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[] | 2016-08-30T10:51:52 | null | 2016-08-30T09:54:04 | Another social occasion, another nasty confrontation on The Real Housewives of Auckland. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fentertainment%2F83690193%2FRecap-Real-Housewives-of-Auckland-Episode-3-the-best-Pussy-Galore-party-ever.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/5/h/x/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtrrl.png/1472550844675.jpg | en | null | Recap: Real Housewives of Auckland, Episode 3 - 'the best Pussy Galore party ever' | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Recap: Real Housewives of Auckland, Episode 3 - 'the best Pussy Galore party ever'
Media Works Anne hosts her Pussy Galore party and the ladies get catty.
Dead cats, hungry cats, women dressed as cats - episode three of The Real Housewives of Auckland is all about the pussies.
First up, a glimpse of rural bliss among the olive trees at Goose Creek, where Anne serves her "#1 pussy" - called Champagne, naturally - slices of roast chicken in a silver bowl. On the coffee table.
"I'm not sure if her purr is louder than the Bentley or the Porsche," says Richard Cuddly Bear, who admits that he is a bit over all the cats, but is forever subject to Anne's whimsy.
supplied So many dead cats. Anne Batley Burton mourns her beloved pussies ahead of a fundraiser for the New Zealand Cat Foundation.
Michelle is 100 per cent over the cats. She arrives for a catch-up and is drafted in to help feed the dozens of strays ensconced in the Pussy Palace refuge, her Hermes bag slung over her arm and her Gucci boots sinking into the mud.
READ MORE:
* Recap: Real Housewives of Auckland, episode 2 - 'This is Gilda's town'
* Real Housewives of Auckland: Episode 1 recap - 'Sweetie, get over it!'
* Real Housewives of Auckland: Just how glamourous and well-connected are they?
* Real Housewives of Auckland: drama spills off-screen
* Real Housewives of Auckland's Angela Stone responds to 'plus-size' jibe
* NZ reacts to Real Housewives online
supplied Michelle smells cat, and she doesn't like it.
"I don't do cats," says stone-cold fox Michelle, who doesn't do dogs or horses, or possibly many humans, either. "How can you bear the smell?" she asks Anne, which is sort of like asking, "Did you realise that your children are ugly?"
In Remuera, Julia is off to another dreary bloody beauty appointment, this time featuring actual blood. "I play way too hard to let nature take its course," she says cheerily.
Julia is getting a "vampire" treatment on her neck, which is every bit as creepy as it sounds. A tube of blood is drawn from her arm and run through a centrifuge to extract the plasma, which is then injected into the skin — resulting in a bright red, lumpy neck she has to hide with a scarf.
It's Pussy Galore Party-time for the Real Housewives of Auckland.
Louise and Anne come along too, to see if "she's brave or stupid", but also to scold Julia for her behaviour at Michelle's "start-again" dinner party, where she told Gilda that Anne thought she was a gold digger. Yes, we're back to that.
"Bruised neck, bruised emotionally," Julia muses.
"I think she got the message, heh heh heh," says Anne.
supplied Julia gets a vampire neck treatment - and ends up with a red, lumpy neck.
Meanwhile, Cantabrian Angela is furnishing her new Auckland apartment. Oddly, she asks interior designer/model/body expert Michelle — who so far can't stand her — to meet her at a ritzy home store where the arm chairs cost more than many cars.
Michelle takes this opportunity to remind Ang that Gilda is the "queen" of Auckland's social scene, while Angela attempts to rewrite dinner-party history.
"My hands are clean on this one," says Ang, who reckons she got episode two's juicy bleeped-out gossip about Gilda from Louise (an experienced TV producer, which makes this plausible) and was merely repeating it.
supplied Cuddly Bear and Anne Batley Burton drink champs while they wait for the electrician.
"I think you got them a little dirty, baby," says Michelle, who nonetheless seems inclined to give Ang another chance because, oh well, plot point.
But when Michelle relates the conversation later, Gilda says: "It's like someone vomits over here, but if you take that vomit and throw it into my face, then I'm going to blame you."
