Two a penny

Get other Popular Fiction hereGet other Sandra Rodriguez Barron here When young Monica Winters Borrero loses her luminous mother in an accident at sea she is exiled from the tropical paradise that was her home. Grieving and cut off from a life among El Salvador’s elite Monica and her American father move to Connecticut vowing never to look back. Years later an intriguing stranger who has endured a terrible loss of his own enters Monica’s life bearing an unusual request. Monica is propelled back to her lost world retracing the shadowy last days of her mother a marine scientist who had been on the brink of understanding the therapeutic applications of a rare venomous sea creature. Now her research is being corrupted by a secret clinic that claims the power to restore consciousness to the comatose. What Monica discovers will shatter the family’s delicate truce with the past and compel everyone involved to challenge their deepest notions of what it means to be alive. Atmospheric thought-provoking and timely. “The Heiress of Water” is a… Comments (0)

Get other Popular Fiction herePsychiatrist Grant Martin lives to help his patients. Not only does he dedicate countless hours to them but he has also started a research project investigating a genetic link to mental illness. When the research in his lab turns from humanitarian to a potential bio-terrorism threat and teenagers from a nearby town spontaneously become psychotic and deathly ill Grant feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. Who can he trust? Who will always be there to help? That¿s where faith comes in. Comments (0)

Get other General Politics hereThe Handbook of Democratic Government is the first compact and comprehensive data collection for 20 countries which simultaneously provides comparative and complete information on the composition of governments. Parties ministries portfolios ministers and parliamentary support are listed as well as duration type of government and reasons for termination. The data are organised in such a manner that every researcher can use them as a basic data set ready to be transformed according to the particular needs dictated by the research undertaken. Various levels of analysis are possible both cross-nationally and across time ranging from individual ministers and separat Comments (0)

Get other General Politics herePolitical parties in Europe face a crisis of legitimacy which manifests itself through a decline in partisan identification an increase in electoral volatility and a drop in membership figures. The development of new means of communication has transformed the way political parties relate to their constituents. In recent years political campaigning has become more centralised and more professional. Florence Faucher uses her research into party conferences as a vehicle for examining the changes that parties are undergoing as they provide a microcosm for the study of relationships between party leaders and their followers: it is where policy is decided upon and developed and where support for those plans is initiated. Comments (0)

Untitled Document World-Class Tennis Technique by Paul Roetert and Jack Groppel NEW 288 pages Get other Tennis books here About World-Class Tennis Technique Let the game’s most brilliant players and coaches teach you World-Class Tennis Technique! You’ll find the most up-to-date information based on solid scientific principles and presented in a practical easy-to-understand manner. No other book on the market offers the level of world-class instruction and expertise found here. World-Class Tennis Technique is written by some of the world’s top experts in biomechanics tennis technique and coaching including • Patrick McEnroe • Jim Loehr • Mary Joe Fernandez • Stan Smith • Tom Gullikson • Pam Shriver • Former world-class players • National coaches • Past or current Davis Cup Captians Together these venerable tennis pros present a detailed comprehensive look at the optimal biomechanics and technique for playing tennis. Each chapter features an expert with a scientific or technical background matched up with one of the top internationally known coaches. They explain the modern game and share their research knowledge and Comments (0)

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Up to 500 jobs will be lost as a result of the creation of a National Health Board (NHB), Health Minister Tony Ryall said today.

Cabinet agreed the NHB would be established within the Ministry of Health.

“The public health service needs to stop reinventing the wheel 21 times,” Mr Ryall said.

It would oversee areas such as IT, payroll, procurement and logistics, where there had been duplication from 21 District Health Boards (DHBs).

Labour’s health spokeswoman, Ruth Dyson, said it was hard to work out why a new bureaucracy was needed to manage the existing bureaucrats.

The 500 job losses were in addition to 200 vacancies that were scrapped earlier in the year, saving $20 million.”

Ms Dyson said it appeared that a lot of local decision-making was being taken away from DHBs, and that was a bad thing.

“It seems to me that these are functions that could be done within the existing system but instead the minister is proposing to set up an entirely new business unit within the Ministry of Health.”

