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Police want to hear from a woman whom a 13-year-old girl begged for help shortly before she was raped in Auckland at the weekend.

Despite receiving a number of calls from the public, police have still not heard from the woman.

Detective Sergeant Andy King said she was a prime witness and police were very keen to talk to her. We received quite a number of calls from the public as a result of the publicity last night and this morning.

“We’re working through a number of enquiries.

“We have a lot of information which we have to sift through to work out what is priority and what is not,” Mr King said.

“There’s plenty to follow up on, plus our normal enquiries as well.

He added that police were with the victim this morning. It’s a very distressing time for them,” Mr King said.

“She’s with her family, and hopefully she’s had a reasonable night.

The man had verbally harassed her while he followed her from a group of shops in suburban Point Chevalier to a BP service station on Great North Road about 10am, Mr King said.

A man yesterday raped the girl at Oakley Creek Reserve in Waterview after following her for about a kilometre.

The man made a purchase at the service station where police obtained CCTV footage of him.

Police said the girl approached a woman filling her car at the station and begged for help, but the woman told her to keep away from the man and drove off.

Mr King said he bought a few “bits and pieces”, but did not want to elaborate.

Mr King said he bought a few “bits and pieces”, but did not want to elaborate.

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The girl was eventually let go and went home to tell her mother.

“He ended up grabbing her by the arm and dragging her into some nearby bush area and raping her,” Mr King said.

“This is a real blitz attack, for want of a better word, on a very vulnerable young girl.

Mr King said the man posed a huge risk to the community and could strike again.

Mr King said the attack was unusual.”

Police warned women and children not to walk alone in the area until the offender was caught.”

The girl described the man as Polynesian or Maori, aged between 20 and 30 years-old, with a bushy pony tail and facial hair.

“Stranger attacks on women are unusual but for it to happen in broad daylight like this and to a young girl makes it incredibly scary.

Police want anyone with information about the attack to contact them.

He was wearing khaki coloured shorts, white shoes and socks, a dark cap, sunglasses and a `Puma’ t-shirt and had a white stretchy athletic bandage on his left elbow. .

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Kiwis hooked on unhealthy food

By ESTHER HARWARD – Sunday, 22 February 2009

Sunday Star-Times
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The New Zealand supermarket top ten: Coca-Cola 1.5l, Wattie’s spaghetti 420g, Coca-Cola 2.25l, QB Nature’s Fresh white toast 700g, Wattie’s baked beans 420g, Dole bobby bananas (850g), Tip Top super soft white toast 700g, Sprite lemonade 1.5l

