Two a penny

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The FBI is investigating the leaking of a copy of Hugh Jackman’s new film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was partly shot in New Zealand.

A high-quality work print has surfaced on internet file-sharing websites almost a month before its cinema release, and hundreds of thousands of people have already downloaded it.

The copy is an incomplete print, minus special effects and additional scenes, and 20th Century Fox is vowing to track down and prosecute the source of the leak.

“The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“We forensically mark our content so we can identify sources that make it available or download it,” the company said in a statement.

“The FBI and Motion Pictures Association of America are also actively investigating the crime. The courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts.”

According to a BBC report, the name of an Australian visual effects company, Rising Sun Pictures, appears on the print.

Rising Sun Pictures and Fox said they could not comment on the report while the incident was under investigation.

The company, which has worked on films like Australia and Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, produced key effects sequences in the Wolverine.

Jackman and 20th Century Fox are due to unveil “world exclusive” finished footage from the film at a press conference in Sydney next week.

The leak comes almost a month before the movie’s Australian and UK release on April 29, and the May 1 release date in the US.

It was partly shot in the South Island with film crew, including Jackman, based in Queenstown for around four month early last year.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine sees Jackman return to the role of the clawed mutant and follows his quest for revenge after his girlfriend is murdered.

Jackman was snapped enjoying a Shotover Jet river ride.

Jackman was snapped enjoying a Shotover Jet river ride.i.

The film, directed by Gavin Hood, also stars Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds and Will.

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It is not the first time a highly anticipated film has been leaked ahead of its release.am.

– AAP

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The Crown has ruled out taking any action over changes made to character references for disgraced broadcaster Tony Veitch before they were submitted to the judge in his recent assault case.

Olympic chef de mission Dave Currie and squash champion Dame Susan Devoy provided testimonials to Veitch, believing they would be used in an application to get his passport back.
Veitch was fined $10,000, ordered to do 300 hours community work, and placed on supervision for nine months.
They expressed surprise that they were altered and used as character reference when Veitch pleaded guilty in Auckland District Court to assaulting Kristin Dunne-Powell with reckless disregard for her safety.
A spokeswoman for Solicitor-General David Collins QC confirmed yesterday that no contempt of court complaint had been laid and the matter would not be investigated. .
Police earlier ruled out any investigation without a formal complaint.
“Nothing has been referred to us, we won’t be doing anything,” she told The New Zealand Herald.
–

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– Next Crime story: –
Elderly shoplifter granted diversion

– National Homepage -

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Hundreds of women are paying for new “egg-timer” fertility tests, with experts forecasting increasing numbers will freeze their eggs. .

Since their introduction, hundreds of women each month have paid about $400 for the test and follow-up consultation.

Previously, women had to pay for a less accurate and more costly ultrasound scan to determine fertility.

The Health Minister is considering a recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, which guides the Government on fertility issues, that the use of frozen eggs be allowed for some individuals.

Experts say the tests will see a consequent rise in the freezing of eggs, despite it still being illegal to thaw them.

Collyer said one in four New Zealanders now had infertility issues.

The new egg tests had attracted “a lot of interest from single women”, said Michelle Collyer, chief executive of support group Fertility New Zealand. The egg-timer tests allowed single women and couples to make informed decisions about when and how to have children, she said. This had climbed from about one in five several years ago.

A lot of single women had not met “Mr Right” yet and wanted to know how long they had before they were unable to conceive or could do so only with great difficulty.

Many women in their 30s who called Fertility New Zealand about the tests said they were likely to consider freezing their eggs if they found they had a limited time to conceive. “That means people are often putting their career before embarking on a family.

“We are dealing with a lot of social infertility now rather than biological infertility,” Collyer said.”

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Andrew Murray, the medical director of Fertility Associates in Wellington, said its “egg-check” tests provided important information for single women and couples in deciding when to start a family.

“The egg test gives people more information about what their options are and, as far as I’m concerned, the more information the better.

Few people had eggs frozen at Fertility Associates, and they were predominantly cancer patients.

