Two a penny

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New Zealand golfer David Smail was left fuming after his group was put on the clock mid round on day two of the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Minnesota.

Smail made it through to the opening two rounds in his maiden US PGA showing with scores of 75 and 73 for a four-over par tally and right on the halfway cut-off mark.

But while Smail was delighted with his efforts on the longest venue in Major’s history, he was far from pleased with the events that unfolded on the par five, third hole that he was playing as his 12th.

Smail’s effort makes amends after the 39-year old Hamilton player sat out the closing two rounds of this year’s US Open and British Open championships.

“I had hit a good drive down the middle but then my second shot then just ran off into the first cut of rough before I hit my third `fat’ that landed on the fourth tee,” he said.

Smail eventually walked away with a double bogey to drop back to four over par, but then hung on grimly to par his remaining six holes and ensure his place over the weekend.

“It was then a rules official came up to the group to say we were being put on the clock.

“I had no shot from there and managed to get it on the green.”

The player in question was 47-year old American Michael Miles, also competing in his first US PGA.

“But it’s just disturbing that a rules official should put us on the clock when one player in our group, and I am not naming names, but there was one guy in our group and he was the reason we were out of place and behind the group ahead.

Miles, who also qualified for June’s US Open, buckled under the weight of a second round 81 to miss the cut with a nine over par total.

Miles is the Assistant Professional at the Virginia Country Club course in Long Beach, California and qualified for the event after finishing tied 16th in the 2009 PGA Professional National Championship.

“But it’s just disappointing when one of your playing partners just doesn’t try to make the effort to catch up.

“We were slow and we were at least a hole behind, so we deserved to be on the clock,” Smail admitted.”

Smail went to the next tee fuming and it took the intervention of his wife, Sheree, who was walking with her husband, to defuse his anger. If he did, we wouldn’t have been on the clock, and we wouldn’t have to worry.

“But I found myself starting to rush my shots so it did take a while to settle down.

“I have always been a quick player and Sheree knows my game, and she was watching from the sidelines signalling to me to calm down,” Smail said.

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The New Zealand navy team trying to find the wreckage of the sunken Princess Ashika faces a “challenging environment” with depths of up to 800m, commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Andrew McMillan says.

A 15-strong team, comprising 12 drivers and a three-member remote search team, spent a second day today searching for the Tongan inter-island ferry, which sank on Wednesday with 149 people on board.Police say the final number of missing could be higher, and they were continuing to analyse information about unrecorded people on board the vessel, whose official manifest showed only 79 passengers and crew.Two bodies and 54 survivors have been found, while 93 people remain unaccounted for.However, nothing was found.

Mr McMillan said the team today focused on a 50-110m deep site where an oil slick and debris had been seen, and where the Tongan Defence Service’s echo sounder had appeared to detect an object. It ranges from 35m down to 110m down to 800m,” he said.”The topography of the seafloor is a very challenging environment here.”The New Zealand equipment had a limitation of 100m -”or, if we’re very lucky, 115m”.”You don’t have to travel very far and the depth can change very quickly.”But we’ll certainly do our best.”So with the topography, with the uncertainty of where the vessel has gone down, we have to face the realisation that we might not even be able to find it.Those members who remained in the capital Nuku’alofa tonight attended a multi-denominational remembrance service which attracted about 1000 people.”The team would spend tonight aboard Tongan patrol boat and resume their search tomorrow.Earlier he said a complete manifest was held by a crew member on the ferry when it sailed but that had been lost in the sinking.Tongan police commander Chris Kelley gave those there an update on the situation.Survivors have described how they saw the ferry hit by a 1m wave which swept the cargo to one side, resulting in the vessel to overturn.”What we are faced (with) is that people are telling us is they put people on the boat and they weren’t on the manifest that was supplied here,” he said.Mr Kelley said police and government support teams were visiting families throughout the kingdom “to try to confirm the exact number and identity of people on board”.”The ferry sank so quickly that no one was able to do anything, and I think the passengers inside just couldn’t make it out in time because the ferry just overturned and sank so quickly, in a minute,” survivor Viliami Latu Mohenoa said. .Efforts were also under way to identify foreign nationals among the passengers.