Despite years of warnings about the perils of a poor diet, Kiwi shoppers are piling supermarket baskets high with soft drink, white bread and other unhealthy foods laden with sugar, salt and fat.5l, QB Molenberg original toast 700g, Coke Zero 1.5-litre bottle of Coke.
And our favourite product of all is a 1.
Confidential data leaked to the Sunday Star-Times reveals the top 10 food and drink items sold in supermarkets nationwide in the year to January include four soft drinks (Sprite, Coke Zero and two different-sized bottles of Coca-Cola) and two brands of white bread. (The figures exclude alcohol, tobacco and non-packaged fruit and vegetables.
The full list of the 40 top-sellers tells a similar story, as buyers choose soft drinks, snack foods and confectionery. "The things the companies say are occasional foods are becoming everyday foods, and are replacing traditional core foods.)
Public health nutritionist Bronwen King said the data shows the Kiwi diet has become too refined." Greens food spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said the figures show the Advertising Code of Practice, which demands responsible marketing of food in the media, should be extended to apply inside shops.
We're having a diet that's full of kilojoules, but deficient in the essential nutrients that keep us well and prevent disease.
Kedgley said the packaging and placement of foods could exert a powerful influence on shoppers buying decisions.
Kedgley said the packaging and placement of foods could exert a powerful influence on shoppers buying decisions. Core foods such as wholegrain cereals, legumes, milk, fruit and vegetables don't have the marketing budgets of refined products such as Coca-Cola, so can't compete.
King said sophisticated marketing techniques fuel human beings' innate addiction to fatty, sugary and salty foods. It's a product that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for marketing.
"If you or I were to make a brown sugary water we wouldn't have any traction. Fizzy drinks appear nine times, and white bread four times."
The top 40 foods and drinks compiled by market research company Nielsen from national supermarket data over the 12 months to January ranks Coca-Cola in first, third, 10th and 28th place.
New Zealanders have the sixth-highest rates of obesity in the developed world.
The few nutritionally valuable items include baked beans (ranked fifth), packaged bananas (sixth), Molenberg bread (ninth), Weetbix (23 and 24), milk (29 and 39th), wheatmeal bread (36) and Vogels bread (37). Two-thirds of Pacific Island New Zealanders are obese. One in four adults are obese, and one in 12 children are obese….
1. Coca-Cola 1.5l2. Wattie's spaghetti 420g3. Coca-Cola 2.25l 4. QB Nature's Fresh white toast 700g5. Wattie's baked beans 420g6. Dole bobby bananas (850g)7. Tip Top super soft white toast 700g8. Sprite lemonade 1.5l 9. QB Molenberg original toast 700g10. Coke Zero 1.5l
…And what they'll do to you Nutritionist Jacquie Dale analyses the top five supermarket sellers
1. Coca-Cola (1.5l bottles): One litre of Coke contains over 1800 empty kilojoules you would have to walk fast for more than two hours to work off. A litre of Coke contains 106g of sugar more than 26 teaspoons. I call Coke naked carbs lots of empty calories with no nutrients. Drinking a lot of Coke is a sure way to develop problems such as type 2 diabetes.
2. Wattie's spaghetti 420g: This food is low in fat but high in sodium. A better meal would be to make spaghetti from scratch and add plenty of vegetables and canned tomatoes.
3. Coke again (2.25l): Cheaper than milk how sad. I don't classify Coke as a food it offers no worthy nutrients.
4. QB Nature's Fresh White Toast: Oh no! Naked carbs again. Not so bad if you're going to pack two slices with lots of salad and some lean protein but if this is going to be a toast, jam or Nutella feast then white bread is not a healthy option. Wholegrain loaves are more expensive, but are filling and much more nutritious, so you use less. Hopefully all this white bread isn't going under the spaghetti, because the tomato sauce doesn't count as a vege serve in my book.
5. . This is a low fat product and high in fibre, but does it require 1890mg of salt and 29g of sugar to make it taste good? Choose the reduced salt version.

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Homicide inquiry after bashed woman dies

By CLIO FRANCIS – Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Police in Wanganui have launched a homicide inquiry after a woman who had been subjected to a brutal assault at the weekend died this morning.
The 44-year-old victim had suffered serious head injuries in the Titoki Street area, Wanganui in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police communications manager Kim Perks said the woman – who has not yet been named – had been in the Intensive Care Unit in Wellington Hospital. .
"Late last night she was taken off life support and died in the early hours of this morning.
Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Bensemann said more serious charges would now be laid.
A 43-year-old Wanganui woman had already appeared in court on a charge of common assault and a 22-year-old Wanganui man on a charge of being an accessory after the fact to common assault.
The woman charged over the incident was due to appear at Wanganui District Court tomorrow.

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The male offender was due to re-appear onMarch 3 but police said this date may now be brought forward

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Key to look at bailout for F&P

and JIM KAYES Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Govt wants to keep F&P out of ‘the wrong hands’

