Two a penny

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US President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation. . Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said.

“Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics.”

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama’s vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play,” the committee said. Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the UN panel on climate change.

Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.

The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year’s prize. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel’s death.”

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel’s guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel’s guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change

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Anti-smacking campaigner Sue Bradford has received chilling death threats and been warned she could be New Zealand’s “first political assassination”.

Police are looking at stepping up her personal security after the vile warnings on Twitter. Some of it is pretty nasty. The Green MP said: “There has been a whole lot of stuff.

“There is another email that was really ugly a few weeks ago that we referred to police.”

She told : “I was on Twitter and someone sent a tweet saying, ‘Sue Bradford should be the first candidate for a political assassination’.”

Voters have been bitterly divided over the issue.”

Bradford, the architect of the anti-smacking legislation, added: “I have become the iconic symbol for the opponents, for the people who want to change the law back.

Bradford, an MP for 10 years, received a backlash of threats and abuse after the bill was passed on May 16, 2007. Opponents argue that the law prevents parents from disciplining their kids and prosecutions can rip families apart. I copped it for many years earlier on for standing up for unemployed people and beneficiaries and being a street protestor.

She told this week: “I have been copping it for four years.”

She has moved house several times to protect her privacy. It is what happens when you stand up for what you believe.

The issue still rumbles on despite the $9 million referendum when 87. She also has special dispensation from Parliament to leave her name and address off the electoral roll. .6 per cent voted ‘No’ to “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

Bradford said that as well as being abused and intimidated, her office had been flooded with letters and emails from parents telling her they would go on whacking their children.

One hateful opponent threatened to make a sawn-off shotgun to take out Bradford and any MPs who supported her. In 2007, she was targeted with menacing taunts on the CYFS Watch website.

There were also threats to publish her home address unless she backed down.

Another nutter, intent on teaching her the difference between a smack and a serious assault, threatened to punch her, “hopefully breaking her nose or jaw”.

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She said at the time: “I think it’s indicative of some of the people that are campaigning against me

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Former immigration chief Mary Anne Thompson’s doctorate thesis disappeared “in a black hole” after being sent to the London School of Economics, her lawyer said today.

Defence counsel Robert Lithgow was questioning the school’s academic registrar, Simeon Underwood, via video link at a depositions hearing in Wellington District Court.

Mr Underwood had not met Thompson and, under questioning, relied on the school’s records.

Thompson faces three fraud charges after applying for public service jobs in 1989, 1998 and 2004, claiming she had achieved her doctorate in philosophy.

Mr Underwood said the record “seems to be full up to the point where Ms Thompson submitted her thesis”.

Mr Lithgow suggested he was attempting to put together a jigsaw which had some pieces missing.

Mr Underwood today told the court he did not know where the documents were now.

Prosecutor Grant Burston said yesterday the thesis had been sent for examination in 1990 but no degree was confirmed as Thompson had not undertaken the oral examination.

“I wouldn’t share that judgment,” Mr Underwood said.

Mr Lithgow asked if it would be reasonable to describe the loss of a top level student’s thesis as an embarrassment.”

He said there may be an explanation which was not made clear in the school’s paperwork.

“Because the pieces of the jigsaw – as you said at the start – are missing. He asked whether there were circumstances under which the exam could be waived on extreme compassionate grounds.

Mr Lithgow said Thompson would have had to travel from New Zealand to England for the oral exam.

He said there had been correspondence over whether Thompson could do her oral exam in Australia as her supervisor was due to visit Queensland.

Mr Underwood had only heard of this being done once, “and that was posthumously”.

Two more witnesses from the school were due to give evidence via video link this week, with court sessions beginning early to accommodate the time difference. .

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A Northland school is determined to open next week for its 42 students despite a fire that destroyed its hall and staff room.

The fire at Whangaruru School, north of Whangarei, began at midday Thursday and ripped through a block of buildings.

No one was injured in the incident.

While the blaze, which is believed to have started in the staff room, was so intense that it blistered the paint on the close toby classroom, the school’s three classrooms remained largely intact.

