Two a penny

.
Bar-crawl troops home in disgrace

– Sunday, 14 December 2008

Eight Kiwi soldiers have been sent home from East Timor in disgrace for being drunk on the job – including six who went on a bar crawl while on patrol.
The Burnham-based men, who all served time in military prison on their return, were caught drinking on the job in two separate incidents in September. Timor is a "dry mission", with soldiers banned from drinking at all times during their six-month rotation. They got drunk, swore at members of the public and drove their Pinzgauer light operational vehicle under the influence.
In the most serious incident, a section of uniformed soldiers, carrying Steyr rifles, abandoned a patrol of Dili in favour of a drinking session in two local bars and a cafe in a UN barracks.
Following a summary military trial, six of the eight were flown home early from their deployment, which had been scheduled to end last month, and were sentenced to between 12 and 27 days in Burnham's military prison. The army is understood to have been alerted to the incident through complaints from UN staff.
The section commander, a 25-year- old corporal, was found guilty of 12 offences, including drunkenness, acting in an unruly manner, supplying alcohol to subordinates, drinking in public with his rifle, drinking in the Pinzgauer, failing to carry out his duties and bringing the service into disrepute.
Two of the section did not drink during the bar crawl and were subsequently not sent home, although one of the abstainers, the section's second-in-command, was fined $500 for failing to report the incident. He was demoted two ranks to private, the most junior rank. The pair were also sent home in October and sentenced to 25 days at the Burnham military prison.
The bar crawl came several days after an unrelated incident in which two Kiwi privates were found drunk while they were supposed to be standing sentry in Dili. That the soldiers were sent home early and jailed "indicates how seriously we took it".
An army spokesman said the military had a "very strict policy with regards to the consumption of alcohol while on duty".
He said they were also financially penalised; the section commander's demotion would see a drop in his salary of $10,000-$15,000, and lost overseas service allowances would cost the other soldiers about $6000 each.
He said they were also financially penalised; the section commander's demotion would see a drop in his salary of $10,000-$15,000, and lost overseas service allowances would cost the other soldiers about $6000 each.
The army has had a permanent presence in East Timor since May 2006, with the sixth rotation of 150 troops going there last month.
None of the men has been named.
During the previous mission – 1999 to 2002 – troops were allowed four cans of beer a day when on leave. About 900 troops have served on the mission, which has always been dry. His body was found in the sea. One, Pte Boyd Atkins, 19, died in March 2001 after a drinking session in which he was estimated to have drunk 12 to 16 cans.
* March 2008: Six Linton-based soldiers sent home from Afghanistan for smoking hashish.
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
* October 2008: Eight Burnham-based soldiers sent home from East Timor for being drunk while they were supposed to be carrying out a patrol or standing sentry.
* September 2004: Private Nicholas Rangi, 21, dies of severe head injuries after falling down stairs at a Christchurch nightclub, at the end of a night that began with drinking at Burnham. .

.

