Two a penny

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REUTERS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday he understood the anger over the arrest of a journalist, distancing himself from two ministers who had defended the justice system over the affair.

Vittorio de Filippis was arrested at dawn on Friday on the orders of a French judge investigating allegations of defamation involving comments posted by a reader on the website of the journalist’s newspaper, Liberation.

He said a policeman who arrested him in front of his children had called him worse than scum.

Filippis was a senior editor at the paper in 2006 when the offending comment was posted and is therefore held responsible under French law for the libel charges.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and Justice Minister Rachida Dati both defended the arrest on Monday and said legal authorities had followed normal procedures. He was handcuffed and strip-searched twice before being questioned by a judge then released.

With passions rising, Sarkozy tried to ease tensions. .

The president understands the emotions caused by the execution of a judicial warrant in a case of defamation, his office said in a statement. He said he wanted to change the law and decriminalise defamation, thereby removing the threat of arrest and imprisonment.

The defamation case against Liberation newspaper was lodged by a French businessman who has already lost two other libel actions against it.

He said he had already asked experts to review libel laws, adding that the legislation might change next year. Justice Minister Dati said he had not responded to three separate summons to talk to the judge.

Liberation editors said they had been willing to meet judge Muriel Josie to discuss the allegations and that there had been no need to haul in Filippis.

France – Nicolas Sarkozy

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Minister sinks varsity fee bid

Thursday, 27 November 2008

Education Minister Anne Tolley has rejected an attempt by universities to seize control of student fees, and is asking them to tighten their belts.
According to a proposal released yesterday, the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee wants the Government to raise its funding of $1. .149 billion by $230 million a year.
"We have five law schools. "It's nonsense for the Government to be controlling fees."
Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh said they believed they would set student fees responsibly, so fears that "we're going to be gouging outrageous fees out of students would not be warranted". Those students should be paying a hell of a lot more than people who are going to do a history degree, as a result of the difference in lifetime earnings.
"We don't want the fees to go up at all.
The National Government had inherited a policy which prevented fees rising by more than five per cent a year, a policy Ms Tolley said she would not change.
But the Government would look at ways to trim red tape to find more money for universities before the next Budget. They're going to have to cut their costs really," she said. Any funds we can release . "We believe the bureaucracy is too great…"
Mr Fletcher said because universities were putting off maintenance on their buildings, they risked losing students and teaching staff to "across the ditch". we'll certainly put back into frontline services as soon as we can. I mean it's Dickensian.
"You go into the Auckland medical school building and have a look."
Derek McCormack, Auckland University of Technology's vice-chancellor, said the present situation was untenable "when the Government says it cannot fund any more and it won't allow students to pay higher fees. It is an absolute disgrace."
Ms Tolley said the vice-chancellors' committee's report was a starting point for talks early next year. You can't shut both doors and expect universities to maintain their standards…. to look at ways of paring back some of the compliance costs which put economic pressure on those institutions."

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Police neglected to question dying Christchurch man

– Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Police admit they should have interviewed a dying Christchurch man who had possibly been pushed from the second storey of a state housing complex.
Sydney Boyd, 65, was found on May 23, 2006, under the smashed window of one of the units in a Housing New Zealand complex in Riccarton Road where he lived.
Yesterday, regional Coroner Richard McElrea held an inquest into Boyd's death, which police had classified as suspicious. He died in Christchurch Hospital's intensive care unit on June 30.
The Coroner asked the police officer in charge of the case, Detective Geoffrey Ruddock, why Boyd was not interviewed during his almost month-long stay in hospital.
Police counsel Anna MacGougan told the inquest that several suspects had been interviewed by police a number of times, but no arrests had been made and police could not categorically say Boyd was pushed through the window.
"I probably should have gone to see him in ICU (the intensive care unit), but I didn't.
"I was always of the opinion Sydney Boyd was going to get better," Ruddock said."
Ruddock said it was unlikely anyone would be charged over Boyd's death, which he believed was not an accident. I have had to live with that.
Some residents in the block Boyd was visiting told police that he had argued with a third resident, who cannot be named, as he was walking up the stairs.
It was believed Boyd was on his way to have a "cup of tea" with another resident, who cannot be named because of court suppression orders, when he went through the window, Ruddock said.
Several residents gave evidence at the inquest of hearing Boyd arguing with a man on a stairwell, but none saw Boyd going through the window.
The dispute was allegedly over the resident running a power cord from the communal laundry into his house, which Boyd disagreed with, Ruddock said. Boyd required a tracheostomy as a result of the fall. .
Dr David Bowie, an intensive-care specialist who cared for Boyd, said that during his stay Boyd was variously in a coma, confused, unresponsive or coherent.
Sage said there was no error in the treatment of Boyd by hospital staff.
During one session with a social worker, Boyd was able to indicate he wanted his sister to take care of his financial situation while he was in hospital, Bowie said.
During the first five days of his stay, staff did not believe Boyd would survive, he said.
However, she felt the police had done a great job under difficult circumstances.
Outside the court, Boyd's sister, Carol Boyd, said she was disappointed that the police did not interview her brother in hospital, despite asking them to several times.
"Sometimes I think, the bastards, the bastards, the bastards.
She believed her brother, who was a Christian, had been pushed and the person who deserved scorn was the person who had done this and not owned up. Then I calm down and realise that they had to live with what they have done, and that must be pretty bad," she said. Then I calm down and realise that they had to live with what they have done, and that must be pretty bad," she said.
The Coroner reserved his findings.

