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Untitled Document The Netball Handbook Jane Louise Woodlands Netballers at all levels are seeking an edge over their opponents in their quest to perform to their potential. The Netball Handbook is the most comprehensive contemporary resource available to aid in that endeavour. 284pp paperback About the Book Netballers at all levels are seeking an edge over their opponents in their quest to perform to their potential. The Netball Handbook is the most comprehensive contemporary resource available to aid in that endeavour. This complete guide begins by covering essential netball skills such as body control and movement ball handling shooting attacking and defending before presenting the ever-evolving tactical concepts of the game. Add to that dozens of drills; chapters on physical conditioning mental training and teamwork; and tips from some of the game’s brightest stars and you have the blueprint Comments (0)

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The Government is giving people the chance to “kick the tyres” of the MMP electoral system although it is working well, Prime Minister John Key says.

Justice Minister Simon Power announced today there would be a referendum at the same time as the 2011 general election, asking voters whether they want to retain MMP.

If they don’t, they can tick one of several alternative voting systems that will be set out on the same paper.

It will be a run off between MMP and the alternative that was given the most votes in the first referendum.

A second referendum will be held at the same time as the 2014 general election if a majority want a change.

“But we promised New Zealanders on the campaign trail they would have an opportunity to kick the tyres.

“I think we’ve proved in close toly a year in government that the system is working well,” Mr Key told reporters.”

Mr Key said he didn’t believe voters would be likely to choose to go back to the old first-past-the-post system, which MMP replaced in 1996. .

Mr Power told there was a widespread expectation at the time MMP was introduced that there would be a chance for another say on the system.

If a majority of voters prefer the alternative voting system to MMP, the 2017 general election will be held under the chosen alternative.

Cabinet was yet to make decisions around wording of the questions and the alternate electoral systems to be offered.

It was also cheaper than other options, although holding two referenda would still cost $23 million.

Mr Power said holding a referendum alongside a general election ensured a good turnout, which was important if the referendum was to be legitimate.

Mr Power said the Government was determined to ensure there would be a strong public information campaign explaining the different alternatives.

Mr Power said the Government was determined to ensure there would be a strong public information campaign explaining the different alternatives.

“The Government wants to ensure New Zealanders have time to consider all the issues fully before making their decision.

“If a majority of voters opt for a change from MMP, there will be plenty of time for public discussion on the merits of MMP versus the preferred alternative voting system, before the second referendum,” he said. It would include the wording of questions and the options to be considered.”

Legislation to allow the first referendum would go to Parliament early next year.

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Input would be considered at the select committee stage

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Annah Stretton is no stranger to controversy.

For her winter 2010 collection she transported the audience back to the 1950s in an ode to legendaryKiwi exotic dance star Freda Stark.

Her collection featured lingerie as outerwear, diaphanous tea dresses with a twist and figure hugging pencil skirts.

In the prelude to the show, ushers gave out icecreams to the audience before Stretton sent models with tousled hair and come-to-bed eyes down the catwalk. .

For the finale she sent models down the runway wearing little more than gold body paint,a trademark of Stark in her pomp.

Twenty-seven names took John Lennon and Yoko Ono as the inspiration for their range.

Hogan’s collection was ladylike and demure with a twist.

The Sable and Minx Winter 2010 collection earlier showed a very pretty feminine collection featuring a palette of lilacs, pale blues and sage green.

But the oversized shirts and fitted jackets the label is known for were also still a big part of the range.

Cybele Wiren sent elfin models down the catwalk in fluid, beautifully draped clothes, in a palette of inky blues and nudes.

The first show of New Zealand Fashion Week was always going to be a big draw.

Standout pieces from the collection included skirts and dresses which were panelled and fluted to resemble the petals of a lily.

For Winter 2010, Wiren said she found her inspiration from the formality of the Victorian era and the sculptural qualities of flowers and insects.

