Two a penny

.

LATEST:
Former New Zealand Olympic rower Rob Hamill has confronted his brother’s killer at the trial of former Khmer Rouge official Duch in Phnom Penh.

An emotional Hamill testified before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh about the “incredible” impact the horrific death of his brother Kerry, 27, had on his family here – a “massive and unquantifiable impact”.

Hamill, former Olympic and long-distance rower, said he had waited a long time to confront his brother’s killer and to tell the story about the impact on his parents and siblings.

The New Zealander’s wife Rachel and their two-year-old son were in the packed public gallery as Hamill spoke for a full hour.

Hamill’s mother is now dead and his father is in a nursing home.

Duch, 66, has pleaded guilty to murder but the five judges – New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright, a French national and three Cambodians – will decide Duch’s innocence or guilt after hearing all the evidence.

Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch as he is known, the man responsible for Kerry Hamill’s death, was in court and listened impassively to Hamill’s testimony as it was translated.

Dame Silvia was in courtto hear Hamill, who was accepted as a civil party.

Crewman Stuart Glass, a Canadian was shot while Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were interrogated and tortured for two months before being killed in Phnom Penh’s notorious Tuol Sleng Prison run by Duch.

Kerry Hamill was captured by the Khmer Rouge when the yacht on which he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978.

Duch has pleaded the same defence as some of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2, maintaining he was simply carrying out orders and would have been shot had he not done so.

Thousands of Cambodians were killed at the prison.

He noted that Duch used the phrase “smash them”, words meaning prisoners were to be tortured and then killed.

Hamill said Duch had dehumanised himself “the way he did so many people”.

“I’ve wanted to smash Duch,” he said.

“I’ve wanted to smash Duch,” he said.

“We all live and die but the way my brother died it is just so abominable and simply [incomprehensible] and he led that, he created the system that inflicted this terrible, terrible crime on people. I mean what he did, he dehumanised himself… he dehumanised so many thousands of people and the way he did it,” he told told Radio New Zealand.

.

.

An Auckland police officer has been suspended and may yet face criminal charges for allegedly leaking secret information from the national intelligence network to a criminal.

The constable has been stood down while an internal investigation takes place, the Weekend Herald reported.

The suspended constable is in a squad which targets “volume crime”, in particular burglaries, and had access to the police intelligence database.

The constable, who has been in the police for two years, was this week interviewed by staff from the force’s professional standards team, the newspaper reported.

He is alleged to have leaked sensitive information to help a known criminal to avoid arrest. But most have been non-sworn staff in call centres, not officers.

A small number of police staff have been charged with using the computer system to help friends and family to evade arrest. .

Police Minister Judith Collins has been briefed on the “serious allegations” but declined to comment as the inquiry was not finished.

“Police are investigating an allegation that information has been inappropriately disclosed by a police employee, and as the investigation is under way it would be inappropriate to comment further,” Mr Bush said.

The National Intelligence Application is a computer network that holds information on people’s criminal convictions and whether they are wanted by police or are a surveillance target.

Police Association president Greg O’Connor also declined to comment.

Police national headquarters figures show 33 police staff were caught making unauthorised checks of the National Intelligence Application since August 2007.

The system also gives police facts on criminals’ associates and their addresses. Nine of those later resigned. Nine of those later resigned

.

Prime Minister John Key has flagged moves to set a new business investment threshold with Australia as part of moves to a single economic market.

Mr Key arrived in Brisbane today before travelling to the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns, which runs till Friday. But he expected to announce an increase for Australia and New Zealand during talks with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a state visit in the third week of August.Speakingto business leaders in Brisbane today, he said the current investment threshold was $100 million for all countries. He said the move would help boost investment flow between the two countries from the current $122 billion.He refused to speculate on a final figure, but it is understood it may be increased to $200 million.He said Australia and New Zealand would release tomorrow a joint report into the economic crisis and its impact in the Pacific.He also expected to announce progress on simplified border arrangements that would streamline access for travellers between the two countries, though they would still need a passport.

“There’s quite a clutter now of donor nations and bodies examining to distribute aid into the Pacific,” he said.

Climate change and aid were also on the agenda.

. .

.

Wellington is seeing more people hospitalised with swine flu than Australia’s swine flu capital Victoria, with around 30 people currently admitted to its hospitals.