Having the test, and freezing eggs, were a kind of “fertility insurance”, he said.

Currently, a frozen embryo was far more likely to be successfully thawed than a frozen egg, he said.

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However, it was likely that if the thawing of eggs was allowed and the related technology became more sophisticated, more women might do it, Murray said.

The cost of being inseminated with donor sperm was about $1000.

It cost about $10,000 to freeze either an egg or an embryo, Murray said.

Women produced a finite number of eggs at birth.

Repromed deputy medical director Dr Greg Phillipson said its egg-timer tests assessed levels of the hormone AMH, which related to a woman’s egg supply.

If, for example, a woman scored 10 per cent, it was likely she had a limited window of opportunity to conceive, he said.

If, for example, a woman scored 10 per cent, it was likely she had a limited window of opportunity to conceive, he said.

It was likely that if the moratorium on thawing eggs was lifted, more single women with limited fertility would freeze eggs for when they met their life partner, Phillipson said.

BACK ON FERTILTY TRACK

At 31, Caron Gutovitz believed she had years left to conceive a child.

However, after a new blood test that determines how many eggs a woman has left, Gutovitz has found she is nearing the end of her fertility.

The egg-timer or egg-check blood test was recently introduced to New Zealand.

Since then, hundreds of women have had it.

Gutovitz had her son, Owen, about two years ago, and had been trying to conceive for the past year.

Eventually, she turned to fertility experts, who discovered scarring on her uterus.

This had been removed, but she was still unable to get pregnant.

“I had the egg-check tests and it showed that my fertility was very low,” she said. “It showed my ovaries thought I was far older than I am.

“My body thought I was 40-something instead of 31. The result was pretty unexpected because I wouldn’t have thought I had that problem.”

The egg-check test is done via a blood test.

Results take about 10 days and are plotted on a graph against a person’s age.

Gutovitz said the test results had “radically” changed her outlook on getting pregnant.

She is now starting in vitro fertilisation treatment.

“If I hadn’t done the test, I would have continued to try and get pregnant through less invasive techniques. This way I know what my options are and I’m not going to find myself running out of time.”

– KIM THOMAS,

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Ron Clark remembers standing in the middle of a fireball, watching as his Nelson fish and chip shop exploded around him.

One second he had been preparing for Easter Weekend, his busiest time of the year; the next, he was engulfed in flames when a gas leak ignited. Just a huge explosion and then the building isn’t there.
“It happened instantaneously.”
Mr Clark, 67, is not sure how he made it out alive. You open up your eyes and it’s just the sky no walls, no roof and a ball of fire. I mean, Jesus, there was no building left.
“You couldn’t say that it was anything less than a miracle, really. The beard he kept for most of his life was burnt off- until the explosion his wife, Carole, had never seen him without it.”
He suffered burns to his arms, legs and face.
He had been standing beside a refrigerator when its motor kicked in and a spark ignited gas that had leaked from a vat.
Mr Clark, who has run the Milton Street Fish and Chip Cafe for eight years, is recovering in Hutt Hospital’s burns unit after last Thursday’s explosion. . The explosion knocked the shop’s roof off and blew out the back and front walls. “I could look down and see the skin falling offmy legs.
“I was just standing there one second, and then a split second later I am in a yellow ball of fire,” he said from his hospital bed.
Neighbours helped him, and firefighters were on the scene within minutes.”
Mr Clark stumbled out of his shop and across the street to a neighbour’s front yard, where he found a hose to douse himself with water.
He was later flown to Hutt Hospital, where his arms and legs were wrapped in man-made skin to protect him from infection.
They put a special cooling mask on his face, then took him to Nelson Hospital.
He is full of praise for the medical staff who treated him at the scene, as well as those in hospital, and is already planning to rebuild his fish and chip shop. Mr Clark believes the mask may have saved his face.

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Fellow bikies performed a haka chant as the coffin of Rebels motorcycle club life member Richard Roberts was lifted from a motorcycle sidecar at a crematorium in Canberra.

About 300 bikies attended Roberts’ funeral on Monday, remembering the man they called “Rebel Rick” as a “superstar” of drinking who “loved the chicks and they loved him”.

