Two a penny

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Emma Watson arrived at her new US university campus by helicopter after pleading to remain “anonymous” as she starts her first term.

Despite the Harry Potter actress’ pleas to remain “anonymous” as she starts her first term at the prestigious Brown University in Rhode Island, she made a less than low-key entrance last week.

One student on campus said: “We couldn’t believe the Harry Potter girl got a chopper in. “I’ve not spoken to her yet, but word around campus is she’s pretty normal and OK, I haven’t seen any of her films, so I don’t know too much about her. I mean, my parents just drove me over from New York state – but I guess she’s had to come a long way, anyway.Emma – who has also previously modelled for Vogue magazine and Chanel – has enrolled in an English literature course at the university and attended her ‘orientation day’. . She is also believed to be taking a geology class for her first semester.She said: “I probably sound like a paranoid nut, but I’m doing this because I want to be normal.Emma has previously said she wants her university experience to be as “normal” as possible, despite starring in some of the biggest grossing films of all time.“I want to be normal, I want to do college properly, like everyone else. I really want anonymity.”

. As long as I don’t walk in and see, like, Harry Potter posters everywhere, I’ll be fine

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A British man living in New Zealand for the past five years has died in the overnight sinking of Tongan ferry Princess Ashika.

The dead man is understood to be Daniel Macmillan.

Mr Macmillan was travelling on a British passport, but had a New Zealand driver’s licence. He has reportedly lived in New Zealand for the past five to six years. .

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Forty people, many of them women and children, are missing and feared dead after the sinking of the inter-island ferry, which was heading from Nuku’alofa to Ha’afeva, in the Nomuka Islands group.

It is understood Mr Macmillan’s relatives live in a remote part of Scotland.

A British High Commission spokesperson in Wellington said the man’s UK family was in the process of being informed.

Mike Roberts, of New Zealand’s Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCCNZ), said tonight that of the 86 suspected people on board the ferry, 53 had been picked up safe and well.

The British man was among six foreigners on the ship, including Japanese, German and French nationals. The Shipping Corporation’s figure was 96 with 55 rescued.

However, reports of the number of people on board varied and it was possible more than 100 were on the Princess Ashika when she sank.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion will resume searching the area tomorrow morning.

”Tongan police are working to establish exactly who is still missing and liaising with next of kin,” Mr Roberts said.

MFAT had had no calls from anyone about other New Zealanders, Mr McCully said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully told reporters in Cairns the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) was liaising with British authorities about repatriating the British man’s body.

”Prime Minister (John) Key has taken the opportunity earlier today of conveying the condolences of the New Zealand people to the Tongan Prime Minister, who is obviously here at the forum.

”It’s obviously a terrible tragedy,” he said.

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The sinking was doubly tragic for the Pacific region as it followed last month’s ferry sinking in Kiribati, which left 33 people dead, Mr McCully said

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A senior immigration official rejects claims by British newspapers that New Zealand authorities are effectively sending home immigrant workers to save jobs for their own citizens.

“Claims of an anti-migrant job crisis in New Zealand are not supported by the facts,” Immigration New Zealand’s service delivery group manager Steve Cantlon said.”One can only feel sympathy for the plight of families who have had to return home as a result of the changing labour market .”The change in their economic circumstances is to be regretted, but it is not the result of an anti-immigrant jobs policy.”However, temporary workers have always known that there was no certainty that their permits would be extended or that they would be able to progress on to permanent residence.British expatriates “face losing their jobs and being kicked out of the country” as a result of the credit crunch and what is said to be a major shift in policy by the New Zealand government, the Daily Mail newspaper reported in London. .”The dreams of hundreds who left for a better life on the other side of the world are now turning into nightmares.3 million, tough economic times have led to jobs going to native New Zealanders first.”With unemployment at a six-year high of 5 percent of the population of 4.But Britons in New Zealand who were being left without work had complained they were being hurt by a “jobs for Kiwis” trend.”The newspaper said one factor was New Zealand emigrants who had lost their jobs overseas returning home, and that more than 3000 of the 26,000 who returned last year ended up on benefits.One member of the group, Mike Bell, of Christchurch, said: “We are seeing families who have worked here years being effectively kicked out in two weeks.A migrant assistance group, Move2NZ, created by two Britons who emigrated nine years ago, has issued a pamphlet that claimed the attitude of officials is: “We’ve taken your money, used your skills, now bugger off!” London’s Telegraph newspaper reported.”Many have existing jobs or offers of work in areas listed by immigration as being in dire shortage.”Many have existing jobs or offers of work in areas listed by immigration as being in dire shortage.Employers wanting to bring in a migrant worker to do those jobs will have to show there are no suitable New Zealanders available in their region.Affected trades included bakers, sheep farm workers and construction sector occupations, such as bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers and scaffolders. But they are effectively being told New Zealand doesn’t want them any more”.Mr Bell said: ” These workers have been invited.The Government’s long-term skill shortage list of 60 professions, included air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics, automotive mechanics, boat builders, electricians and fitters and turners.But Mr Cantlon said immigration policy had always been based on ensuring that New Zealanders have the first opportunity to take up work vacancies.Removal of 44 occupations from that list last month reflected an ” astute adjustment” between supply and demand. And the 87 professions still on the immediate skills shortage list included laboratory technicians, gasfitters and glaziers.

