Two a penny

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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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US President Barack Obama has called North Korea’s rocket launch “provocative” and a clear violation of UN Security Council rules.

“I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the UN Security Council,” the President said as the council approved an emergency session today to deal with North Korea’s rocket launch.

Obama called North Korea’s latest act a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind.

North Korea will not find acceptance in the international community “unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,” Obama said.

“North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint and further isolated itself from the community of nations,” Obama said. The Security Council adopted the 2006 resolution five days after North Korea conducted a test of a nuclear weapon.

The State Department in Washington said North Korea launched a rocket at 10:30 pm EDT Saturday (1430 NZT).

The president’s statement came from Prague, the Czech Republic, where the president was to make a speech Sunday on nuclear proliferation.

North Korea says this and all Taepo-dong missiles are space-launch vehicles for satellites, though satellite and missile technologies are considered interchangeable.

Obama identified the rocket as a Taepo-dong 2 missile, a three-stage rocket with potential range of more than 6600 kilometers. .

The United States will take “appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it cannot threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity,” said State Department spokesperson Fred Lash.

“It is alarming that North Korea carried out this missile launch in direct defiance of the international community,” said the California Democrat.

Republican Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the launch would raise tensions unnecessarily.”

North Korea had informed international authorities that it planned to launch a rocket sometime between Saturday and Wednesday to put a satellite into orbit. “The test is an unnecessary provocation that raises tensions in the region, and I urge the North Koreans to stop using their missile and WMD programs to threaten their neighbors and the rest of the world.

But the US, South Korea, Japan and others suspect it is a cover for testing a long-range missile for the North, which has nuclear weapons. In Japan, chief Cabinet spokesperson Takeo Kawamura said it was not immediately clear if the rocket was mounted with a satellite as North Korea has claimed.

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They fear such a test could be a first step toward putting a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of reaching Alaska and beyond. Leaders from those countries had warned Pyongyang not to proceed with the planned rocket launch.

“These actions place additional strains on regional stability at a time when the unresolved nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula requires mutual confidence-building,” the Czech EU presidency said in a statement.

EUROPEAN CONDEMNATION

The European Union has strongly condemned North Korea’s action.

– AP,

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It called on Korea to “immediately suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile programme and abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner”

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A downpour that forced people to leave their flooded Greymouth properties was too much for the town’s drainage systems, Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.

Torrential rain over parts of the South Island has seen high-flow warnings issued for the Waiau, Waimakariri, Rakaia and Rangitata rivers.

In Greymouth, a town used to heavy downpours, many were unconcerned as deafening rain clattered on the streets on Monday night.

“We heard the terrific rain, and (the water) was oozing in the walls and all through the ground level,” Crystal Heslip, 72, said. However, that soon changed as water flowed into homes on the corner of Murray and Alexander streets.

After spending a night with relatives and friends or in a close toby motel, most returned to their undamaged homes yesterday.

Heslip and her husband, Des, 75, were two of about 11 people evacuated from their homes after 9pm. However, the Heslips were not so lucky, with about 20 centimetres of water soaking their carpets and furniture.

About four people are now staying in Housing Corporation accommodation.

“They said it could be up to two months before we can go back, but there’s no use worrying about it,” Crystal Heslip said.

Revingtons Hotel proprietor Therese Gibbens said kitchen staff became aware of a problem when water rose around their feet.

Businesses also began counting the cost of the damage yesterday.

Chris Blanchfield described damage to one of his properties, rented to Inland Revenue, as disastrous.

“We want to know why the pumps did not get rid of the stormwater, because that’s what they are designed to do,” Gibbens said.

Blanchfields Bakery, which he co-owns, was also flooded.

Blanchfields Bakery, which he co-owns, was also flooded. . There were cars racing up and down the street thinking it was great fun.

“There just seemed to be a lack of procedure for the town in this type of emergency. “We all want to know what time the pumps were turned on.

“We get these weather bombs from time to time that just drop massive amounts of rain that no pipes you could put in could cope with,” he said.”

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Kokshoorn said the rain, which fell at a rate of 41 millimetres an hour, had been too much for drainage and pipe systems.