Victoria, with a population of about five million had 18 patients in hospital last Friday, compared with Wellington’s present number of almost 30 from a population of around 400,000.”It’s obviously been a brutal winter and the numbers here are going up very quickly but that’s probably not surprising,” he said. However, Wellington microbiologist Dr Tim Blackmore said the timing of the spike in infections, with New Zealand successfully containing the virus for almost two months, could be making the figures appear worse than they were. What the long term picture might be we don’t know yet but certainly at the moment there’s a lot of new cases emerging in the community and proportionally we’re seeing quite a few in the hospital.”If it was starting to slow down in Victoria then our numbers of patients on a particular day, compared to Victoria may be out of step.

However, accurate records of confirmed cases are no longer kept and the total number is likely to be much higher.”While instances of swine flu in New Zealand continue to increase, statistics show more that there have been 4,300 cases and nine deaths reported in Australia compared to 825 cases and no deaths here.”

“The hospital services are starting to struggle.Mr Blackmore told AAP that this was the “tip of the iceberg and it’s looking moderately severe to us.”

Sixty-nine people have been hospitalised in the Wellington region. We’ve never seen admission rates like this before and unfortunately it’s only going to get worse.He added that the majority of people were only in hospital for a day or two and asthma was playing a significant role in hospitalisations. Mr Blackmore said they were now only testing those who were believed to be in a more serious position..”There’s a proportion of people who are coming in with primary influenza pneumonia – viral pneumonia – but most have asthma or something like that underneath it . to make doctors more concerned about their health to have them in hospital..While it was difficult to know exactly how many people had been admitted in total, “it’s obviously something that we’re going to look at more carefully.”He said the average age of people being admitted was early-20s and there were “quite a few” children. A woman in her early twenties is still in a critical condition in Hawke’s Bay Hospital though it is not known whether she had any pre-existing medical conditions.”The condition of the 30-year-old woman in intensive care in Wellington Hospital was today down-graded from life-threatening to serious.”Once the virus established in Australia and as a result of the links New Zealand has with Australia .National Influenza Centre head Dr Sue Huang said that New Zealand’s links with Australia, which sent more than one million visitors here last year, had made containing the virus more difficult… it became really difficult to contain.”Meanwhile, swine flu is taking over from seasonal flu as the most commonly diagnosed influenza in the more serious cases this year.Mr Blackmore said of the 294 positive influenza tests carried out in Wellington since June 23, only 25 were seasonal influenza and the rest were the new strain.Since then, the lowest number of swine flu cases diagnosed in Wellington daily was ten and the highest was 37.However, he said the ratio was about even in Auckland, with Christchurch “somewhere in the middle”"The interesting thing about influenza is it does different patterns in different communities. .Mr Blackmore said he believed the number of infections could peak in a “few weeks” before easing, though the level of preparedness on behalf of health authorities meant they were well placed to cope.”I think overall for New Zealand it’s going to go on for a long time,” he warned.Ms Huang said they processed more than 1000 samples from suspected cases last week, which confirmed that swine flu was becoming more prevalent than other influenzas.She said all tests for Tamiflu resistance and virus mutations had so far come back negative.

.

Clayton Robert Weatherston set about killing and disfiguring Sophie Elliott “in a calm and collected manner”, the Crown said as it opened the murder case against him in the High Court at Christchurch today.

Crown prosecutor Marie Grills said 33-year-old Weatherston took the knife with him when he visited 22-year-old Miss Elliott’s Dunedin home on January 9, 2008. A pair of scissors was also found bent and bloodstained in the room.

The knife was found broken and covered in blood after the attack in which Miss Elliott was stabbed or cut 216 times.

The defence had signalled that there would be “a partial defence of provocation”, Justice Potter told the jury.

Weatherston, Miss Elliott’s former boyfriend and her lecturer at Otago University, today pleaded not guilty to her murder but said he was guilty of manslaughter when the charge was read to him on the first day of the three-week trial before Justice Judith Potter and a jury.”

Grills detailed clusters of wounds found on Elliott’s body.

Mrs Grills said: “It is the Crown case that the accused, for whatever reason, decided to kill and disfigure Sophie Elliott and he did so in a calm and collected manner, with a significant degree of premeditation. .