You can't argue with that.
supplied If you throw vomit in my face, I'll be mad, Gilda Kirkpatrick tells Michelle Blanchard, perfectly reasonably.
Back at Huapai, Anne and Cuddly Bear are prepping for the annual Pussy Galore Party, which raises funds for the New Zealand Cat Foundation.
Outside, it's fairy lights, inside it's dead cats. They make a shrine on a table for the pussies who have gone before, laid out in their little labelled urns: Ginger My Special Wee Man, Monty Our Intrepid Adventurer, Nudger the King of the Pensioner Pussies, Tabitha the Last of the Old Guard and Nero My Beautiful Black Boy With a Loving Heart.
Satisfied with the display, Anne and Cuddly Bear bustle off to check the marquee. When a fuse blows and threatens to ruin the party, they are forced to drink Champagne until an electrician arrives.
supplied Anne mourns Nero, "my beautiful black boy", amongst many, many cats.
Party time. Animal-loving Anne is cold in her sheer, golden cocktail dress and notes that many of her friends are cloaked in dead critter: South American skunk, racoon, mink. Lou turns up in a floor-length fur that belonged to her mother.
Anne finally succumbs to the chill, pulling a mink from her secret stash of furs. Yes! The animal activist owns furs. Someone call PETA, or Michelle, who wants to buy at least one of the furs.
Ang arrives with her personal assistant Lea — she's French, you know and tres jolie — dressed in a black catsuit and cape. Amusingly, Julia turns up in exactly the same catsuit, noting, "Angela looks good in hers, I look great in mine."
supplied Say what? Angela Stone and her personal assistant get catty at Anne Batley Burton's Pussy Galore Party.
"Pull your tummy in, Sweetie", Michelle says to Angela, then zeroes in on the rotting core of the plus-size debate from episode one. "You're not a size 10. You're more like a size 12. I'm not saying you're fat, nothing wrong with being plus-sized, nothing wrong with it whatsoever. You shouldn't be ashamed of it."
Gilda trundles up to the party in a cat-themed headband and a gloomy mood. "I don't even know why I'm going to this party. I am stepping into a gathering of the terribles."
(Reminder: the last time the Housewives were all together Lou blurted the rumour about Gilda, Angela needled her about the rumour, and Julia told Gilda that Anne thought she was a gold digger. Michelle is the only one she has left.)
supplied Two Housewives show up at the Pussy Galore party in the same skintight catsuit. Only one is told to pull in her tummy.
But Lou rapidly manages to get back in Gilda's good graces by blaming Angela for spreading the bleeped-out gossip, which works a treat. "I underestimated her," says Lou. "I didn't think she was that big of a bitch."
Julia and Michelle sneak around Anne's house laughing at the decor. "It reminds me of my nana's place," says Julia, pointing to a pair of porcelain flamingoes, a china cabinet, and faded photos of Anne from her youth. "She's only recently died at 90."
Back in the marquee, Anne is on stage with a microphone and a glass of Champagne, trying to get her guests' attention while her "girlfriends" squabble.
supplied Lou is on the receiving end of Gilda's death stare.
Angela leans over Gilda menacingly: "Just tell us who you are."
"I'm everything you're not," says Gilda.
"I'm everything you're not," ripostes Angela. "You're the little runt!"
supplied Oopsie! Did Angela Stone just call Gilda a little runt? And then call herself a big runt?
Revealing that she knows about as much about animals as Michelle does, Ang later tells the camera: "She's the little runt and I'm the big runt of the litter and the big runt always gets picked first."
Then it's charity auction time. Michelle models a possum and lamb vest that fetches $1500. Ka-ching, pussies.
Ang offers one of her styling sessions, sparking a squeamish bidding war between her PA and Julia, who gets it for $4000, but then suggests they go out for lunch rather than do the styling session.
"I have supported that charity well and truly," says Julia. "Or Michael has."