The 57-year-old New Zealand-born father of three was fatally shot last Tuesday at a suburban Canberra home.

Another Rebel said the slain man had “loved his club and loved to ride”.

“He was feared by those who didn’t know him, but loved by those who did,” a fellow bikie, known as Pappa, said of Roberts in a eulogy.”

Roberts was also remembered as a man with a “heart of gold” who “could make you laugh”.

“He was a hard worker.

Roberts was a New Zealander who shifted to Australia in 1973.

Engelbert Humperdinck’s cover version of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, with the poignant lyrics “Regrets? I’ve a had few”, was played after the eulogies. He had strong Maori connections.

Earlier, a procession of more than 300 bikies and an empty hearse moved through the northern suburbs of Canberra from a Rebels clubhouse in Queanbeyan to the Norwood Park Crematorium under police escort.

Bikies from Rebels chapters as far away as southeastern Victoria, the NSW central coast, Gundagai and Sydney attended the funeral.

A police car stood by as the bikies, most of them wearing helmets, ran a red light at the entrance to the crematorium.

The coffin containing Roberts’ body was carried on a sidecar.

Roberts and Gregory Carrigan, 48, were shot dead outside a southern Canberra house last week.

Roberts and Gregory Carrigan, 48, were shot dead outside a southern Canberra house last week.

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A spokeswoman for ACT police said the funeral and the procession through Canberra on Monday morning were incident-free.

The slayings were initially thought to be an explosion of violence between outlaw bikie gangs, but a long-time Rebels member has said they resulted from a bitter “love triangle”.

The proposed laws would allow police to apply to the Supreme Court for an order to prohibit members identified in an outlaw motorcycle gang from associating with each other.

The funeral was held as the NSW government is considering introducing tough new laws aimed at stamping out violent bikie gangs.

The night before Monday’s funeral, a Hells Angel member, believed to be Peter Zervas, 32, was gunned down outside his Sydney home. .

– AAP

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The man, who survived the shooting, is the brother of Anthony Zervas, 29, who last week was bludgeoned to death at Sydney airport during a brawl between members of the Hells Angels and the rival bikie gang Comancheros

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Alleged drug ring run by jailed killer

By MARTIN VAN BEYNEN Friday, 27 February 2009

Police have broken up an alleged drug ring operated from Christchurch Prison by a convicted murderer.
The inmate, a motorcycle gang member who cannot be named for legal reasons, was targeted in an operation by the Christchurch Drug Squad late last year. He was allegedly using a sophisticated cellphone that circumvented the jail's recently installed cellphone-blocking and jamming equipment. Rounding up suspected members began at Christchurch Airport on February 3 with the arrest of a woman as she arrived from Auckland.
The ring was mainly a distribution network that brought methamphetamine, commonly known as P, from Auckland to Christchurch.
The ring is believed to have turned over tens of thousands of dollars a month. Searches revealed she was allegedly carrying 39 grams of P with a street value of about $40,000. Further arrests have netted two men and four more women in Christchurch and two men in Auckland.
Those arrested face a variety of charges, including the supply of, and conspiracy to supply, methamphetamine after October last year.
Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Long, of the Christchurch Drug Squad, said police were not expecting any other arrests relating to the ring.
The police swoop also found cannabis, stolen property, firearms, including a loaded pistol in the possession of one offender, and $58,000 cash.
The inmate has been charged with conspiring to supply P and hashish and of supplying P.
"We're working hard to stop methamphetamine flowing into the local market and fuelling more crime.
"We're pleased we've managed to stop this alleged drug's network carrying on," Long said."
Corrections Minister Judith Collins, who has been highly critical of her department, did not want to comment."
Corrections Minister Judith Collins, who has been highly critical of her department, did not want to comment.
Phones are used to intimidate witnesses and organise crime.
A high-profile incident happened in 2005 when Sounds murderer Scott Watson sent pictures of his genitals to a woman outside the prison. "The prison site is being tested to ensure that the technology is effective and that there is no chance that the technology will leak outside the prison boundaries and affect legitimate cellphone users in the community," he said in a statement.
Southern assistant regional manager Ian Bourke said Christchurch Men's Prison was still in the process of receiving full cellphone-blocking coverage.
However, the phone allegedly used by the inmate was a third-generation phone that was able to beat the blockers.
Corrections has been rolling out jamming equipment at its prisons since last year.
Another Christchurch woman, aged 48, has appeared on the conspiracy charge but has received name suppression. . They were remanded in custody after appearing in the Auckland District Court.
Shane William Thorne, 46, and Say Tusong Lu were arrested in Auckland on similar charges.

