If they weren’t so eye-wateringly expensive their Michelin stars would be two a penny . La Gavroche, Le Cercle, Racine to name a few. Deciding against re-mortgaging the house I plumped, lovely word plumped, ..
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Fork and Flag: France
Get other Science Fiction Anthologies hereThe first collection of classic and contemporary German-language science fiction in English CLICK HERE -The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria Fran at www.science-fiction-books.com.au
Get other General Politics hereThis book looks at the functioning of labour market institutions in four small European economies Austria Denmark Ireland and the Netherlands. It concentrates on four policy areas: the effect that can be made by macroeconomic policies; labour market flexibility and working time; equality of opportunity; the dialog of industrial relations between employers workers organisations and the government. It is a resource for those who need to understand the working of labour market institutions and policies.
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A bank customer is being praised by Hamilton police after he responded to a call for help and chased a robber today.
Police said the robber, believed to be unarmed, demanded money from a teller in the Hamilton East branch of the BNZ about 10.
As the robber fled with his money, the teller called for help and a man in a queue behind the robber chased him. .
Detective Dion Bennett said it was a gutsy call by the customer.
He pursued the robber down Grey St but lost him when he turned down an alleyway to the rear of Sacred Heart school, said police.”
Mr Bennett said the customer’s first reaction was impressive.
“He realised something was wrong and turns and gives chase, it was really pleasing.”
However, he said police were also wary about urging people to chase offenders because someone could get hurt.
“We take our hat off to him.
The robber was a medium built Maori or Polynesian, between 180-185cm tall.
Details of how much money the man got were not available.
Mr Bennett said anyone with information on the robber could call him direct on (07) 834 9476. He wore a dark top and dark track pants.
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The Auckland actor shot by police in suburban Auckland lured officers to the scene with false claims of domestic violence before advancing on attending officers with a meat cleaver and two knives.
Rob Mokaraka, 36, was shot by a police officer in Smale Street, Pt Chevalier on Monday afternoon.
Detective Superintendent Rod Drew said police telephone records had revealed the man enticed police to his home after making false reports of a violent domestic incident involving a man armed with a concealed gun.
“After some verbal interaction with police he advanced into the street and threatened police who had responded to the 111 calls, with what appeared to be a firearm wrapped in a towel.
“It is now apparent that, having given a distinctive description of the ‘angry man’ he said was armed with a concealed firearm, the man dressed himself to fit the description and waited for police to arrive,” Mr Drew said. . When he refused to stop, an officer fired one shot and the man was disarmed. He is in a stable condition and is expected to remain in hospital for a week or more.
The officer who fired the shot is expected to complete a formal interview today, as are the other officers involved with the incident. A decision regarding charges will be made in the next day or so. He has not been stood down from duty. The officer is off work while he completes the full medical and psychological de-briefing required by the Police Trauma Policy.
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The investigation continues
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A young student’s search for a job ended with a blunt email: “Sorry we don’t hire blacks, no offence meant”.
The racist reply stunned Albany student Julia Eru, 20, who says words can’t explain how horrible the email was.
“I thought that kind of stuff was in the past.
“It’s so offensive in so many ways,” she says.”
Ms Eru had applied online for a retail job but got a surprise response. The person needs to know it’s not right. Lots of love Andria.
She sent a second email using her sister’s English name and the response was entirely different: “Hi honey, positions are now closed. She studies hospitality management at the North Shore International Academy and is examining for part-time work.”
Ms Eru is part Maori and English.
Ms Eru says she is still waiting for a reply to her complaint to the Gumtree website that ran the job ad, which remained online until it was taken down after the contacted them. .
One email said a junior receptionist had acted inappropriately and had been fired.
The received a strange series of responses to questions put to the emailer.”
But another email read: “In the mean time kindly f*** off. “All apologies to those concerned and God Bless. The computer hacker. Cheers Li Wu. It was registered until June 23 this year.”
One email referred the to a website for Penrose-based importer and wholesaler Jin Bill International Ltd but the Companies Office website lists the company as having been struck off.
The company did not respond to phone messages and there is no listing for the director.
Despite that a company director’s name, Fanmao Zeng, appears on emails sent to the from the bright startltd2002 address.
Gumtree says it did not receive a complaint from Ms Eru and removed the job listing when it was reported.
