Two a penny

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Two people have died on New Zealand roads this weekend.

This morning a 78-year-old Hauraki man died at the scene of a crash close to Paeroa.

The driver of the ute was the only other person involved and was unhurt.

Police said the man attempted to do a U-turn in the path of a northbound ute close to the intersection of Rangiora Road, Komata, on State Highway 26.

The dead man was driving west and hit an oncoming car, Sergeant Steve Salton said.

About 1am yesterday (Saturday) a 22-year-old man died at the scene of a two-car collision on Auckland’s Upper Harbour motorway, close to the Greenhithe Bridge.

On Friday morning two teenage girls were killed in a car crash in Whangarei.

He suspected speed to be a factor in the crash.10am.

The pair, who were aged 17 and 18, were killed when the car they were in rolled down a bank on Anzac Rd and into the front yard of a property in suburban Morningside just after 1.

The two were in the back seat of the car and not wearing seatbelts, Northland police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said.

Police said they were locals.

They received minor injuries and did not need hospital treatment.

There were three other women, aged 16 to 19, in the car.

Ms Kennett said the car lost control on a bend and no other vehicles were involved.

The driver was breath-tested at the scene and was found not to have been under the influence of alcohol.

Also on Friday, a woman died after her car and a truck collided close to Dargaville, 58km south west of Whangarei.

She said the road would have been wet as it rained in Whangarei yesterday and overnight.

The woman driver of the car died at the scene. . The three deaths on the road on Friday fell outside of the weekend reporting period.

* The weekend road death toll was earlier incorrectly reported as five.

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Immigration ‘has to be fixed’

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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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French journalists didn’t know what to make of 35-year-old Kamel Bouchentouf, a lorry driver from Nancy, in eastern France. For some, he is a would-be jihadist for others, an informer sacrificed by the French domestic intelligence agency, the DST. .

But on Thursday a Paris court handed down its decision, sentencing Bouchentouf to six years in prison for having ties to Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian terrorist group that has become al Qaeda’s branch in North Africa.

According to trial documents, Bouchentouf confessed that he was planning attacks against the American consulate in Luxembourg and the French 13th Regiment (paratroopers) at Dieuze.

It was 6am when the agents of the DST and RAID (an elite counter-terrorist unit) knocked on Bouchentouf’s door. According to prosecutors, the email contained a video attachment in which he spoke of building a small makeshift bomb that would show to France that al Qaeda could hit at any moment. Prosecutors also said Bouchentouf had made email contact with the network of the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb. The ex-serviceman says that his admissions were acquired under pressure and that he had been inserted by the DST into the Islamist network of Abelmalek Droukdal, the leader of North African al Qaeda branch.

Bouchentouf own version is quite different.

An unstable personality

Bouchentouf cellphone records show that in fact he maintained a close relationship with the DST.

On April 30, 2007, the DST is said to have intercepted a video of Bouchentouf in which he says he wants to prepare attacks.

In a late note to the trial, the DST justified these contacts with the defendant. The investigation revealed about 30 telephone contacts between Bouchentouf mobile phone and the French agency during the eight months before his arrest. The official said that Bouchentouf displayed a sufficiently unstable personality to require maintaining pressure and concluded that this procedure can in no way be considered recruitment.

Kamel Bouchentouf came to the attention of our services, wrote a police commissioner. The public prosecutor is asking for seven to eight years of imprisonment for Bouchentouf.

During a house search, the policemen found two gas canisters, an empty extinguisher and documents on manufacturing explosives. He said the agency baited him with the possibility of getting custody of his daughter in exchange for services he would perform online, such as creating Web sites and sending emails.

Attorney fights official version

According to defence lawyer Frederick Berna, the DST approached Bouchentouf, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, to infiltrate Islamic circles. According to emails, the defendant had a meeting with Gasmi in Algeria.

That’s how Bouchentouf is supposed to have established contact with Salah Gasmi, the intelligence head of the North African al Qaeda group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (or GSPC, its initials in French). This request immediately aroused Gasmi suspicions.

In the last correspondence between the two, Bouchentouf ends his message rather cryptically: Would you be kind enough to point out to me the Koranic references that deal with treason by a Muslim brother towards another brother, wrote Bouchentouf.

