Two a penny

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LATEST:
Andre Agassi’s upcoming autobiography contains an admission that he used crystal meth in 1997, the year he dropped to No. 141 in the rankings.

In a story posted on People magazine’s Web site Tuesday, Agassi says: “I can’t speak to addiction, but a lot of people would say that if you’re using anything as an escape, you have a problem. A writer from SI first revealed the crystal meth reference on a Twitter posting Tuesday.”

Excerpts from the book are being printed this week by People and Sports Illustrated.

In the posting on People’s Web site, Agassi says he “was worried for a moment, but not for long,” about how fans would react if they found out he used drugs.

“The tweet from SI that posted earlier today which tipped to one of the revelations in the book – Agassi’s use of crystal meth in 1997 – was accurate,” Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday.

“I wore my heart on my sleeve and my emotions were always written on my face.

Among the most successful – and, without a doubt, one of the most popular – tennis players in history, Agassi won eight Grand Slam singles titles before retiring in 2006. I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story,” Agassi says.

Agassi’s first major championship came at Wimbledon in 1992, and he won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He drew attention not just for his play, but also for his outfits, his hairstyles and his relationships with women.

He resuscitated his career in 1998, making the biggest one-year jump into the top 10 in the history of the ATP rankings. . The next season, he won the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, then added a second career US Open title en route to finishing 1999 at No. The next season, he won the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, then added a second career US Open title en route to finishing 1999 at No.

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Knopf is publishing the book November 9

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Mangere residents are raising doubts about whether police have the right man in custody following a string of sex attacks in the South Auckland suburb in the last two months.

A teenage boy is due to appear in court today after being arrested in connection with a sex attack on a woman in South Auckland yesterday.

The 14-year-old is due to appear in Manukau Youth Court earlier today facing one count of indecent assault against a 29-year-old woman.The woman was knocked to the ground and sexually assaulted before her screams attracted the attention of residents.

In the incident yesterday, the woman was attacked in an alleyway running behind Nga Iwi Primary School as she on her way to pick up a child from school. .

Police have been investigating a string of four sex attacks on females since early last month, the youngest victim being an eight-year-old girl who was raped in an alleyway last week.

However, the description of the arrested man did not match that given by victims of a string of recent sex attacks, Mangere Maori Wardens chairman Thomas Henry told Radio New Zealand.Police have not yet said whether the man taken into custody was arrested in connection with four sex attacks in the alleyway since September 8, or whether charges have been laid.The assault yesterday may have been a copycat attack, Mr Henry said, although he did not understand why anyone would commit such an act.The daylight assaults have been described as “brazen” by police.Police were following up a strong lead from a resident who said they knew who the attacker was and further details would be released earlier today. She punched him and he fled.In an attack last Thursday, a man grabbed a 28-year-old woman pushing her son in a pram in the alleyway.The man was described as Polynesian, aged between 18 and 20, and 165cm tall.The man was described as Polynesian, aged between 18 and 20, and 165cm tall.The man was described as Polynesian and wore a black baseball cap, a white hooded sweatshirt with a black or dark collar.On Monday last week, an eight-year-old girl was raped by a Maori or Polynesian man while walking home from school with her six-year-old sister, who screamed for help. He grabbed her from behind and she was indecently assaulted.On September 8, a 12-year-old girl was attacked by a man in the alleyway.

.Police had received recent reports of an unidentified male approaching young females and asking to touch them in a sexual way

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The New Zealand dollar climbed above US75c for the first time in 15 months, rocketing up more than 1c to close to US75.50c in the two hours to 5am.

By 8am the kiwi was buying US75.37c at 5pm yesterday.37c from US74. .

The NZ dollar also reached a 15-month high of 0.5043 euro from 0.

Against the Japanese currency the kiwi peaked at a one-year high 68.4997 at 5pm.35 yen by the local open from 67.48 yen, easing to 68.

The ANZ bank said risk appetites appeared unquenched as markets expected interest rates in the United States to remain lower into 2010.54 yesterday evening.

After taking a breather at the end of last week, US equities pushed higher to start the week, with analysts’ expectations of earnings continuing to be exceeded, giving investors confidence to push equities higher.