When the paper visited the Penrose address we were told the company hadn’t been operating for at least a year.
Gumtree says the advert did not breach its policies but the subsequent abuse was “unacceptable”.
Gumtree says the advert did not breach its policies but the subsequent abuse was “unacceptable”.
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A man was beaten so badly he received two tears to his bowel after he commented that a relative of someone he boarded with in Richmond was chubby, a court has heard.
A trial for Vietnamese nationals Quang Van Nguyen, 50, and Binh Van Tran, 47, opened in the Nelson District Court yesterday.
Nguyen is also charged with assaulting the complainant.
Nguyen and Tran are jointly charged with resulting in grievous bodily harm with intent to another Vietnamese man, Thanh Van Nguyen, 39, on May 27 last year.
After dinner on the evening of May 27, the complainant made a call to Vietnam and spoke with his family in his bedroom.
In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Craig Stevenson said that in April last year, Thanh Van Nguyen was boarding at a Richmond house where the two defendants lived along with the wife of one of the defendants.
Mr Stevenson said the three men were the only ones at home and the complainant was talking with the two accused about family photos of Tran’s when Thanh Van Nguyen made a comment about Tran or a relative looking “somewhat chubby”.
After ending the call, he returned to the lounge area, where both the accused were sitting.
Mr Stevenson said that after that comment was made, Nguyen hit the complainant around his nose and eye with sufficient force to make him feel dizzy. . He was then repeatedly punched and ended up lying on the floor, where he felt a severe blow to his stomach, which he thought had come from someone’s foot.
Thanh Van Nguyen tried to get up and leave the lounge to go to his bedroom but was held back by one of the men.
He did not know who had hit him.
He also received several blows to his shoulder, back and thigh.
The following morning he was still in pain and asked Tran to arrange for him to go to hospital.
Mr Stevenson said Thanh Van Nguyen fainted and, after regaining consciousness, returned to his room in pain.
Mr Stevenson said Tran gave him something to rub on his stomach. He was told he wouldn’t get a doctor’s appointment.
At the hospital, surgeon Graeme Skeggs discovered the complainant had two tears to his bowel consistent with blunt trauma to his stomach. About 3pm or 4pm that day, an ambulance was called and the complainant was taken to Nelson Hospital.
Thanh Van Nguyen spent two weeks in hospital recovering after surgery.
Mr Skeggs also noticed a degree of bruising around the man’s head.
Thanh Van Nguyen said he had commented to Tran that a relative in one of his photos was “as big and fat as you are” and Tran had laughed.
Giving evidence, the complainant told Mr Stevenson that before the assault, they had been having a good time…. I said your skin doesn’t look too healthy.”
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Setting a trial date for a man charged with murdering Grant “Granite” Adams has been postponed for two months as he is dying.
The case for Tauranga man Brett Michael Ashby, 50, was called in the High Court at Rotorua before Justice Judith Potter yesterday when his lawyer explained he was terminally ill.
“He is terminally ill.
Lawyer Elizabeth Hall said her client was under hospice care at home and it was likely he would not survive to stand trial and asked for a two-month stand down. . . . it is a critical situation with his declining health getting worse. If he is alive [in two months] it would be something of a surprise,” she said. .
It is believed Mr Adams was a methamphetamine user with gang connections
Mr Adams’ remains were found in June 2007 in a grave dug with a digger.
Police allege Ashby, a company director, shot Mr Adams in the upper back and head with a semi-automatic pistol before dumping his body at Wairakei, close to Taupo, in December 2005.
Another Tauranga man, Craig Cullen, 44, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention on April 23, last year, on a charge of being an accessory after the fact of murder.
Justice Potter adjourned the case to be recalled in the High Court at Rotorua on June 4, for a trial date to be set if Ashby was still alive.
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A former ESR scientist says he found blood which could have come only from Laniet or Stephen Bain on David Bain’s socks.