.”There is now an increased supply of New Zealand citizens and permanent residents available who are qualified to fill positions previously on the skill shortage lists,” Mr Cantlon said

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Fire safety warnings on children’s nightwear are now compulsory after the death of one young boy and serious injuries to at least four others.

Retailers who fail to ensure the correct labels appear on pyjamas, nighties and other sleepwear face prosecution by the Commerce Commission from this month.

Four-year-old Corwin Bridge, of Red Beach, near Orewa, died of his burns in September 2007 after 2 1/2 months in Middlemore Hospital.

The Consumer Affairs Ministry regulations were introduced after several children were burnt when their pyjamas caught fire.

At least four more children under 10 were burnt in similar accidents in the four years before the regulations were passed. His pyjamas caught fire when he sat near a gas heater at a family member’s house.

Hamilton boy Jack Livingstone, 5, was badly burnt when his Chinese-made cotton pyjamas caught fire in 2007. The new colour-coded labels were phased in from July last year, but became compulsory on all sleepwear at the beginning of this month.

His road to recovery began with skin grafts and he wore a pressure suit for 23 hours a day for two years. He had been sitting in front of a gas heater watching television with his sister when the fabric ignited. .

He was able to switch to a less restrictive pressure sleeve just before he started school this year.

“The burns have healed to skin colour, it’s a little bit rough from the skin grafts, but overall he’s just getting on with it.

Jack had bounced back from his injuries and was not expected to have continuing problems, Mr Livingstone said yesterday.

The labels come in three colours white, orange and red and are coded according to their safety level, based on the garment’s style and fabric.”

Mr Livingstone said the new labelling was “a great idea, as long as every retailer abides by it”. Under the new system, they would have an orange label.

Jack’s pyjamas were bought from The Warehouse and were labelled a low fire risk.

The Warehouse would not comment on the new regulations yesterday. They were withdrawn from sale after a second boy suffered burns. It is either made of fabric that burns more slowly such as wool or is close-fitting.

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TAG! YOU’RE WEARING A FIRE SAFETY GUIDE!

WHITE: This label means the garment is a lower fire risk.

RED: The garment is a higher fire risk, either as a result of its fabric or because it is loose-fitting.

ORANGE: Label denotes garment made of a higher-risk fabric such as cotton, but is designed to be worn snug-fitting to reduce fire risk.

The safety regulations apply to all businesses involved in the manufacture, distribution and sale of children’s nightwear.

The safety regulations apply to all businesses involved in the manufacture, distribution and sale of children’s nightwear.

Individuals who breach the rules can be fined up to $60,000 corporations up to $200,000 under the Fair Trading Act.

The ministry urges parents to remember the “metre from the heater” rule to avoid fire danger.

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Manilow plan to calm Christchurch youth

By CHARLIE GATES – Tuesday, 03 March 2009

EASY LISTENING: Barry Manilow’s sweet sounds may be used to calm down unruly young people in Christchurch’s Stewart Plaza.