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Police clean up boy racers in Hamilton?

– Saturday, 21 February 2009

Thousands of tickets have been issued and hundreds of cars have been impounded as Hamilton police's Brat Pack rained on the boy racers' parade along Te Rapa Straight.
Figures obtained by the show in the 12 months to June 2008, police performed 9837 compulsory and mobile breath tests and took 97 positive readings; 3359 infringement and traffic notices were issued; 166 people were arrested for various offences; 143 vehicles were seized; and 362 vehicles were either green or pink stickered.
At the time, police labelled the work "very productive".
"Te Rapa Rd used to be a bloody nightmare because they used Scotsman Grandstands along the service lane which has since been shut down.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said the five-officer-strong Brat Pack had made significant progress with the boy racer problem in Hamilton. Now it's really as soon as we see them starting to congregate you go and move them on. Then the liquor ban came in. .
When contacted, owner Jeff Olsen said not a lot had changed.
Washworld has been a popular congregating site for boy racers over the years, with varying amounts of broken bottles, spew and urine left decorating the premises."
Mr Olsen said there were occasional nights where it was worse than normal, but there were "very occasional" nights when nothing happened at all.
"It (happens) fairly regularly; lots of broken bottles, even though there's a liquor ban.
He was disappointed there had not been as much presence of police in Te Rapa as had been promised.
He said his staff would spend, on average, an hour cleaning up the mess left behind by boy racers.
"There's a liquor ban but it doesn't seem to have any affect.
"There's a liquor ban but it doesn't seem to have any affect."
He had noticed several congregation areas including Bunnings, Westpac and Fairview Motors and Shell Pukete car parks. If it was enforced and there was enough of a police presence then we wouldn't be picking all the RTD bottles and other junk up. It flares up and police do a bit of extra activity, something like the liquor ban; it hasn't solved the issue, it still carries on.
"It's gone on for a lot of years and a lot of talk on what's going to happen."
Shell Pukete manager Pierre Erasmus said staff spent every Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning picking up rubbish, broken bottles and McDonald's wrappers along with cleaning urine and graffiti off parts of the building. It's just something that we pretty much deal with."
Waikato police spokesperson Andrew McAlley said for a city the size of Hamilton police would never be able to remove all boy racers, but confirmed police were pleased there were no longer congregations of up to 2000 at a time as was the case about two years ago.
"If they weren't so messy it wouldn't be a problem.

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Victim may not walk again

Wednesday, 04 February 2009

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DANGEROUS SHORTCUT: Tony Krauskopf outside the Mount Vic bus tunnel where his Father, Earl Krauskopf, inset, was hit by a car. His dad had always told him not to walk through.’