As a band plays Blue Lady, the Housewives dance around like drunk aunties at a wedding, and Anne declares it the "best Pussy Galore Party ever" — which also makes it the most successful social event the Housewives have endured together.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/83690193/Recap-Real-Housewives-of-Auckland-Episode-3-the-best-Pussy-Galore-party-ever | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/0ba3e465087c06fddce5492f34f77d0332647356454ef689aaec2080261363bd.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T22:51:08 | null | 2016-08-28T22:44:28 | Kiwi world No 1 golfer fades to finish seventh in her first outing since the Rio Olympics. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2F83659614%2FCold-putter-sees-New-Zealand-golfer-Lydia-Ko-finish-seventh-at-Canadian-Pacific-Open.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/4/8/8/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dt466.png/1472424282081.jpg | en | null | Cold putter sees New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko finish seventh at Canadian Pacific Open | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Cold putter sees New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko finish seventh at Canadian Pacific Open
GETTY IMAGES Lydia Ko's work off the tee was good but her short iron play and putting let her down during the final round of the Canadian Pacific Open.
Lydia Ko's putting woes continued as she finished seventh at the Canadian Pacific Women's Open in Calgary.
New Zealand's world No 1 recorded a final round three-under 69 on Monday (NZ time) to finish the tournament at 13-under, 10 shots off the pace of Thailand's runaway leader Ariya Jutanugarn.
Jutanugarn claimed her fifth title of the year, producing a controlled final round of 66 to win by four shots from Korea's Sei Young Kim.
READ MORE:
* Recap: Lydia Ko fades in final round
Ko's hopes of mounting a challenge and getting her fourth title at this event looked promising as she slotted three birdies during an encouraging front nine to get within four shots of Jutanugarn.
But she had a disaster on the par five 12th hole where her aggressive second shot got caught in deep rough.
Unable to get enough spin, her third shot flew through to the second cut of rough on the other side of the green and she took three to get down from there.
Ko's putter was as cold as the chilly air hanging over the Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club as her round progressed.
She just couldn't get anything to drop again until a birdie at the 18th.
Ko's wedges into the greens lacked their usual accuracy too.
Her driving off the tee was solid, hitting 12 of 14 fairways. But she made just 12 greens in regulation, negating her chances of applying real pressure to Jutanugarn.
Ko, coming off her silver medal performance at the Rio Olympics, remains in charge of the Race to the CME Globe but Jutanugarn is closing in.
The Thai star is the form player and her turnaround this year is remarkable after missing 10 cuts in 2015.
Ko has the defence of her breakthrough major title at the Evian Championship in France looming on September 15.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/golf/83659614/Cold-putter-sees-New-Zealand-golfer-Lydia-Ko-finish-seventh-at-Canadian-Pacific-Open | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/31c7d90a9b3d3d2a5bdc194224912f90878dd01136ee42965cec9bdf6df1b8bb.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:26 | null | 2016-08-27T13:11:55 | Michael Huria was | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Faustralia%2F83636201%2FKiwi-Michael-Huria-missing-in-Australia-may-be-on-a-spiritual-journey-family.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/d/v/i/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsm3t.png/1472303515155.jpg | en | null | Kiwi Michael Huria missing in Australia, may be on a 'spiritual journey' - family | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Kiwi Michael Huria missing in Australia, may be on a 'spiritual journey' - family
SUPPLIED Searchers have failed to find Michael Huria.
The family of a New Zealand man who has been missing in Western Australia for almost a week say the 23-year-old may be on a "spiritual journey".
West Australian police on Saturday resumed their search for 23-year-old Michael Junior Huria, who also goes by the surname Sullivan.
He had not been in touch with family or friends since leaving his home in Ellenbrook after 4am on Monday.
Huria's father, Mark, and brother, Tamati, made a public appeal on Saturday.
READ MORE: Massive manhunt for missing NZer
Speaking at the Ellenbrook Police Station, they said Michael's disappearance was "unusual".
"He's a bit lost at the moment," Tamati Huria said of his brother who recently quit his job as a builder.
"We don't know but we think he might have gone out on a spiritual journey of some kind - he's quite inclined in that way."
Police and State Emergency Service volunteers were searching in nearby Upper Swan, where a woman thought she might have struck a pedestrian on Monday night.
Despite searching the area at the time, no-one was found near the road.
