Two a penny

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Former MP Taito Phillip Field is facing the prospect of being forced to cough up under the Proceeds Of Crime Act following his conviction on 16 criminal charges.

The former Mangere MP was last month found guilty of 11 charges of bribery and corruption as an MP and 15 charges of attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice.

It was said during Field’s criminal proceedings that the work he received on his properties were worth tens of thousands of dollars. .

Court records show the Solicitor-General began legal action seeking a monetary penalty from Field under the Proceeds of Crime Act in August.

The charges were laid after he accepted work on properties in Samoa and New Zealand by Thai tradesmen in return for giving them immigration assistance.

Field has until October 23 to file affidavits in opposition.

Field has since sent in a notice of opposition contesting the valuation evidence relied on by the Solicitor-General and he plans to file evidence supporting his valuation.

Field is due to be sentenced early next month on his criminal convictions. A telephone conference to advance the case will be held in November.

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An Australian man raped his daughter almost daily for 30 years and fathered her four children, in a case that echoes Austria’s Fritzl incest horror, according to reports.

The revelations of the Latrobe Valley man’s reign of terror have rocked Victoria, a day after the Ombudsman slammed the state’s record on child protection.

The Age has learnt the man, who cannot be named, was initially charged with 83 offences, most of which have been withdrawn by police, but now faces 13 charges – five of incest, five of rape, two of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 16 and one of assault.

The man, in his 60s, is charged with multiple counts of rape and incest in a case that echoes Austria’s Fritzl incest horror.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman would confirm only that charges had been laid against the man. He is due to appear in a Melbourne court in November. . She would not say what or how many they were, or when police had become involved in the case.

An ”extremely appalled” Community Services Minister Lisa Nevillesaid she had no knowledge of the case until today’s reports and her department would immediately investigate. A News Limited paper claimed authorities had been warned of the man’s activities years ago but had failed to investigate.

“They are only allegations and are before the courts at the moment and we need to be very careful about how much detail we go into.

”I do not know what or if there has been any involvement of the police, the department or any other agencies over that 30-year period,” Ms Neville said.”

The News Limited newspaper reports the alleged rapes started in the 1970s when the victim was about 11 and continued until 2007.

“This will be a priority to look into. One of the children later died.

It reports all the victim’s four children were born with birth defects in major Melbourne hospitals.

However, she went to police again in June last year and gave a statement against her father, the newspaper reports.

The woman reportedly spoke to police at Morwell, in Gippsland, eastern Victoria, in 2005 after a neighbour intervened, but she declined to cooperate because she feared for her safety.

Child welfare advocates are demanding a full inquiry, with claims authorities failed to investigate the alleged abuse. Police conducted DNA tests on the father and, in February, laid 83 charges of sex abuse against him.

The newspaper says the accused man’s wife had denied knowing of any assaults or who fathered her daughter’s children.

The victim’s mother claims she was unaware of any abuse despite sharing a house with her daughter, husband and grandchildren until 2005.

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Police handling of the search of the house in Christchurch where the bodies of two murdered women were found has been slammed by Maori Party MP Rahui Katene.

The MP for Tai Tonga is critical of the way police treated the family living next door to the “murder house” in the Christchurch suburb of Wainoni. .

“I just don’t think it’s good enough that the family living in the other half of the semi-detached house in Christchurch had to learn through the media that there was a murder investigation going on next door. Their children – and the parents too – don’t want to go back there again.

“This family has been severely traumatised by what has happened right next door to them.”

Ms Katene said she would take the matter up with senior police in Wellington. And I’m appalled that the police have suggested that they can move back in again.

“As a local ratepayer I support the move and encourage the council to pull it down and turn the site into something useful for the community.

But she applauded efforts by Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker to get council to consider buying the house.”

The bodies of 28-year-old Tisha Lowry and the 35-year-old wife of the man charged with her murder were recovered from beneath the house this week. I hope he doesn’t take notice of the people complaining about that move.

Neither can be named due to suppression orders.

The 33-year-old man who lived at the house has been charged with his wife’s murder and is expected to face a second murder charge when he appears in Christchurch District Court on Friday.

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Some night shifts at Blenheim’s St John ambulance are critically under-resourced because some staff are not qualified to administer life-saving drugs or carry out emergency procedures.

A severe staff deficit and the lack of qualified staff could compromise patients and is putting workers under unnecessary stress, according to St John employees. Sometimes that ambulance looks after the whole Marlborough region, as the service struggles to find and retain volunteers.

The reported last week that only one ambulance services Blenheim at night at least once a week. .

Two full-time advanced paramedics worked shifts of two days and two nights each, meaning half all Marlborough night shifts were covered by people with a maximum qualification level of Basic Life Support, the lowest of three levels of ambulance officer practice.

They say there could be delays in an ambulance attending an incident in Marlborough, and when one does arrive, it may lack qualified and experienced staff to administer life-saving interventions.