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Bold crime fighting initiative

By MICHAEL FOX – Monday, 24 November 2008

WRIT LARGE: Police have hailed a business owner’s use of a billboard to track down a thief as a great example of the police and the community working together.

Police are appealing for help from the public tofind a man accused of stealing$5000 worth of transformers from an Auckland business.
Police said the owner of the transformers had taken the matter into his own hands and published the man's picture on billboards throughout the city in an attempt to identify him.
The man is believed to have stolen 15 transformers attached to a neon sign in Auckland's CBD.
Sergeant Roy Simpson said a witness to the theft had taken the photos and supplied them to police.
He is also offering a $500 reward for information.
"This is a classic example of how the community and police can, and do, work together to detect and resolve crime.
"The photographer has been able to provide excellent evidence and it's only a matter of time before the man in the photo is identified," he said.

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Police have asked anyone with information to contact them on 09 302 6483

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View our special coverage: ‘Desperately seeking top Socialist’

Watch our reports:
‘Socialist Left factions in dire straits in Paris’

‘Grassroots militants pick S&eacutegol&egravene Royal – again’

Paris mayor Betrand Delano&euml has called Socialist party militants to vote for his rival Martine Aubry during Thursday election to choose the party new leader. On Sunday, the race former front runner had announced he was stepping down, but withheld from giving his supporters voting instructions, a sure sign the bitter climate that plagued the weekend negotiations between himself and the former employment minister. He claims that the very identity of the Socialist party is at stake, adding that militants have a huge responsibility to elect the right person.

In a letter addressed to all socialist militants in the aftermath of the party annual congress in Reims, Delano&euml wrote that he had made up his mind to support Aubry candidacy and called to vote massively in her favour. 6, Bertrand Delano&euml proposed motion came in second, behind that led by former presidential candidate S&eacutegol&egravene Royal.

When party members first voted on Nov.

Despite her relative popularity among grassroots militants, Royal is detested by other leading figures in the party and found herself isolated after the initial vote. The motion led by Lille mayor Martine Aubry came in a close third.

Bertrand Delanoë – French politics – Martine Aubry
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Also read : Week of strikes set to disturb public services

By Air

Air France pilots are on strike from 12am (00h) on Friday Nov. 14 to 12pm (24h) on Monday Nov.

Between 65% and 70% of international flights departing from Paris are expected to operate normally on Monday. 17 to protest the extension of their profession legal retirement age from 60 to 65.airfrance. To check if your flight is maintained or cancelled, see www. Cancelled flights are usually reported the day before their scheduled date at 8pm, but there are risks of surprise cancellations at the last minute.fr section Book online/ Flight status .
Strike N.

A special Air France information number is available for additional information:
From France: 0800 240260
From overseas: +33157 02 10 55

By Rail

Two consecutive strikes will disrupt service at the SNCF, France national railway company, with 7 out of 8 railway unions mobilized against plans to increase the maximum number of consecutive driving hours and night shifts. 18 at 8pm, lasts 48 hours
Strike N. 1: begins Tuesday Nov. 23 at 8pm, duration not specified

The percentage of cancelled or delayed trains has not been specified yet. 2 : begins Sunday, Nov. . For more information, or to confirm if a specific train has been cancelled or maintained, consult the SNCF traffic information site InfoLignes .com .transilien. Follow them’s coverage tomorrow for live updates.
Union leaders have announced that the strikes may be postponed or cancelled if negotiations currently underway give workers satisfactory guarantees. However, dense traffic jams can be foreseen in Paris and most major cities as tens of thousands of protesting civil servants are expected to march on Thursday 20th (state school teacher strike) and Saturday 22nd (post office worker strike).

By Road

No disturbances are expected along France highway network.Covoiturage.

If your inter-city train has been cancelled, check out some of these car-sharing sites to catch a ride with drivers heading the same way as you : www.Covoiturage.Covoiturage.com , www.123envoiture.fr .