.
Bar-crawl troops home in disgrace

– Sunday, 14 December 2008

Eight Kiwi soldiers have been sent home from East Timor in disgrace for being drunk on the job – including six who went on a bar crawl while on patrol.
The Burnham-based men, who all served time in military prison on their return, were caught drinking on the job in two separate incidents in September. Timor is a "dry mission", with soldiers banned from drinking at all times during their six-month rotation. They got drunk, swore at members of the public and drove their Pinzgauer light operational vehicle under the influence.
In the most serious incident, a section of uniformed soldiers, carrying Steyr rifles, abandoned a patrol of Dili in favour of a drinking session in two local bars and a cafe in a UN barracks.
Following a summary military trial, six of the eight were flown home early from their deployment, which had been scheduled to end last month, and were sentenced to between 12 and 27 days in Burnham's military prison. The army is understood to have been alerted to the incident through complaints from UN staff.
The section commander, a 25-year- old corporal, was found guilty of 12 offences, including drunkenness, acting in an unruly manner, supplying alcohol to subordinates, drinking in public with his rifle, drinking in the Pinzgauer, failing to carry out his duties and bringing the service into disrepute.
Two of the section did not drink during the bar crawl and were subsequently not sent home, although one of the abstainers, the section's second-in-command, was fined $500 for failing to report the incident. He was demoted two ranks to private, the most junior rank. The pair were also sent home in October and sentenced to 25 days at the Burnham military prison.
The bar crawl came several days after an unrelated incident in which two Kiwi privates were found drunk while they were supposed to be standing sentry in Dili. That the soldiers were sent home early and jailed "indicates how seriously we took it".
An army spokesman said the military had a "very strict policy with regards to the consumption of alcohol while on duty".
He said they were also financially penalised; the section commander's demotion would see a drop in his salary of $10,000-$15,000, and lost overseas service allowances would cost the other soldiers about $6000 each.
He said they were also financially penalised; the section commander's demotion would see a drop in his salary of $10,000-$15,000, and lost overseas service allowances would cost the other soldiers about $6000 each.
The army has had a permanent presence in East Timor since May 2006, with the sixth rotation of 150 troops going there last month.
None of the men has been named.
During the previous mission – 1999 to 2002 – troops were allowed four cans of beer a day when on leave. About 900 troops have served on the mission, which has always been dry. His body was found in the sea. One, Pte Boyd Atkins, 19, died in March 2001 after a drinking session in which he was estimated to have drunk 12 to 16 cans.
* March 2008: Six Linton-based soldiers sent home from Afghanistan for smoking hashish.
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
* October 2008: Eight Burnham-based soldiers sent home from East Timor for being drunk while they were supposed to be carrying out a patrol or standing sentry.
* September 2004: Private Nicholas Rangi, 21, dies of severe head injuries after falling down stairs at a Christchurch nightclub, at the end of a night that began with drinking at Burnham. .

.

.
Concern at relocated snails’ death rates

Friday, 28 November 2008

Death rates of rare snails released back into the wild north of Westport vary from about 17 per cent to 40 per cent, the Department of Conservation (DOC) says.
DOC collected more than 6000 snails from the Stockton opencast coalmine ridgeline between June 2006 and July 2007 before Solid Energy started mining up to $400 million worth of coal.
Conservancy advisory scientist Ingrid Gruner said 1800 snails remained in captivity, along with 225 which had hatched from eggs.
Mortality rates varied considerably between sites and different parts of the sites, Gruner said.
A total of 3913 had been released to the wild at two locations on the Stockton plateau, north of the original site, and on Mount Rochfort.
However, in the best area only 17. .5% of monitored snails were found dead in 17 months, she added.5% was within the natural mortality range.
Gruner said 40% mortality was more than would be expected in a natural population, while 17.
DOC's goal was to establish at least one self-sustaining population.
It was still early days to decide whether the relocation programme was successful.

.
Whether that could be achieved would not be known for several years

.
Two deaths at weekend parties

Monday, 17 November 2008

Police have begun investigating two separate suspicious deaths in Taumarunui and New Plymouth.
In the first, a 50-year-old man was found dead on Saturday morning after a party at a Taumarunui house.
Those at the party all knew each other.
Police spokeswoman Kim Perks said several people had stayed overnight at the Para St house and the dead man was found in the morning. .
The death was being treated as suspicious.
It appeared to have followed an altercation at a local party about midnight.
Police said the death, in the early hours of yesterday morning, was also being treated as suspicious.
"I just heard a man out of his tree," one neighbour said yesterday.
Residents in Squire Place were woken just after midnight. "The next thing I heard was a lady screaming and the next thing I know police had arrived."

.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Thursday he will meet the Dalai Lama next month during a visit to Poland.

The Dalai Lama is a distinguished man, a man who inspires profound respect and I will have the opportunity to see him in Poland on December 6, Sarkozy said.

During a visit to France in August, the Dalai Lama met Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, human rights minister Rama Yade and first lady Carla Bruni.

The Tibetan spiritual leader and Sarkozy will both be attending ceremonies in Poland to mark the 25th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Lech Walesa, the anti-communist union activist who later became president.

China maintains that a meeting with the Dalai Lama at an official level is tantamount to meddling in internal affairs.

