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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A New Zealander has set a new land speed record in Utah this morning.

Dean Veale, 44, from Kaukapakapa, north of Auckland, set the new land speed record – for the 1650cc A-G class of motorcycles – at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

With the existing record for the class standing at 191. He was riding “White Elephant”, his special construction Hayabusa engine motorcycle.5mph (311.593mph (305kph), Veale confirmed his initial record breaking run yesterday with a backup run this morning (local time) that set the new record at 194.

This morning’s conditions were apparently near perfect for the record setting run.2kph). .

A statement released this morning said Veale had been concerned something might force him to have to repeat his runs.

Only at that point did Veale relax, and revealed the purpose of a pipe which ran along the bottom left-hand side of White Elephant/

“Releasing the retaining clip and removing the custom made aluminium cap, Veale pulled a Bunnings umbrella from the pipe: ‘I’d been told it got hot here and didn’t want to sit in the sun and cook, so I packed some shade’,” the statement said. Extending his hand toward Veale the inspector offered his congratulations as he confirmed the record with the words ‘Welcome to the record books’.

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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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Cultural differences mean some Chinese students are unwittingly cheating at university, the head of the Christchurch International College says.

has obtained figures on academic misconduct at Canterbury, Otago, Victoria and Auckland universities. .

However, a request for data on ethnicity was declined. Another was fined for photocopying a previous year’s assignment and submitting it under their own name.

One Canterbury student was fined $200 for submitting an essay lifted off the internet.

An Official Information Act request for data on the ethnicity of academic misconduct cases was declined by all four universities.

Last year, one student was excluded from the university for plagiarism.

In a preliminary ruling, the Ombudsman agreed the data should not be released because it “would be likely to endanger the safety” of people.

has continued to appeal to the Ombudsman for access to the declined requests dating to March 2007.

However, Waikato University reported 143 of a total 222 cases of proven academic misconduct there in 2006 were by Chinese students.

“The phrase `endanger the safety’ of any person has generally been accepted as meaning there must be a substantial risk that a person’s life is likely to be put in peril or there is danger that their physical safety will be jeopardised,” the preliminary decision said.

Christchurch International College principal Mei Ding Dawson said there was “some culture difference because of the way Chinese education is tied to memory”.

Pakeha students were responsible for 28 cases and Maori 10 of the 222 cases.

“We think if something is good, you just memorise that and then you copy that.

“It’s changing but the [Chinese] education system is still not that like New Zealand in that way,” said Dawson, who is Chinese.

“They probably don’t understand, I would say,” Dawson said.”

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Student orientation for international students arriving in New Zealand was not favourably explaining differences to Chinese students. I don’t think they should get anything special, but maybe they should get orientation or educate the Chinese, especially the new ones just coming from China. “When you’re in Rome, you must do what the Romans do.”

New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations co-president Jordan King said the rules about cheating were clear and most students followed them. They need to be educated or need to be told that you are not accepting the Western cultures.

“I think that could potentially come in to it in some of those cases but, obviously, I haven’t seen the breakdown of the background of those particular students who have infringed.

“I guess there is always the question of English as a second language and international students and perhaps perceptions of the rules and misinterpretation of the rules around plagiarism and proper operating in the New Zealand university context,” King said.

“There could be some cultural differences at play when it comes to that sort of thing and, obviously, new students, international students participating in the tertiary sector, probably have a reasonably difficult time adjusting after that first instance,” King said.

“There could be some cultural differences at play when it comes to that sort of thing and, obviously, new students, international students participating in the tertiary sector, probably have a reasonably difficult time adjusting after that first instance,” King said.

Tertiary Education Union national secretary Sharn Riggs said there was “a swathe of issues around international students” getting support.

“I think the institutions do their best, but it’s not just a case of language difficulties, there are different cultural approaches to learning,” Riggs said.

A Canterbury University spokesman said academic staff were encouraged to help students understand the concept of academic integrity, and how to do proper referencing.

“UC works with academic staff to help them recognise situations where there is risk of cheating and helps them develop forms of assessment which minimise opportunity for plagiarism,” the spokesman said.

Auckland University said it was dealing with more cellphones being taken into examination rooms.

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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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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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