Barry Manilow could become the latest weapon to control intimidating youths in central Christchurch.
Central City Business Association manager Paul Lonsdale is exploring plans to install speakers in Stewart Plaza to play "nice, easy listening" music to calm behaviour.
Copacabana, Can't Smile Without You, Mandy and other hits from the American crooner could be played in Stewart Plaza to disperse large groups of youths accused of littering, tagging and general disorder.
"If we put music through the City Mall, it would change the environment in some respects.
The technique has been used worldwide as a way to make places unattractive to youths. If they are aggressive and intimidating, that is a problem," he said. We do not mind young people being there, it is just what they do when they are there..
"If you look at pedestrian flows people do not walk through that area . ..
"It is not very PC and the idea is not to do that to your environment."
A device that makes a high-pitched noise that only young people can hear has also been used abroad to disperse teens, but that was seen as too aggressive.
Teens gathered in Stewart Plaza yesterday said they would not be deterred by unfashionable music. You can create a nice environment by introducing nice music," said Lonsdale. "We would just bring a stereo and play it louder.
Emma Belcher, 16, said they would combat the music with their own.
Shelley McManis, 17, said the plan was laughable. It would just be a waste of power and that would be bad for the environment," she said.
"I do not always like it here. "That would just be funny."
City centre community constable Nigel Heslop welcomed the idea as a "classic example of how a local community can do something". The atmosphere can sometimes be intimidating and there are fights all the time, but it is a good place to have a chat.
"It is low level, but it is consistently there and so it needs to be consistently policed.
"It is low level, but it is consistently there and so it needs to be consistently policed. Generally, we will arrest as we are trying to take a zero-tolerance attitude to disorder there," he said.
Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince supported the move as part of plans to target problem spots in the city.
It would also help protect the garden city's reputation.

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Surgery for brutally bashed war veteran

– Friday, 20 February 2009

BASHED: Police have released this image of Eric Brady, an 85-year-old man who was viciously beaten by a would-be car thief.

Brutally bashed war veteran Eric Brady will be operated on this afternoon.
The victim of a failed car-jacking, the 85-year-old pensioner was beaten so badly he was left with a broken jaw, cracked cheekbones and severe bruising.30pm, through a rear door leading to the car park.
Mr Brady, of Papatoetoe, had been enjoying a quiet drink at his local RSA on Wednesday night and left about 8. .
Detective Sergeant Shaun Vickers said Mr Brady was grabbed as he was getting into his car and assaulted.
"The offender then looked as if he was going to flee the scene but made a successful second attempt to pull Mr Brady out of the car," he said.
He fled the scene with the car keys while Mr Brady crawled to the rear door of the RSA, where he was found by another elderly man, Mr Vickers said.
But his attacker was unable to drive off in the white Toyota Sprinter Hatchback, as the car had an immobiliser.

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An RSA spokesperson said Mr Brady was in a stable condition in Middlemore Hospital and would be operated on this afternoon

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NZ sun too strong for vitamin D advice

By FINBARR BUNTING – Sunday, 15 February 2009

SUNSHINE GIRLS: Vanessa Cailleretz and Delphine Nicolet enjoy the sun at Takapuna beach. .
UK health campaigner Oliver Gillie has even called for the scrapping of the UK's Sunsmart campaign (similar to the New Zealand campaign of the same name), calling for public health bodies to encourage sunbathing.
New research from England's Bristol University has lent weight to the argument of campaigners in the UK who say vitamin D deficiency – which is often caused by inadequate sun exposure – may be a danger that outweighs the risk of skin cancer.
She says New Zealand's unique conditions, with UV levels up to 40 percent higher than those recorded in the UK and some of the highest rates of melanoma in the world, means the Sunsmart message is an important one.
But Dr Judith Galtry of the Cancer Society says there is no need for New Zealand to change its official stance on sun protection.
The difference was attributed to the elevation of vitamin D levels in mothers during the longer, brighter summer days.
The Bristol study showed children born to women whose pregnancy spanned summer months were taller and had thicker bones than children who were gestated through winter.
However, the Cancer Society does recommend some sun exposure for vitamin D synthesis.
Vitamin D deficiency has previously been linked to prostate cancer, tuberculosis, breast cancer, diabetes and even multiple sclerosis by some researchers, although Galtry says there is still debate over whether vitamin D deficiency is a contributor to poor health, or simply a marker of it. During winter, sun protection is advised only around snow or water.
It advises only that New Zealanders protect themselves during the sunny months from September and March, and only between 11 and 4pm.
He says our vitamin D deficiency levels are comparable with that of the UK and higher than North America.
But Professor Robert Scragg of the School for Population Health at the University of Auckland says too much focus is put on people staying out of the sun.

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He says people should aim for short regular bursts of sunlight, without sunscreen, rather than prolonged exposure, which is more damaging to the body

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Southerner to rejoin bushfire battle

By MICHAEL FORBES – Tuesday, 10 February 2009

JOHN HAWKINS/137397
AUSSIE MISSION: Southland pilot Dave Latham at Invercargill airport yesterday before flying out to Sydney to help fight the Australian bushfires.

