Two a penny

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Police have launched an investigation into allegations of sabotage and assault at a Waikato cheese factory where a pay and contracts dispute between workers and management is turning increasingly dirty.

Open Country factory union members have been barred from returning to the Waharoa plant by management while an inquiry into alleged sabotage of factory equipment by a worker is investigated.The Dairy Workers Union members have been trying to return to work this week at the end of an eight-day strike but the company is refusing allow them on the premises. .It was too risky to allow the striking employees back to work until a police investigation had sorted out who was guilty for the alleged sabotage, he said.Factory chairman Laurie Margrain claimed that just before the industrial action started, somebody had loosened fittings, turned off valves and altered pressure gauges.”They’re presenting themselves for work and we’re paying them,” he said.But workers who did turn up for their shift were being sent home on full pay, he said.Mr Margrain said a disgruntled employee was behind the dumping.Police are also investigating an allegation of sludge dumping from the factory into close toby the Waitoa River.But Dairy Workers Union national secretary James Ritchie said untrained workers hired by the company during the strike had released the sludge into the Waitoa river, causing environmental damage.

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An Australian man raped his daughter almost daily for 30 years and fathered her four children, in a case that echoes Austria’s Fritzl incest horror, according to reports.

A News Limited newspaper reports the alleged rapes started in the 1970s when the victim was about 11 and continued until 2007.

It reports all four children were born with birth defects in major Melbourne hospitals.

The woman reportedly spoke to police at Morwell, in Gippsland, eastern Victoria, in 2005 after a neighbour intervened, but she declined to cooperate because she feared for her safety.

The man, in his 60s, has been charged with more than 80 offences and is due to appear in court in November. Police conducted DNA tests on the father and, in February, laid 83 charges of sex abuse against him.

However, she went to police again in June last year and gave a statement against her father, the Herald Sun reports. .

The newspaper says the accused man’s wife had denied knowing of any assaults or who fathered her daughter’s children.

The victim’s mother claims she was unaware of any abuse despite sharing a house with her daughter, husband and grandchildren until 2005.

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The Herald Sun newspaper quotes sources saying the case could be “every bit as bad” as that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter and fathered seven children with her

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A Queenstown river boarding company has entered two guilty pleas in the Queenstown District Court to charges arising from a fatal river boarding incident last year, after earlier denying fault. .

Parent company Black Sheep Adventures Ltd and director Brad McLeod had each denied three Health and Safety in Employment Act charges.

She was on a river boarding excursion with Queenstown company Mad Dog River Boarding.

He entered guilty pleas on behalf of the company to one charge of being an employer, failing to take all practicable steps to protect employees; and one charge of being a person in control of a place of work failing to take all practicable steps to ensure no hazard harms customers.

Today, after five days of proceedings last week, defence lawyer Michael Parker told Judge Brian Callaghan his client wished to change pleas on two charges.

Sentencing will take place this afternoon.

In reply, prosecution lawyer Brent Stanaway told the court he was withdrawing one other charge against Black Sheep Adventures Ltd and all three charges against McLeod.

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Each charge carries a fine of up to $250,000

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The number of deaths involving swine flu has risen to seven, after a Taranaki man who died earlier this week was confirmed as having the illness.

The man had an underlying medical condition, but his family had asked that no details about him be released to the public, a Ministry of Health spokesperson told .

Swine flu has become New Zealand’s dominant flu strain, accounting for about 75 percent of confirmed flu cases in the week ending Sunday, the reported.

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu was unchanged at Friday’s total of 1555, because the system that collated the figures was down for scheduled maintenance, he said.

The illness was more serious than it had sometimes been portrayed, with the country’s death rate likely to be about the same or higher than the roughly 400 deaths from seasonal flu each year, Massey University mathematical biologist Professor Mick Roberts said.

Swine flu has rapidly replaced seasonal influenza, and was putting health services under particular pressure in Wellington, Taupo and Rotorua.