SES crews searching in Upper Swan for Michael Huria #perthnews pic.twitter.com/CK3vQnTcYX — Claire Tyrrell (@Claire_Tyrrell) August 25, 2016
Huria's white ute was subsequently located in Ellenbrook but he remained missing.
"The search for Michael will continue throughout the day and will perhaps conclude early this evening," a police spokeswoman said on Saturday afternoon.
"Assessments will then take place regarding any future searches."
Huria was understood to have ties to Wellington and Hawke's Bay, and some of his family had moved across the Tasman in recent years.
Police earlier said his disappearance was out of character.
On Wednesday, after his ute was found, police said they had concerns "for his safety and welfare".
However, the search - involving two helicopters, multiple police units, volunteers and dogs - was discontinued after he was not found.
Emergency Services are looking for Michael Huity in Upper Swan #perthnews @thewest_com_au pic.twitter.com/QMJ2VSFhU0 — Claire Tyrrell (@Claire_Tyrrell) August 25, 2016
A Western Australia Police spokesman said authorities were "assessing" what to do next.
"No physical search is ongoing at this stage," the Perth-based spokesman said on Friday evening.
Western Australia Police had refused to disclose any details about Huria's background.
It wasn't immediately clear how long he had been in Perth for.
- Stuff and AAP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/83636201/Kiwi-Michael-Huria-missing-in-Australia-may-be-on-a-spiritual-journey-family | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/d0e8458a293baff64d85dff06e2968555d75143cd8b86a6b48893fc524df1cf8.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:10 | null | 2016-08-30T19:26:26 | Fancy driving to work in a vehicle running on these strange alternative fuels? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fmotoring%2F83425524%2FFive-weirdest-fuels-to-power-cars.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/c/w/w/0/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1do3jo.png/1472585186936.jpg | en | null | Five weirdest fuels to power cars | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Five weirdest fuels to power cars
FAIRFAX NZ Forget petrol, the fuels below offer some weird alternatives.
So alternatives to oil-based fuels for vehicles is becoming something we are increasingly concerned about, but what are the alternatives?
Well, there are actually plenty of them - here are five of the weirdest!
Wood
Firewood to fire up your car?
While you may think we are talking about simply burning wood the old fashioned way, we are not. A Finnish politician called Juha Sipila actually runs his 1987 Chev El Camino using a wood gasification system, broadly similar to systems that were in widespread use across Europe during WWII when oil was scarce.
The gasification is a process that converts organic matter into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, with the hydrogen then used to power the car. A well-engineered system is said to be cleaner and more efficient than a petrol engine, but we imagine having to haul all that wood around would offset most of the advantages…
Coffee
Fancy putting a brew in your tank?
A man by the name of Martin Bacon currently holds the world record for the fastest caffe-powered vehicle. Yes, really. Bacon's converted Ford P100 ute (a Ford Sierra ute! Again; yes, really!) uses a gasification system similar to the one mentioned previously to run his Sierra ute on pellets made from coffee waste.
According to Bacon, more than 100,000 vehicles ran on the gasification system in the UK during the war and that the technology can be applied to any vehicle. A coffee one would smell the best though. And in case you were wondering, Bacon's coffee-powered speed record stands at 65.6mph, or 105.7kmh.
Compressed air
Compressed air is not a very efficient way of powering a vehicle.
While it might seem like the answer to everything (particularly rapid balloon inflation), compressed air is actually a terribly inefficient way to power a car. Not that that has stopped people trying, as cars powered this way have been around since the 1920s.
A compressed air motor works using the expansion of compressed air in a similar way to the expansion of the steam in a steam engine, but the problem is in compressing the air in the first place. A compressed air engine needs the air to be stored at an incredibly high pressure (4500psi) meaning that it requires a lot of energy to compress it, making it less energy efficient than an internal combustion engine.
Faeces
The power of poo. Methane extracted from human waste has a nicer name of "bio-gas".