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The lily was also strongly evident in prints – a navy silk mini-dress is bound to be a bestseller for the designer

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Serena Williams’ US Open title defence ended in bizarre, ugly fashion, when she was docked a point on match point after yelling and shaking her racket in the direction of an official who called a foot fault.

Williams lost to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-5 in a taut semifinal that featured plenty of powerful groundstrokes by both women.

With Williams serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, she faulted on her first serve. .

That made the score 15-40, putting Clijsters one point from victory. On the second serve, a line judge called a foot fault, making it a double-fault – a call rarely, if ever, seen at that stage of any match, let alone the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament.

Williams already had been give a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set.

Instead of stepping to the baseline to serve again, Williams went over and shouted and cursed at the line judge, pointing at her and shaking a ball at her.

“She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported to the chair, and that resulted in a point penalty,” Earley explained. So the chair umpire now awarded a penalty point to Clijsters, ending the match. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. “And it just happened that point penalty was match point.

“I used to have a real temper, and I’ve gotten a lot better,” Williams said in her postmatch news conference.”

When the ruling was announced, Williams walked around the net to the other end of the court to shake hands with a stunned Clijsters, who did not appear to understand what had happened. Yes, yes, indeed. “So I know you don’t believe me, but I used to be worse.

Clijsters hadn’t competed at the US Open since winning the 2005 championship.”

Lost in the theatrics was Clijsters’ significant accomplishment: In only her third tournament back after 2 1/2 years in retirement, the 26-year-old Belgian became the first mother to reach a Grand Slam final since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon 1980. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 in the other rain-delayed women’s semifinal. Now she will play for her second career major title against No.

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Simon Cowell has blasted The Beatles, claiming they would have failed auditions on The X Factor.

The music mogul – who once rejected the Spice Girls, the best-selling girl group of all time – says he would have kicked the iconic band off his British TV talent show unless they fired drummer Ringo Starr.’

“With Ringo, I’m afraid, we would have said ‘bad news’.

The 49-year-old star said: “If The Beatles came on the show we would have said, ‘We’ll take those three – Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison – but probably lose the drummer. That’s what excites me.”

Speaking in a US television interview with his Britain’s Got Talent co-star Amanda Holden, Simon also revealed what drives him, saying: “I like winning, Amanda.

Her debut album is due for release in November, and is expected to shoot to the top of the charts in America and Britain.”

Simon is now focusing on the career of Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle, who will perform on the final of America’s Got Talent next week. .

* Would The Beatles succeed in today’s music world? below

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Well-known television host, author and clinical psychologist Nigel Latta says he only agreed to help review policies around the smacking issue if he was free to speak his mind about the conclusions.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday released the Terms of Reference for a review of policies and procedures used by Child, Youth and Family and the police when investigating smacking.

Mr Latta was opposed to the law change and voted no in the recent related referendum.

Mr Latta, Social Development Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes and Police Commissioner Howard Broad will conduct the review.

In a referendum the previous month, 87 percent of those who voted said no to the question: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

The review will look at procedures, including the referral process and identify any changes that are necessary or desirable.

The law as it stands bans smacking for the purposes of correction but the police have the discretion not to prosecute for inconsequential smacks.

Mr Latta said he did not believe that a parent smacking their child, in the common sense understanding of what that meant, should be subject to criminal investigation.

It will also “consider any other matters which, in the reviewers’ opinion, will assist in ensuring that parents are treated as Parliament intended”.

He intended to find out whether the law meant good parents were being subjected to investigations that were intrusive or traumatic.

The debate on the issue had become polarised with both sides reducing complex social and moral issues into simplistic extremes that had consumed time, energy and money, when everyone agreed children needed protection from abuse.

“I can understand that Mr Key wanted someone who believes (parents) should have the legal right to bring up their children using physical discipline,” she said on Radio New Zealand.

Green Party MP Sue Bradford, who drafted the law change that banned smacking, said she hoped Mr Latta would work with the team in a professional and unbiased way. .

