Two a penny

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Three Chinese tourists who were robbed at knife point are “stunned and shocked” after being duped into thinking they were doing a good deed.

The trio were robbed at knifepoint by two men whom they had stopped to help on the side of the road in the Far North around 3.

Detective Sergeant Trevor Beatson of the Kaitaia Tactical Response Group said the tourists had been hailed by two Maori men in a maroon coloured station wagon, who claimed they were lost.30pm yesterday.

The incident occurred on a stretch of gravel road which runs through Te Paki Reserves and farm land leading to Te Paki Stream and 90 Mile Beach, from State Highway 1F.

When they stopped to help, the tourists were set upon by the men who assaulted them, produced knives and then demanded money and property.

“They had come to New Zealand fully believing it was a safe place to holiday and now their holiday and impressions of our country have been shattered. .

They were driving a maroon or dark red coloured station wagon similar to a Subaru Legacy.”

The two men were Maori, believed to be in their 20′s and described as tall with strong physical builds.

Anyone with information should call 027 223 2628.

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Police are hunting burglars who beat a cat so severely during the course of the robbery that it had to be put down.

Senior Constable Bruce Bogun said a Hamilton family returned to their Albert St home to find that not only had they been robbed, but their cat was cowering in a cupboard so severely injured the vet decided it had to be euthanised.

The cat was discovered by the family’s 10-year-old daughter, Mr Bogun said.

“The cat also suffered serious internal injuries from being kicked, my daughter is very, very upset with it having to be put down.

“It appeared to be in a lot of pain and taking it to the vet we were told it had had its tail broken in three places and had a broken pelvis,” a family member told police. .”

Mr Bogun said that being burgled was stressful enough without having to deal with blatant animal cruelty.

Police said anyone with information should contact them on (07) 858 6200.

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New Zealand golfer David Smail was left fuming after his group was put on the clock mid round on day two of the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Minnesota.

Smail made it through to the opening two rounds in his maiden US PGA showing with scores of 75 and 73 for a four-over par tally and right on the halfway cut-off mark.

But while Smail was delighted with his efforts on the longest venue in Major’s history, he was far from pleased with the events that unfolded on the par five, third hole that he was playing as his 12th.

Smail’s effort makes amends after the 39-year old Hamilton player sat out the closing two rounds of this year’s US Open and British Open championships.

“I had hit a good drive down the middle but then my second shot then just ran off into the first cut of rough before I hit my third `fat’ that landed on the fourth tee,” he said.

Smail eventually walked away with a double bogey to drop back to four over par, but then hung on grimly to par his remaining six holes and ensure his place over the weekend.

“It was then a rules official came up to the group to say we were being put on the clock.

“I had no shot from there and managed to get it on the green.”

The player in question was 47-year old American Michael Miles, also competing in his first US PGA.

“But it’s just disturbing that a rules official should put us on the clock when one player in our group, and I am not naming names, but there was one guy in our group and he was the reason we were out of place and behind the group ahead.

Miles, who also qualified for June’s US Open, buckled under the weight of a second round 81 to miss the cut with a nine over par total.

Miles is the Assistant Professional at the Virginia Country Club course in Long Beach, California and qualified for the event after finishing tied 16th in the 2009 PGA Professional National Championship.

“But it’s just disappointing when one of your playing partners just doesn’t try to make the effort to catch up.

“We were slow and we were at least a hole behind, so we deserved to be on the clock,” Smail admitted.”

Smail went to the next tee fuming and it took the intervention of his wife, Sheree, who was walking with her husband, to defuse his anger. If he did, we wouldn’t have been on the clock, and we wouldn’t have to worry.

“But I found myself starting to rush my shots so it did take a while to settle down.

“I have always been a quick player and Sheree knows my game, and she was watching from the sidelines signalling to me to calm down,” Smail said.

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The New Zealand navy team trying to find the wreckage of the sunken Princess Ashika faces a “challenging environment” with depths of up to 800m, commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Andrew McMillan says.