Could the DST have lost control of its recruit and created a potential danger for France? According to a former agent, this is not impossible.

Could the DST have lost control of its recruit and created a potential danger for France? According to a former agent, this is not impossible. If the defendant is telling the truth, the affair conclusion doesn&rsquot make sense, says the agent.

We don&rsquot arrest someone we work with, the agent said. Either the individual escaped the agencies, or one of the agencies wanted to go further, or perhaps there was a dysfunction between the services.

Liberty, equality, efficiency

We have no way of checking on troubling facts with the DST, says defence lawyer Berna, who stunned that the inquiry has been entrusted to the same agency.

In spite of requests by Bouchentouf lawyers, DST agents were not heard during trial proceedings. Judge Philippe Coirre asked the DST for permission for its agents to testify, but the intelligence agency refused, stating that the matter was classified as top secret.

The DST’s role occupied in the trial is problematic, according to Ann Guidicelli, head of the Paris-based consultants Terrorisc. The problem is that the party responsible for the inquiry is also involved, creating a conflict of interest, she said.

The DST’s double role &mdash as a domestic intelligence agency and investigating police force &mdash is a feature that has become a key element in France fight against terrorism since the events of 9/11.

Since the 80s, France has learned to recognise the terrorism that is born in the Middle East, explained a former DST agent. It developed a legislative structure adapted to terrorism, said the agent, which allowed it to centralise its work and encouraged communication between magistrates and the agency.

al Qaeda – Algeria – counter-terrorism – terrorism

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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

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Joust a bit of good, clean medieval fun

The Thursday, 08 January 2009

/The
JOUST GOOD CLEAN FUN: Caroline Egemalm of Sweden battles to maintain her balance on her mount after taking a hit during a jousting practice session, ahead of a world invitational jousting tournament in Upper Hutt this weekend. .
"You just feel a big impact.
Although it all seemed like a bit of fun, there was nothing pretend about the horses, armour, or the lance blows that jousters aimed to inflict, organiser Callum Forbes said."
While serious injuries nowadays were rare, jousters who fought in medieval times when the head was considered a fair target were more likely to feel pain. If it's off-target it can hurt you.
Competitors were not the only ones examining forward to the tournament, Mr Forbes said.
The 12 competitors taking part in the tournament will all face one another during the weekend, with the person with the highest total points score crowned the winner..
"The horses . really love it..45am on Saturday and Sunday."
Re-enactment clubs The Company of the Dragon, based in Brooklyn, and the Order of the Boar, based in Upper Hutt, will take part in foot combat and archery displays during the tournament, which kicks off at 9.

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Free study on offer if job goes under

Saturday, 29 November 2008

Government-owned polytechnic UCOL is offering free study next year for anyone who loses their job as a result of the economic crisis. .
The initiatives show UCOL's "commitment to its local communities and to the health of the regional economies UCOL serves".
"Anyone who doesn't find employment in their study area within 13 weeks of successfully completing a UCOL programme started in 2009 can then apply to enrol on another programme without paying further tuition fees in 2010," chief executive Paul McElroy said.
"There is still uncertainty about the impact on the New Zealand job market of the recession and slowdown in the global economy," McElroy said.
The offer is available to anyone made redundant after September 1 and includes normal tuition fees on certificates, degrees and diplomas offered at its campuses in Palmerston North, Wanganui, and the Wairarapa."

. "All of this means that many people are anxious about the security of their jobs and their ability to adapt to a changing employment environment

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UK travel tax could hit rugby cup crowds