Her nose had been cut off in a symmetrical fashion, and chunks of her hair cut off.

The blade of a kitchen knife was found in Elliott’s bedroom, removed from its handle.

“The Crown says it is no coincidence that some of the clusters of wounds relate to areas of physical beauty,” Grills said. The Crown says Weatherston used scissors in his attack.

A bent and blood-stained pair of scissors was also found.

The blade, handle and scissors were among items passed up in evidence as the trial proceeded this morning.

The defence case includes evidence that Elliott attacked Weatherston with a pair of scissors.

Weatherston was in the room and the first police officer to arrive asked him what he had done.

Grills told of police arriving at the house seven minutes after the 111 call by Sophie Elliott’s mother who had tried to force her way into the bedroom during the attack and saw Weatherston stabbing her daughter.”

The officer formally warned him and then asked him why.

Weatherston replied in a calm, normal tone, “I killed her.”

Weatherston was found to have minor cuts on his neck and face.

Weatherston replied: “The emotional pain that she has caused me over the past year.

.

There are now 109 confirmed cases of swine flu in New Zealand with 23 of them coming in the last 24 hours.

Of the 23 latest cases, seven cases are in Auckland, three in Wellington and 13 in Christchurch.

The Ministry of Health said that while the number of cases was increasing, there are still relatively few cases and only isolated instances of community transmission.

Are you having a swine flu party or do you know of anyone deliberately exposing themselves or their children to swine flu? Email or phone 04-4740098.

SWINE FLU PARTIES

Meanwhile the Health Ministry has warned against hosting “swine flu parties” following overseas concerns parents are deliberately exposing children.

The public interest in swine flu had been significant with 1500 calls answered at Healthline yesterday, almost double the usual amount. That person contracted swine flu after visiting Victoria, Australia in early June.

The Canterbury District Health Board said all cases of the influenza A (H1N1) strain stemmed from a single case.

The trend has prompted the Australian government to warn against swine flu parties gatherings where people intentionally expose themselves to the flu, in order to become infected with the virus.

Meanwhile, media reports in Australia and the United States say some parents have intentionally exposed their children to swine flu, believing that infecting them now will save them from a potentially more virulent strain in the future.

New Zealand’s deputy director of public health Dr Fran McGrath said the tactic went completely against the Health Ministry’s efforts to contain the virus. The idea has also been panned by health experts here.

She said that if people deliberately made themselves ill this would have a huge impact on already-stretched health services.

“The reason we’re doing [containment] is because this is a brand new virus to which people don’t have immunity so there will be lots of people who get it,” she said.. “.swine flu parties are definitely not part of our public health advice..

“We don’t know what the nature of the mutation would be.”

There was also no guarantee that getting sick now would lead to immunity in the future.”"It may give you some [immunity] but we can’t be sure about that. If there were to be a second wave then it would be as a result of a mutation in the virus and you can’t tell how big that mutation might be and therefore how useful any immunity from an earlier version would be.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in United States, people hope to become affected from the mild form of the virus, in the hope of having natural immunity to a more virulent form that might circulate later.”

The concept appears to have stemmed from chickenpox parties where parents would deliberately infect their children in the knowledge the virus was less serious in children than adults. I understand the thinking, but I just fear we don’t know enough about how this virus would react in every individual. I understand the thinking, but I just fear we don’t know enough about how this virus would react in every individual.

“This is like the Middle Ages, when people deliberately infected themselves with smallpox. It’s vigilante vaccination you know, taking immunity into your own hands. .

All cases stemmed from a single person who had been in Victoria, Australia in early June and contracted swine flu.

All those affected were being treated with Tamiflu and recent contacts were being traced.

The cases included six pupils from three schools in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs, and a Minister in a Samoan Church who worked at Christchurch Hospital in the catering team.

A Christchurch seafood processing plant has also sent home all its factory staff after a second case of swine flu was discovered there.

Sea Products in Woolston sent home night shift workers yesterday after one staff member caught swine flu, but now the day shift has also been quarantined for three days with antiviral drug Tamiflu after a second case was confirmed.

The 100 workers will all be back to work by Friday.

“The catering team member had not been to work during the infectious stage of the illness,” Canterbury medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey said.