A 15-strong team, comprising 12 drivers and a three-member remote search team, spent a second day today searching for the Tongan inter-island ferry, which sank on Wednesday with 149 people on board.Police say the final number of missing could be higher, and they were continuing to analyse information about unrecorded people on board the vessel, whose official manifest showed only 79 passengers and crew.Two bodies and 54 survivors have been found, while 93 people remain unaccounted for.However, nothing was found.

Mr McMillan said the team today focused on a 50-110m deep site where an oil slick and debris had been seen, and where the Tongan Defence Service’s echo sounder had appeared to detect an object. It ranges from 35m down to 110m down to 800m,” he said.”The topography of the seafloor is a very challenging environment here.”The New Zealand equipment had a limitation of 100m -”or, if we’re very lucky, 115m”.”You don’t have to travel very far and the depth can change very quickly.”But we’ll certainly do our best.”So with the topography, with the uncertainty of where the vessel has gone down, we have to face the realisation that we might not even be able to find it.Those members who remained in the capital Nuku’alofa tonight attended a multi-denominational remembrance service which attracted about 1000 people.”The team would spend tonight aboard Tongan patrol boat and resume their search tomorrow.Earlier he said a complete manifest was held by a crew member on the ferry when it sailed but that had been lost in the sinking.Tongan police commander Chris Kelley gave those there an update on the situation.Survivors have described how they saw the ferry hit by a 1m wave which swept the cargo to one side, resulting in the vessel to overturn.”What we are faced (with) is that people are telling us is they put people on the boat and they weren’t on the manifest that was supplied here,” he said.Mr Kelley said police and government support teams were visiting families throughout the kingdom “to try to confirm the exact number and identity of people on board”.”The ferry sank so quickly that no one was able to do anything, and I think the passengers inside just couldn’t make it out in time because the ferry just overturned and sank so quickly, in a minute,” survivor Viliami Latu Mohenoa said. .Efforts were also under way to identify foreign nationals among the passengers.

.”The two bodies recovered were of a British national who had been living in New Zealand and a Tongan woman

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Henry Louis Gates Jr, the pre-eminent African-American scholar, is accusing police of racism after he was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University.

Cambridge police were called to the home on Thursday afternoon (local time) after a woman reported seeing a man “wedging his shoulder into the front door as to pry the door open,” according to a police report.

An officer ordered the man to identify himself, and Gates refused, according to the report.”

Officers said they tried to calm down the 58-year-old academic, who responded, “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” according to the police report. Gates began calling the officer a racist and said repeatedly, “This is what happens to black men in America. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious “university professors” positions at the school.

Gates is the director of Harvard University’s WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and served for 15 years as chairman of what is now the Department of African and African American Research.

He also was host of African American Lives, a PBS show about the family histories of prominent US blacks.

Gates was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behaviour”. Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.

Gates referred comment to his lawyer, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, who was not immediately available. . The woman who reported Gates did not return a message on Monday. Cambridge police declined to comment, and the Middlesex district attorney’s office said it could not do so until after Gates’ arraignment.

Many of Gates’ African-American colleagues believe his arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge, said Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years.

Many of Gates’ African-American colleagues believe his arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge, said Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years.

“We do not believe that this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white,” Counter said. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.”

Counter said he spoke to Gates, who told him police continued to question him after he showed them his licence and Harvard identification. “It really has been very unsettling for African-Americans throughout Harvard and throughout Cambridge that this happened.

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Police found 5000 unissued hapu membership certificates and $40,000 in cash when they searched properties connected to Gerard Otimi, the man behind a scheme in which fake passports and visas were allegedly sold to overstayers.

Police also found certificates in people’s names, but were unable to say tonight how many.

Otimi was arrested today and will appear in Manukau District Court tomorrow on three charges of deception.

Under the scheme, people paid up to $500 for residency papers issued in the name of a Maori hapu.

Detective Inspector John Tims from Counties Manukau police said further charges could follow.

Mr Tims said three properties associated with Otimi were searched by police today. Overstayers, mainly from the Pacific Islands, were allegedly told the documents meant they could stay in New Zealand under the hapu’s protection. .

Police wanted to hear from anyone who had dealings with Otimi. He was unable to say how many signed certificates were found.

A colleague, Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini, said Otimi had been cooperative in his dealings with police.

