean she would not have money for travel, text books and it would affect her ability to afford childcare.”

The summons, stuck on to Ms Bennett’s door, called for her to attend a hearing of “the people’s court” to defend her actions in cutting the TIA and revealing the personal information of the two beneficiaries.”

Ms Ferguson said she would keep studying regardless, but it would be “incredibly difficult.

-

.

The hearing is set for next Saturday, at her office

.The Brumbies have claimed the first scalp of their French tour, defeating reigning Top 14 Champions USA Perpignan 17-0 at Stade Aime Giral.
The win was built on an improved physical display and an impressive defensive performance, with the visitors holding the seven-times French premiers at bay throughout the match.
Leading 10-0 at half-time with Patrick Phibbs the try-scorer, the Brumbies were forced defend with only 14 men after scrum half Josh Valentine was sidelined with a yellow card for an early scuffle.
Brumbies coach Tony Rea was proud of his side’s ability to scramble in defence.
They sealed the result 10 minutes from full-time when lock Ben Hand charged over under the posts.
“We learned where we needed to be physically from the first two games and we were able to bully them on the ball and we were rewarded for it.
“The guys prepared well and had their heads on for what was a tough match,” he said.”
However, the win has come at a cost, with Alfi Mafi (suspected broken fibula) and Peter Kimlin (shoulder) unavailable for the final tour match against Toulon. .
The fitness of captain Stephen Hoiles (knee) will be determined in the lead-in to Friday’s game

.

Motueka’s Christie Douglas is off to spend three weeks in Mongolia stalking the elusive, and possibly mythical, Mongolian Death Worm.

The search is the brainchild of his former TV3 colleague David Farrier, who is funding the cryptozoological expedition.

The TV cameraman has had a few adventures with the TV3 reporter.

But nothing in their reporting career at Nightline could prepare them for the Gobi Desert in the 40-plus degree heat of August, examining for a 1.

There was the time they braved the mosh pit and pyrotechnics show at the Rock to Wellington concert and the scary time they faced down the cat ladies at the national cat show in Taradale. If it exists, that is.5-metre red worm that can supposedly spit acid in your face or kill you by an electric shock from its rectum. Both men sound convinced that it does. Mr Farrier said he first heard of the creature at age 14 when he read a book about cryptozoology.

They point to the consistency of local witness accounts and add that, as the Gobi Desert is sparsely populated, the chance that people are collaborating in their accounts or spreading rumours seems slim.

The creature was first brought to the West’s attention in the 1920s by explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, who has been credited as the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character. Over time, he has dismissed other entries such as the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot but thinks the Mongolian Death Worm is likely to exist. Mr Farrier’s goal is to document the creature’s existence on film, but he has no plans to capture it. Mr Douglas said there had been previous expeditions to look for the creature and they would build on that work, as well as local accounts, which have led them to concentrate their search in a specific region of the Gobi.

“I’m not taking a net or a gun or anything like that.

“I’m not taking a net or a gun or anything like that.” He said Mr Douglas was his favourite cameraman to work with because he has such an “affable personality” and stays calm in stressful situations. “It’s a very personal thing for me so if I see it, I’ll be happy. “I don’t think we’ll find anything but we’ll find enough to make a great story. He puts the chances at finding the creature at between 5 and 15 per cent, while Mr Douglas is more cautious. They will spend two weeks camping in the Gobi Desert, and as the worm is supposedly attracted to tremors, they will set off some explosions to try to draw it to the surface.”

The pair leave for Mongolia on Tuesday and will be joined there by a team of three: a cook, a translator and a driver.

.

Two senior Garin College schoolgirls were suspended yesterday afternoon after they streaked during a game being played against a touring rugby team from England.

Gresham College from Hull was playing Garin College in the fourth game of its New Zealand tour yesterday afternoon when the girls took off their school shirts and ran across the pitch.

Principal John Boyce said the two girls had been suspended and would not come back for a week. Everything is concerning about it. .

He said there would be another meeting with parents and the board of trustees when the students returned.”

Mr Boyce said the students were sent home yesterday after their parents were brought in.

“We have to make sure that it won’t happen again,” Mr Boyce said.

“And then, without thinking, the students go and do this.

He said the incident was particularly upsetting because the school had worked so hard to get the game organised.”

The Education Act says a principal may suspend or stand down a student if they do something which is a gross act of misconduct and is a harmful example to other students. They are good kids, actually, but it’s just upsetting.”

Mr Boyce said that, on top of the disciplinary action, Garin College had also lost the game 42-18.

“There is no question about harmful example, it’s just a shocker.

.

Three people are being interviewed by police
after two armed men broke into a Hamilton house and threatened two
girls. .

The men allegedly used an air rifle to smash a ranch slider door to gain entry to the house and threatened the two girls.

The caller said she was 14 and there was a girlfriend of a similar age with her in the house at the time.

The Waikato armed offenders squad cordoned off an address in the suburb Rototuna.

Neither girl was injured and the men fled the area in a red car, Mr McKay said.

About 12.

Meanwhile, Hamilton police were speaking with another man regarding a separate incident in a nearby area earlier in the night.

“He’s then threatened the car’s owners, who came out to investigate the disturbance, with a broken golf club.50am police received reports that a man had thrown a pot-plant at a car in the suburb of Queenwood, Mr McKay said.

He is also being questioned about nearby garage fire which appeared to have been deliberately lit.”

The victims managed to restrain the man and call police, who arrested him.

“The man arrested for the earlier incident was found in possession of a burnt compass from the car and the golf club he had armed himself with came from the garage that was set on fire,” Mr McKay said.

-

.
REUTERS - French workers who had threatened to blow up their car parts plant in a dispute over mass layoffs voted on Friday to accept a new compensation offer and drop their threat.