Mr Ryall said up to $700 million over five years should be saved by the NHB handling the bulk purchasing and national cooperation.

“If we see the ability to be flexible and responsive to local needs, and local solutions being taken away from the DHBs, then our communities will lose out.

The Government chose to have the NHB within the ministry because it was cheaper and provided “faster improvements”.

The NHB would incur one-off set-up costs of $5m-$10m, Mr Ryall said. About 180 people will lose their jobs and 400 will move to the NHB.

The ministry has around 1475 staff.

The remaining 320 job cuts will come from DHBs over time as more cooperation takes place, Mr Ryall said.

The ministry has a historical rate of about 15 percent attrition and volunteer redundancies.

Many of the group’s proposals were already under way and others were still being considered, Mr Ryall said.

The NHB was a recommendation from the ministerial review group, which made more than 170 other recommendations.

Money saved from bulk purchasing and the nationalisation of services would be redirected to the frontline, Mr Ryall said.

The NHB was expected to be in place by Christmas.

Some programmes and funding controlled by the ministry would move out to the local level and greater regional cooperation between neighbouring DHBs was expected.

He said all of the money would remain within the health budget.

“We shouldn’t have 21 DHBs with 21 IT systems that can’t talk to each other,” he told reporters.

DHBs would not be merged, Mr Ryall said.

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A group of senior lawyers is calling for higher maximum sentences in cases of extreme animal cruelty.

The pro bono “panel of prosecutors”, which offers free legal services to the Auckland SPCA, said higher sentences would send a clear message that violence against animals was unacceptable .

Panel member David Jones QC said sentences imposed in cases of extreme animal abuse fell considerably short of the maximum penalty.

The panel was set up in April to help the SPCA meet the costs of prosecutions.

Actual sentences would increase if the maximum penalty was raised to five years, Mr Jones told the Auckland Law Society newsletter Law News.

While the law allowed for sentences of up to three years’ jail, the longest sentence imposed was 12 months, which was subsequently reduced to 10.”

Fellow panel member Mike Heron said recent cases of horrific animal cruelty had resulted in relatively light sentences.

“This would add to the effectiveness of animal welfare legislation and bring home to the public that animal cruelty is not acceptable.”

Evidence had shown that a number of psychopathic offenders were known to have also abused animals, he said.

“I think there is a sound argument for bringing the length of some animal cruelty sentences closer to those for violence against humans.

For the past seven years the S PCA has aimed to raise public awareness of animal cruelty with its annual List of Shame, which this year comprehensive 52 “deeply disturbing” instances of severe animal abuse.

The public questioned why sentences did not reflect those given in cases of cruelty to humans, he said.

A nailgun attack on a cat in Christchurch last month was described by the SPCA as one of the worst cases of animal cruelty it has encountered.

More recent instances of animal abuse have shocked animal lovers.

In August, South Auckland man Paea Taufa was found cooking his pet dog in a backyard barbecue.

The dead cat was found with a dozen 85mm nails in its head.

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Mr Taufa was not prosecuted because the dog had been killed humanely

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New assistance for victims of serious crime and their families has been welcomed but some say it is far too little.

Justice Minister Simon Power announced the new measures at the Victim Support Conference in Wellington earlier today. .

Paul Kuchenbecker – whose son Karl was killed by parolee Graeme Burton in hills close to Lower Hutt in January 2007, while Burton was on parole – said today’s support was not enough.

Additional support will also be available for victims of sexual violence and other serious crime.

“I know it’s not all about money but at the same it takes the stress off that person, who is grieving already, to not have to worry about financial problems.

Families should be given $50,000 up front, similar to what was offered in New South Wales, to pay for funeral and associated costs and other financial burdens that arose from a murder, Mr Kuchenbecker said.

“It’s not their fault, it’s not the victim’s fault, it’s directly related to the Government and its policies of letting people out when they shouldn’t be let out.”

However, Victim Support chief executive Tony Paine said today’s announcement was good in the current economic environment and he was “pretty happy” with the ongoing programme. I believe the Government should front up.

“It’s up to society not to leave them out of pocket,” Mr Paine told .

Victims were offered emotional help through Victim Support and got physical support but were often left financially disadvantaged, he said.