“There are other people out there, who have given money or attempted to give money to Mr Otimi, and we would like to hear from those people,” he told Radio NZ.

The Immigration Advisers Authority said today it was investigating whether Otimi was giving immigration advice without a licence.

“He is very passionate and he believes in his cause,” Mr Pizzini said.

All immigration advisers need to be issued a licence to operate and those without one could be fined up to $100,000 and/or imprisoned for seven years.

All immigration advisers need to be issued a licence to operate and those without one could be fined up to $100,000 and/or imprisoned for seven years.

Licensed advisers were required to meet competency standards, participate in continuing professional development programmes and comply with a code of conduct. We are cooperating with the police who are leading the investigation,” the authority said.

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.Warwick Thornton – the Alice Springs-born director of a film being shown at the Cannes Film Festival – says the experience of meeting movie stars is “bizarre”.
Samson And Delilah is Thornton’s debut feature.
Thornton says the film got a standing ovation at its Saturday Cannes screening.
Through the eyes of two central Australian Aboriginal teenagers, it gives audiences a no holds barred look at the problems facing remote Indigenous communities – violence, substance abuse and poverty.
“This is where .
Ever since, he’s been surrounded by Lamborghinis, rubbing shoulders with superstars and dining in $10,000 a night hotels… And I’m here, and I just met Quentin Tarantino and I just met bloody Francis Ford Coppola. they have a dinner for all the directors. .”

.Crowds hoping to glimpse the stars on the Cannes festival’s red carpet got an eye-popping surprise as a team of nude Belgian cyclists paraded down the Riviera seafront. .
The comedy, which tells the story of a family of drunkard brothers, seen through a teenagers’ eyes, premiered Saturday at the Directors’ Fortnight, one of two high-profile sidebars to the main Cannes film festival.
-

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South Africa’s ruling ANC has won a sweeping election victory and party leader Jacob Zuma pledged that as president he would work with unions and business to ensure stability amid global turmoil.

“There will be no surprises in the next administration’s programme of action,” Zuma said in a victory speech.

“The electorate has endorsed our call for an equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth path that will bring decent work and sustainable livelihoods,” Zuma, who is due to be sworn in as president on May 9, said.9 percent of the vote, a big victory but just short of the two-thirds needed to ensure a parliamentary majority big enough to make constitutional changes unchallenged.

Official results of Wednesday’s election gave Zuma’s African National Congress 65. Despite some market concerns over whether the ANC would get the two-thirds majority, the party repeatedly has stressed it has no intention of changing the constitution.

The margin that would let the ANC change the constitution is largely symbolic.

Although a newly formed party of ANC dissidents failed to make a dramatic impact, the ruling party has seen its share of the vote fall for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Political analyst Steven Friedman said the result meant the ANC now had to worry more about the opposition than it had since the party took power 15 years ago. It won close toly 70 percent in 2004.

“The ANC has to worry more about the opposition now than it has had to do since democracy.

“The effect of them not getting the two-thirds, despite the euphoria, really underlines that there has been a drop in the ANC vote,” he said.

RECESSION THREAT

But Zuma has done all he can to emphasise that there will be no dramatic change, particularly as South Africa faces its first recession in 17 years as a result of the global financial crisis and cannot afford to discourage investment.”

Financial markets wary of a policy shift to the left under a Zuma presidency may welcome a limit on the party’s power. .

In his speech, he addressed both business interests and the leftist allies who helped his rise to power during eight years of struggling against corruption charges, which were dismissed early this month on a technicality.

Zuma, who said he was not disappointed that the ANC did not achieve a two-thirds majority, also called on South Africans to get over the divisions of the past. We will work with all stakeholders, especially business and labour, to find ways to prevent and cushion our people against job losses and other difficulties that may arise,” he said. We must enter a period in which South Africa reclaims its position and image as a thriving nation, which can overcome all its difficulties, and which is able to put the country first above sectional and party political interests.

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“It is now time to put it all behind us.

The Independent Electoral Commission said the ANC will be allocated 264 seats in South Africa’s 400-seat parliament after it won 11.”

He said South Africa will continue with its efforts to find lasting solutions for political stability in neighbouring Zimbabwe and other flashpoints in Africa.68 million valid votes cast in the April 22 election.65 million votes out of 17.

