Two a penny

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Jamaica has joined England as a genuine threat to netball’s traditional powerbases at next year’s Commonwealth Games by stunning the Silver Ferns 53-50 in Kingston today.

The winners capped a glorious week to celebrate the sport’s 50th anniversary in Jamaica, notching just their second win over the Silver Ferns in 44 attempts.

And it comes just four days after completing an equally rare one-goal victory over world champion Australia.

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken, who also watched her side require extra time to deny England on this trip, admitted a bridging of the gap was a concern 12 months out from New Zealand’s title defence.

The world No 4 Sunshine Girls shared both series , an ominous development that suggests the gold medal match in India next October will not automatically be a trans-Tasman affair.

“It’s not just about Australia any more,” she told .

“The reality is we need to prepare for three different styles going into Commonwealth Games – England, Jamaica and Australia. .”

Jamaica’s compelling second quarter propelled the game beyond the Silver Ferns’ reach as they outscored to world No 2 13-5 – confining shooters Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia to just six attempts. You get someone like Romelda (Aiken) one day then a moving circle with (Australians) Sharelle (McMahon) and Susan Pratley.

“We lost a bit of our courage and our willingness to work off the ball.

“We lost our drive on attack, they tightened up (defensively), we made a few errors and suddenly we’re examining at only six attempts in that quarter – we can’t win games on that,” Aitken said.”

Aitken said different umpiring interpretations – the local official gave the Jamaican circle defenders more leeway – knocked New Zealand off kilter though it was not an excuse. Jamaica really upped the pressure and we got distracted, we didn’t stick to our structure.

The Silver Ferns started impressively, skipping out to a six-goal lead midway through the opening stanza at the National Indoor Stadium.

The Silver Ferns started impressively, skipping out to a six-goal lead midway through the opening stanza at the National Indoor Stadium.

Van Dyk shot a perfect 16 from 16 to the main break but the Jamaican duo had the luxury of making nine more attempts – an imbalance that engineered a 27-21 advantage for the hosts.

Jamaica then wrestled the initiative by ruling the 15-minute period to halftime – clogging the supply lines to van Dyk as the Silver Ferns’ passing accuracy deteriorated.

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Four glaring van Dyk misses in the third quarter and concerns over the Jamaican umpire when she controlled New Zealand’s shooting end prompted Aitken to pull her ace shooter (19/23) for the more mobile Paula Griffin in a bid to erase a four-goal deficit on the home stretch

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A dramatic sonar image of the sunken Tongan ferry Princess Ashika has been released by the Royal New Zealand Navy.

The ferry sank a week ago north of Nuku’alofa and is believed to have at least 93 bodies aboard.

The image was captured by a Navy sonar system.

“The large balls in the picture are very large rock spheres.

“Note the similarity to the surface picture including bow section with ramp, bridge area and passenger compartment,” the navy says. .”

It sits on the sea bed 110 metres below the surface.

At least 149 people were on board when the ferry capsized 86km northeast of the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa last Wednesday.

The New Zealand Navy was confident sonar images had pinpointed the vessel yesterday, sitting upright and intact in 110m of water, too deep to dive on. Two bodies and 54 survivors have been found, while 93 people were presumed drowned after being trapped in the vessel.

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However poor weather has stalled efforts to send a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) down to the boat

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Business is booming for comedians as New Zealanders seek light relief from the constant recessionary diet of doom and gloom.

Invercargill mayor and funny man Tim Shadbolt says he has never seen demand for comedy shows so high.

“As a part-time comedian I’m flat down to the boards at the moment.

“I just can’t keep up with all the appointments. I used to do shows one weekend a month, but now it’s suddenly gone to three weekends a month, and it could easily be more.

Despite the recession, Auckland’s season saw attendance rise 38%, from 53,172 to 73,559, while Wellington’s attendance figures rose 66%, from 18,939 to 31,399.”

Shadbolt’s experience is borne out by figures recently released by the organisers of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, which show this year’s festival broke all previous records by attracting a crowd of more than 118,000 people between May 1 and 24 – up 50% on last year.

“Humour is the best anecdote to the doom and gloom pervading our country at the moment . . . People can’t afford to buy a new car or a new fridge, but they can afford to pay $25 for a comedy show so they can laugh for two hours,” says Shadbolt. A lot of people are taking this remedy.

Telephone counselling service Lifeline is experiencing an increase in calls about financial issues and there has been a considerable rise in the uptake of youth depression support services.

And, judging by the growing number of calls being fielded by 0800 helplines, some laughter in people’s lives is sorely needed.

Lifeline Aotearoa general manager Anil Thapliyal says: “Right now more people are worried about money matters and are experiencing distress brought about by demise of their financial security and even contemplating suicide.