Peter Cropp, now an independent forensic scientist, told the High Court in Christchurch hearing murder charges against David Bain, he had tested socks taken from David Bain on June 20, 1994, the day of the murder of the Bain family.Each had blood staining on the soles and sock one had two stains visible on the sole’s edge. He had received the socks on August 4, 1994 and labelled them sock one and sock two. Blood grouping tests showed the blood was either from Laniet or Stephen Bain. The droplets had quite clear edges and the stains had soaked right through the material suggesting the blood was more likely to have dropped onto the socks than to have adhered to the sock by stepping into blood. He gave evidence yesterday of testing he carried out in 1994 of items taken from David Bain or from the Bain house.Cropp also told the court he could find no animal blood on the rifle used to shoot the Bain family.DNA tests showed all the blood spots tested on trackpants worn by Robin Bain were his own blood, the High Court was also told.The defence case is that David Bain fingerprints alleged to have been found on the rifle were placed there before the murders by a hand with animal blood on it.Two of the spots had a mix of DNA, one of which could have had a minor contribution from another Bain family member and the other had a minor contribution from someone outside the Bain family.Dr Stephen Gutowski, from the Victorian Forensic Services Centre (VFSC), said he tested the samples taken from the trackpants in 1997 and found all the samples contained Robin Bain’s DNA. His conviction was quashed by the Privy Council in 2007.Gutowski did his testing two years after David Bain’s first trial. Bain’s counsel Michael Reed has previously told the court that if blood from other members ofthe Bain family was found on Robin it would help to exonerate his client.The defence argues David Bain’s father Robin killed his wife and three children before turning his rifle on himself. He found human blood only on one part of the rifle, the sight.Nigel Hall, another scientist from the VFSC said he tested in 1997 samples taken from 13 areas of the rifle used in the killing.
During cross-examination Reed told Hentschel, who examined many items from the Bain house in 1994, that defence experts would say his lack of notes and diagrams of the examinations he carried out would be attacked as inadequate.
Retired ESR scientist Peter Hentschel today also gave evidence in the High Court trial of Bain.
Hentschel said he had relied on police officers in charge of each section of the Bain house to take notes and his recordings were of a standard used by ESR in 1994.
They would say, Reed said, that the shortcomings meant insufficient material was available for them to do proper reviews of the examinations.
Reed concentrated much of his cross-examination today on the murder weapon, a .
It would be different now, he said.
Hentschel examined the rifle in the week of the murders and said he had not made a diagram of where he saw four fingerprints because he relied on the fingerprint expert to do that.
Hentschel examined the rifle in the week of the murders and said he had not made a diagram of where he saw four fingerprints because he relied on the fingerprint expert to do that.
The Crown alleges the fingerprints were made by David Bain while the defence says the fingerprints were made by fingers covered in animal blood.
Nor had he made notes or made a diagram of where he saw smearing on the rifle which did not extend to the fingerprints, the retired scientist said.
Hentschel maintains the smearing over the rifle was “shielded” by the fingerprints.
He could not explain how tests done in 1997 found blood smearing between the fingerprints but the rifle must have been handled many times in the intervening three years, he said.
Hentschel agreed he had not made a diagram showing where he took a sample of blood from the firearm where the fingerprints were.
The sample was taken from smearing 5mm to 10mm from the fingerprints.
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Hentschel said he had not told the jury in David Bain’s trial he had taken the sample from the fingerprints themselves. .
When re-examined by Kieran Raftery for the Crown he said he found extensive smearing of blood on the butt of the rifle and its forearm.
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Almost 800 getting redundancy benefit
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Nearly 800 families are already claiming support under a redundancy rescue package rushed through before Christmas – evidence that the recession is hurting people as the Government prepares to host a top-level jobs summit.
The package is expected to ease the financial pain for as many as 70,000 workers over two years.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said yesterday there were 771 people getting some form of assistance under the package.
Low-income workers with families can get as much as $160 a week, on top of the unemployment or domestic-purposes benefit, under the scheme, introduced to help families cope with mortgage payments and other costs after redundancy. Ms Bennett said the payments were designed to give families "breathing space".
But the payments run out after 16 weeks, and the outlook for new jobs could be bleak, as unemployment continues to rise.
Papers prepared ahead of Friday's summit paint a bleak picture saying numbers on the unemployment benefit are likely to rise to 50,000 by October up from fewer than 20,000 early last year. . The Government is fielding a big contingent of ministers, including Mr Key and Finance Minister Bill English.
Nearly 200 of the country's top business leaders have so far signed up for the jobs summit in Auckland from companies including Telecom, Air New Zealand, Foodstuffs, Fletcher Building, Lion Nathan, Icebreaker, SkyCity, Fonterra and the major banks.