F&P Appliances reels from crunch punch

Comment: Govt can’t be saviour of business

PrimeMinister John Key has signalled that the Government could step in as a last resort to prevent renowned whiteware maker Fisher & Paykel from collapsing.
Mr Key revealed yesterday that he had phoned F&P Appliances chief executive John Bongard after its shares plummeted to record low levels on the back of news of a slump in profits and ballooning debt.
He stressed that Mr Bongard had not asked for government help and that none had been offered.
"It's important to recognise that Fisher & Paykel is a profitable company . The company's problems appeared to be "temporary"… . They employ 1600 people in New Zealand.
"But I acknowledge that they are an iconic New Zealand company."
Mr Bongard took an immediate 7. And I've made it clear to John Bongard I will stay in touch.1 million pay packet and other executives took a 5 percent pay cut after the company issued a profit warning on the back of tough trading conditions.5 percent cut yesterday to his $1.
Salaried staff will be rostered off for one day a month to help trim costs.
Salaried staff will be rostered off for one day a month to help trim costs.2 million. Its profit to March 2008 was $54.
Mr Key said there was "substantial weakness" in the international market.
Its shares nosedived from $1 to 65 cents after yesterday's news. It is not unique to Fisher & Paykel but clearly they are at the sharp end of that.
"It is logical that it would flow through to reduced sales by our exporting companies.
Mr Key refused to comment yesterday on whether F&P was on the list, saying he would not discuss individual cases."
As the worldwide recession deepens and the credit crunch bites, Treasury has drawn up a "watch list" of businesses the Government may be forced to help out if bank funding dries up.
"The Government does not want to become a primary banker. But the Government reserved the right to act in the national interest in some cases, he said. Other governments around the world have chosen to take that course and we reserve the option to do so. Other governments around the world have chosen to take that course and we reserve the option to do so."
F&P said it had been talking to "a number of potential strategic partners" and may look to raise new capital.
Mr Key indicated the Government might be prepared to bend foreign investment rules if that helped the company secure an investor.
"If [blocking an investment] meant the loss of 1600 jobs and the collapse of an iconic company like Fisher & Paykel, that would be unacceptable to me."
Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard said Mr Key should follow through on his pledge to bail out struggling businesses by backing F&P, an iconic New Zealand company that had to be kept afloat.

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NZ ‘not too flash’ in immunisation report

– Monday, 26 January 2009

Kiwi babies are among the least vaccinated in the developed world, a new international report reveals. . It equalled the others.
Of the six immunisations for one-year-old babies, New Zealand was well below the developed world average for four of them. In the developed world, 98 per cent had received it by that age and in the least developed countries, 76 per cent had received it.
In the worst example, only 79 per cent of one-year-olds had received immunisation against measles. We're 33 out of 35 developed countries," Immunisation Advisory Centre research director Helen Petousis-Harris said.
"We're pretty low."
An Auckland University study showed poverty was a major factor where immunisation rates were low.
"And certainly, compared with a lot of the developing countries which have mass campaigns, we don't come up too flash.
The country's Third World rates of immunisation against measles were "too low to prevent ongoing epidemics", the Ministry of Health said.
Misinformation about immunisation was "alive and well in New Zealand" and also played a part in the low rates, Petousis-Harris said.
The chief adviser on child and youth health for the Ministry of Health, Dr Pat Tuohy, said the Unicef figures were "substantially correct". It has pinned some of the blame on more families with two working parents not having the time to immunise their babies.
Publicity suggesting, incorrectly, that the measles vaccination caused autism had hit the rates of immunisation.
"The current coverage rate for measles is too low to prevent ongoing epidemics," Tuohy said.
"For example, in the situation where both parents are working, they can find it difficult to get their children immunised because their only free time to do so is after-hours or on Saturday mornings.
"We are aware that some barriers remain even though immunisation is free," Tuohy said.
However, Petousis-Harris said the Government was still a long way off its aim of having 95 per cent of babies fully immunised by age two."
Since the Government made improving immunisation coverage one of 10 health targets in July 2007, there had been a "dramatic" 9 per cent increase in immunisation rates, Tuohy said. We've got a lot of things that we need to be working on to do better," she said.
"We just haven't got there."
Whooping cough (pertussis), a disease particularly severe on small babies, was on the rise as a result of the poor rates of immunisation.
"Immunisations generally don't go to people, people have to go to the immunisations.
The Unicef report showed New Zealand lagging the developed world (98 per cent) by 7 percentage points for rates of immunisation against pertussis.
The Unicef report showed New Zealand lagging the developed world (98 per cent) by 7 percentage points for rates of immunisation against pertussis.
The improvement in New Zealand's under-five child mortality rates from 21 per cent in 1970 to 11 per cent in 1990 to 6 per cent in 2007 fell almost perfectly in line with the developed world.
A child mortality rate of 6 per cent put the country on a par with Britain, Australia and Canada but behind Israel, the Netherlands, France and Germany.
The mortality rate for under-one-year-olds had also fallen from 9 per cent in 1990 to 5 per cent in 2007.

