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Threats to pull the plug on an NZ Bus contract if the company refuses to end its lockout of 900 bus drivers are unrealistic, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (Arta) says.

NZ Bus, which operates most bus services in Auckland, began the lockout on Thursday after drivers said they would work strictly to the rulebook in support of their wage claim.The company and four unions representing bus drivers are still in facilitation, but there has been little progress reported.No NZ Bus services have run since the n and the disruption became greater today on the first day of the fourth school term.”Like any commercial contract, NZ Bus contracts can be terminated for non-performance,” Mr Lee said.Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee today said the council would begin procedures to end its contract with NZ Bus in coming days if the lockout did not end. .”If this dispute is not settled, I will be calling on Arta to start the process of terminating the existing contracts and finding someone else who will deliver the services that Auckland expects and pays for.”We would need to find an operator that could come up with that level of service in 180 days – that’s fairly impossible.”If we terminated New Zealand Bus completely then we’d leave a 700-bus gap overnight, and we couldn’t do that to the public,” Ms Hunter told Radio New Zealand.”But at this point we’re not examining at that process,” she said.”Ms Hunter said she hoped there would be a resolution in the near future, but if there was no progress within the next few days the authority would look at intervening.”NZ Bus spokeswoman Megan McSweeney said Mr Lee’s comments were “not helpful”.”In terms of the services that we are running, with alternative operators including our train operators, we are actually managing to get people into work on time.

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The army is tonight rescuing hundreds of motorists trapped in their vehicles after heavy snow closed roads across the central North Island.

Up to 200 vehicles were trapped on Stage Highway 2 between Napier and Taupo, with most cars believed to have stopped because of snow and ice at Waipunga, at about the halfway point.”Police, the army and Civil Defence have activated and the army is sending in Unimogs to get people to buses waiting at a safe point on the road,” he said.About 150 people had made their way to the Te Pohue Hotel and a further 60 were at the Te Pohue Hall, Hastings Civil Defence controller Mike Maguire said.”People need to stay where they are and stay as warm as possible,” Mr Maguire said.He advised those waiting to stay put.”A welfare centre has been set up at Hukerere Girls College at Eskdale, and Red Cross and the Salvation Army workers were gathering there to make sure evacuees were warm and feed.”When they hear or see army vehicles approaching they need to flash their lights so they can be seen.Police central communications Inspector Kirsty Henson said about 120 cars had been stuck on State Highway 1 between Waiouru and the Three Sisters.The army also rescued motorists from SH1 close to Waiouru.Snow had also closed SH49 between Ohakune and Waiouru, and SH47 at Turangi, she said.Those rescued would be returned to their vehicles tomorrow, she told .”Snow is expected down to 400m, with heavy falls through to (tomorrow) morning, especially above 600m,” forecaster Andy Downs said.The MetService issued heavy snow warnings for the central North Island high country, from the Tongariro National Park and the hills and ranges of Hawkes Bay. .A heavy rain warning was also in place for the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

.Heavy rain was expected in Gisborne until tomorrow morning, easing by evening

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A Christchurch City Council proposal to buy the ‘house of horrors’ where two bodies were found last Friday has been welcomed by the owner of the adjoining house, who says the offer has ‘lifted a huge weight’ off him.

The Christchurch house may be bought by the city council because no-one would want to live there, Mayor Bob Parker says.

“Nobody can go back and live there or, in the short term, would even want to consider being in that place,” he said.

In an announcement that surprised some councillors, Parker said that after watching the removal of one of the bodies on TV on Monday night, he believed the “only resolution” was for the council to buy the Aranui house and the adjoining home on the property.

Jason Hall said today Mr Parker’s proposal was a huge weight off his mind.

The Hall family, who lived in the other side of the semi-detached house have stayed in alternate accommodation, paid for by police, since the discovery of the bodies and have said they would never return to their home. .

“It felt like someone had lifted a car off of my back, the relief.” he told Radio New Zealand. .”

Parker said there was a “significant danger” the building would be attacked.

“There’s still all the horror of what’s actually happened there and that’s not gonna go away in a hurry at all.

One was an occupant of the house and the other is believed to be that of a neighbour, Tisha Lowry, who disappeared a year ago.

The bodies of two women were found buried under the floor of the two-storey Wainoni Rd home last Friday.

Police say he is likely to face a second murder charge when he reappears in the Christchurch District Court on Friday.

A 33-year-old man, who is listed with his wife as the home’s owners, has been charged with his wife’s murder.

“We need to cross that bridge when we get to it.

Parker was not aware the accused man co-owned the property and could not say whether that would stop a possible purchase.

“If it works out and we have a willing seller, then I think the council will be a willing buyer. The property itself is currently the scene of an investigation and we don’t know how long that will last,” he said.

“For the community to be able to climb back up from the shock of this event, there has to be a role for them in creating a positive outcome on that site,” he said.”

The community would decide the future of the site, Parker said, with options including a memorial park or a community support facility. For the city as a whole, we need to move on.

“There are lots of good people who are deeply hurt in the area at the moment and there needs to be a way that we can heal this for the sake of that community.

“We don’t want someone resolving this by themselves and potentially destroying the house in some way because that puts others in the community at risk.

“We don’t want someone resolving this by themselves and potentially destroying the house in some way because that puts others in the community at risk. .

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It was a reunion of reunions.

Twelve Apollo astronauts reminisced, traded stories and poked fun at each other Friday night as the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing and moonwalk approached.