The worst-hit Rangitata River peaked overnight Monday with a flow of up to 1200 cubic metres a second (cumecs) at the gorge, about 15 times its average flow.

“Our staff have assured me all the pumps came on at the right time, as they are automatically triggered.30am yesterday.

Rising water forced the closure of the old Waimakariri Bridge from 7.

– and MARC GREENHILL,

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A helicopter has airlifted nine trampers to safety after they were trapped by bad weather in Mount Aspiring National park.

One party of six trampers, believed to be from the North Island, set off an emergency locator beacon in the upper reaches of the Dart River last night.

A Queenstown police spokeswoman said the six had been joined by three other trampers, and it was decided to fly all nine out.

Bad weather and poor visibility prevented a helicopter getting to them last night, but a helicopter reached them earlier today.

She was unable to give any more details of who was in the tramping parties, other than that they were cold and wet, but otherwise well.

Rivers were high in the area and more bad weather was forecast.

His whereabouts were unknown and investigations would continue today.

Another tramper, understood to be Dutchman Philip De Lange, 43, was also unaccounted for on the Rees-Dart Track and had not been heard from since last Tuesday, Senior Sergeant John Fookes said.

More than 170 trampers were transported by helicopter across flood-prone parts of the Milford Track after river levels rose 3.

WEATHER CHAOS

Torrential rain caused havoc for trampers in the Fiordland National Park yesterday.

Conservation Department Fiordland tracks ranger Ken Bradley said yesterday afternoon 235mm of rain had fallen at Dumpling Hut since 4 o’clock that morning.8m during a deluge of rain.8m above normal by mid-afternoon, forcing DOC to call in three helicopters to airlift stranded guided and freedom trampers across the most flood-prone sections of the track.

The Arthur River had risen 3.

The groups were a mixture of overseas and Kiwi trampers. .

However, with a severe weather warning in place and a southerly front expected to bring snow to the passes by tomorrow, trampers were being advised to check forecasts carefully.

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DOC Queenstown regional visitor centre supervisor Andrew Evans said there were no problems yesterday on the Routeburn or surrounding tracks.

“The rivers are likely to be very high this evening.

He advised trampers to avoid the Rees Dart because of the many river crossings and also the Greenstone Caples tracks with high river levels likely to make access impassable.”

– By SUE FEA and EVAN HARDING, , with

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Finger cut off over $170 and Fairmont car

Thursday, 26 February 2009

Two men have admitted cutting part of a flatmate's finger off over a dispute about $170 and a 1976 Ford Fairmont.
Roger Johnson, 46, and Shayne Fryer, 37, both unemployed of Waipukurau, appeared in Napier District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to maiming with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Lee Walter. The court was told Johnson and Fryer had been drinking large quantities of alcohol when they woke Mr Walter at 1.
Mr Walter, 49, had been staying at the men's house for a few days. They bailed him up in a corner of the living room while Fryer threatened him with a 30-centimetre-long butcher's knife.30am on October 2 last year.
While Fryer discussed where he was going to cut Mr Walter, Johnson told him to cut his little finger off and grabbed the knife from Fryer.
Mr Walter said he was going to give Fryer his Ford Fairmont car and $170 cash for letting him stay at his house, but he had been unable to raise the cash. . He demanded Mr Walter hold out the little finger on his left hand.
"I thought they were joking at first but I started getting worried when they started talking about which part of me they were going to cut off.
Fryer forced Mr Walter's hand on to a mantelpiece and Johnson severed the finger at the knuckle closest to the fingertip.
He walked from the room, covered his bleeding finger with a towel and asked Johnson for his finger back. He cut my finger off, said, `The car's mine, pay the rent tomorrow or else,"' Mr Walter said. Mr Walter waited in the house a short while then sneaked out and sought help at a close toby service station. Johnson laughed, then handed it to him.
"It's a lot shorter than it was before. An ambulance took him to hospital but attempts to reattach the finger were unsuccessful. I get pain in it now and again. I can't play guitar any more. The car, which remains in Mr Walter's possession, was worth less than $500, he said. It's just not the same," Mr Walter said. Fryer, a sentenced prisoner, will appear on the same day.
Johnson was remanded in custody for sentencing in May.