Yep, that's right - good old poo is actually capable of running a car. Handy that, because we all have a steady supply of it! Engineers have actually built a car that runs on methane extracted from human waste (or "bio-gas" to give it a friendlier name) and performs almost exactly the same as a conventional car, but is much more efficient and environmentally friendly. There is even a bus in regular use in the UK that runs of bio-gas created from household and human waste.
And we know what you are all thinking - no, it doesn't smell at all!
Dead cats
Waste products from dead animals, including cats, has been used to create bio-diesel.
Back in 2007 a German scientist called Dr. Christian Koch enraged cat lovers the world over by inventing a system for creating bio-diesel from waste products, including (but not limited to) dead animals.
The process involves heating the biowaste to 300 degrees Celsius, which filters out hydrocarbons. The mix is then converted to diesel fuel by use of a catalytic converter.
His mistake was to admit that he used dead cats to do it. This made PETA angry, but imagine that after you got over Fluffy getting run over by a car, you could use what was left of him to run YOURS!
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/83425524/Five-weirdest-fuels-to-power-cars | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/9a6e7ceb15667943150a84012f1410a004530b508225d53e195bdf236984ca91.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:35 | null | 2016-08-26T23:23:19 | Houses in NZ's biggest city have cracked the magic million, much sooner than expected. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Fmoney%2F83627681%2FNick-Smith-is-Milllion-dollar-Minister-as-average-Auckland-house-passes-1m-mark.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/7/w/q/i/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsfj5.png/1472253799773.jpg | en | null | Nick Smith is 'Milllion-dollar Minister' as average Auckland house passes $1m mark | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Nick Smith is 'Milllion-dollar Minister' as average Auckland house passes $1m mark
KIRK HARGREAVES Nick Smith has earned himself the nickname "Million-dollar Minister" thanks to the rising cost of the average Auckland home.
Housing Minister Nick Smith was dubbed "The Million-dollar Minister" this morning as the average Auckland house price looks to already have hit $1 million.
Smith was given his new nickname by Patrick Gower when he appeared on TV3's The Nation on Saturday defending the government's record on housing.
Gower said the average house price was $1 million in Auckland, though official confirmation of that is not expected until Thursday when QV releases its latest monthly house price figures.
Nick Goodall from CoreLogic, which works closely with QV, said: "I don't know for sure that the average Auckland house price has hit $1 million, but I would put a fair bet it is given the current rate of increase."
READ MORE: *House prices climb at $3 million a week
Goodall said price rises did not appear to have slowed since the last set of QV figures for July were published. Then the average Auckland house sold for $975,000.
He said CoreLogic would get to see the figures on Monday.
Gower told Smith: "You are the million-dollar minister".
"The average house price (in Auckland) is $1 million. That's nothing to be proud of."
He challenged the minister on whether the government wanted to bring house prices down.
Smith responded that "the objective was to see house price inflation in single digits" saying the scale of recent rises was unsustainable.
If there were a big price drop, Smith said: "You would have tens of thousands of Kiwi families effectively gone broke. Their mortgages would be worth more than their homes."
"I'm not going to endorse that."
Smith did not expect to see prices crash before the next election because of the booming economy and population increase in Auckland.
He said the number of homes being built had risen sharply under National.
Gower pressed the minister to crack down on land bankers who buy and sit on land, waiting for prices to rise, rather than building homes.
Smith said governments could not force land bankers to build homes, but said that any special housing areas in Auckland that had not received consents to build by 16 September would lose their special housing area status. He said local councils had the power to increase rates on banked land.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/83627681/Nick-Smith-is-Milllion-dollar-Minister-as-average-Auckland-house-passes-1m-mark | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/a26d448a2be385f69d65f916d207fed1e79af7aa49d91affb9793b618edf06cb.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:51:45 | null | 2016-08-29T22:40:46 | Celebrated amateur John Parker steps up on the undercard with brother Joe the main event. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2F83703638%2FJoseph-Parkers-younger-brother-John-to-make-professional-boxing-debut-on-heavyweights-undercard.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/c/e/k/u/r/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1du252.png/1472510446605.jpg | en | null | Joseph Parker's younger brother John to make professional boxing debut on heavyweight's undercard | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Joseph Parker's younger brother John to make professional boxing debut on heavyweight's undercard
PHOTOSPORT John Parker (right, with cap) will join older brother Joseph in the professional boxing ranks in October.