Swine flu was a highly contagious disease, he said.

“Once someone who is infected is amongst other members of the community, including students and workmates, it is inevitable others will get sick,” he said.

While most people do not become seriously unwell, the virus’ potential effect on businesses, schools and the community was starting to show itself, Mr Humphrey said. In East Auckland primary school St Patrick’s, in Panmure, yesterday sent all of its 145 pupils home for a week after having one confirmed case of swine flu, and a number of others suffering flu-like symptoms.

Bromley School in Christchurch has been closed for seven days by health officials to prevent the spread of swine flu.

A recorded message on the school’s phone said all families would be contacted by the weekend with further information.

“Huge apologies for the disruption to family life,” the message said.

The primary school has 320 pupils.

Other Auckland schools were also hit.

At Kowhai Intermediate, in central city Kingsland, one class of year eight students and a teacher were in quarantine.

Papatoetoe High School in South Auckland has one swine flu case, while on the North Shore at Westlake Girls’ High School some 450 year 12 students are away for a week, after one case.

Health Ministry planning was to enable health services to manage large numbers of cases as well as maintain services for those who most need them, Dr McGrath said.

“An important part of this approach will include advising individuals how to look after themselves at home where this is possible – in the same way they would with seasonal flu.”

Swine flu may be serious for some people and they should seek advice either from Healthline 0800 611 116 or their GP – but phone ahead first.

The new confirmed cases yesterday were in Auckland (two), Rotorua (one), Tauranga (two), Wellington (five) and Christchurch (five).

STOP THE SPREAD

The ministry has refined advice to arriving international travellers – only people with flu-like symptoms within four days of travel were now considered to be at risk of swine flu.

Workers should stay home only if they have flu-like symptoms or if they have had medical advice, the ministry said.

They should stay home for seven days after symptoms begin, or until symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer.

This was to keep them from infecting others.

Hand hygiene was still the most effective protection – wash hands with soap and water and dry them thoroughly, the ministry advised.

Alcohol-based cleaners were also effective, and people should avoid touching their eyes, nose or mouth, as germs spread this way.

The Ministry of Health has moved its response to phase 6.2 which means restrictions could be placed on public gatherings and a state of emergency could be declared. It is the last phase before code red.

– , with

Young Aussie skiers pose swine flu concern

– World Homepage -

.

A teenager found dead in his bed yesterday morning died from a head injury, police say.

Family members found Waylin Te Rau Aroha Ngarangione, 19, dead at his family home in Manutuke, 13km southwest of Gisborne, about 9am yesterday, Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Scott of Gisborne CIB said. .

“The scene is currently being examined by both the police and the forensic scientists and inquiries are continuing as to how the fatal injury occurred,” Mr Scott said.

A homicide inquiry had been launched as a result.

–

– Next Crime story: –
Thai tiler ‘lied to NZ lawyer to cover for Field’

– National Homepage –

.

Earlier today, Mr Scott said Mr Ngarangione’s family was “obviously very upset, as you would be when anyone loses a loved one or a family member”

.

National’s senior whip Nathan Guy has been appointed as Internal Affairs Minister to replace Richard Worth, Prime Minister John Key said today.

Mr Guy will be a minister outside Cabinet and take up Dr Worth’s portfolios of Archives NZ, National Library and associate justice minister.

Maurice Williamson, who temporarily looked after Dr Worth’s portfolios after he lost his ministerial positions, will retain Land Information. .

He was junior whip from November 2006 and has been senior whip since February last year.

Mr Guy is the MP for Otaki and first entered Parliament in 2005.

“He has proven himself to be an able senior whip and member of the National Party caucus,” Mr Key said.

Mr Key said he looked forward to welcoming Mr Guy to the executive.

“I was rapt to receive a phone call from the prime minister offering me the opportunity to become a minister outside Cabinet, which of course I accepted.

Mr Guy said the appointment was a huge honour.

The transport role is a new position and as a local MP he has come out strongly in favour of the Transmission Gully motorway route between Wellington and the Kapiti Coast.”

Mr Guy said he was looking forward to the internal affairs role and other associate jobs, though he did know his delegations yet.