Blenheim St John staff have said a deficit of volunteers and qualified paid staff in Marlborough was placing unnecessary stress and demands on both paid and volunteer staff and potentially compromising patients. He will be replaced this month by an existing staff manager.

The claims come after months of upheaval at the Blenheim station, since operations team manager Mike McNabb resigned in February.

Staff at the station are currently in the middle of pay talks.

Staff said morale at the station had steadily declined and volunteers were difficult to retain as pressure mounted on them to cover rostered shifts on top of ongoing training. Informal talks were continuing.

The Amalgamated Workers Union of New Zealand (AWUNZ) in the South Island said pay negotiations on behalf of St John members had stalled since St John made it clear that it could not pay more. It was made so that current employees would not lose their jobs, he said.

St John regional operations manager for the northern region of the South Island, Chris Haines, blamed the “extraordinary current economic situation” for the decision. It is a prudent response to the current recessionary environment.

“This is not a position of our making or one we wanted to adopt.5 per cent.”

He said in the last financial year ambulance officers received an average pay increase of 4. There are some patient charges.

St John funding is split across ACC, the Ministry of Health and district health boards.

. Community donations and fundraising help St John meet the shortfall in ambulance operations funding

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AFP – A French soldier was killed and nine others wounded when a booby trap exploded against their armoured personnel carrier as they carried out reconnaissance in Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

Several soldiers were seriously wounded in the blast in the Showki region north of the Afghan capital Kabul, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement in which he expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

According to Sarkozy, the soldiers were members of the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment, which is based in the port of Vannes in Brittany.

France has some 2,900 troops in the NATO-led international coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and attempting to train Afghanistan’s national security forces to take the lead in the eight-year-old conflict.

The president . They were attacked in an area between the coalition bases in Nijrab and Bagram…

France has now lost 30 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001. strongly condemned this blind violence and expressed France’s determination to continue to work to re-establish peace and development in Afghanistan, a statement said.

The IED (improvised explosive device) hit one of the seven VAB armoured personnel carriers in the convoy. .

The year 2009 has already been a record-breaking year for foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the US-led bid to oust the Taliban began following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The nine wounded, four of them in a serious condition, were taken by helicopter to Bagram and Kabul, he said.org, more than 300 coalition soldiers have lost their lives since the beginning of the year, up from 294 in 2008.

According to the independent Internet site icasualities.

Afghanistan – French military – ISAF – NATO – security – Taliban

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A New Zealand military chaplain, Father Darren O’Callaghan, has held a memorial service in the Solomon Islands for one of the New Zealanders killed in the Tongan ferry disaster.

Fr O’Callaghan held the service so members of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) could farewell Sisiliah Puleheloto, 24, a member of the Niue police force. A cousin, Dwenelle Luani, 25, last saw her on the sinking MV Princess Ashika grasping at seats inside the passenger lounge as the ferry rolled over.Ms Puleheloto had taken leave to visit relatives in Tonga. A total of 54 people – all men – were rescued, and two bodies were recovered.She remains one of the 73 people missing after the ferry sank in Ha’apai waters on August 5.RAMSI special coordinator Graeme Wilson said the young policewoman, who worked in the community relations team, had made an enormous contribution, showing a big heart and working to help Solomon Islanders build a better, safer future. .She would be missed not only by the remaining 15 members of the Niue police force, but by the many friends she had made around the world in her short life, Mr Buchhorn said.The commander of the Participating Police Force (PPF), Wayne Buchhorn, said “Sisi”, as she was known, was one of only two officers who made up RAMSI’s Niue contingent and the first female officer to represent her nation in an overseas mission.Ms Puleheloto is the fifth active member of RAMSI to die in the six years since RAMSI first deployed to the Solomon Islands in July 2003.

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A police checkpoint within Kiwi soldiers’ area of responsibility in Afghanistan, has come under attack from insurgents in the run-up to presidential elections.

Insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and AK47s sparked a three-hour gunfight on Thursday, leaving one policeman injured and another missing.

Only hours later, a Kiwi patrol rushed to investigate a loud explosion near the Ish Pesta checkpoint, possibly an IED (improvised explosive device) attack.

It’s thought that Taliban threats scared voters and dampened turnout in the militant south.

No further details on the second attack were available last night.

The checkpoint targeted in the first attack sits in a mountain gorge in the Pashtun enclave, on the border of Bamiyan and Baghlan provinces, and falls within the New Zealand provincial reconstruction team’s (PRT) region. Insurgents killed 26 Afghans in scattered attacks, but officials said militants failed to disrupt the vote.

It has been repeatedly targeted, but yesterday’s attack was the worst.

Police officers returned fire, but did not have the weapons needed to repel the onslaught. Bullets tore through windows, becoming embedded in walls as insurgents in the mountains across a river fired repeatedly.

A Kiwi patrol inspected the checkpoint as soon as it heard about the attack. The gunfight ended when the attackers ran out of ammunition.

“My guess is they would have moved to Baghlan province, which is outside our PRT boundaries,” he said.

However, patrol commander Corporal Matthew Pearce did not hold out much hope of finding the insurgents.