Joseph Parker's younger brother John will make his professional boxing debut on the star heavyweight's undercard on October 1.
John Parker will fight at a catchweight of 85kg against an opponent still to be confirmed.
Joseph fights Russian giant Alexander Dimitrenko in south Auckland as he tunes up for his mandatory challenge to Anthony Joshua's IBF belt.
John, 21, was a highly regarded amateur who has been overshadowed by the rapid progress of his sibling in the world heavyweight ranks.
READ MORE:
* Price wants a piece of Parker
* Price could be right for Parker
John is being coached by his father Dempsey for his return to the ring.
Joseph has been full of encouragement for his younger brother to put the gloves back on.
John is ever-present alongside Joseph for the 24-year-old's fights in New Zealand and has also travelled overseas as a key component of "Team Parker".
"Everyone I have spoken to about John has described him as being an exceptional talent in the amateur ranks. It's going to be fascinating to see how he goes on his pro debut," promoter Dean Lonergan of Duco Events said.
The company has announced some of the undercard for the next promotion at the Manukau Events Centre.
They include rising heavyweight Junior Fa, the last person to beat Joseph Parker from their rivalry in their amateur days.
Joseph's training partner Izu Ugonoih will also fight as well as Christchurch welterweight Bowyn Morgan and Dave Letele, the Brown Buttabean.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/83703638/Joseph-Parkers-younger-brother-John-to-make-professional-boxing-debut-on-heavyweights-undercard | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/01b0aa4dd06caf03697f2040172584bae655976ab25e08c904bffadd54bb8e88.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:51:37 | null | 2016-08-30T04:42:28 | Contractors scramble to widen a road after a traffic island | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fdominion-post%2Fnews%2Fhutt-valley%2F83719765%2FContractors-race-to-widen-Wainuiomata-road-after-traffic-island-botch-up.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/k/z/9/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duel1.png/1472532148475.jpg | en | null | Contractors race to widen Wainuiomata road after traffic island botch-up | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Contractors race to widen Wainuiomata road after traffic island botch-up
Fairfax NZ Wainuiomata traffic island on Parkway has enraged motorists.
Stop-go traffic management has been put in place around a traffic island after a botch-up by roading contractors in Lower Hutt.
The traffic island was installed in Parkway, Wainuiomata, on Friday as part of plans for a new housing development.
The plan had been approved by Hutt City Council, yet contractors made "a mistake" by installing a concrete traffic island before widening the road, a council spokeswoman said on Monday.
FAIRFAX NZ Hutt City Council says the traffic island on Parkway in Wainuiomata was mistakenly installed by roading contractors before the road was widened.
On Tuesday a lane had been closed and road workers were directing traffic through the spot while a digger worked on the site.
READ MORE: Outrage over Parkway Rise traffic island in Wainuiomata
The stop-go system will be in place until the road-widening is complete, the spokeswoman said, which was expected to be Wednesday.
FAIRFAX NZ Wainuiomata traffic island on Parkway has enraged motorists.
"Stop-go management was part of the road-widening plan. The temporary traffic management plan in place at the moment is on top of the planned stop-go management to account for the island being placed before the road-widening happened."
The community has voiced it's horror over the fact the island was plonked on the road, cutting right into the left-hand lane.
Wainuiomata councillor Campbell Barry said if anything, the whole situation was a "lesson in common sense".
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist or even a roading engineer to know you don't put a traffic island in before you widen a road."
Both council and Barry were adamant the botch-up resulted in no extra cost to ratepayers.
"That [cost] is all on the developers," Barry said.