The crowd of hundreds at the National Museum of the United States Air Force erupted in cheers when a video chronicling the space program replayed Armstrong’s famous first words after stepping on the moon July 20, 1969: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

The astronauts, including first moonmen Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, attended the ceremony in which the National Aviation Hall of Fame presented the Apollo crews with the “Spirit of Flight” award for their courage and dedication. “Any time you go to a place where everything you see is different than anything you’ve ever seen before in your life, it’s unique and it’s memorable.”

“It was spectacular,” Armstrong recalled of gazing at the moon’s surface as he took those first steps.”

However, Armstrong said he and Aldrin had little time to savor the experience. And that certainly was.

Armstrong said he had been a backup on Apollo 8 and that when he wasn’t needed was asked if he wanted to be on the third mission down the line — what turned out to be the fateful Apollo 11 mission.

“We didn’t rest hardly five seconds when we got a message from Mission Control, saying get on with the next item,” Armstrong said.

“We knew we had a chance at landing, but it was by no means certain,” he said. He said it was difficult to predict the exact mission of succeeding flights.

Astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, also flew in the flight preceding Armstrong’s.

As they sat together on the stage, the astronauts joked and bantered with each other.

“Everyone knew Neil could land on the moon, but we didn’t have a lot of confidence Neil could find it,” Cernan quipped. He joked that his job was to paint a white line to the moon that Apollo 11 could follow.

But the first lunar landing was a serious matter for the astronauts and those in mission control.

“I’ve been listening to that for 40 years, and this is not the time to change my position,” Armstrong shot back, drawing laughs from the crowd.

“I can’t say it was panic, but it was a lot of attention to detail in mission control,” said Charles Duke, who was at mission control at the time. When the designated landing zone proved to be too rocky, Armstrong had to burn fuel from a diminishing supply to find a suitable place to touch down.” When there were only 30 seconds of fuel left, “it got dead silent. .”

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Australia is reducing measures to check the spread of swine flu, after figures showed the disease to be more infectious, but less likely to require hospital admission, than ordinary flu. .

But the estimates prepared for the government show that the hospital admission and likely death rate is a fraction of that suffered by Australians with seasonal flu, which claims 1000 to 2000 lives every year.

There were 2024 swine flu casesacross the Tasmanby late yesterday, with nine people in hospital, three of them in intensive care.

There have yet to be any deaths from swine flu in Australia.

Because of the mitigation measures, no more deaths from swine flu than from seasonal flu were expected. The Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, Jim Bishop, said it might be that the arrival of swine flu had led to an easier flu season in Australia this year.

“We hope we will do better than seasonal flu.

Australia’s health minister, Nicola Roxon, announcedthat Australia would move to new flu alert arrangements, scrapping measures including widespread school closures and thermal screening at international airports. We do not know …whether H1N1 09 [swine flu] will replace seasonal flu, but if it does, it will make the management of the disease easier to treat,” Professor Bishop said. These would be available from the national stockpiles for those people with moderate or severe disease or with vulnerable conditions.

The government is also relaxing quarantine provisions and tightening distribution of antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu.

Measures will focus on early treatment of vulnerable people such as pregnant women and those with chronic diseases such as asthma and heart disease.

But Ms Roxon said it was not appropriate to give antivirals to healthy relatives.

The new regime, officially called “pandemic phase protect”, will begin first in South Australia and Western Australia within days and later in other states.

The new regime, officially called “pandemic phase protect”, will begin first in South Australia and Western Australia within days and later in other states.

– By MARK METHERELL, SMH

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Ms Roxon said the new phase recognised that swine flu was not as severe as originally envisaged when the health management plan for pandemic influenza was written last year

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Michael Winslow, the Police Academy star known as The Man of 10,000 Sound Effects, hammed it up with a cutout of Star Wars character Yoda before his show at the Armageddon Expo, which starts in Wellington today.

About 15,000 sci-fi, fantasy and comic book fans are expected at the two-day expo at TSB Bank Arena in Wellington.
Organiser Bill Geradts said he expected this weekend’s event to be record-breaking.”
This year’s attractions include British actor Peter Davison, who played the fifth incarnation of Doctor Who in the 1980s, as well as Hercules star Kevin Sorbo. .
Mr Geradts said Winslow’s show, including imitations of Jimi Hendrix and Louis Armstrong, was very popular.
American comedian Winslow played Sergeant Larvelle “Motor Mouth” Jones in the Police Academy movies, making realistic sound effects using just his voice.
Last year, stars from TV programmes Stargate SG1 and Babylon 5, attracted more than 13,000 people to the event.

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Click play to see Michael Winslow performing as Jimi Hendrix and Louis Armstrong at the Armageddon Expo in Christchurch

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Crashes claim two lives in Otago

Wellington Monday, 08 September 2008

Two people died on the roads in Otago last night in separate incidents.
A 21-year-old man is dead after two trail bikes collided in Central Otago.55pm on Earnscleugh Road between Clyde and Alexandra.
Detective Sergeant Derek Shaw of Central Otago CIB said the crash happened about 9.
A local man died at the scene while a 25-year-old man received moderate injuries and was admitted to Dunstan Hospital.
Mr Shaw said it appeared three trail motorcycles had been travelling away from Clyde when two of them driving in the same direction collided.
The name of the man was expected to be released this afternoon.
The third rider avoided the collision.
Meanwhile, an 18-year-old woman died in a car crash at Oamaru, in north Otago yesterday night.
Mr Shaw said it appeared the motorcycles were travelling along the highway without any form of lighting on a rural road on a moonless night.45pm.
Sergeant Daniel Keno said the accident happened on Parsons Road about 5.
Police were investigating the caused of the crash, Mr Keno said.
Four others in the car escaped serious injury.
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