Lifeline Aotearoa general manager Anil Thapliyal says: “Right now more people are worried about money matters and are experiencing distress brought about by demise of their financial security and even contemplating suicide. Callers can discuss their situation with a trained counsellor who can offer information and advice on what to do and about the services available in their localities.”

* The Depression Helpline (0800 111-757) provides support from 8am until midnight.depression. Or they can log on to www.nz. .

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Police are calling on motorists to dob in bad drivers after a horror weekend on the roads propelled the toll to its highest level in two years.

Five people were killed in a smash north of Taupo on Friday and six others died in separate accidents during the weekend, prompting police to describe the roads as “killing fields”.

By last night, 143 people had died on the roads this year 12 more than at the same time last year and 20 more than in 2007. .

Transport Ministry figures show there has been a significant increase in road deaths in the 40-plus age group in particular.

“It has been an absolutely tragic weekend and it is fair to say speed has been a factor.

Police say road-safety messages about speed are still not getting through to drivers and unless that changes more families will lose loved ones. We are begging people to slow down and make it home safely,” Inspector Peter McKay said.

The van burst into flames and four occupants were killed.

On Friday evening, five people died when a Toyota van and Chrysler car collided on the SH1 north of Taupo. The passengers were Lottie Purukamu Taitapanui, 45, of Hastings; Anna-Marie Kemp, 22, of Auckland; and Ratapu Taitapanui, 3, of Hastings.

The driver of the van was Wellis Lauano, 23, of Auckland.

Police say it appeared the car had shunted a BMW before losing control, crossing the centre-line and colliding head-on with the van.

The driver of the Chrysler, Peter Pie, 42, a Corrections officer of Turangi, was also killed.

They described it as one of New Zealand’s worst crashes in recent years.

They described it as one of New Zealand’s worst crashes in recent years.

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“We will take action if we get any reports because one phone call can prevent a death.

“We get a lot of people who say they don’t want to bother us, but we encourage any people to contact us if they see dangerous driving.”

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Nelson blaze tackled from the air

The Tuesday, 03 February 2009

BRIAN SKELLON
FROM THE AIR: Helicopters are being used to battle the fire burning up a hillside north of Nelson.

Firefighters were this afternoon battling a fire spreading through gorse, toward a pine plantation in Dodson Valley, north of Nelson city.
Firefighters were called out just before 4pm to the fire, at the top of Frenchay Drive.
A large plume of smoke was visible from the central city, as firefighters fought to get the fire under control in breezy conditions.30pm the fire was getting larger, covering about 1sq km and spreading uphill, but was not threatening houses. By 4.
A large number of residents in the area were gathered on the streets watching the fire.
Firefighters from Nelson and Appleby were fighting the fire, with help from a helicopter using a monsoon bucket.

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Major power cut cripples Wellington

and CLIO FRANCIS – Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Power has been fully restored to central Wellington this morning after a major outage which caused chaos in the capital, including trapping office workers in lifts.
Most of central Wellington was without power for over an hour, including the capital's traffic lights, inner city offices, apartments, and trolley buses.45am,affected suburbs as far south-east as Worser Bay and as far north as Johnsonville and Khandallah.
The outage, which began around 7.42am this morning, causing 25,000 customers in Wellington's CBD to lose electricity.
Transpower said its Central Park and Kaiwharawhara substations suffered faults at 7.
All of the people were favourably rescued from the lifts without injury.
The Fire Service responded to seven callouts of people stuck in elevators and two reports of smoke from cold-starting generators.
Electricity progressively resumed from 8.
Five fire trucks were dispatched to attend various incidents, including two alarms on the Terrace, which went off as a result of the outage.02am.30am when the Kaiwharawhara Substation was restored and electricity was fully restored at 9."The initiating event was a faulty relay at Wilton Substation and this caused an unanticipated flow-on effect to its connected substations. .
A Wellington Electricity spokesperson said it was monitoring the electrical load just to make sure that there wass enough capacity.
"Transpower is confident the issue has been resolved," it said.
"We need to keep a very close eye on how much power is being consumed while further investigations are continuing. "So far, so good and we hope to have no further interruptions throughout the day.
A Wellington Hospital spokesperson said the four of its generatorswere used."
But electricity consumers were not being asked to change their behaviours, he said.
A Wellington Airport spokeswoman said generators had been used and there were no delays to flights.No patients had been affected by the outage.
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* Comments on this story are now closed.
On Broadway in Miramar a smoking power line was reported.

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Surfing with orcas

Monday, 12 January 2009

POWER OF NATURE: With waves this good, Taranaki surfer Craig Hunter (aka Billy) was not going to go in just because an orca was sharing the surf, despite having seen a girl killed by a shark in his youth.