.”The two bodies recovered were of a British national who had been living in New Zealand and a Tongan woman

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Henry Louis Gates Jr, the pre-eminent African-American scholar, is accusing police of racism after he was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University.

Cambridge police were called to the home on Thursday afternoon (local time) after a woman reported seeing a man “wedging his shoulder into the front door as to pry the door open,” according to a police report.

An officer ordered the man to identify himself, and Gates refused, according to the report.”

Officers said they tried to calm down the 58-year-old academic, who responded, “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” according to the police report. Gates began calling the officer a racist and said repeatedly, “This is what happens to black men in America. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious “university professors” positions at the school.

Gates is the director of Harvard University’s WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and served for 15 years as chairman of what is now the Department of African and African American Research.

He also was host of African American Lives, a PBS show about the family histories of prominent US blacks.

Gates was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behaviour”. Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.

Gates referred comment to his lawyer, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, who was not immediately available. . The woman who reported Gates did not return a message on Monday. Cambridge police declined to comment, and the Middlesex district attorney’s office said it could not do so until after Gates’ arraignment.

Many of Gates’ African-American colleagues believe his arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge, said Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years.

Many of Gates’ African-American colleagues believe his arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge, said Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years.

“We do not believe that this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white,” Counter said. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.”

Counter said he spoke to Gates, who told him police continued to question him after he showed them his licence and Harvard identification. “It really has been very unsettling for African-Americans throughout Harvard and throughout Cambridge that this happened.

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South Africa’s ruling ANC has won a sweeping election victory and party leader Jacob Zuma pledged that as president he would work with unions and business to ensure stability amid global turmoil.

“There will be no surprises in the next administration’s programme of action,” Zuma said in a victory speech.

“The electorate has endorsed our call for an equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth path that will bring decent work and sustainable livelihoods,” Zuma, who is due to be sworn in as president on May 9, said.9 percent of the vote, a big victory but just short of the two-thirds needed to ensure a parliamentary majority big enough to make constitutional changes unchallenged.

Official results of Wednesday’s election gave Zuma’s African National Congress 65. Despite some market concerns over whether the ANC would get the two-thirds majority, the party repeatedly has stressed it has no intention of changing the constitution.

The margin that would let the ANC change the constitution is largely symbolic.

Although a newly formed party of ANC dissidents failed to make a dramatic impact, the ruling party has seen its share of the vote fall for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Political analyst Steven Friedman said the result meant the ANC now had to worry more about the opposition than it had since the party took power 15 years ago. It won close toly 70 percent in 2004.

“The ANC has to worry more about the opposition now than it has had to do since democracy.

“The effect of them not getting the two-thirds, despite the euphoria, really underlines that there has been a drop in the ANC vote,” he said.

RECESSION THREAT

But Zuma has done all he can to emphasise that there will be no dramatic change, particularly as South Africa faces its first recession in 17 years as a result of the global financial crisis and cannot afford to discourage investment.”

Financial markets wary of a policy shift to the left under a Zuma presidency may welcome a limit on the party’s power. .

In his speech, he addressed both business interests and the leftist allies who helped his rise to power during eight years of struggling against corruption charges, which were dismissed early this month on a technicality.

Zuma, who said he was not disappointed that the ANC did not achieve a two-thirds majority, also called on South Africans to get over the divisions of the past. We will work with all stakeholders, especially business and labour, to find ways to prevent and cushion our people against job losses and other difficulties that may arise,” he said. We must enter a period in which South Africa reclaims its position and image as a thriving nation, which can overcome all its difficulties, and which is able to put the country first above sectional and party political interests.

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“It is now time to put it all behind us.

The Independent Electoral Commission said the ANC will be allocated 264 seats in South Africa’s 400-seat parliament after it won 11.”

He said South Africa will continue with its efforts to find lasting solutions for political stability in neighbouring Zimbabwe and other flashpoints in Africa.68 million valid votes cast in the April 22 election.65 million votes out of 17.