After taking a breather at the end of last week, US equities pushed higher to start the week, with analysts’ expectations of earnings continuing to be exceeded, giving investors confidence to push equities higher.

The NZ dollar managed to outperform the aussie, largely due to a function of less liquidity on the NZ dollar side, ANZ said.

The correlation with equities looked to be back, as gains in the Dow Jones industrial average translated into gains in the antipodean currencies.”

That was especially so as the Reserve Bank of Australia had already started hiking interest rates and there was increasing talk that the next move would be 50 basis points.

“This continues to be a source of much frustration as the NZD side should be underperforming based on relative fundamentals.22c by 8am from A80.

The kiwi was up to A81.34 from 66.96c at 5pm, while the trade weighted index lifted to 67.

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Air New Zealand says it’s cutting its cheapest domestic airfares by up to 23 percent and simplifying fare structures to two options from three.

Starting Monday, airfares will be cut by 10 percent on average to help boostdomestic travel, the government controlled airline said this afternoon.

Air New Zealand’s current three fare structures are being reduced to two – Smart Saver fares and Flexi Plus fares.

“New Flexi Plus fares will start at substantially lower levels than existing Fully Flexi levels, with reductions averaging 32 percent,” Air New Zealand said. .”

The new fare type will provide two free 25kg checked bags and the ability to change flights at the airport on the day of travel for free to any available seat.

“For example, the lead-in price for a Flexi Plus fare on Auckland – Wellington will be $199, 38 percent lower than the old price of $319.

The airline’s short haul group general manager, Bruce Parton, said greater flexibility would benefit business flyers.

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“Cheaper Smart Saver airfares, will stimulate travel, growing the market and adding more tourists into regional New Zealand with flow on benefits to accommodation and attractions as the market recovers from recessionary impacts,” Parton added

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LATEST:
Michael Laws has slammed claims he bullied several school children who wrote letters to him about the spelling of Wanganui on his radio show this morning.

The radio station Laws works for, Radio Live, ran an item about the bullying allegations during their 9am news bulletin, just minutes before Laws was to begin his regular talk back show.”

Laws addressed the allegations on his programme and spoke of his surprise at opening The this morning to “find myself in the midst of yet another controversy”.

Veteran news reader Hilary Barry dissolved into giggles when she read the story, concluding “Michael Laws hung up on Radio Live when we contacted him this morning.

Mr Laws replied to letters from Otaki school children by telling them “there are so many deficiencies of both fact and logic in your letters that I barely know where to start”.

A group of primary school children who wrote to Laws about the “h” debate were upset that they received a letter back suggesting their teacher be sacked and that they control their anger.

The seven children wrote in separate letters how they were annoyed that Mr Laws would not change the city’s name.

Ngarui Waahitia-Manukau, 12, and her year 7 and 8 classmates at Otaki School’s kura kaupapa unit wrote letters in Maori to Mr Laws at the beginning of August, saying they thought the spelling of Wanganui should have an “h”.”

He added: “Perhaps sacking your teacher for allowing such misapprehension to flourish?”

In handwriting at the bottom of his letter, Mr Laws wrote: “PS Controlling your anger might be a start!”

On his show this morning, Laws said he had looked up the meaning of bullying in the dictionary this morning, he said, and did not believe the letters he had written made him a bully.

A fierce opponent of any name change, Mr Laws replied to the children that he would take their views seriously “when your class starts addressing the real issues affecting Maoridom particularly the appalling rate of child abuse and child murder within Maori society, then I will take the rest of your views seriously.”

“I think it’s wrong for kids to be angry about something inanimate, don’t you?”

“They were demanding letters by 11 and 12-year-old and all stated their personal anger.

Laws said he had been “shocked” by the tone of the letters he received, which he says were “demanding” and “angry” from children who “live nowhere near Wanganui.”

“Needless to day I wrote back to them and said this is a bit off and isn’t there other things you should get angry about…”

The pupils were upset by the reply and family members questioned yesterday whether the response was acceptable. .

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New figures showing Kiwi teens racked up $40 million in unpaid traffic fines in the past year alone have revived calls for tougher demerit penalties and a move away from issuing fines for traffic violations.