The court may be in a different town, victims have to travel to the court, pay for accommodation, arrange for childcare and take time off work.

As well as the obvious funeral and loss of income costs victims often wanted to be at court hearings of the accused, he said.

Sensible Sentencing Trust national spokesperson Garth McVicar said Mr Power’s announcement was an acknowledgement and a start.

Sensible Sentencing Trust national spokesperson Garth McVicar said Mr Power’s announcement was an acknowledgement and a start.

Rethinking Crime and Punishment’s Kim Workman said the today’s announcement was “encouraging” and “very promising”.”

The new initiatives were about moving victims to the centre of the justice system, he said.

“Clearly there’s effort made to providing financial support.

There had been little focus on victim rights until the Victims’ Rights Act in 2002 and since then “some remarkable progress was made on those issues”, he said.”

The announcement today included:

* Families of homicide victims being able to receive $124 a day for up to five adult members to attend High Court proceedings;

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Alas, the reigning champ of Twitter vitriol has decided to hang up her boxing gloves.

Courtney Love has closed down her Twitter account just days after her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, went after Ali Lohan – Lindsay’s sister – on the micro-blogging service. Mother and daughter are both tweet-obsolete for the moment.

Despite its popularity for public figures looking to control the conversation with their fans, Twitter hasn’t been all fun and games.

The development occurs as Miley Cyrus raps a good-bye ode to Twitter on YouTube and her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, tries to guilt her into staying on Twitter.

The law on what you can and can’t say on Twitter hasn’t been refined yet by a court, but assuming it follows the general defamation book, it’ll be hard to win a defamation lawsuit. Love is dealing with a defamation claim after tweeting disgust at a fashion designer, and Demi Moore and Perez Hilton were also exploring legal action after their war of 140 characters or less with each other the previous month. .

Watch Miley Cyrus’ Goodbye Twitter rap

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A defiant Maori Television Service (MTS) says it won’t withdraw its bid for free-to-air Rugby World Cup broadcast rights despite the Government backing a rival bid by TVNZ.

In a bizarre twist, the taxpayer-funded networks are competing for the local broadcast rights to 16 world cup games.The MTS bid is backed by Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development, which has put up $3 million.TVNZ followed at the last minute with a consortium bid involving privately-owned TV3, backed by the Government.Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples supports it and didn’t tell his Cabinet colleagues before the bid went in.Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman said TVNZ asked for a level playing field.Cabinet will have to sign off funds, likely to be $3m-$4m, if the TVNZ bid succeeds.”You can do the sums – you can see it’s going to be a reasonable amount of money.”It was a reaction by some iwi to say to us ‘you’ve been done and we should help you’,” he told reporters.”Dr Sharples, clearly angry about the way the situation developed, said iwi were offering money to boost the MTS bid.He said he was “extremely concerned” about allegations that the TVNZ bid was developed with access to confidential information about the MTS bid, which indicated the tender process had been compromised.MTS chief executive Jim Mather said last night the Government’s decision amounted to an attempt to defeat MTS and was “extremely disappointing”.”What is the rationale for this, and why is funding for TVNZ now deemed to be appropriate use of government funds?”Mr Mather said MTS had addressed Government concerns that its signal did not reach 10 percent of the population by modifying its bid to allow for the sub-licensing of some games.”The TPK support has been labelled inappropriate use of government funding, yet now the Government is providing more funds to beat the Maori Television bid,” he said.”It is our understanding that Prime Minister John Key was happy with this arrangement.”It is our understanding that Prime Minister John Key was happy with this arrangement.

FREE TO AIR GAMES

Sixteen Rugby World Cup games will be live free-to-air no matter whether the TVNZ-TV3 or Maori Television (MTS) wins the right to screen them.Broadcasting spokesperson Brendon Burns said the Government’s belated intervention would simply line the pockets of the International Rugby Board as it played off two state-funded bids.TVNZ and TV3 would screen six games each, and MTS could screen all 16.Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman yesterday spelled out what would be available if the TVNZ’s consortium bid won.TVNZ and TV3′s games would include two All Blacks’ pool games each.All three would be able to screen the final, semis and third and fourth playoff.If MTS won the bid it has agreed to subcontract to the other broadcasters. .