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Da Vinci’s soggy seabird free as a bird

By PAUL McBETH Tuesday, 20 January 2009

/The
ABSOLUTELY AIRBORNE: David Hyams takes off and heads seaward in his bamboo and cloth contraption over Wellington Harbour. Moments later, it crumpled into the harbour, a soggy mess. Then the flying contraption crumpled into the harbour in a soggy mess.

Leonardoda Vincidesigned it, a Wellington man built it, and a crowd of hundreds cheered it and for a couple of metres it soared.
Hundreds lined the waterfront yesterday to watch Mr Hyams' attempt to fly a model of one of Leonardo's flying machines above Wellington Harbour.
Applause turned to laughter as "pilot" David Hyams followed the advice of the crowd by steering clear of the sun in his bid to fly like Icarus. "If you conceive it, plan it and promote it, you fly it.
Being the architect of the experiment, and with some hang-gliding experience to his name, Mr Hyams felt he was the one to take the risk.
The attempt was part of the Birdman Family Flying Fiesta at Frank Kitts Park and a promotion for the Leonardo da Vinci Machines Exhibition at the New Zealand School of Fine Art on Queens Wharf."
The model, built in two weeks out of split moss bamboo and cloth, was based on Leonardo's glider, but Mr Hyams said that, to have a realistic chance of flying, it would need a wingspan of 14 metres, a tail and a harness for the pilot. If organisers can secure sponsorship before the end of the exhibition on February 15, they hope to build more Leonardo machines to fly into the harbour. .

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Rental car firm backs down over bill

and – Thursday, 15 January 2009

Reader comments

Generosity wins out on glacier car costs

Yesterday’s story, with over 600 comments

The rental company owner labelled "crass at best" by the prime minister for wanting to recover costs after two Australian brothers died, now says he will not charge the family.
The companies charging for services to the family of two men killed in the Fox Glacier ice collapse have said they are simply running their businesses..
"We look like villains . [but] the people who had the mishap should have had [travel] insurance," said Southern Salvage manager Phil Arundel, whose company towed the car rented by the dead men from Fox Glacier to Christchurch..
Car rental company manager Edwin Chan sparked outrage on both sides of the Tasman after charging their family for transporting the rental car back to Christchurch and the cost of replacing the car keys, which remain buried with Akshay under tonnes of ice.
Melbourne men Ashish Miranda, 24, and his brother Akshay, 22, were killed last Thursday when they crossed a warning barrier to view Fox Glacier and were crushed by falling ice. It is understood the family had no travel insurance.
An Australian media headline screamed "Heartless Kiwis", but Mr Chan said he had waived extra days' rental costs and could not afford the $1600 bill for towing the car and replacing the keys.
He said the locksmith and mechanic who retrieved the rental car had agreed to work free of charge and the tow company had cut its price from $900 to $680.
Mr Chan said last night that the family would not be billed but denied he had bowed to public pressure, saying it was always his intention to minimise the costs.
A Greymouth motelier, who also attracted scorn for charging the family $105 for a room they did not use on the night of the accident, yesterday refunded the money "as an act of compassion.
An unnamed benefactor, who Mr Chan called" a nice Kiwi", had pledged to cover any outstanding costs.
Prime Minister John Key, who is also the Tourism Minister, said Mr Chan should have shown more compassion."
"I've just about broken down here with the amount of phone calls I've had today," owner Linda Goodson said.
But Mr Chan and Mr Arundel were defiant. Charging the family was "crass at best and probably extremely bad business practice". .
"We haven't got the financial resources to pay for those bills," Mr Chan said. But the motelier has a business to run, I have a business to run, and the rental guy.
"I feel sorry for the people.. And it's not easy out there at present . we've all got the same problem. we've all got the same problem."