Schools

School children can expect a day off on Thursday as teachers demonstrate against planned job cuts in most major French cities. A recent law makes it compulsory for schools to at least take in and look after pupils whose parents cannot find alternative day-care solutions, but not all towns have implemented the practice. Check with your child school before turning to one of several existing baby-sitting sites : http://www.yoopala.com/ , http://www.123babysitter.com/ .

Other strikes

Postal workers, unemployment bureau (ANPE) officers, telecom workers and public television journalists will also be on strike on Saturday, and should take part in protests against a wide array of President Sarkozy’s reforms in Paris and other major cities.

Airfrance – Strike – train – Working in France

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Rwanda is poised to issue indictments and arrest warrants against 23 French military and political officials over their suspected role in the country’s 1994 genocide, judicial sources said Tuesday.

Indictments against France’s late president Francois Mitterrand and former prime minister Dominique de Villepin among others would mark a new step in the judicial escalation between the two countries.

The threat of warrants against top French officials — several of whom are still active — came as hundreds demonstrated in Kigali against the arrest by Germany, acting on a French warrant, of a top aide to the Rwandan president.

Rwandan prosecutors had spent the past three months examining a 500-page report drafted by a special commission tasked with probing France’s role in the genocide and released on August 5 by the justice ministry.

The indictments are being finalised, the arrest warrants can be issued any time from now, a senior Rwandan justice official told on condition of anonymity.

Dominique de Villepin, who was then Juppe’s top aide and later became prime minister, was also among those listed in the Rwandan report.

It names former French prime minister Edouard Balladur, former foreign minister Alain Juppe and then-president Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996, among 13 French politicians accused of playing a role in the massacres.

It also names 20 military officials, involved notably in Operation Turquoise, a 1994 French military mission to Rwanda which Kigali charges was used to assist Hutu genocide perpetrators.

The 1994 genocide in the central African nation left some 800,000 people dead — mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus — according to the United Nations.

The justice official speaking to Tuesday did not specify who were the 23 officials facing indictment.

France, which has admitted to making mistakes in Rwanda but denied any direct responsibility for the massacres, had called the report unacceptable.

The report alleges that France was aware of preparations for the genocide, contributed to planning and actively took part in the massacres.

On Monday, several thousands demonstrators marched to the German embassy in Kigali and the offices of the Deutsche Welle, Germany’s national broadcaster.

The arrest in Frankfurt on Sunday of Rose Kabuye, Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s chief of protocol, had sparked the ire of the Rwanda’s authorities, who called for a series of protests.

On Tuesday, around a thousand youths demonstrated in front of the French cultural centre in Kigali, which has been closed since Rwanda broke diplomatic ties with France in November 2006.

On Tuesday, around a thousand youths demonstrated in front of the French cultural centre in Kigali, which has been closed since Rwanda broke diplomatic ties with France in November 2006.

The assassination of the Hutu president is widely seen as the spark that set the divided country ablaze and triggered the genocide.

French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued warrants in 2006 against nine members of Kagame’s entourage suspected of having a hand in the attack that brought down then Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane in 1994.

Felicien Kabuga, one of the most wanted men in Africa, is accused of being one of the genocide’s main financiers.

Kagame’s Tutsi regime has retorted that France could be largely blamed for the massacres and complained that Paris and other European capitals were seeking to prosecute the victims rather than the perpetrators.

France – genocide – Rwanda
. After hiding in Kenya for years, he is thought to have been moving between several European countries in recent years

.Final preparations are taking place in Europe for commemorations to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. .
Ms Bryce met Mr Sarkozy in Paris a short while ago.
There will also be ceremonies in Paris, London and many small communities throughout Europe including Villiers Brettoneux at the Australian memorial in northern France.
She will be in Verdun for the main service along with leaders from many other countries.
Meanwhile, Veterans’ Affairs Minister Alan Griffin will mark Remembrance Day by reading the ode at Ypres in Belgium.
Several thousand people are expected at the war cemetery for the anniversary of the end of the Great War.
“It was a place where there were a number of extremely bloody battles where Australians lost many lives,” he said.”

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“It was also the scene of one of the signature battles of World War I, Passchendaele, which really encapsulated the mud and the horror of what occurred during that war