“I do understand Mr Latta is a professional.

“Family First has been documenting substantive evidence of good families being investigated and prosecuted as a result of the law, and it is essential that Mr Latta meet these families and views the evidence,” said Family First’s national director Bob McCoskrie.”

The Family First organisation, which campaigned for parents’ right to smack their children, welcomed Mr Latta’s appointment but said it was concerned because he had said he was not going to meet any lobby groups.

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At least 15 people are dead and thousands were evacuated after a powerful earthquake rattled Indonesia’s main island, according to officials.

The 7.0 magnitude quake, as recorded by the US Geological Survey, shook buildings in the capital Jakarta and flattened homes in villages closer to the epicentre in West Java.

“Many houses are flattened to the ground,” said Edi Sapuan in Margamukti village, not far from Tasikmalaya.

The health ministry said it was sending medical teams to Tasikmalaya near the epicentre of the quake in West Java. Many villagers are injured, covered in blood. “Only the wooden houses remain standing.”

“We ran as soon as the quake hit.

The quake was felt as far away as Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, about 500 kilometres northeast of Tasikmalaya, and on the resort island of Bali, about 700km to the east. .

Hundreds of people sheltered in a military base in Tasikmalaya, fearing that the initial powerful quake would be followed by aftershocks, an official at the disaster management agency said.

At least 27 people were injured in Jakarta, a health ministry official said.

Local tsunami warnings were issued for coastal areas within several hundred kilometres of the epicentre soon after it struck, but were withdrawn about half an hour later.

Indonesia’s main power, oil and gas, steel, and mining companies with operations in West and Central Java island closest to the quake’s epicentre said they had not been affected and suffered no damage.

Indonesia’s seismology agency put the magnitude at 7.

Indonesia’s seismology agency put the magnitude at 7.

Residents in Jakarta reported buildings shaking, and thousands of people streamed onto the streets of the capital from office and apartment blocks. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a widespread tsunami. “It lasted quite long.

“The chandelier started moving and it started shaking really strong,” said Jakarta resident Victor Chan, who lives in a 34th floor apartment.”

“Everything was shaking and my neighbour shouted ‘quake, quake’,” said Nur Syara, from the 31st floor of the same building. I was really scared and rushed downstairs. I lay down on the floor. “You could hear the walls creaking.”

A witness in Tasikmalaya said several houses collapsed, including the mayor’s office, and a mosque was damaged. I was scared things would collapse.

“We were all studying and the building we were in started shaking for a few minutes and the ceiling fell,” said a man identifying himself as Evan.

“We were all studying and the building we were in started shaking for a few minutes and the ceiling fell,” said a man identifying himself as Evan.

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The four men accused of brutally attacking two young couples during a violent rampage in Auckland’s North Shore have pleaded guilty this afternoon.

Harlem Haynui Kirton, 19, Piri Valli Kirton, 18, Ruamoko Taiapa, 21, and Jono Wilson this afternoon entered guilty pleas on all charges on the second day of their trial at the Auckland District Court.

The four had been accused of aggravated robbery, intent to cause grievous bodily harm, wounding with intent and assault with intent to rob, the NZ Herald reported.

The mother of one of the accused, Kiriana Taiapa, also entered a guilty plea today to being an accessory after the fact.

The charges were related to events that occurred on the North Shore on January 15 last year when two couples were violently attacked. .

She had been accused of trying to dispose of 3 metal bars which were used during the attack.

Ms Taiapa was released on bail.

Ms Mandeno said their first victims were a young Russian couple, Dennis Khotchenko and Valeriya Nesterova, who were parked in a red Mercedes on the roadside near Milford Beach enjoying a beer.

As the trial opened in Auckland District Court yesterday, Crown prosecutor Sarah Mandeno said Harlem Kirton took his girlfriend to see the film American Gangster then met up with his brother and friends and went “cruising the streets of the North Shore, examining for trouble”. He then asked Mr Khotchenko if he had “ever met a real gangster”.