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Mermaid dream comes true thanks to Weta

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

STEVE UNWIN
WHAT A TALE: Auckland woman, Nadya Vessey wrote to Weta Workshop in Wellington asking if they would help her realise a life long dream and make her a fully functional mermaid tail so she could swim.

Nadya Vessey lost her legs as a child but now she swims like a mermaid. .
She lost both legs below the knee from a medical condition when she was a child and told Close Up last night her long-held dream had come true. She was astounded when they agreed.
Ms Vessey told a little boy: "I'm a little mermaid" when he asked what happened to her legs and the idea stuck. "A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it and you have to mentally make it part of yourself," she said.
Weta Workshop director Richard Taylor, more used to winning Oscars for visual effects from movies such as Lord of the Rings, was delighted to make it happen. We haven't always been able to fulfil some requests.
"She was very patient."
Weta costumer Lee Williams, who worked on the suit between film projects with seven other staff, told Close Up she "wanted [Nadya] to be beautiful and sexy". We were engaged in it pretty quickly because it was a challenge. "It was absolutely amazing.
After seeing Ms Vessey test the tail in Kilbirnie pool then frolic in the harbour, Ms Williams was stoked. It's beautiful to watch Nadya swim and to see that dream come true and to be a part of that. It's beautiful to watch Nadya swim and to see that dream come true and to be a part of that. Mermaid-like scales were painted by hand."
The suit was made mostly of wetsuit fabric and plastic moulds, and was covered in a digitally printed sock. "What became apparent was that she actually physically wanted to look like a mermaid.
Mr Taylor said not only did the tail have to be functional, it was important it looked realistic."

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Economic crisis keeps Kiwis close to home

By KATHERINE NEWTON Thursday, 05 February 2009

Kiwis who might once have headed overseas in search of work or play are hunkering down to weather the economic storm at home instead.
Overseas visitors have no such qualms yet, with 322,200 short-term visitors arriving last December a record for any month.
The number of Kiwis and long-term visitors who left for any period of time in that month dropped to 165,700 from 176,100 in December 2007, a decrease of 5.
That included a 16 per cent fall in the number of New Zealanders heading to Britain permanently or long term.9 per cent. Overall, the number of New Zealanders heading overseas last year was steady compared with 2007, dropping only 0.
There were fewer trips to all top 10 destinations for New Zealand residents, including Fiji, down 18 per cent, the United States, down 13 per cent, and Britain, down 8 per cent.3 per cent.
"One of the economies that's been hardest hit is the UK and you're now getting mass job layoffs in that sector," he said.
However, ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said December's fall in departures was likely to continue this year as moving overseas, especially to Britain and the United States, became less attractive. . "People are now becoming more aware that their prospects of going over to the UK and getting a job are diminishing.
Departures to Australia steadily rose last year, but now appeared to be levelling off, it said.5 per cent from December 2007. "The Australian labour market has recently become more difficult and . "The Australian labour market has recently become more difficult and . net outflows across the Tasman may start to ease..
Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said that month had been unexpectedly strong, but he expected the number of visitors to start to fall in the next few months."
Despite record visitor numbers to New Zealand in December, tourism officials are bracing themselves for a tough year."
Tourism New Zealand was predicting long-haul visitor numbers to fall by up to 15 per cent between January and March, he said, but an expected small rise in Australian numbers could help to offset that.
"We're going to get through the summer a little bit better than some people imagined [but] there will be a reduction over the next year.

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Renovators find today’s news, 60 years ago

By KATHERINE NEWTON Wednesday, 04 February 2009

/The
TIME CAPSULE: Jackson, 6, with his father Murray Dick. Jackson found a 60 year old copy of The Evening Post in the wall cavity dated February 4 exactly 60 years ago today.