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At least 15 people were killed and 50 injured overnight in Italy when a freight train hauling liquefied petroleum gas derailed and exploded as it passed their homes, officials said on Tuesday.

About 1000 people were evacuated following the blast just before midnight on Monday, which shook people from their beds in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio, about 350km north of Rome.It was Italy’s most deadly rail accident since 17 people were killed in January 2005, when a passenger train collided with a freight train near the northern city of Bologna.Thirty-seven people were injured, seriously or very seriously, rescue workers said, including a 2-year-old who was badly burned and was being transferred to a hospital in Florence.GATX Rail Europe, a unit of the US-based GATX Corp, which owns the rail cars – each one made of a gas tank attached to a wagon – told it did not know the cause of the explosion and was gathering information from news reports.Firefighters battled overnight to contain blazes started by the explosion and, as a precaution, were emptying liquefied petroleum gas from other, unexploded tanks in the wrecked train.Television showed the fire spreading down city streets, setting cars and nearby buildings alight.Chief Financial Officer Werner Mitteregger said the tanks being transported on the Italian railways were new.At least two children were among the dead, officials said. Rescue workers set up along the roadside to provide first aid to burn victims.Rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble of damaged buildings.”Let me see him! Let me see him!,” screamed one man trying to see his grandson, who was among the dead, ANSA news agency reported.State railways said the accident occurred when one carriage derailed, pulling another four with it. ANSA said two nearby buildings collapsed. . Liquefied petroleum gas escaped from a tank on one of the carriages and caught fire

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Rachel Hunter has been dumped by her toyboy lover less than two months before they were due to wed, British tabloid The Sun reports.

Ice hockey star Jarret Stoll stunned the New Zealand model by walking out without even saying the reason, the newspaper said.

It reported that Stoll told guests by email that the star-studded ceremony on August 14 was cancelled. Everything was in place for their wedding – she had the venue, the designer dress, the guest list.

A source close to Hunter, who was formerly married to rock star Rod Stewart, told the paper: “She is absolutely devastated. It sounds like it could be a classic case of cold feet.

“She has absolutely no idea why Jarret has done this. He is a fair bit younger than her.

Hunter and Stoll met two years ago through Hunter’s son Liam, 13, a talented ice hockey player coached by Stoll. .

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High art or a load of poppycock?

A Spanish artist left some of his Wellington audience bemused after presenting a creation that consisted of a man with his fly undone and penis hanging out.
The work, put on by visiting artist Santiago Sierra, was staged in a Dixon St building for most of Saturday.
Art lovers were told the piece was R18 and to queue outside a door before entering the room alone.
“When I went in the door, there was a man standing there with his fly undone and his penis hanging out.
One woman, a local artist, said her expectations were raised by the queue but the reality was less impressive.
“It was quite a funny thing .”
The man, who may have been the artist, had a “brooding” look, but the woman stayed only “about 10 or 15 seconds”, she said.. In terms of an event, it was quite an occurrence..
“I don’t know about [justifying] it economically .”
However, she said that kind of nudity was boring and she would be concerned if a lot of money had been spent bringing Sierra to town… . that sort of stuff isn’t really that shocking in art circles.
Sierra, who lives in Mexico, left New Zealand yesterday.
One Day Sculpture curatorial director Claire Doherty said the Wellington show was Sierra’s own project and not part of the year-long festival. He once paid drug addicts by giving them the drug of their choice to allow themselves to be tattooed. His works sometimes involve paying people to perform unpleasant tasks.
Et al’s earlier works had included a toilet that brayed like a donkey.
In 2005, an artwork by et al caused a stir when its creator refused to speak publicly about the Venice biennale exhibit.