The island is intended to allow vehicles to turn into the new development, once it's complete, without slowing down traffic.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hutt-valley/83719765/Contractors-race-to-widen-Wainuiomata-road-after-traffic-island-botch-up | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/1521f6583fc1a5db4c8238a19d501932c1fb2a80951a571c136f5486e1600d1f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T02:51:25 | null | 2016-08-29T02:22:13 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Fafrica%2F83675464%2FGirls-typically-teenage-fury-at-parents-after-safari-scare.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/etc/designs/ffx/nz/stuff/social-media-logos/stuff-180x180.jpg | en | null | Girl's typically teenage fury at parents after safari scare | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Girl's typically teenage fury at parents after safari scare
TVNZ A terrified girl’s reaction to a lion charging her tourist family’s car at Kruger National Park was caught on camera.
It's a phrase most teenagers have uttered (or at least thought) - "I hate you guys".
But this time the very teenage reaction was prompted by an unsually close encounter with a big cat.
The girl is heard speaking in the background of the video, which was shot on a South African safari and uploaded to YouTube according to ONE News.
Filmed in the Kruger National Park game reserve, it shows a male lion eyeing up the car - before charging towards them.
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The girl starts screaming hysterically, then begins berating her parents: "Mum, mum, oh my gosh, I hate you guys. I'm never travelling to an animal park with you again.
"You guys are the stupidest people in the history of stupidest people.
"Oh my gosh, I swear I'm going to die, I'm going to die in Africa." | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/83675464/Girls-typically-teenage-fury-at-parents-after-safari-scare | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/b3dfe80e606480e4dda8af6a491d089fc24ff498330b1e68b0b6d5e24e844f91.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:51:19 | null | 2016-08-29T07:16:57 | Workers left scratching their heads after 500 cows went missing from an Ashburton dairy farm. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Ffarming%2F83690997%2FFive-hundred-cows-rustled-from-Ashburton-dairy-farm.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/9/v/g/6/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtsdx.png/1472456110635.jpg | en | null | Five hundred cows rustled from Ashburton dairy farm | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Five hundred cows rustled from Ashburton dairy farm
DAVID UNWIN/FAIRFAX NZ. Mystery surrounds the disappearance of 500 dairy cows from an Ashburton farm.
Workers on an Ashburton dairy farm have been left scratching their heads after 500 cows were discovered missing from their herd.
Pennie Saunders, an administrator for the farm, said they noticed last week that "things weren't adding up as cows were coming back in".
"We're absolutely gutted," she said.
"It's just disbelief."
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* Cattle rustlers take $10,000 worth of stock from North Canterbury farm
* 'Millions' lost in stock thieves
* Who's stealing all the cows? More cattle go missing in South Canterbury
* Taranaki rural crime issues reach the top
* Farmers angry as stock rustling grows
* Stock rustling costing up to $120m a year
* Charges over $240,000 stock thefts
Saunders said the dairy farm usually had about 1300 cattle.
She was hesitant to give specific details of the incident "while investigations are ongoing", but said there had been several cattle thefts in the area.
"We're not very hopeful of getting them back.
"Chances are their tags have been removed, which makes them pretty much impossible to trace."
Cows were spread around the farm over winter and brought back in as they neared their calving due date, she said.
It was when they started counting the cattle that they noticed the missing herd.
"They could have gone to the works, or could be on someone else's land I guess.
"People do it for the money."
In a statement, police said they were advised of the missing cows on Thursday and were "making enquiries".
Anyone with information is asked to contact Canterbury police by calling 03 363 7400. Information can also be provided anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/83690997/Five-hundred-cows-rustled-from-Ashburton-dairy-farm | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/12f757c1b859f6d678e0d47c1baba01ec49398ed7ef0332a3583ebbb68b10457.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:51:48 | null | 2016-08-30T06:13:50 | Neighbours rescue dog trapped metres from a blazing house just minutes before a car explodes. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fdominion-post%2Fnews%2F83727279%2FNeighbours-rescue-dog-from-Napier-house-fire-minutes-before-car-explodes.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/m/q/l/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dukdr.png/1472537630490.jpg | en | null | Neighbours rescue dog from Napier house fire minutes before car explodes | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Neighbours rescue dog from Napier house fire minutes before car explodes
SIMON HENDERY/FAIRFAX NZ Neighbours managed to haul a dog out of the yard of this house just minutes before the car in the picture exploded in the fire.
