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Brumbies forward Shawn Mackay is in a coma in a Durban hospital after being hit by a car in the South African city in the wake of the team’s loss to the Sharks.
Mackay was apparently struck by the vehicle while trying to get into a taxi early yesteday morning.
The 26-year-old is in an induced coma in St Augustine’s Hospital after being admitted to the intensive care unit with serious head and leg injuries.
Sharks team doctor, Dr Craig Springate, said Mackay underwent emergency surgery.
South African website News24 reported there are fears that Mackay may be paralysed after suffering a vertebra injury along with multiple face and leg fractures.
“There is some concern about paralysis, but we will only know when he recovers from the anaesthetic.
“He has suffered multiple injuries and fractures which can be classified as serious,”Springate said. The spinal cord is intact but there is some swelling.
Mackay was leaving the Clapham Grand Night Club in Morningside with the rest of his team mates at 4.”
The hospital listed his condition as “serious but stable”.
Emergency response spokesperson Derrick Banks said: “When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found him lying on the side on the road.15amyesterday (local time), when he was hit by a car which drove away and returned to the scene 10 minutes later.. . he had suffered massive injuries and had to have advanced life support intervention. he had suffered massive injuries and had to have advanced life support intervention.”While we are still gathering details our primary concern is for Shawn’s health and safety.
“Shawn is a popular member of the playing group and obviously our thoughts are with him,” Brumbies spokesperson Nick Smith said.Mackay, an Australian sevens representative, joined the Brumbies this year from the Waratahs.”
Durban police have opened a case of reckless and negligent driving.
He can play lock or loose forward and has also played junior league for the Sydney Roosters. He came off the bench in the loss to the Sharks.
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The Brumbies play the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein this weekend
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Health board sued over car death
– Monday, 02 March 2009
A woman whose mother was killed by a drugged methadone patient near Picton is suing a South Island health board over the death.
Picton woman Mary Radley died in 2004 after her vehicle was hit by a car driven by a man with methadone and the equivalent of 500mg of a tranquilliser in his system.
The driver, who has name suppression, was a patient on the methadone programme run by the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board at the time of the crash.
Ford will claim, under human rights legislation, that the health board breached its obligations to ensure public safety by its alleged lax management of the driver who killed Radley.
This week, Radley's daughter, Rachael Ford, employed a Queen's Counsel to take legal action against the health board.
A recent coroner's court finding into Radley's death said the driver failed four drug tests in the year before the fatal crash and the health board was aware of his escalating risk on the roads.
Ford told she was taking legal action because she did not feel the health board fully accepted the impact of its actions.
Ford, who started the lobby group Campaign Against Drugs on Roads (Candor) to press for tougher laws on drug driving, said she wanted the board to acknowledge the effect its systemic failures had had on her family.
Under a behaviour management programme running at the prison between 1998 and 2004, inmates Christopher Taunoa, Alistair Robinson and Matthew Kidman were kept in solitary confinement for extended periods, denied regular clothing and bedding changes, and had their weekly toilet-paper use restricted.
The law that Ford will use in her claim is the same as that employed by three violent prisoners from Paremoremo prison, who favourably sued the Corrections Department for breaching their human rights.
Taunoa, a convicted murderer, was awarded damages of $35,000. .
Canterbury University public law expert Professor Stephen Todd said suing public institutions under human rights legislation was a "pretty popular thing", as a result of the possibility of financial payments. Aggravated robber Robinson was paid $20,000 in damages, while fellow aggravated robber Kidman was paid $4000.
The case of the three Paremoremo prisoners was one of the best-known recent examples, he said.
The case of the three Paremoremo prisoners was one of the best-known recent examples, he said
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Would-be thief good for a laugh
– Thursday, 29 January 2009
Is this the dumbest crook in Christchurch?
Police allege a 28-year-old man burgled a Prebbleton house, set fire to it and knocked himself out while trying to make his getaway.
The homeowner's family said the man tried to steal a drum kit, which meant the plasma-screen television set he also tried to take would not fit in his car.
"And he forgot the remote," the homeowner's son said, stifling a laugh.
"He's allegedly stolen property and then set a fire in the house," Tarawhiti said.
Detective Sergeant Ross Tarawhiti said the man would appear in the Christchurch District Court today charged with burglary, arson and resisting arrest.20pm.
Greg Kitson said the events began when his wife went to his parents' Shands Road house about 1. His parents had left on holiday that morning.
She called her husband, who was working close toby.
Christine Kitson noticed a fire in the kitchen and heard noises coming from upstairs. Looking around, the Kitsons realised a burglary was in progress. He found a man upstairs "incoherent and examining like he was having a seizure".
"There was a bit of chemical warfare going on there," he said.