Zille’s DA was the ANC’s closest rival with 16.

The ANC also lost control of the Western Cape province, centre of the tourist industry, to the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Helen Zille, a white woman. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7.42 percent. The DA will get 67 seats in parliament and COPE 30.

Inkatha Freedom Party support waned to 4.56 percent, giving it 18 parliamentary seats, of the vote from 6.97 percent in 2004. The ANC also made inroads into the IFP’s traditional support base in KwaZulu-Natal province, home to South Africa’s Zulus — the biggest tribal group, of which Zuma is a member.

Electoral officials said the turnout was 77.3 percent, a little higher than in 2004.

The rand currency firmed well over 2 percent against the dollar to a new 6-1/2-month high late on Friday, aided by a strong euro and higher stocks as well as the smooth election.

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.

South Africa’s ruling ANC has won a sweeping election victory and party leader Jacob Zuma pledged that as president he would work with unions and business to ensure stability amid global turmoil.

“There will be no surprises in the next administration’s programme of action,” Zuma said in a victory speech.

“The electorate has endorsed our call for an equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth path that will bring decent work and sustainable livelihoods,” Zuma, who is due to be sworn in as president on May 9, said.9 percent of the vote, a big victory but just short of the two-thirds needed to ensure a parliamentary majority big enough to make constitutional changes unchallenged.

Official results of Wednesday’s election gave Zuma’s African National Congress 65. Despite some market concerns over whether the ANC would get the two-thirds majority, the party repeatedly has stressed it has no intention of changing the constitution.

The margin that would let the ANC change the constitution is largely symbolic.

Although a newly formed party of ANC dissidents failed to make a dramatic impact, the ruling party has seen its share of the vote fall for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Political analyst Steven Friedman said the result meant the ANC now had to worry more about the opposition than it had since the party took power 15 years ago. It won close toly 70 percent in 2004.

“The ANC has to worry more about the opposition now than it has had to do since democracy.

“The effect of them not getting the two-thirds, despite the euphoria, really underlines that there has been a drop in the ANC vote,” he said.

RECESSION THREAT

But Zuma has done all he can to emphasise that there will be no dramatic change, particularly as South Africa faces its first recession in 17 years as a result of the global financial crisis and cannot afford to discourage investment.”

Financial markets wary of a policy shift to the left under a Zuma presidency may welcome a limit on the party’s power. .

In his speech, he addressed both business interests and the leftist allies who helped his rise to power during eight years of struggling against corruption charges, which were dismissed early this month on a technicality.

Zuma, who said he was not disappointed that the ANC did not achieve a two-thirds majority, also called on South Africans to get over the divisions of the past. We will work with all stakeholders, especially business and labour, to find ways to prevent and cushion our people against job losses and other difficulties that may arise,” he said. We must enter a period in which South Africa reclaims its position and image as a thriving nation, which can overcome all its difficulties, and which is able to put the country first above sectional and party political interests.

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“It is now time to put it all behind us.

The Independent Electoral Commission said the ANC will be allocated 264 seats in South Africa’s 400-seat parliament after it won 11.”

He said South Africa will continue with its efforts to find lasting solutions for political stability in neighbouring Zimbabwe and other flashpoints in Africa.68 million valid votes cast in the April 22 election.65 million votes out of 17.

Zille’s DA was the ANC’s closest rival with 16.

The ANC also lost control of the Western Cape province, centre of the tourist industry, to the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Helen Zille, a white woman. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7.42 percent. The DA will get 67 seats in parliament and COPE 30.

Inkatha Freedom Party support waned to 4.56 percent, giving it 18 parliamentary seats, of the vote from 6.97 percent in 2004. The ANC also made inroads into the IFP’s traditional support base in KwaZulu-Natal province, home to South Africa’s Zulus — the biggest tribal group, of which Zuma is a member.

Electoral officials said the turnout was 77.3 percent, a little higher than in 2004.

The rand currency firmed well over 2 percent against the dollar to a new 6-1/2-month high late on Friday, aided by a strong euro and higher stocks as well as the smooth election.

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