She hoped it could be on Monday, but that depended on when the scene of the fire could be secured.

Principal Petina Stone said today that she was in discussions with contractors over when school would resume for its 42 pupils.

Ms Stone described what had happened as devastating for both the school and the community, which also used the hall. .

“It’s an historical building that has been lost to the whole community,” she said.

The block dated back to the 1950s, when it was part of a secondary school.”

School board vice-chairman Henry Haika, who is also a volunteer fireman, said locals would band together to ensure that what had been lost was rebuilt.

“The whole community had come together with wonderful support, which I want to acknowledge.

The fire is the second blow for the school in a month, after an Education Review Office report criticised the quality of teaching there and said most pupils were underachieving in class.

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A Hungarian tourist severely beat an elderly gay man with a red banjo then shoved the instrument’s broken neck half way down his throat, a court has heard.

Ferdinand Ambach, 32, a dive master from Hungary, went on trial this morning at the High Court in Auckland for the murder of 69-year-old Ron Brown in his Onehunga home on December 7, 2007.

Mr Brown died in hospital two days after the alleged attack when his life support was turned off. They struck up a conversation and seemed to be getting on well.

In his opening statement, Crown prosecutor Nick Williams said Ambach had been in New Zealand for about one month when he met Mr Brown one evening at the Bar 306 in Onehunga.30pm they left together and bought beer from a close toby bottle store, he said.

About 9.

They then went by taxi to Mr Brown’s two-storey unit in Onehunga, where they drank the beers, then turned to bourbon and coke.

The neighbour phoned Mr Brown, who asked him to call police.

Later that night, a neighbour in an adjacent unit heard loud “crashing and banging” and could feel the vibration through the wall, Mr Williams said.

When the police arrived at 12. .

They found Mr Brown slumped over the bottom of the stairs with the banjo neck sticking out of his mouth and making a sound like he was snoring, Mr Williams said.38am, they saw Ambach throwing a double bed mattress out of a broken, second floor window.

Ambach was arrested and, having cut his finger on the broken window, was taken to hospital.

Ambach was arrested and, having cut his finger on the broken window, was taken to hospital.

He considered leaving but could not find an exit and did not have any money, Mr Williams said.

Ambach later told police he remembered only flashes of what happened but recalled Mr Brown placing his hand on his groin, then chasing him around a table and throwing things at him.

The trial is expected to take three weeks.

This afternoon the jury will travel to Onehunga to view the murder scene.

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A minder for the Department of Labour’s chief executive is necessary to sort out the “shambles and mess” at the immigration service, Prime Minister John Key says.

An Auditor-General’s report released this month said the service, part of the Department of Labour, was focused on processing as many visas as possible without worrying about quality.

“This meant that staff who were under pressure to meet quantity targets had incentives to approve visas and permits, rather than decline them,” the report said.

The division was set up by the service’s former boss Mary Anne Thompson in 2005, who resigned last year after accusations of a conflict of interest in helping overseas family members gain residency.

The report found problems were worse in the Pacific Division than elsewhere in the service.

Ms Thompson is facing court action on fraud and dishonesty charges.

It was also alleged that she did not have a doctorate from the London School of Economics that many people believed she had when she applied for jobs earlier in her career. .

“This was a shambles and a mess left to us by the Labour Government,” Mr Key said said on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme.

The service last week reviewed its decision on 29-year-old Lithuanian tourist Jurga Skiauteris, so she and her family were allowed to remain in New Zealand until the birth of her baby.”

A person would be appointed to “ride shot-gun” and help change the immigration service, Mr Key said.

“Immigration is part of the Department of Labour so it doesn’t just have immigration to worry about it has ACC, it has employment law, it has a lot of different areas.

Dr Coleman told TV1′s Q+A show that the Auditor-General’s report was “very bad”.

He was confident Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman could “sort it”.

The problems meant some people may be in New Zealand who should not be and others with legitimate rights may have been turned away, he said.