Greg Kitson said the man appeared "pretty out of it", possibly on drugs.
The fire was small and the Kitsons were able to put it out.
The fire was small and the Kitsons were able to put it out."
The Kitsons suspected the man had fallen and hit his head taking the drum kit down a spiral staircase from the loft in the garage. "He was a really bad burglar.
"He tried to tell police he had just got back from Japan, but he had 30 Malaysian ringgit.
"He tried to take some foreign currency," Kitson said. It's worth about $2. He can keep it and count it in his jail cell. Ha!"
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One-finger salute for Palestinian protesters
The Wednesday, 21 January 2009
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END THE BLOODSHED: Protesters marched through central Wellington yesterday over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Among them was three-year-old Shamso Aden.
Several peoplegestured that they did not agree with more than 300 Palestinian supporters who took part in yesterday's rally, but organisers were not concerned about the public disapproval. .
"We would have liked more people to have come to the march, but it was still a good turnout.
"Some of the people in the march tried to start an argument with the people that were giving us the fingers, but we just told them to ignore them," protest spokesperson Omar Khamoun said.
Protesters were told to bring old keys to the march which started in Cuba St and finished at Parliament to represent the number of dead in Gaza since the beginning of the war and symbolise those who had lost their homes and land."
Among them was three-year-old Shamso Aden, left, carrying a sign that was almost as big as her.
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Harder times expected in job market
By EMMA PAGE – Sunday, 18 January 2009
It's shaping up to be a tough year for Kiwi workers as the New Zealand job market continues to weaken during the global financial crisis.
Experts say there will be more competition for fewer jobs, with unemployment picked to hit 6 percent for the first time in eight years, and the latest figures from the Institute of Economic Research revealing that close toly one-third of firms expect to lay off staff. Unions are expecting wage negotiations to be tough this year while Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly says pay claims will "moderate significantly".
And workers with secure jobs shouldn't budget on a pay rise. .
"I would be very surprised if they were anything like as high as they have been for the last year or two.
Although some of the drop can be explained by seasonal differences and the numbers didn't factor in part-time listings, TradeMe Jobs head Jimmy McGee says they indicate the market is deteriorating.
Fulltime job listings on the site dropped around 15 percent in the second half of 2008 while a surge of job seekers saw the number of applicants per vacancy increase 32 percent.
Auckland and Wellington were the best places to land a high-paid job, and IT workers and doctors were netting the best pay.
The study, which looked at 61,000 jobs, found customer service roles and the banking and finance sector had been worst-hit, while central and local government, and engineering were showing growth.
McGee predicts that pay rates will stagnate this year and workers will become reluctant to change jobs. Kitchen workers, baristas and caregivers were paid the least."
Thousands of Kiwis have already lost their jobs in recent months, and BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander warns there will be further layoffs across all sectors. "It's entirely reasonable to expect that things are going to get worse.
"I'm pretty confident overall that workers' expectations will be moderate because they're reading the same newspapers as their bosses.
O'Reilly expects the minimum wage will remain at $12 and that workers, aware of the current economic climate would not ask employers for more money.
And they say the minimum wage should keep rising."
But the major unions, which have hundreds of contracts up for renegotiation this year involving close toly 50,000 workers, say they will continue to push for pay rises to keep in step with inflation picked to be around 3 percent this year.
"If businesses can't survive by paying reasonable and acceptable pay increases, then they're probably not going to survive anyway and there's no reason for workers to cop that and underprice themselves.
Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union chief executive Andrew Little says accepting low or no wage increases did not typically save jobs.
"If the value of wages isn't keeping pace with what's happening worldwide and we become a low-income country to work in, we'll simply lose golden talented people as we have been."
He didn't want to see a repeat of the 1990s when New Zealand became a low-wage economy.
And it wasn't all bad news."
National Distribution Union president Robert Reid said the government was partly relying on consumer spending to pull the country out of recession, so a "healthy wage increase was the best and most just mechanism to get the economy growing again".
And the TradeMe Jobs figures show some professions still demand high wages.
And the TradeMe Jobs figures show some professions still demand high wages. McGee says advertisements for six-figure jobs have remained relatively constant.
"Even in the current climate, high-calibre revenue generators are in demand and paid accordingly."
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Man in court over attack on Dutch tourists
Saturday, 17 January 2009
A 25-year-old man facing a charge of raping a Dutch tourist at Tuatapere has made a brief appearance in the Invercargill District Court.
The man, who was granted interim name supression, appeared before Justice of the Peace Fraser Clark on the charge which stems from an attack on the 22-year-old woman and her partner, 25, at the Five Mountains Holiday Park in the western Southland town on Thursday morning. .