Zille’s DA was the ANC’s closest rival with 16.

The ANC also lost control of the Western Cape province, centre of the tourist industry, to the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Helen Zille, a white woman. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7.42 percent. The DA will get 67 seats in parliament and COPE 30.

Inkatha Freedom Party support waned to 4.56 percent, giving it 18 parliamentary seats, of the vote from 6.97 percent in 2004. The ANC also made inroads into the IFP’s traditional support base in KwaZulu-Natal province, home to South Africa’s Zulus — the biggest tribal group, of which Zuma is a member.

Electoral officials said the turnout was 77.3 percent, a little higher than in 2004.

The rand currency firmed well over 2 percent against the dollar to a new 6-1/2-month high late on Friday, aided by a strong euro and higher stocks as well as the smooth election.

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Somali pirates seize another ship

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.

South Africa’s ruling ANC has won a sweeping election victory and party leader Jacob Zuma pledged that as president he would work with unions and business to ensure stability amid global turmoil.

“There will be no surprises in the next administration’s programme of action,” Zuma said in a victory speech.

“The electorate has endorsed our call for an equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth path that will bring decent work and sustainable livelihoods,” Zuma, who is due to be sworn in as president on May 9, said.9 percent of the vote, a big victory but just short of the two-thirds needed to ensure a parliamentary majority big enough to make constitutional changes unchallenged.

Official results of Wednesday’s election gave Zuma’s African National Congress 65. Despite some market concerns over whether the ANC would get the two-thirds majority, the party repeatedly has stressed it has no intention of changing the constitution.

The margin that would let the ANC change the constitution is largely symbolic.

Although a newly formed party of ANC dissidents failed to make a dramatic impact, the ruling party has seen its share of the vote fall for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Political analyst Steven Friedman said the result meant the ANC now had to worry more about the opposition than it had since the party took power 15 years ago. It won close toly 70 percent in 2004.

“The ANC has to worry more about the opposition now than it has had to do since democracy.

“The effect of them not getting the two-thirds, despite the euphoria, really underlines that there has been a drop in the ANC vote,” he said.

RECESSION THREAT

But Zuma has done all he can to emphasise that there will be no dramatic change, particularly as South Africa faces its first recession in 17 years as a result of the global financial crisis and cannot afford to discourage investment.”

Financial markets wary of a policy shift to the left under a Zuma presidency may welcome a limit on the party’s power. .

In his speech, he addressed both business interests and the leftist allies who helped his rise to power during eight years of struggling against corruption charges, which were dismissed early this month on a technicality.

Zuma, who said he was not disappointed that the ANC did not achieve a two-thirds majority, also called on South Africans to get over the divisions of the past. We will work with all stakeholders, especially business and labour, to find ways to prevent and cushion our people against job losses and other difficulties that may arise,” he said. We must enter a period in which South Africa reclaims its position and image as a thriving nation, which can overcome all its difficulties, and which is able to put the country first above sectional and party political interests.

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“It is now time to put it all behind us.

The Independent Electoral Commission said the ANC will be allocated 264 seats in South Africa’s 400-seat parliament after it won 11.”

He said South Africa will continue with its efforts to find lasting solutions for political stability in neighbouring Zimbabwe and other flashpoints in Africa.68 million valid votes cast in the April 22 election.65 million votes out of 17.

Zille’s DA was the ANC’s closest rival with 16.

The ANC also lost control of the Western Cape province, centre of the tourist industry, to the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Helen Zille, a white woman. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7. The Congress of the People (COPE), formed by politicians who broke from the ruling party, stood at 7.42 percent. The DA will get 67 seats in parliament and COPE 30.

Inkatha Freedom Party support waned to 4.56 percent, giving it 18 parliamentary seats, of the vote from 6.97 percent in 2004. The ANC also made inroads into the IFP’s traditional support base in KwaZulu-Natal province, home to South Africa’s Zulus — the biggest tribal group, of which Zuma is a member.

Electoral officials said the turnout was 77.3 percent, a little higher than in 2004.