– Thursday, 27 November 2008

A British move to increase the tax paid by airline passengers on flights to New Zealand could dampen an anticipated boost in tourist numbers during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The cup will be the biggest international sporting event to be held in New Zealand, with 60,000 to 70,000 international visitors expected to attend the matches.
However, the British Government is about to increase taxes on long-haul flights to help reduce the amount of carbon emissions from highly polluting jet aircraft.
England, Wales and Scotland are automatic qualifiers for the tournament, and organisers had expected the three teams to be accompanied by many fans.
With half of the World Cup visitors expected to come from Britain and Ireland, any possible disincentive to travel was a concern, Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar said.
The duty on a flight to New Zealand will be $155 from next November, with a second increase to $240 in November 2010.
The tourism sector is worried the tax increase will hurt visitor numbers from Britain New Zealand's largest source of holidaymakers after Australia and is concerned other countries will follow Britain's move.
"It doesn't do anything to prime the market or send positive signals to the market," he said.
"We don't want to see our price competitiveness as a destination damaged," he said. . As a country, we have done a lot to try to be a responsible tourism destination.
"It seems to me they are always incentivising short-haul travel by penalising the long-haul markets."
Prime Minister John Key raised New Zealand's objections to the tax changes during his meeting in London with British PM Gordon Brown yesterday.
"We were given an award in Britain for responsible tourism.
"We just indicated we were concerned about it, we didn't think it was fair and we'd like to progress the issue further if we can," he said.
Key said he told Brown there were efficiency differences between airlines and aircraft, and some airlines, including Air New Zealand, were trialling biofuels.

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Public photos may hold key in pack sex attack inquiry

By CLIO FRANCIS – Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Police investigating a possible pack rape are asking the public to send them any photos taken in Christchurch's Corsair Bay area last Sunday.
Police have begun an investigation into an alleged sexual violation, and want any photographs taken in the popular swimming area between 11am and 3pm on November 16.
"We're particularly interested in any activities around the raft," he said.
Up to half a dozen men, between the ages of 20 and 40, are sought, Detective Sergeant Ross Tarawhiti said."
He said Sunday was a "lovely day" and he imagined lots of photos would have been taken.
"The victim has met these people at the area and the assault has happened somewhere else.tarawhiti@police.
Anyone with photos is asked to email them to ross.nz , karen. .govt.simmons@police.nz or phone 03 344 0661.

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Smothering trial: Friends tell of death conversations

Tuesday, 04 November 2008

Two friends of Denis Kenny Billesdon have told how he told them years later that he had smothered his elderly sister "to put her out of her misery" because he could not stand her pain.
They gave evidence at a Christchurch District Court depositions hearing where Billesdon, 71, faces a charge of murdering Nola Doreen Billesdon, 77, in February 2001. I smothered my sister.
Colin Slater, a friend for 20 years, said Billesdon told him in about 2004: "I've done a very stupid thing. I couldn't stand to see her suffer. I know I shouldn't have done it."
Mr Slater told the hearing it was sometimes hard to take what Billesdon said seriously. I had to put her out of her misery."
Christine Bamford, another friend, recalled a conversation about 2005 when he said his sister had cancer and he got a pillow and smothered her with it. "He's flamboyant, exaggerates a bit."
Billesdon's wife, Helen, told of him returning to their home on the night Miss Billesdon died, February 18, 2001.
"He said he was not a murderer but couldn't stand her pain. Denis arrived home, turned the light on and said Nola had died. ."
Helen Billesdon suggested he phone an ambulance and hurry back to his sister's house before the ambulance arrived.
"He didn't seem to be upset but he was agitated and not making decisions about what to do next.
"Although she was on a lot of medication, I didn't think she was at death's door.
She was shocked at the news of her sister-in-law's death.
He said Billesdon administered liquid morphine and sleeping tablets to the woman and then went to her room about 8pm and put a pillow over her face."
Earlier crown prosecutor Chris Lange told the court Billesdon had spent the day with his sister on February 18, 2001, and then returned to her home in the evening ready to stay the night. He dialled 111 from his home three hours later.
He then fixed things in the room to make it look as though she had died in her sleep.
Dr William Kirkwood comprehensive a long list of health problems faced by Miss Billesdon, including five hospitalisations and one emergency department visit in the two months before her death.
Miss Billesdon's death was not thought to be suspicious at first, although the doctor would not sign the death certificate because he said no ailment was bad enough to cause death.
Helen Billesdon said the couple had looked after Miss Billesdon during her health problems.
Helen Billesdon said the couple had looked after Miss Billesdon during her health problems.
She also said Billesdon had wanted the contents of his sister's will changed so that he would inherit the house and pass it on to his children. He took Miss Billesdon to a lawyer so that the changes could be made.
The hearing has made fast progress yesterday and has now adjourned to Wednesday to hear the remaining evidence before Margo McKay and Judith Smyth, Justices of the Peace.