.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has congratulated US President-elect Barack Obama on his election win and paid tribute to Republican candidate John McCain.
Mr Rudd says he will soon telephone Mr Obama.
“Australia looks forward to working in the closest possible way, in the closest possible partnership with an Obama administration, acting together to deal with the great common challenges we face as democracies,” he said.
“The world at present is in part fearful for its future.
“He has delivered to the world and to his country a very good message of hope,” he said.”
Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has also warmly congratulated the new US leader and says he looks forward to working with him after his inauguration. This is I believe a great day for the American democracy and let us celebrate this day with our friends in America.
Mr Turnbull says the victory proves that America is able to rise above issues about diversity to elect its first black president.
“What it shows you is that a country that has witnessed terrible racism, terrible intolerance, terrible friction can nonetheless rise above that and choose somebody based not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character.
“Our diversity is our strength and that is the great wonder about Barack Obama’s election,” he said.”
“Senator Obama will be taking office at a critical juncture.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says her Government “very much looks forward to working with the new Obama administration.
“We look forward to working closely with President-elect Obama and his team to address these challenges. There are many pressing challenges facing the international community, including the global financial crisis and global warming,” she said.”
– England and France –
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated the new US leader, hailing his “energising politics.”
– England and France –
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated the new US leader, hailing his “energising politics. his progressive values and his vision for the future”..
“The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is vital to our prosperity and security.
“I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Barack Obama on winning the presidency of the United States,” he said in a statement…”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: “With the world in turmoil and doubt, the American people, faithful to the values that have always defined America’s identity, have expressed with force their faith in progress and the future. Barack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future. France and Europe .
“At a time when we must face huge challenges together, your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond… will find a new energy to work with America to persevere peace and world prosperity.”
– Middle East –
Israeli-US relations face “a bright future,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Ygal Palmor said in reaction to President-elect Obama’s election to the White House.
“Israelis congratulate the two great friends of Israel, John McCain for his great campaign, Barack Obama for his historic victory,” he said.
“We are certain the Israeli-American friendship faces a bright future.”
A statement from the Pakistani embassy in Washington said: “President [Asif Ali] Zardari expressed the hope that Pakistan-US relations will be enhanced under the new American leadership that received a popular mandate in [the] poll.”
– China –
China’s President Hu Jintao congratulated President-elect Obama on his victory, saying he hoped bilateral ties could be raised to a new level, the foreign ministry said.
“In a new historical era, I look forward to… taking our bilateral relationship of constructive cooperation to a new level,” Mr Hu said in a written message, according to a statement on the foreign ministry’s website.
– Canada –
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: “I look forward to meeting with the President-elect so that we can continue to strengthen the special bond that exists between Canada and the United States.
“In the weeks and months ahead Canadian officials and diplomats will be working closely with members of President-elect Obama’s transition team. Ministers in our government look forward to building a strong working relationship with their counterparts in a new Obama cabinet.”
– Japan –
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso also congratulated him on his victory, pledging to work with the new leader to strengthen relations.
“I wish to strive to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance and solve various problems in the international community as a whole in cooperation with the next President Obama,” Mr Aso said in a statement, expressing his “sincere congratulations.”
– Afghanistan –
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the election took the world into a “new era.”
“The election of Senator Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States has taken the American people and the rest of the world with them into a new era – an era where race, colour and ethnicity, I hope, will also disappear… in politics in the rest of the world,” he said.
– Philippines –
The Philippines has also sent their best wishes.
“We wish to express our profound congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama for his historical and stellar win as the 44th President of the United States,” President Gloria Arroyo’s spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement. .
“America has always been the bastion of democracy and the world has always looked to the USA for direction. Obama has promised change and the American people and the world await these changes,” she added.
“We look forward to greater cooperation between the USA and the Philippines, the Democrats have always been good allies,” she added.
– Indonesia –
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono welcomed Mr Obama’s election, saying he hoped the change in leadership would help solve the global economic crisis.
“I want to congratulate Senator Obama for his success in being elected as US President. I also want to congratulate US citizens,” he said in a speech broadcast on national radio.
“Indonesia hopes that the US will continue to play a role in bringing peace and security in the world and a fair global economy.
“In particular, Indonesia hopes the US can take concrete measures to settle the global economic crisis and the financial crisis in the United States.”
– AFP/ABC

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Drivers ‘left brains at home’ in traffic sting

Saturday, 01 November 2008

Don Scott
BAD CORNER: Sergeant Peter Daly stands at Christchurch’s worst intersection, Manchester Street and Bealey Avenue.

Motorists drive like they "have left their brains at home", police say after a 90-minute operation yesterday that caught dozens of people breaking the law.30am and 9am.
Sergeant Peter Daly said police prosecuted 38 motorists after targeting Christchurch's worst intersection, at Manchester Street and Bealey Avenue, between 7.
"We do an intersection operation in the morning, then in the afternoon to try to coincide with high volumes of traffic.
Offences ranged from running red and amber traffic lights to failing to wear seatbelts and intersection-blocking. . The crashes are related to traffic flow problems," he said."
Phasing arrows could potentially reduce crashes at the intersection, he said.
"It is no wonder that intersection is a black spot, given the driving behaviour there.
"Drivers can expect little sympathy when stopped for crash-promoting offences as police are committed to reducing injuries and the road toll," he said.
The Intersection Safety Team, which ran the operation, was funded by a recent Government initiative that would continue to focus on high-risk intersections and high-risk driving, Daly said.