The rand currency firmed well over 2 percent against the dollar to a new 6-1/2-month high late on Friday, aided by a strong euro and higher stocks as well as the smooth election.

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Somali pirates seize another ship

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New Zealand’s Canadian High Commissioner has blamed Kiwis’ “rednecky element” for comments suggesting a tourist should go home after complaining about Eskimo lollies.

NZ High Commissioner Kate Lackey said New Zealand residents were as loyal to Eskimos lollies as Canadians were to Tim Hortons coffee, the Canadian Press reported.
But rude radio comments and online calls for the 21-year-old tourist to head back to Canada were not acceptable, she told Canadian media yesterday.
“I’ll probably get into trouble in New Zealand for saying such a thing, but often there’s a sort of ‘rednecky’ element .
“I would hope New Zealanders would be a bit more courteous and understanding,” Lackey said… The people who get on talk-back (radio) and Stuff haven’t had time to think through a bit more deeply how the other person might feel.
In the blogosphere, on talkback and around watercoolers, New Zealanders have been debating whether Eskimo lollies are offensive to Inuit afterMs Parson’s, 21, said the term was offensive to her people.”
The Eskimo lolly controversy, which erupted this week, has gone international since Canadian tourist Seeka Lee Veevee Parsons told the the sweets were insensitive to her culture and bought back painful memories of racism in Canada as a child.
Confectionary company Pascalls, which produces the sweet, has refused to stop making the “iconic New Zealand lolly”. . Hundreds more comments were rejected on grounds of offensiveness.
Hundreds of readers commented on the story, with a strong thread arguing the call was another case of political correctness gone mad.
Ms Lackey defended Pascalls’ business decision, which she said was “a wee bit hard-hearted”.
Ms Lackey defended Pascalls’ business decision, which she said was “a wee bit hard-hearted”.”
She said she has the highest admiration for the Inuit and has travelled across Canada’s North. I think New Zealanders would have had absolutely no idea that it might cause offence to another people.

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Finger cut off over $170 and Fairmont car

Thursday, 26 February 2009

Two men have admitted cutting part of a flatmate's finger off over a dispute about $170 and a 1976 Ford Fairmont.
Roger Johnson, 46, and Shayne Fryer, 37, both unemployed of Waipukurau, appeared in Napier District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to maiming with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Lee Walter. The court was told Johnson and Fryer had been drinking large quantities of alcohol when they woke Mr Walter at 1.
Mr Walter, 49, had been staying at the men's house for a few days. They bailed him up in a corner of the living room while Fryer threatened him with a 30-centimetre-long butcher's knife.30am on October 2 last year.
While Fryer discussed where he was going to cut Mr Walter, Johnson told him to cut his little finger off and grabbed the knife from Fryer.
Mr Walter said he was going to give Fryer his Ford Fairmont car and $170 cash for letting him stay at his house, but he had been unable to raise the cash. . He demanded Mr Walter hold out the little finger on his left hand.
"I thought they were joking at first but I started getting worried when they started talking about which part of me they were going to cut off.
Fryer forced Mr Walter's hand on to a mantelpiece and Johnson severed the finger at the knuckle closest to the fingertip.
He walked from the room, covered his bleeding finger with a towel and asked Johnson for his finger back. He cut my finger off, said, `The car's mine, pay the rent tomorrow or else,"' Mr Walter said. Mr Walter waited in the house a short while then sneaked out and sought help at a close toby service station. Johnson laughed, then handed it to him.
"It's a lot shorter than it was before. An ambulance took him to hospital but attempts to reattach the finger were unsuccessful. I get pain in it now and again. I can't play guitar any more. The car, which remains in Mr Walter's possession, was worth less than $500, he said. It's just not the same," Mr Walter said. Fryer, a sentenced prisoner, will appear on the same day.
Johnson was remanded in custody for sentencing in May.

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Mermaid dream comes true thanks to Weta

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

STEVE UNWIN
WHAT A TALE: Auckland woman, Nadya Vessey wrote to Weta Workshop in Wellington asking if they would help her realise a life long dream and make her a fully functional mermaid tail so she could swim.