The conflict at the firm New Fabris, which had been dragging on for weeks, highlighted the radicalisation of workers’ protests in France as the economic downturn hits the job market. They wanted the two big auto groups to pick up the bill.

The workers at New Fabris, a bankrupt sub-contractor to carmakers Renault and Peugeot, had been demanding 30,000 euros ($42,340) each in compensation.

After marathon talks with management, mediated by the authorities, New Fabris staff held a vote on Friday on whether to accept a final offer to raise their compensation to 12,000 euros net of tax from a previous offer of 11,000 euros pre-tax.

Faced with management’s refusal, some of the workers had piled up gas cylinders at their factory in Chatellerault in central France and threatened to use them as a bomb.

It was 12,000 euros or nothing, and at this stage nothing was not an option for us, said Dominique Duval, a staff representative and member of the Force Ouvriere labour union.

In secret ballot, 204 workers voted to accept the new deal while 24 voted against it. .

Although not involved in the financial settlement, Renault and Peugeot did contribute to ending the conflict by saying they would buy the defunct company’s stock.

The threats follow a spate of bossnappings earlier this year, during which workers detained their managers on company premises to push their demands for compensation packages.

auto industry - bankruptcy - Economic crisis - France - Renault

.

Normal
0

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Tableau Normal”
mso-style-parent:”"
font-size:10.0pt”Times New Roman”}

REUTERS - Airbus said on Thursday it was urging airlines to switch most speed sensors on about 200 jetliners to U.-made parts in the wake of the Atlantic jet disaster, anticipating a European safety order.S.

Airlines are being urged to switch at least two thirds of the sensors — known as pitot probes — on each plane to parts supplied by U.

The move affects Airbus A330 or A340 planes fitted with sensors manufactured by France’s Thales, like the Air France A330 passenger jet which crashed en route from Brazil to Paris on June 1, killing all 228 people on board. .

Confirmation of the switch came after Reuters reported that European safety authorities were drawing up proposals to make such a change compulsory in the wake of the disaster. aerospace company Goodrich, which already supplies most of the 1,000-strong A330/A340 fleet. About 200 of the 1,000 A330s and sister A340s in operation are fitted with Thales sensors, Schaffrath said.

We issued an AIT (Accident Information Telex) a few minutes ago recommending that A330 and A340 operators fit at least two probes supplied by Goodrich, Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said late on Thursday.

Apparently faulty speed sensor readings due to icing may have contributed to the crash but were unlikely to be the sole cause, which remains to be identified, investigators say.

No deadline has been set, though one may be imposed if, as expected, safety authorities make the move compulsory.

With hopes fading of recovering the aircraft’s cockpit recorders, the investigation has focused on a handful of error messages sent out automatically from the aircraft that raise doubts over the speed data given to the pilots.

With hopes fading of recovering the aircraft’s cockpit recorders, the investigation has focused on a handful of error messages sent out automatically from the aircraft that raise doubts over the speed data given to the pilots.

The proposal would ban an older type of Thales sensor and limit the use of a newer Thales model to one out of three sensors fitted to each plane, with Goodrich supplying the rest.

Competing suppliers

A spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said earlier it was drawing up a proposal to order airlines to take precautionary action on Thales sensors.

Although Toulouse-based Airbus supplies the airframe and core systems, speed sensors are among a batch of components on which airlines are allowed to choose from competing suppliers.

Holtgen said EASA had acted in response to the large amount of information the agency has received over the last couple of weeks on the performance of the three different types of pitot tube currently in operation on Airbus long-range aircraft.

There have been several reported incidents of problems with Thales speed sensors, most recently on a flight from Rome to Paris.

Three types are available for the A330 and sister A340, a Goodrich sensor which is the standard model for those aircraft, and two alternative models which are supplied by Thales.

Thales, a privatised French firm mainly known as Europe’s largest defence electronics company, has declined so far to comment on the sensors and did not return calls on Thursday. Most would not have been noticed by passengers.

A Goodrich spokeswoman said it was committed to meeting the needs of the customer.

New Chief Executive Luc Vigneron said this week that Thales was studying the progress of the crash investigation.

Only a small amount of wreckage of the wide-body jet and fewer than a quarter of the victims’ bodies have been recovered.

Only a small amount of wreckage of the wide-body jet and fewer than a quarter of the victims’ bodies have been recovered.

AF 447 crash - Airbus - aviation

.
AFP - Forty-six people invited to watch a special casting of a church bell at a foundry in northern France were injured on Friday when an explosion showered them with molten bronze.

Most of the guests suffered from minor burns and smoke inhalation but six were rushed to hospital following the blast at the Cornille-Havard foundry in the Normandy town of Villedieu-les-Poele, firefighters said.

Police said the explosion was caused by the ignition of a dust cloud.

One person suffered serious burns and was flown by emergency helicopter to a hospital in Nantes.

The visitors had been invited to watch the smelting works of a 6.

This explosion caused fumes and melted bronze to be projected on the visitors, said an official from the local gendarmerie.

The mould of the bell shot up and there were fumes and bronze emissions, said Bergamo.3-tonne bell for a church in Mulhouse, eastern France, when the blast occurred around midday, said the foundry’s director Paul Bergamo.

One of the few remaining bell-manufacturing foundries in the world, the Cornille-Havard factory often organises public demonstrations at its smelters for tourists and clients.

Several ambulances and some 60 rescuers were dispatched to the foundry located in the town centre to deal with the emergency at the height of the holiday season.

The foundry, which employs 18 people and specialises in manufacturing one-of-kind pieces, was shut down for the remainder of the day, said Bergamo.

explosion - France - industry