The problems meant some people may be in New Zealand who should not be and others with legitimate rights may have been turned away, he said.

Two years was the “outside limit” for changes to be made and New Zealand to have “a superb immigration service”.

The cost and risks of separating the immigration service out of the Department of Labour were too high, Dr Coleman said.

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New MP excited about job, not the circumstances

– National Homepage -

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Lonely hearts duped online

– Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Lonely and vulnerable Cantabrians could be losing thousands of dollars to internet-savvy con artists, police warn.
Senior Constable Kirk Newman, of the Christchurch police, said he had received complaints from three men in a week who had been sent fraudulent travellers' cheques by overseas scammers.
The warning comes ahead of Fraud Awareness Week, which starts on Monday.
The con artist chooses email addresses after the person advertises an item online.
However, Newman said the number of people duped by the travellers' cheque con artists was higher than reported because victims were too embarrassed to lay official complaints. She is now posing as an information technology worker.
Soon after, an unsolicited email arrives from a female whose name and occupation changes.
"It's probably not even a woman," he said. I think it's sad, the number of lonely people we have in our city that will grab onto anything for some form of affection. "It could just as well be a bloke.
Emails were exchanged until the scammer says they are coming to New Zealand on holiday and sends several thousand United States dollars' worth of forged travellers cheques."
Newman said the tone of the email was "chatty" to lure the recipient in as a friend.
Newman said the forged travellers' cheques appear to be authentic.
Then the scammer says that her assistant has mistakenly sent too many travellers' cheques and asks the recipient to keep some money back for their troubles while returning the balance, in cash, by Western Union.
"Once money is put into Western Union it will vanish and can be accessed anywhere in the world not just where the baddies say that they are living," Newman said.
"Once money is put into Western Union it will vanish and can be accessed anywhere in the world not just where the baddies say that they are living," Newman said.
Fraud Awareness Week starts on Monday.
Psychologist Sara Chatwin said those who have email relationships with potential scam artists usually fall into two groups those who are too busy for social interaction and those who have self-esteem issues and enjoy the anonymity of the internet.scamwatch. Visit www.nz .govt.

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Still no access to NZer held in Pakistan

Wednesday, 18 February 2009

New Zealand authorities are yet to see a New Zealander being held in Pakistan, almost a week after he was detained.
Mark Taylor, 35, was detained by Pakistani security forces after he tried to enter a tribal region on the Afghan border, identified as a Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold, without permission.
Pakistani intelligence sources have said they suspect he might have links with Islamist militants.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman today said Mr Taylor was still being detained, but was unwilling to say whether the ministry had yet established what he was doing in Pakistan.
Mr Taylor, who was wearing traditional Pakistan dress, told authorities he was going to South Waziristan to get married to a tribal woman.
He was seeking an update on Mr Taylor's wellbeing from local authorities in the area and trying to negotiate access.
She said New Zealand's honorary consul in Pakistan had travelled to Islamabad to see him, but had not yet been able to do so.
"The New Zealand embassy in Tehran and our honorary consul in Pakistan are actively pressing the Pakistan authorities to get updates on Mr Taylor's welfare to ensure he has access to consular assistance and to obtain permission to speak directly to him.
Mr Taylor's family had been kept abreast of the ministry's efforts, but wished to remain out of the public eye."
The ministry had also called in Pakistan's high commissioner to New Zealand to "make urgent efforts to assist us" in gaining access to Mr Taylor.
While some Westerners of Asian descent have been known to travel to Pakistan to join militants, very few Westerners with European roots have been known to have gone there for that purpose.
South Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions that have long been off-limits to foreigners without special permission and which in recent years have been plagued by militant violence. .
Some reports have said Mr Taylor was carrying a tape recorder at the time of his arrest – raising speculation he might be a journalist.
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Fame pays off for refugee

By JIM KAYES Tuesday, 17 February 2009

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IN GOD’S HANDS: Iranian refugee and Christian convert Ali Panah (centre) has been granted refugee status in New Zealand.