Policeman Ahmed Zia said he feared he was “going to die” in the gunfire.

Policeman Ahmed Zia said he feared he was “going to die” in the gunfire.

“When I heard the shots, I took my weapon and fired back.

There were six men at the checkpoint when fighting broke out “around midnight”. The enemy was yelling at us to put our weapons down, but we fired back.

“It was really frightening, very loud.”

Pearce walked around the area yesterday, and checked the condition of the injured man.

“It went on so long because they used up all their rounds.

“Given the time of the month, it coincides with all the other new moon attacks, and being on the eve of the election, it’s really no surprise at all.

He said it was the type of incident the Kiwis had expected. .

“I always expect more, but it’s possible that this may have been the token effort for this group of insurgents

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More New Zealanders are diagnosing their illnesses online instead of going to their GP, according to a new survey.

More than a third of those surveyed in the 2009 NetGuide Telecom broadband survey had looked for medical advice from the many internet-based resources available rather than visiting their GP. .com, diagnoseme.

There are also many websites providing medical advice including answers.com.com and healthline.

But New Zealand Medical Association chairman Peter Foley warned there was no substitute for a face to face consultation with a doctor for diagnoses. Many illnesses can have similar symptoms and the internet can’t provide you with a fully informed diagnosis or be relied on to provide factual and balanced information, Dr Foley said.

“People risk being misinformed if they rely solely on the internet.”

Ralph Brayman, Telecom’s director of home services, said the survey was a useful way to track the fast changing internet habits of New Zealanders.

“It is important that there is some balance between people seeking basic information for themselves with the role experts play in sorting the complexity of symptoms and expectations in our modern health systems.

About 1600 people took part in the survey, which included various other questions about New Zealanders’ internet habits.

“While the quantity and variety of information available on the internet is fantastic, as in all good things, moderation and balance are important,” Mr Brayman said.

* Do you prefer using the internet or going to the doctor? below.

* Do you prefer using the internet or going to the doctor? below

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A stolen car struck a policewoman and then drove on its wheel rims after running over road spikes during a high speed chase close to Taupo earlier today, say police.

The officer, who had stopped and was speaking to the driver after he allegedly drove off without paying for fuel, was struck on her left side.

The incident happened about 7.

She suffered minor bruising and a sore left knee but did not require medical help, said Sergeant Greg Weston of Taupo police.

Police pursued the car for about 40km from Wairakei toward Rotorua, at speeds of up to 170kmh, he said.30am on State Highway 5, just north of Wairakei. The car drove on for another 9km, during which time one tyre disintegrated before the driver pulled over.

Police put down road spikes in front of the car, which punctured three tyres.

The charges include theft, reckless driving, driving while disqualified (third or subsequent), failing to stop for police, driving with excess breath alcohol and aggravated assault.

Mr Weston said a 19-year-old Lower Hutt man will appear in Taupo District Court tomorrow, facing nine charges arising from the incident.

Further charges may be laid.

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Life will draw to a halt in the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa today as mourners pay their respects to those who died in Thursday’s inter-island ferry disaster.

Eighty-five people remain missing presumed drowned after the MV Princess Ashika suddenly capsized and then sunk off the island of Ha’afeva.

Fifty-four men miraculously survived after being thrown from the rapidly sinking vessel into the open sea.

Police confirmed on Saturday that they now believe at least 141 people were onboard the vessel during the ill-fated voyage.

Two bodies have been found – one a British man who had previously lived in New Zealand and the second of an as-yet unidentified Tongan woman.

The gathering will include both survivors, their families, and loved ones of the scores still missing following the tragedy.

Hundreds of mourners will today gather at Nuku’alofa’s Saione Weslyan Church – the official church of the Kingdom of Tonga’s monarchy – to pay their respects.

Meanwhile, out to sea the search and rescue mission will continue in its so-far futile bid to find bodies of those who perished in the tragedy, or the unlikely presence of survivors.

However, Tongan government officials have ruled that anyone doing any task in relation to the search, or the investigation into what caused the tragic sinking, should continue with their work.

Non-essential Sunday work is banned in Tonga.

However, an RNZAF Orion is unlikely to be in the air today – with Tongan Police Commander Chris Kelley saying it had exhausted all avenues following three days of intense searching.

Among those who will be involved today are the combined 26-strong Navy diver crew provided by both New Zealand and Australia.

“We believe that the manner in which we have conducted the search is such that the Orion staff, believe they couldn’t do any more. .

“That doesn’t mean that the search won’t continue – it will.

“That doesn’t mean that the search won’t continue – it will. By the end of Saturday it would have done three days searching in the area, working on the wind and sea drifts, they have got a huge amount of photographic evidence.

“In the event that the Orion is needed again, it will be immediately available.

“At the moment our focus is still on the possibility of the rescue of people, of survivors.”

Kelley said of the possibility of finding more survivors: “I hate to be pessimistic, but the chances of survival are less and less.

. And I don’t want to give that up until we have exhausted every possibility