But Sarkozy declined a meeting with the Buddhist leader after Beijing warned that such direct contact would have serious consequences for bilateral relations.

The Tibetans should not be subjected to repression and, like everyone else, they have a right to freedom, Sarkozy said at the Elysee palace.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking independence for Tibet but the exiled leader has said he is seeking autonomy and religious freedom, not secession.

One does not justify the other, of course.

But at the same time, should we sever contact with one billion three hundred million Chinese who have made unquestionable progress over the past decade? Sarkozy added. . But if we do not go to Beijing, if we do not discuss, if we do not share our concerns, if we do not progress step-by-step, then how will we ensure that the idea that we have of respect for rights and freedoms will prevail? he said.

But Sarkozy decided to attend the ceremony and has since sought to put relations on a stronger footing.

Dalai Lama – Nicolas Sarkozy – Poland

.
Uproar as drink drive ex-cop avoids jail

Wednesday, 17 September 2008

A district court judge was jeered today after passing a non-custodial sentence on a former policeman over a horror accident in Waikato more than two years ago.
Judge Anne Kiernan in Auckland District Court sentenced Jason Connell Peters to 12 months' home detention, banned him from driving for two years and ordered him to pay $29,000 reparation.
Mrs Davies stood in front of Peters as he sat in the dock to read her victim impact statement, but was told by the judge to stand further back in the body of the court.
He had earlier admitted three charges of careless driving causing injury and his third drink driving charge, relating to an accident at Maramarua on the Hauraki Plans on May 12, 2006, which injured several people and left one woman, Michelle Davies, fighting for her life.
Moments later as the judge left the court following the sentencing, Mrs Davies yelled she was "absolutely appalled" at the home detention.
"What a joke," Mrs Davies said."
Mrs Davies had struggled to hold her emotions in check as she told the court how the crash had changed her life and her family's life forever.
To members of the Peters family supporting him on the other side of the public gallery, she said: "Shame on you.
The court heard that the accident happened while Peters was driving from a corporate event where he had been drinking.
She said it happened two weeks after she and her husband Greg had got married and just after they had returned from their honeymoon.
He then pulled out in front of oncoming traffic, hitting the Davies' car virtually head on.
His erratic driving forced other cars to take evasive action as he passed on blind corners and overtook other vehicles through an intersection.
As help arrived Peters ran off and was later spotted by a police helicopter hiding behind a tree 900 metres away.
Mrs Davies was trapped for 45 minutes and her husband, Greg, and six-year-old daughter thought she was dead.
Her family was told she would die.
Mrs Davies told the court she had broken bones, and brain and head injuries.
She was once a fit and agile woman who ran her own interior design business but now she had to sleep twice a day and was sluggish, slow and clumsy.
She recovered slowly and painfully but more than two years later she said she "never felt awake"."
She said her husband suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome from watching his wife struggle for her life straight after their wedding.
"Every day I struggle to do things that were once easy.
Greg Davies' voice also cracked as he told the court of the emotional turmoil the family had endured.
She said she and her family took "very little sense of sincerity" from a letter of apology from Peters. Our loss is immeasurable," he told the court.
"Our lives will never be the same.
She would open her eyes but see nothing and there were months of unintelligible speech.
She would open her eyes but see nothing and there were months of unintelligible speech.
"I remember the day she said 'Dad, I know I have been talking nonsense, you won't let me get away with it will you?' It was real milestone."
The court heard Peters, a policeman for 10 years, had been convicted of drink driving in 1998 and 2003.
His lawyer Paul Davison QC said Peters' apology was sincere but, for legal reasons, could not be made earlier.
When he left the scene he was injured and stunned, Mr Davison said.
"No, he was drunk," interjected a supporter of the Davies family.
Mr Davison said Peters fully accepted responsibility for the accident and profoundly regretted it.
Judge Kiernan ordered Peters to pay $25,000 he had offered in reparation and a further $3764 to two insurance companies.
He was not to leave his home, drink alcohol or take drugs and has do an assessment for alcohol abuse.
-