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Court martial finds officer guilty on one charge

The Wednesday, 25 February 2009

A senior army officer has been found guilty of indecent assault and not guilty on a charge of behaving in a disgraceful and indecent manner.
A court martial panel of five senior officers delivered its verdict at the end of a three-day military trial at Trentham Army Base today.
The charges date back to March 23, 2007, when the officer went to the room of a female officer who was attending a course on which he was a senior instructor.
The senior officer said she had come on to him and invited him to her room for sex and that they kissed before she turned away and said no.
Both had been drinking in the officers' mess that night and the female officer said he came to her room uninvited and that after she fended him off he exposed himself and committed an indecency. .
He denied exposing himself to the officer, who was engaged to one of his closest friends

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All-you-can-tan offers have critics seeing red

By KEITH LYNCH and KIM THOMAS – Monday, 16 February 2009

Salons offering all-you-can-tan sunbed promotions have been branded as irresponsible by doctors, who say such promotions highlight the need for stricter controls over solarium operators.
Dr Judith Galtry, a skin cancer adviser with the Cancer Society, said offering people the opportunity to tan many times in a month was potentially unsafe. Those who used the beds at any age were 15 per cent more likely to develop skin cancer.
"Research from an international agency on cancer found people who used sunbeds before they were aged 18 were 75 per cent more likely to develop melanoma.
Manager Kerry Middleton said the salon strictly monitored its all-you-can-tan customers."
Christchurch salon Skin Deep Solariums is offering an all-you-can-tan promotion for $60 a month.
"In the vertical [tanning bed], it's a max of nine minutes; in the lay-down [tanning beds], it's a maximum of 25 minutes.
"All-you-can-tan is a one-month offer that is strictly within the health boundaries."
Some customers did flout the guidelines, and tanned every day, but the all-you-can-tan system was closely monitored, Middleton said. And we recommend people tan at most every second day, as the skin needs time to recover. We are looking after their skin.
"Our customers are in a controlled environment where we can check exactly how much time they go in for."
Parental consent was required for customers under the age of 18, but sunbeds were off limits to people under 16, Middleton said. .
Galtry said the Cancer Society would carry out "stings" on sunbed operators this year to gauge how many were flouting the guidelines.
This year, Standards NZ and Australia published new guidelines for the tanning industry, including advising against the use of tanning machines by people under 18.
"Good salons should offer people the benefits of tanning without the risk of burning," she said.
Gabrielle Brown, of the Indoor Tanning Association, advised people to tan moderately.
"We've tried to get together with a couple of our critics to talk to them about educating people on how to moderate their tanning behaviour and how to avoid sunburn.
"But our critics' position is they see no benefit to tanning and would like to see the industry completely disappear."

. But they've said, `we can't work with you'

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Helen Clark’s UN job interview

By ANTHONY HUBBARD – Sunday, 08 February 2009

Former Primeminister Helen Clark is in the running for a top United Nations job, and the National government is supporting her bid.
Clark is a candidate for the post of administrator of the UN Development Programme, third behind UN secretary-general and deputy secretary-general.
It was too early yet to predict whether she would be successful, Key told the Sunday Star-Times.
Prime Minister John Key confirmed yesterday that Clark was a candidate, "and she has all the support of the New Zealand government".
If Clark was successful her appointment would be comparable with former Labour leader Mike Moore's job as director-general of the World Trade Organisation or former National foreign affairs minister Don McKinnon's post as secretary-general of the Commonwealth.
Auckland University foreign policy expert Steve Hoadley said the UNDP post was one of "major international importance".
The present administrator, former Turkish economic affairs minister Kemal Dervis, is due to retire at the end of his four-year term in August this year.
The UNDP had the largest budget of any UN agency, Hoadley said, and was a major presence throughout the world. A government source said she would be "a very strong candidate".
It has long been expected that Clark, a foreign affairs specialist all her adult life and with a wide international network, would try for an international post. It's a very senior position and will be hotly contested by a number of candidates.
Clark said: "This position came up at short notice. Hoadley said the government would have to lobby General Assembly members for the job. .
The UNDC is the UN's global development network, overseeing a budget of $US5 billion. It would be interesting to see how much it was prepared to spend in supporting the Clark candidacy in a time of financial stringency.
The Clark-led government in its final term increased its aid budget to $400 million, about 0. Its head office is in New York, and it has 140 offices around the world.

.3 percentof gross national income