Craig Hunter had paddled out past the breakers when he first spotted the giant dorsal fin.
Rather than point his board to shore and catch the first wave to land, the veteran Taranaki surfer shared his waves for 45 minutes with the big male orca and without realising it two young calves. The surfers watched in awe as they swam up and down the beach.
The orca, regular visitors to the Taranaki coast, paid little attention to the surfers at Stent Rd surf break close to Cape Egmont on Saturday. It's a pretty special sort of feeling," said Mr Hunter, known to his surfing friends as Billy. . "I was out there on my own for quite a while and the big fella was just cruising.
"There was no way I was going in because the waves were too good. It was really neat. He said he gave no thought to going ashore, even when the orca came within 50 metres."
Having surfed the Taranaki waves for close toly five decades, Mr Hunter owner of a surf shop has been joined by orca before. I've spent quite a lot of time in the water with them.
"I've been a bit spoilt with orca.
"I'm long past the age of being freaked out by it now, mate.
"I'm long past the age of being freaked out by it now, mate."
Photographer Jane Dove Juneau said the three orca seemed unconcerned with the wetsuit-wearing interlopers in their midst.
"You just hope like hell he's not hungry and you're not on his food chain. "I saw one guy paddle really quickly for the shore because he freaked out a bit.
"They swam around the waves for a while and stayed quite close to the surface, almost like they were checking the surfers out," she said.
y are most commonly spotted off the Bay of Plenty, East Coast and Hawke's Bay coasts in June, and again from October to December."
WOLVES OF THE SEA:
re are estimated to be fewer than 200 orca living in New Zealand waters.
– Orca form long-term social groups known as pods.
re are probably three resident populations in New Zealand: one off the North Island, one off the South Island, and a group that spends its time in both regions.
y are known to eat fish, seals, stingrays and even dolphins. The typical pod size of New Zealand orca is two to four, smaller than in most other places in the world.

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Refugee parties after deportation scare

– Monday, 22 December 2008

DEAN KOZANIC/
HAPPY RETURN: friends welcome Cambodian Sokhom Pich back home after his last-minute reprieve from deportation.

A Cambodian refugee has escaped deportation after an 11th-hour government reprieve.
Friends of Sokhom Pich celebrated his return to Christchurch with a party on Saturday night.
Members of Christchurch's Cambodian community had appealed to the then Labour government to allow Pich to stay in the country after police arrested him as an overstayer in September.
Former associate immigration minister Shane Jones decided to release Pich and allow him to apply for permanent residency just one hour before he was to be deported on November 4.
Just an hour before boarding a plane in Auckland, he received the news that he could stay.
After living in New Zealand for 11 years, the 47-year-old had exhausted every legal avenue in his bid to remain in the country as a political refugee despite fears he would be imprisoned and possibly killed if he was sent back to Cambodia. .
"I was surprised because in Auckland I was feeling everything was over. I was just jumping and it was just amazing," he said."
Pich said he was a member of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party in his home country which criticised the government for corruption and cracking down on political dissent. For 20 seconds I couldn't say anything.
Pich said a number of his fellow party members had disappeared or been killed and he feared a similar fate.
"If the government is not good, people live without houses and food and that's not good for the people," he said. "I felt scared and quite nervous about being sent home, but after it came closer and closer I wasn't scared, I wasn't anything. "I felt scared and quite nervous about being sent home, but after it came closer and closer I wasn't scared, I wasn't anything. He's an idealist and like all idealists they sometimes clash with the authorities.
"He's a very fine man."

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Hunt for WMDs hits Hauraki Gulf

Monday, 15 September 2008

Weapons of mass destruction are on the hit list for New Zealand Customs and the military today as ships from several nations patrol the Hauraki Gulf.
The ships and air force aircraft will be part of an international exercise involving several countries which will test New Zealand's ability to find and stop a shipment of material used to make the weapons.
The Australian navy patrol boat HMAS Maryborough and the French navy patrol boat FNS La Glorieuse, were also in Auckland for the exercise which would include ship-boarding and the searching of vessels and containers.
Exercise Maru, which begins today and lasts until Friday, was being led by the New Zealand Customs Service and involved the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Defence Force, several other domestic agencies and the Ports of Auckland.
He said it was an example of New Zealand's strong commitment to the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) – an international initiative to stop illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction.
"The exercise will have a strong law enforcement focus on preventing the proliferation of WMD-related materials across our borders, including examining the legal issues which arise after a WMD item has been intercepted," said Robert Lake, New Zealand Customs Service Deputy Comptroller of Operations.
She said the weapons were built with an array of components that may have "perfectly peaceful, legitimate, everyday uses as well as weapons applications.
Customs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the exercise was aimed at stropping the shipment of technology and materials used to build weapons of mass destruction, and not about halting the transport of a one-piece weapon.
She said New Zealand could be used by weapons traffickers as a staging point for materials used to make weapons of mass destruction.
"Chemicals used as cleaning agents could be used in weapons production and medical products could be used in the production of agents for biological weapons," she said.
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