As the firestorm ripping through southeast Australia continues to take lives, Southlander Dave Latham is heading back across the Tasman to help.
The Invercargill pilot has spent the past week flying helicopters in Merimbula, just north of the Victorian border, helping authorities battle a 4000-hectare blaze with 1500-litre monsoon buckets.
It is a job the pilot of 21 years' experience knows well, having flown monsoon buckets in Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Caledonia.
Mr Latham came home at the weekend to rest but returned to Sydney yesterday to begin another 10 days on the fire-relief frontline.
"Some of the stuff you hear about is quite amazing.
But he describes the tragedy in Victoria as the largest and most horrific fire he has ever encountered. People driving through the flames and idiots taking tour buses up to some of the fires," he said. You just have to look at the number of people who have been consumed in their cars and houses. "People don't realise how quickly a fire like that can spread in 43 to 44 degrees (Celsius).
Not learning those lessons also comes at a price, according to Mr Latham."
Mr Latham said the potential for a disaster of this magnitude had always been high, in his eyes, because Australians were forgetting the lessons learned from the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, which claimed 75 lives. . "The cost of flying my aircraft (a Bell 205 similar to an Iroquois military helicopter) is $200,000 a day, not counting everything else (foam and fire retardant). "You cannot get an Australian bushfire properly under control until the conditions cool significantly, so those fires could burn until March. "You cannot get an Australian bushfire properly under control until the conditions cool significantly, so those fires could burn until March.

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"I'd never worried about his safety until he drove away the other day," she said

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Police failed to search man who died in cell

The Wednesday, 28 January 2009

A Rotorua prisoner found dead in a police cell had not been searched for personal items that he could use to harm himself or others, an inquest has been told.
Anthony Patrick McGuire, 33, a chef, was found dead in the Rotorua police station remand cells on March 26 last year.
He had been arrested on a domestic violence matter that day and charged with assault with intent to injure.
Mr McGuire was denied bail and locked up at 5. . But he was found dead in the cell just before 9pm.30pm to appear in court the next day. Police described the death as self-harm. The cause and circumstances surrounding the death had to be examined because the lapses allowed Mr McGuire to take his own life, Mr Pilditch said.
Appearing for the police, crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch told the inquest in Rotorua yesterday that police accepted there had been important lapses of procedure in processing Mr McGuire leading up to his death.
He was locked in the cell without being searched and with personal items that should have been removed as a result of their self-harming potential, Mr Pilditch said.
Mr McGuire was not assessed for risks he posed to himself or others when he was processed at the police station.
There had been confusion between sworn police staff and non-sworn custody officers about who was responsible for what duties when a prisoner was processed.
Station supervisor Senior Sergeant Colin McPherson said that, at the time, the remand wing was being moved to a new site.
Custody officer Kevin Rowell told the inquest that he and another custody officer, John Cunningham, were on duty that night and responsible for processing Mr McGuire.
Custody officer Kevin Rowell told the inquest that he and another custody officer, John Cunningham, were on duty that night and responsible for processing Mr McGuire. Then he went "very quiet", Mr Rowell said. He was not angry with police until he was told he had been denied bail. "I was absolutely dumbfounded when I realised," he said.
He could not remember locking Mr McGuire in the cell but later admitted, after viewing security camera footage, that he had.
The inquest continues today.
Both men said they processed about 22 prisoners that day and it was the busiest night they could remember.

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Bibles reaching captive audience

Saturday, 24 January 2009

The word of God was originally delivered from on high and a Christchurch woman is attempting to take it back there.
Redcliffs architect Ria Wayne is trying to put Bibles into every Department of Conservation hut in New Zealand.
The idea first came to her after meeting four Australians at French Ridge Hut below Mt Aspiring who had been trapped by the weather for four days.
Since she began her mission eight years ago, forming charitable trust Seek Freedom, she and trust volunteers have put Bibles into 375 of DOC's 950 huts. .
"I realised then this was a captive audience," she told the Salvation Army's magazine, War Cry."
But not all the reaction to the Bibles has been positive with some destroyed by trampers.
"It really is the most powerful place to get life into perspective.
DOC recreation senior technical officer Brian Dobbie said permission had been sought and granted to put Bibles in huts.
"People have emailed to express their disapproval and have told me that they will work to remove as many Bibles as they possibly can," she told the magazine. "We're quite happy to have Bibles put in huts.
"It was a minor policy issue," he said.
"You'd be grateful for both especially if you got stuck with nothing to read for two days while you waited for the weather to clear."
Dobbie said the only other literature distributed to huts was a collection of New Zealand short stories.
Grant Piper, a former Canterbury/Westland Alpine Club president, said it was good to have any sort of reading material in the huts."
Dobbie said he had had no feedback on the Bibles.
And they could definitely come in handy.
"I don't think anyone really cares either way, so good on them," he said."

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"Given the option of a ropey old Reader's Digest I would rather use a page from a Bible to start a fire