She said Wilson walked up to them, struck up a conversation and asked for a beer. “From there the nightmare unfolded,” Ms Mandeno said. Wilson then hit Mr Khotchenko around the head with a metal bar. The frenzied attack left Mr Khotchenko “dizzy and bloodied”. The frenzied attack left Mr Khotchenko “dizzy and bloodied”. On reaching the shore, she sought help from a resident. She eventually managed to escape by running into the water and swimming across an inlet. This time they attacked Oskar Carroll and Ericka Rancourt as they walked home after a night out.

Ms Mandeno said that two hours later the four men struck again.

. Both were badly hurt and could remember little from the attack, Ms Mandeno said

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Nine people, including five Italian tourists, have been killed after a small plane hit a helicopter over New York and both crashed into the Hudson River, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

He said there were five Italian tourists and a pilot aboard the helicopter and three people on the plane including the pilot and a child. Two bodies had been recovered but there was no hope of finding survivors. “There’s not going to be a happy ending.

“This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission,” Bloomberg said. Police divers started looking for survivors and wreckage.”

Search and rescue craft had rushed to the area in the vicinity of West 14th Street in Lower Manhattan immediately after the midair collision at noon (0400 NZT). The weather was clear and mild. Police had found one piece of wreckage in murky waters and the search for bodies and debris would probably continue for a few days.

Bloomberg said the plane, a Piper Saratoga, appeared to hit the back of the helicopter, which immediately broke up and fell into the river.

An eyewitness told the NY1 local TV station he saw a wing come off the plane around the time of the collision. . Others reported hearing a loud boom. The helicopter “fell like a stone” into the river, the witness said.

Chunks of debris also fell on the New Jersey side of the river, narrowly missing motorists.

Chunks of debris also fell on the New Jersey side of the river, narrowly missing motorists.

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. All aboard survived

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The swine flu virus is more contagious than previously thought and is spreading faster than the 1918 Spanish flu, according to new research published today.

The letter written by University of Otago, Wellington researchers and published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today said that every person who caught swine flu would pass it on to an average of about two other people, meaning up to 79 percent of the population could be affected.

Associate Professor Michael Baker and Dr Nick Wilson from the Department of Public Health worked with Holland-based mathematical modeller Dr Hiroshi Nishiura to give the first published estimate for the reproduction of the virus in the Southern Hemisphere.

The number of people each person who catches swine flu will subsequently infect is known as the reproductive number.96, which is somewhat higher than the number we have previously used in modelling estimates,” Mr Baker said.

“Our best estimate of the reproduction number for the Influenza A virus in New Zealand is 1.5 which was published early in the pandemic based on data from Mexico.

“To date we have tended to use a lower estimate of 1. While up to 79 percent of the population could catch swine flu over the course of the epidemic, many would not realise they had it, they said in the letter.”

The researchers calculated this by analysing the spread of the virus from 2 June, when the first case of community transmission was recorded, to 16 June, before health authorities stopped recording all cases due to the rapid growth.

Mr Baker said the higher prevalence in New Zealand could be to do with do with the virus hitting the Southern Hemisphere in winter and due to large clusters of infected people in other cases.

While up to 79 percent of the population could catch swine flu over the course of the epidemic though many would not realise they had it, they said in the letter.6 percent.

Previous reports published in Japan suggested the reproduction rate there could be as high as two to 2.

However, the projected rate here could be reviewed after a more accurate analysis of the demographic and if the public responded to measures to help restrict the spread of the virus, Dr Baker said.

However, the rate here could be lower if the public responded to measures to help restrict the spread of the virus, Dr Baker said. .

The researchers pointed out that although it was more contagious than Spanish flu which killed thousands, the mortality rate was still very low – an earlier study released by the pair said the number of deaths could be as low as one in 10,000 cases.