Lawyer for the man Hugo Young said he sought a remand for his client, and made no application for bail.
Yesterday, the man in charge of the police investigation in to the attack, Detective Sergeant Dave Nelson said the rape charge was likely to be followed by other charges.
Mr Clark remanded the man in custody to reappear in the Invercargill District Court on Friday.
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Heathcote River death not suspicious
Friday, 09 January 2009
RECOVERY: Police recover what is thought to be the body of a young man fom the Heathcote River today.
A 44-year-old Christchurchmanpulled from the Heathcote River was notthe victim of foul play, police say.
The Fire Service provided a cherry picker to help with the recovery and the body was removed from the river at about 2.
The body wasspotted in the riverby a member of the public walkingnear Aynsley Tce in Opawa, southern Christchurch at about 10am today. .20pm.
"We're not examining for anyone else in connection with it.
"We've had the post-mortem and the results are more indicative of being something other than a criminal act," Rae said.''
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Woman hit as truck wheel gate-crashes cafe
– Monday, 05 January 2009
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON
INVESTIGATION: Constable Aaron Reid talks to cafe patron Carol Baxter close to the runaway wheel.
A woman was flown to hospital after a freak accident in which a wheel came loose from a passing truck, bounded across a carpark and slammed into a crowded cafe on Banks Peninsula.
The wheel hit between two large windows, bowing in the wall and smashing the windows into the cafe.
The waist-high wheel, weighing between 30kg and 40kg, struck the Blue Duck Cafe on State Highway 75 to Akaroa after it fell off a trailer carrying a large boat used for fishing charters yesterday.
A 57-year-old woman in the cafe, Denise Wilson, was knocked to the ground by the force of the impact and lay motionless among the shattered glass with chest injuries.
Police said that had the wheel hit the window and entered the cafe, the accident would have been disastrous. .
She was taken to hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, where she was found to have minor injuries."
The wheel hit with a "huge explosion", Baxter said.
"I froze and all I could say was, `Oh my God, my God, my God'.
"If it had come through the window, it would have killed her.
Moments earlier she saw Wilson standing close to where the wheel hit. It had come off the trailer, across the bend, missed a tree and a fence and then hit between the two panes of glass, Hanson said."
John Hanson, a friend of Wilson's who was in the cafe with them, said the tyre hitting the cafe was a "one-in-a-million shot".
McWhinnie said he glanced up and saw a "black thing" bounce off the road.
Akaroa Senior Constable Steve Ditmer was standing outside the cafe talking to motorcyclist Bob McWhinnie when the wheel hit."
Ditmer said the incident was "an absolute freak of a thing".
"Next thing, there was a mighty explosion like a bomb.
The truck's owner, Roger Withell, said it was an "unfortunate accident"
He said he was glad the injured woman was not seriously hurt and would be "getting the windows fixed".
The wheel, on top of another wheel on the trailer, had been secured but had come loose at some stage of the journey from Duvauchelle, he said.
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Ditmer said the investigation into the incident was continuing and it was not yet known if charges would be laid
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Unsettled weather for Christmas Day
By MICHAEL FOX – Monday, 22 December 2008
Kiwis hoping to bask in sunshine on Christmas Day are being warned the weather might not come to the party. .
MetService spokesperson Bob McDavitt said the outlook for Christmas Day remained uncertain.
"While it's unlikely to be windy in most places, it may not be all that settled.
"It all depends on how quickly this depression heads towards the Chathams," he said."
The forecast is likely to be good news for farmers in parts of the country, he said. We will have a clearer idea on Tuesday.
"The coast between Napier and Gisborne is now the driest part of New Zealand, with Gisborne airport reporting only 14mm so far this month and Napier airport 16mm."
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Art wrecko
The Monday, 15 December 2008
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ART WRECKO: this collection of wrecked cars, washing machines, lawnmowers, oil drums, tyres, weedeaters, breadmakers and other dumped rubbish is art. Journee des barricades, 2008 was created by British artists Heather and Ivan Morison across Wellington’s Stout St yesterday as part of Massey University’s One Day Sculpture project.
Journee des barricades, 2008 was created by British artists Heather and Ivan Morison across Wellington's Stout St yesterday as part of Massey University's One Day Sculpture project.
Itlooks as if it could be the scene of a disaster movie, but this collection of wrecked cars, washing machines, lawnmowers, oil drums, tyres, weedeaters, breadmakers and other dumped rubbish is art.
This work was set up early on Sunday and was to be cleared by early today. The initiative, supported by Wellington City Council, allows for artworks to be exhibited for 24 hours. . Its creators are used to making public sculptures in 2006, they set up a truck spilling its load of 25,000 flowers across Bristol city centre