The Wellington to Otaki road is one of the designated routes, but the Transmission Gully motorway is not defined as a solution to the region’s traffic congestion.

Mr Guy said he believed the transport appointment was a sign that the portfolio was a large one and Mr Key wanted to make progress on the designated routes of national significance. .

“There is a lot at stake for the Otaki electorate. but it is just one area around the country. .

A second allegation was also made against Dr Worth by a member of the Labour Party.”

Mr Guy gained the jobs after Dr Worth resigned as an MP late on Friday after earlier being asked to resign as a minister when it emerged that he was under police investigation over allegations of a sexual nature involving a Korean business woman.

In a public statement she also said Dr Worth offered her jobs in his ministerial capacity.

The woman involved, Neelam Choudary, alleged that between November and February, Dr Worth sent dozens of text messages, some sexually explicit, and called her numerous times.

–

Sharing his joy with mum

– National Homepage -

.
AFP – A Hungarian court decided Wednesday to keep a Russian mother accused of abducting her daughter in jail until France presents an arrest warrant in a bitter international child custody battle.

The municipal court of Budapest said in a statement that it had ordered that Irina Belenkaya be remanded in custody in Hungary until May 25 to give the French authorities time to forward the European arrest warrant.

If the arrest warrant does not arrive by that date, the court will release her, the statement said.

After being held by police in the town of Nyiregyhaza in eastern Hungary, she was later moved to Budapest.

Belenkaya was stopped by Hungarian police at the weekend as she tried to cross the Hungarian border to Ukraine with her three-year-old daughter Elise.

In the meantime, Elise was reunited with her French father Jean-Michel Andre and the two returned to France on Tuesday. She faces charges of kidnapping and complicity in assault in France.

Elise has been at the centre of a bitter custody battle between her estranged parents.

Her father, who was badly beaten during the kidnapping, later told that the woman — dressed in black and wearing a wig — was certainly his estranged wife, from whom he split in 2007. The toddler was abducted by two men and a woman in the southern French city of Arles on March 20.

The Russian embassy in Budapest declined to comment on the court decision Wednesday.

In Russia, where a court has awarded custody to the mother and where the father is accused of kidnapping the little girl in 2008, the government earlier challenged the decision to send her back to France.

We will not let the girl live peacefully with her father in France while her mother is in prison, said Sergei Markov, a member of the civic chamber.

Members of the Civic Chamber of Russia, an advisory civil panel close to the Kremlin, called for the toddler to be brought back to Russia and accused France of always backing French citizens in similar cases in the past.

Who says that the child must live in France if she has French citizenship, Anatoly Kucherena, an attorney, told reporters in Moscow. .

I would like Elise to have a mother and a fathert so that she can spend some time in France and some time in Russia, he said.

Elise’s father struck a conciliatory note Wednesday in an interview to Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency saying he wanted his child to have the company of both her parents.

children – France – Hungary – kidnapping – parenting – Russia
.

If I can get guarantees of her well-being there and her return to France at an agreed date, I would be happy to let her go to Russia

.The British and French foreign ministers say Tamil Tiger rebels are using civilians as human shields in Sri Lanka.
In a joint statement issued in London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner urged the Sri Lankan Government to declare a new ceasefire to allow aid in and civilians out.
“We are deeply concerned that there was no large-scale movement of civilians away from the conflict area to safety as we had hoped to see, in the short period allowed for the pause,” the statement issued by the Foreign Office said.
Sri Lankan security forces resumed their offensive against the Tigers yesterday after a 48-hour ceasefire, but Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner said that had not been long enough for civilians to have moved to safety.”
While the statement urged the Tigers to lay down their arms and allow civilians to move to safety, it also called for action from Colombo. .
“Democratic governments are rightly held to higher standards for civilian protection than terrorist organisations.
“We urge President [Mahinda] Rajapakse to announce a new pause,” it said.
Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner urged both sides to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and to do everything they could to protect civilians, including allowing “unimpeded access” to humanitarian agencies.”
It added: “It is vital that a pause in the fighting should be long enough to give civilians the opportunity to leave the conflict area, and for the UN to build confidence amongst the population that they will be safe if they leave”.
“France and Britain, as two members of the Security Council, continue to support the active engagement by the UN and by other members of the international community on this urgent issue,” they said.
-