Nadya Vessey lost her legs as a child but now she swims like a mermaid. .
She lost both legs below the knee from a medical condition when she was a child and told Close Up last night her long-held dream had come true. She was astounded when they agreed.
Ms Vessey told a little boy: "I'm a little mermaid" when he asked what happened to her legs and the idea stuck. "A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it and you have to mentally make it part of yourself," she said.
Weta Workshop director Richard Taylor, more used to winning Oscars for visual effects from movies such as Lord of the Rings, was delighted to make it happen. We haven't always been able to fulfil some requests.
"She was very patient."
Weta costumer Lee Williams, who worked on the suit between film projects with seven other staff, told Close Up she "wanted [Nadya] to be beautiful and sexy". We were engaged in it pretty quickly because it was a challenge. "It was absolutely amazing.
After seeing Ms Vessey test the tail in Kilbirnie pool then frolic in the harbour, Ms Williams was stoked. It's beautiful to watch Nadya swim and to see that dream come true and to be a part of that. It's beautiful to watch Nadya swim and to see that dream come true and to be a part of that. Mermaid-like scales were painted by hand."
The suit was made mostly of wetsuit fabric and plastic moulds, and was covered in a digitally printed sock. "What became apparent was that she actually physically wanted to look like a mermaid.
Mr Taylor said not only did the tail have to be functional, it was important it looked realistic."

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Antonie Dixon was master manipulator

‘Unfettered’ access to drugs and sex with ‘psychologist’ in prison

– Sunday, 08 February 2009

AntonieDixon lived the high life even behind bars – he had "unfettered" access to sex, drugs and other illegal contraband.
And, according to one of the killer's former cellmates, he and Dixon once partied on the drug P for six days straight while they were locked up together at Auckland Central Remand Prison.
has also obtained an until-now-secret police report which details Dixon's prison sex romps with a woman who duped authorities by posing as a registered psychologist.
The close personal friend claimed he and the samurai swordsman consumed more than 15 grams of the class A drug during the binge, smuggled into the prison last November.
Defence lawyers argued Dixon was insane caused by years of horrific abuse as a child.
Dixon was convicted of murder and causing grievous bodily harm in 2005 after he went on a P-fuelled rampage, slashing Simonne Butler and Renee Gunbie with a samurai sword before gunning down James Te Aute.
But he was again found guilty after a seven-week retrial at Auckland High Court last year.
Dixon was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years until his lawyers successfully appealed the decision.
The confidential 2004 police report revealed Corrections allowed Dixon and the "psychologist" to have one-on-one sessions and how prison authorities were not aware of the locked-up lovefest until guards began hearing "strange noises" coming from the room the pair were using during the 2003 incident. On Thursday Dixon died of suspected suicide on the day he was due to be re-sentenced.
"Staff believed that the relationship between the two is more than strictly professional.
"When the (guards) looked they saw Dixon standing behind and over (the fake psychologist)," the detective who prepared the report wrote.
Police concluded Corrections were oblivious to Dixon's ability to manipulate contraband regulations."
The police probe found the phoney psychologist was in fact a long-time friend of Dixon's and was not only servicing his sexual desires but smuggling drugs and cellphones into his jail.
"(Corrections) were obviously not aware how easy it has been for Dixon to have things brought in or taken out of prison on his behalf although (Corrections) did observe that Dixon could easily obtain items from prisoners in transport who walk past his cell and slip things into him.
The situation was branded a "debacle" and police came to the view Dixon had "unfettered access to cellphones, meth and any visitors he wanted".
Wayne said while Dixon was locked up he devoted a lot of energy to a number of females who would regularly write to and visit him."
Dixon's former cellmate, who has agreed to refer to only as Wayne, said his mate found it easy to give Corrections the run-around.
"They were infatuated by him and that bad-boy image.
He said the crime groupies were so captivated by Dixon's infamy, one had his initials tattooed on her neck.
He said the sexual abuse Dixon suffered as a child no doubt fuelled the almost 170 convictions he amassed before his death."
Wayne said his mate was a victim as much as he was a criminal."
Wayne claims Dixon had issues long before he started puffing P.
"He was a victim of his upbringing and environment and I have no doubt that it was the physical and sexual abuse rather than the P that triggered his paranoia.
It was an opinion shared by a senior corrections officer, who according to the 2004 police report believed Dixon was "not psychotic, just manipulative".
It was an opinion shared by a senior corrections officer, who according to the 2004 police report believed Dixon was "not psychotic, just manipulative".
Wayne said suicide wasn't Dixon's style and he believed if Dixon wanted to end it all, he'd go out "all guns blazing". .
"He certainly wouldn't have been fazed by the fact he was about to be sentenced.
"He had absolutely no remorse for his crimes. They did not bother him."
Wayne said Dixon thrived on his public notoriety and would have been excited at the prospect of a huge media contingent at his High Court sentencing this week.
"He was an attention-seeker. He loved the infamy."
Wayne claimed Corrections officials had washed their hands of Dixon and put him in the "too-hard basket".
Dixon would play mind games with fellow inmates often concocting stories to embarrass them or put them at risk of harm.
The former cellmate said it was a way for Dixon to ease the boredom and occupy his mind.
"(Corrections) didn't want him to go to classes because they would have to double up on the number of guards because of the security risk. They offered him nothing at all."
But despite that, Dixon knew his life hadn't turned out how it could.
Wayne said during his final conversation with his best mate about a week-and-a-half ago, the murderer specifically requested his help with his 15-year-old son to ensure he didn't follow in his father's footsteps.
"That was important to him."
A Corrections spokeswoman last night said, because the department had launched an inquiry into Dixon's death, no comment on the new allegations would be made.