Being famous has paid off for Iranian refugee Ali Panah but those close to him say his controversial hunger strike and conversion to Christianity was no gimmick.
Mr Panah was classified as a refugee by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority yesterday after two earlier failed appeals and a 53-day hunger strike after he was imprisoned for refusing to sign deportation documents.
"Because of the publicity that was created as a result of the fast that Ali went on, it is absolutely inevitable that the Iranian authorities will know about Ali's position.
His lawyer, Grant Illingworth, revealed it was the publicity surrounding Mr Panah's hunger strike in 2007 that forced the authority's hand, as it had to accept he would have become known in Iran."
Christian converts risked being executed in Iran "and the effect of the decision that has been reached is that Ali has been released from the threat of being exposed to the death penalty," Mr Illingworth said. They will know that he has claimed to be a Christian, they will know that he has claimed to renounce Islam and they will know that they have been criticised.
The authority's report, which has not been made public, criticised Mr Panah, he said.
He also strongly rejected any suggestion that the hunger strike during which Mr Panah was taken to hospital and put on a drip was a publicity stunt or that Mr Panah's conversion of faith was simply for convenience. The authority would not comment and Mr Illingworth refused to elaborate, saying only that he disputed its findings. "Lasting for two or three days is extremely difficult and for someone to fast for 50 days is extremely rare.
Enduring more than a day of fasting was not easy, he said."
Mr Illingworth said proving a person's faith was extremely difficult. It really does show the motivation of the person concerned. But in the end the authority was only interested in the fact that he had claimed to be a Christian. But in the end the authority was only interested in the fact that he had claimed to be a Christian. But he was convinced that Mr Panah, who converted to Christianity in 2000, was a true convert."
Auckland's Anglican Archbishop, David Moxon, said he had seen false converts before they were dubbed rice Christians as they were usually seeking food.
He was happy with yesterday's decision and pledged to be "a good citizen for this country".
Mr Panah, 41, who has been living with Anglican friars in Hamilton, has both parents, three sisters and two brothers still living in Iran. "I believe that God has a purpose for everyone and I leave it to his hands for the future.
He had no job lined up but was confident of finding work."
The Iranian embassy in New Zealand could not be reached for comment. At the moment I don't know what the Lord wants for my job.

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Piles of battery waste remain

Saturday, 31 January 2009

ExideTechnologieshas failed to get rid of thousands of tonnes of chemical battery waste close to Petone and now wants another two years to dispose of the massive stockpile.
Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard says the multinational company has repeatedly breached resource consent conditions and has failed to make good on its promises.
"There's clearly not been compliance.
The battery smelter did not deserve another chance and should be shut down or moved, he said. There should not be any rubber stamp. There were undertakings made to get rid of the stuff and they have not been met. They're asking for special permission to do something outside the normal rules .
"These people have behaved pretty badly…"
Hutt City Council granted Exide a two-year resource consent to store 7500 tonnes of slag, a chemical waste byproduct of its battery-recycling factory containing lead and the known carcinogen arsenic, in March 2007. this organisation over a period of time has shown bad faith.
Processing problems means Exide still has close toly 6000 tonnes in sealed drums in two Hutt Park Rd warehouses.
The consent expires on March 1. The company has twice been convicted for illegal lead discharges beyond court-imposed health limits designed to protect local residents and was fined $30,000 last year. It has applied for new consents to store 6000 tonnes for another two years.
The council has indicated the resource consent would be non-notified, meaning the public would not be allowed to make submissions.
There was also controversy when alarmed residents noticed workers handling the slag in protective clothing and masks.
"It's a big American multinational company that's just taking advantage of the fact that our rules are slacker than some Third World countries. But Mr Mallard said the public deserved a say."
He wanted the factory shut or moved away from people's homes. The idea that they should just get a rubber stamp renewal is wrong. It was processing 13 tonnes of the backlog each day and not adding to the stockpile. .
An Exide official in Australia said he was unable to comment till he had spoken to company officials in the United States.
An Exide official in Australia said he was unable to comment till he had spoken to company officials in the United States..