The man seriously hurt in a hit-and-run in Wellington's Hataitai bus tunnel had told his son to never use the dangerous shortcut. ‘I don’t know why he was in there. .
Earl Krauskopf, 41, may never walk again, son Tony said. He must have just been in a hurry to get home. I don't know why he was in there. After celebrating a record week's takings, he was found lying in the bus tunnel at 4am on Saturday, having been struck by a vehicle."
Earl Krauskopf opened NYC Cafe in central Wellington just two months ago. He is in a critical condition in Wellington Hospital.
He suffered a badly broken pelvis, dislocated hip, nerve damage, a broken knee and broken hand, among other injuries. "There was no crushing like he had been run over.
Tony Krauskopf, 18, said that, from his father's injuries, it seemed the car might have hit him and stopped, before driving off."
He has taken over the cafe till his father leaves hospital, which could be months. Who would drive off after doing a thing like that? It's machine-like. I've got to do it for the old man. "So I'm 18 and I'm running a business." His father had briefly regained consciousness, and had no head injuries. I don't want him to come out and be in debt.
Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the bumps were replaced early yesterday.
Locals say boy racers had been speeding through the bus tunnel since speed bumps were removed during resealing work two weeks ago. There was also the question of who would be responsible for locking them.
Barrier arms were an option to control movement through the tunnel, but had not been costed.
She said the Mt Victoria Tunnel was "a dog" for pedestrians, which encouraged people to risk the bus tunnel.
She said the Mt Victoria Tunnel was "a dog" for pedestrians, which encouraged people to risk the bus tunnel.
Police have sent items of Mr Krauskopf's clothing for forensic testing. Detective Sergeant Dave Thornton said the car would be damaged and asked for anyone with information to contact them.
It was "hard to imagine" the driver had not realised he had hit someone.

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Witness describes seeing mother run over

By JIM KAYES – Tuesday, 03 February 2009

A loud thud then a squeal of tyres could be heard when south Auckland business woman Joanne Wang was fatally run over, a court was told today.
On the second day of the depositions hearing at Manukau District Court into charges against seven men the Crown says played various roles in Mrs Wang's murder, a third witness described seeing her run over in a car park at the Manukau Shopping Centre.
Miss Vaughn said she then heard a squeal of tyres as the car accelerated away.
Student Natahl Vaughn said she heard a loud thud "or donk" when the car the crown says was being driven by Christopher Jacob Junior Shadrock, 22, hit Mrs Wang, 39, who had been shopping with her eight-year-old son.
Shadrock has been charged with Mrs Wang's muder, along with the theft of her handbag and $4000 that was inside it money, and stealing the car used in the incident on June 16 last year. When she rushed to Mrs Wang's side, she was vomiting blood and unresponsive.
The Crown says they burnt the car used in the hit-and-run, and tried to hide the handbag.
Five others – Mateni Lynch, 19, Lionel Manaaki Tekanawa, 22, Maka Tuikolovatu, 20, Vila Lemanu, 24, and Terence Tere, 22 – are charged with being accessories after the fact of murder.
Much was made on the first day of the depositions hearing of Mrs Wang chasing after Shadrock as he tried to reverse out of the car park. .
However, today Miss Vaughn said Mrs Wang was at the side of the car, near the windscreen on the passenger side, as she tried to get Shadrock to stop.
Two witnesses said she was at the front of the car, banging on the bonnet.
The hearing, before justices of the peace Earle Mead and Mark Sinclair, is expected to finish by Thursday.

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Police puzzled by escape motive

– Thursday, 22 January 2009

Police are baffled as to why a long-term prisoner has done a runner when he was close to parole eligibility, calling his actions "bizarre and of concern".
Arai Hema, 30, disappeared from a work party at Auckland Prison yesterday. Police dogs tracked his scent to a close toby road where they believe he was picked up by a waiting vehicle.
"The decision by any long-term inmate to escape from custody and thereby jeopardise the prospect of achieving parole is a rare occurrence.
Detective Inspector Steve Wood, of Waitemata police, said Hema, a long-term inmate, had reached the point where he was under consideration for parole.
He was due to be eligible for parole in September next year. This inmate's behaviour indicates a degree of instability," he said.
Hema is serving an 11 year sentence for the rape of a 16-year-old Napier girl and the attempted murder of 76-year-old Bruce Butler, who attempted to intervene.
He was also serving a further six years for attacking prison guards in 2004. The Crown requested preventative detention, calling Hema a "smouldering keg of powder waiting to blow".
Police were now speaking with Hema's family and known associates throughout the North Island to try and track him down.
However, he was regarded as a minimum security prisoner prior to his escape.
Police warned the public not to approach Hema and to contact them with any information on his whereabouts.
Mr Wood urged Hema to contact police, saying the longer he was on the run, the longer his released date would be extended. .
Hema's escape is the third by prisoners this week