The teen tearaways include a 16-year-old Dunedin boy who received 158 fines in the year to June, making him one of the country’s worst teen traffic offenders.

The second biggest outstanding amount is is owed by an 18-year-old, also in Dunedin, who received 119 infringements and owed $38,811, followed by a Christchurch 15-year-old who owed $24,990 on 88 fines. According to Ministry of Justice figures released to the Sunday Star-Times, by the end of the previous month the teenager owed $49,123 in fines, which he has been paying off weekly.

Their fines are among 51,594 issued to drivers aged 14-19 during the same period, and totalling $55. Their offences include dangerous driving, driver licence offences, defective vehicles or no warrant of fitness, parking violations, not wearing a seatbelt and speeding. Of that, 56 percent was being paid by arrangement and 27 percent had been “resolved” either by payment, alternative sentences or being written-off.8m.

AA Driver Education Foundation chairman Mike Noon says the examples show “the current system is failing”.

Experts say the massive totals owed would be nearly impossible to pay off for teenagers, who “may be working at McDonald’s”, and that the only effective penalty for young traffic violators is the threat of forcing them off the road.

The Vehicle Confiscations and Seizures Bill (or “anti-cruising” measures) and Courts and Criminal Matters Bill look set to be passed into law by the end of the year and will give authorities greater powers to suspend driver licences and confiscate cars. . I think it’s likely that there will be more provisions for vehicle confiscations and possibly even crushing the vehicles of repeat dangerous offenders,” Noon says.

“There definitely is an interest in increasing demerit points; that is the way forward.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce says the bill would see fines for such breaches reduced from $400 to $100 and demerit points increased from 25 to 35.

And the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Bill, which aims to rebalance penalties for breaches of the driver-licensing system, reaches its second reading in parliament next month. This reflects evidence that young drivers often ignore fines or get their parents to pay them,” Joyce says.

“We believe loss of license and loss of vehicle are much more powerful deterrents than fines particularly for young people and those involved with illegal street racing.

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Facing questions about her gender, South African teenager Caster Semenya has easily won the 800-metre gold medal at the world championships.

Semenya’s dominating run came on the same day track and field’s ruling body said she was undergoing a gender test as a result of concerns she does not meet requirements to compete as a woman.45 seconds in a world-leading 1 minute, 55.

Semenya took the lead at the halfway mark and opened a commanding lead in the last 400m to win by a massive 2. Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei was second and Jennifer Meadows of Britain was third in 1:57.45 seconds.

About three weeks ago, the international federation asked South African track and field authorities to conduct the verification test.93.72 at the African junior championships in Maruitius. Semenya had burst onto the scene by posting a world-leading time of 1:56. Before the race, IAAF spokesperson Nick Davies stressed this is a “medical issue, not an issue of cheating.

Her dramatic improvement in times, muscular build and deep voice sparked speculation about her gender.

The test requires a physical medical evaluation and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, internal medicine specialist and gender expert.” He said the “extremely complex, difficult” test has begun but results were not expected for weeks.

“We entered Caster as a woman and we want to keep it that way,” Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said.

South Africa team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane would not confirm or deny that Semenya was having such a test. We have no reservations at all about that. “Our conscience is clear in terms of Caster.

“But today there is no proof and the benefit of doubt must always be in favor of the athlete,” Weiss said. .

-AP

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LATEST:
Former New Zealand Olympic rower Rob Hamill has confronted his brother’s killer at the trial of former Khmer Rouge official Duch in Phnom Penh.

An emotional Hamill testified before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh about the “incredible” impact the horrific death of his brother Kerry, 27, had on his family here – a “massive and unquantifiable impact”.

Hamill, former Olympic and long-distance rower, said he had waited a long time to confront his brother’s killer and to tell the story about the impact on his parents and siblings.

The New Zealander’s wife Rachel and their two-year-old son were in the packed public gallery as Hamill spoke for a full hour.

Hamill’s mother is now dead and his father is in a nursing home.

Duch, 66, has pleaded guilty to murder but the five judges – New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright, a French national and three Cambodians – will decide Duch’s innocence or guilt after hearing all the evidence.

Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch as he is known, the man responsible for Kerry Hamill’s death, was in court and listened impassively to Hamill’s testimony as it was translated.

Dame Silvia was in courtto hear Hamill, who was accepted as a civil party.

Crewman Stuart Glass, a Canadian was shot while Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were interrogated and tortured for two months before being killed in Phnom Penh’s notorious Tuol Sleng Prison run by Duch.

Kerry Hamill was captured by the Khmer Rouge when the yacht on which he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978.

Duch has pleaded the same defence as some of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2, maintaining he was simply carrying out orders and would have been shot had he not done so.

Thousands of Cambodians were killed at the prison.

He noted that Duch used the phrase “smash them”, words meaning prisoners were to be tortured and then killed.

Hamill said Duch had dehumanised himself “the way he did so many people”.

“I’ve wanted to smash Duch,” he said.

“I’ve wanted to smash Duch,” he said.

“We all live and die but the way my brother died it is just so abominable and simply [incomprehensible] and he led that, he created the system that inflicted this terrible, terrible crime on people. I mean what he did, he dehumanised himself… he dehumanised so many thousands of people and the way he did it,” he told told Radio New Zealand.

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An Auckland police officer has been suspended and may yet face criminal charges for allegedly leaking secret information from the national intelligence network to a criminal.

The constable has been stood down while an internal investigation takes place, the Weekend Herald reported.

The suspended constable is in a squad which targets “volume crime”, in particular burglaries, and had access to the police intelligence database.

The constable, who has been in the police for two years, was this week interviewed by staff from the force’s professional standards team, the newspaper reported.

He is alleged to have leaked sensitive information to help a known criminal to avoid arrest. But most have been non-sworn staff in call centres, not officers.

A small number of police staff have been charged with using the computer system to help friends and family to evade arrest. .

Police Minister Judith Collins has been briefed on the “serious allegations” but declined to comment as the inquiry was not finished.

“Police are investigating an allegation that information has been inappropriately disclosed by a police employee, and as the investigation is under way it would be inappropriate to comment further,” Mr Bush said.

The National Intelligence Application is a computer network that holds information on people’s criminal convictions and whether they are wanted by police or are a surveillance target.

Police Association president Greg O’Connor also declined to comment.

Police national headquarters figures show 33 police staff were caught making unauthorised checks of the National Intelligence Application since August 2007.

The system also gives police facts on criminals’ associates and their addresses. Nine of those later resigned. Nine of those later resigned

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A coroner’s verdict that New Zealand Warriors
rugby league player Sonny Fai had drowned has brought closure to his
family, his sister said today.

Chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean found that Fai drowned at Auckland’s Bethells Beach on January 4. His body has not been found. .

Judge MacLean recommended there should be an emergency telephone on the beach, and he would forward the inquest findings to Telecom.

“Sonny Fai died when he succumbed to the surf conditions and drowned, despite extensive and intensive efforts of recovery,” he said at an inquest in Auckland Coroner’s Court today.

After today’s inquest, Fai’s sister Lalelei spoke on behalf of her mother Tausili and father Falelua, and the rest of her extended family, who were all at court today. Cellphone coverage in the area is patchy and the lack of a landline phone could cause problems in an emergency.

“I know it’s hard but it’s closure for our family.

She thanked Judge MacLean, the police, Westpac rescue helicopters and the surf lifesavers.

“Sonny won’t be forgotten in our hearts but having my whole family here makes us know we’ve got the support and the strength to pull through this, and I know that’s what Sonny would have wanted,” she said. This is the next step for us to move forward.

“I think it’s really hit us today that he’s gone.

She also thanked Fai’s lawyer Sandy Anderson and his manager Peter Brown, who, she said, had helped the family through this difficult time.

She added that she thought Judge MacLean’s recommendation of installing an emergency telephone on the beach was a good idea. The body has not been found, but it’s just a vessel to us and we know that he’s still with us,” she said.

” My cousins probably thought it was a calm spot, not knowing it was very dangerous.

Ms Fai said she agreed there was a lack of education around safety in the water. It’s about knowing the risks and the signs to be aware of to be safe in the water.

“Education about understanding the water is very important for each and every one of us, especially Pacific Islanders, who are known to be good swimmers.