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Toastman talks about living with cancer

Monday, 02 February 2009

/The
BURNING PASSION: Wellington businessman and toast artist Maurice Bennett faces a daily battle with leukaemia but Instead of taking it easy he runs two businesses, does his toast art and is rarely home before 8pm.

Wellington businessman and toast artist Maurice Bennett faces a daily battle with leukaemia but has refused to let the disease ruin his life.
When it was diagnosed about 2000, he was given five years to live, but he is still at the helm of Island Bay's New World supermarket and Bennetts Beer, and is working on his biggest toast work. But not anymore," Mr Bennett says.
"I used to keep quiet about it and just tell people I had a cold.
"But the last thing I want is sympathy, someone coming up to me in the pub to say how sorry they are. "We're all going to die at least I know what I'm going to die of."
After being diagnosed, there were sleepless nights wondering why and "screams at God". Despite this he's up at 6am every day to head to the supermarket, then he turns to his toast art in the bakery by late afternoon, and he's rarely home before 8pm. The thought of taking it easy regularly crosses his mind.
Even though he was "crook as a dog" when the All Blacks were turfed out of the last Rugby World Cup quarterfinal, he still made it to Paris and walked down the Champs-Elysees in the black jersey.
With an immune system weakened by the disease, even catching the flu could prove fatal. "The doctors are monitoring my health with regular CT scans and blood tests.
Mr Bennett sees himself as the lucky one. Modern medicine is brilliant. Modern medicine is brilliant. Males in this country need to step up [and get regular checks]. They wake up and find they've got the big C or drop dead at 35. Though the toast art started about the same time as the leukaemia diagnosis, he says that is coincidental."
The New World, which he has run for 15 years with his wife, provides a ready supply of bread and commercial ovens facilitating his toast portraits of Jonah Lomu and the Mona Lisa and helping him set a world record for his 2724-slice mosaic of former Wellington mayor Mark Blumsky. I was artistic before that.
"It's just fallen into place. It's not like I've gone through a blue period because of the leukaemia. I used to do oil painting and sculpture work."If anything, being confronted with his mortality has just clarified beliefs he has always held, and he expects to lead a "normal, healthy life for quite a while". It's not like: `Buy some of Maurice's art because he's about to drop dead'. Life revolves around friendship. Life revolves around friendship. It's not about seeing every place in the world, it's about enjoying what you've got.