The postwar economy was creaking into action, John Mills and Errol Flynn were starring on the big screen and, decades before taggers hit the headlines, a Wellington newspaper was debating how to rid New Zealand of petty vandalism.
Mr Dick was doing up his bathroom when his son Jackson, 6, found a copy of The 's predecessor wrapped inside a roll of building paper and tucked in the wall.
Khandallah man Murray Dick was enjoying a chuckle yesterday over a 1949 copy of The Evening Post unearthed while he was renovating his house."'
In an odd coincidence, the paper was dated February 4 exactly 60 years ago today. "I missed it [but] he was shouting, 'Dad, look, look, I've found this. Despite its age, the paper was in pristine condition, Mr Dick said."
Parts of the paper were "hard case", he said, including one article musing on whether vandalism was a part of New Zealand's national character, after miscreants damaged new state houses in Waiwhetu. .
Another sports article reported that golfing legend Ben Hogan had been badly injured in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus in Texas.
The sports section celebrated the addition of double sculls to the Olympic rowing programme, the event that garnered the Evers-Swindell twins back-to-back gold medals in 2004 and 2008.
"I've done the same thing I rolled up last week's paper with a little note.
The find inspired Mr Dick to do likewise before he sealed up the new wall.
"I just said who lived here and good luck to those who read it.
"I just said who lived here and good luck to those who read it.
– Sid Holland led the first National Party government into power in the 1949 election."
A SNAPSHOT OF 1949
– We became New Zealand citizens for the first time as the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 took effect. He succumbed to lung cancer three years later.
– King George VI's health was reported as "improving".
– Smokers with a shilling to spare could enjoy a pack of 10 Craven `A' cigarettes "made specifically for sore throats".
– Wellingtonians flocked to cinemas to watch John Mills play Pip in Great Expectations, the film that made him a star. At the other end of the pay scale, a senior physician commanded an annual salary of £1200.
– An office junior could expect to earn about £3 5s a week.

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Toastman talks about living with cancer

Monday, 02 February 2009

/The
BURNING PASSION: Wellington businessman and toast artist Maurice Bennett faces a daily battle with leukaemia but Instead of taking it easy he runs two businesses, does his toast art and is rarely home before 8pm.

Wellington businessman and toast artist Maurice Bennett faces a daily battle with leukaemia but has refused to let the disease ruin his life.
When it was diagnosed about 2000, he was given five years to live, but he is still at the helm of Island Bay's New World supermarket and Bennetts Beer, and is working on his biggest toast work. But not anymore," Mr Bennett says.
"I used to keep quiet about it and just tell people I had a cold.
"But the last thing I want is sympathy, someone coming up to me in the pub to say how sorry they are. "We're all going to die at least I know what I'm going to die of."
After being diagnosed, there were sleepless nights wondering why and "screams at God". Despite this he's up at 6am every day to head to the supermarket, then he turns to his toast art in the bakery by late afternoon, and he's rarely home before 8pm. The thought of taking it easy regularly crosses his mind.
Even though he was "crook as a dog" when the All Blacks were turfed out of the last Rugby World Cup quarterfinal, he still made it to Paris and walked down the Champs-Elysees in the black jersey.
With an immune system weakened by the disease, even catching the flu could prove fatal. "The doctors are monitoring my health with regular CT scans and blood tests.
Mr Bennett sees himself as the lucky one. Modern medicine is brilliant. Modern medicine is brilliant. Males in this country need to step up [and get regular checks]. They wake up and find they've got the big C or drop dead at 35. Though the toast art started about the same time as the leukaemia diagnosis, he says that is coincidental."
The New World, which he has run for 15 years with his wife, provides a ready supply of bread and commercial ovens facilitating his toast portraits of Jonah Lomu and the Mona Lisa and helping him set a world record for his 2724-slice mosaic of former Wellington mayor Mark Blumsky. I was artistic before that.
"It's just fallen into place. It's not like I've gone through a blue period because of the leukaemia. I used to do oil painting and sculpture work."If anything, being confronted with his mortality has just clarified beliefs he has always held, and he expects to lead a "normal, healthy life for quite a while". It's not like: `Buy some of Maurice's art because he's about to drop dead'. Life revolves around friendship. Life revolves around friendship. It's not about seeing every place in the world, it's about enjoying what you've got.