Neighbours rescued a dog, trapped metres from a raging house fire, just minutes before a car on the property exploded in flames.
The house, in the Napier suburb of Onekawa, was gutted during the Tuesday afternoon fire but no one was home when the blaze took hold.
Neighbour Carolyn Digby, who lives around the corner from the Plowman Crescent house, said she noticed smoke coming out of the windows when she was passing by about 2.35pm.
She yelled out to other neighbours to call the fire brigade while she and two men rescued the dog from the property's yard by "biffing it" over the fence.
Flames were soon shooting high into the air and it was only a matter of minutes after the the trio rescued the dog that a car parked in the yard beside the house exploded several times.
A cat also escaped the fire.
"It was lucky the two guys came out to help me because I couldn't have gotten the dog by myself," Digby said.
"It was scary. The car just went 'kaboom, kaboom, kaboom' and windows shattered. I had to have a beer after that."
Napier senior station officer Jamie Nichol confirmed no one was inside the property at the time of the fire.
Four appliances from Napier and Hastings were called to fight the blaze.
The crews were initially concerned the fire could spread to an adjacent semi-detached unit, but that was prevented by a brick wall that separated the homes.
The fire appeared to have starting in the house's living area and a fire investigator had been called in to determine the cause.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/83727279/Neighbours-rescue-dog-from-Napier-house-fire-minutes-before-car-explodes | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c084a5d1406bcb19a110983fc66968a54c3c823a3203d3674f36f6032f9e40a4.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T20:51:31 | null | 2016-08-29T19:59:34 | Learn to identify your need to eat and you'll be able to control your cravings. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2Fwell-good%2Fteach-me%2F83655498%2FDr-Libby-The-psychology-of-eating-when-food-becomes-your-comfort.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/2/d/y/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dt0zu.png/1472500775043.jpg | en | null | Dr Libby: The psychology of eating - when food becomes your comfort | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Dr Libby: The psychology of eating – when food becomes your comfort
123RF Do you eat to numb yourself from feelings you'd prefer not to feel?
Do you feed your feelings?
Every day I meet people who eat too much. They know they do but they can't seem to stop. Sometimes it is nutritious food, more often it's not. Whatever the case, they know they would be much better off if they ate less.
These people are precious, intelligent humans who don't understand why they do what they do. These people know that they need to cut down their portions and the amount of processed foods in their week yet, they don't do it – even though they truly have a desperate desire to lose weight.
There is a big difference between eating two squares of chocolate and the whole block, between a sweet biscuit with a cup of tea in the evening and half the packet. We all know that eating too much makes us feel full and uncomfortable, but worse, it often also drives us to say very unkind things to ourselves (such as "I'm so useless, I have no willpower") and we go to bed feeling guilty and sad, thinking we will never be strong enough to change. That belief that things will never change is very destructive.
READ MORE:
* Dr Libby: Try forming these small habits to boost your health
* Dr Libby: Daily habits to help keep your gut healthy
* Dr Libby: 10 foods that help sugar cravings
The psychology of eating is a fascinating area. Let's explore several ways you can address emotional eating:
BEING MINDFUL
Think about WHY you're eating. Are you actually hungry? Or, are you eating because you're feeling sad, anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, happy, or all of the above? Many of us eat to numb ourselves from feelings we'd prefer not to feel. Ask yourself what you really want? What emotion are you seeking to calm if you're not eating out of hunger? If you're unable to determine this, the type of food you desire is normally a good indication – put it this way, you don't normally crave a big bowl of broccoli for dinner if you're eating emotionally. Typically, it's chocolate, lollies, biscuits or potato chips – things that we perceive to provide some comfort.
CHANGE HOW YOU 'REWARD' YOURSELF
It is really important to disconnect food from your reward system, and start rewarding yourself with other fulfilling activities. When you're not hungry but find yourself peering into the fridge looking for something, try to find comfort in non-food related ways, for example: go for a walk, read a book, observe nature, watch your children sleep, treat yourself to a relaxing bath or massage.
LET YOUR EMOTIONS FLOW
All emotions and feelings come and go, much like waves gently washing over you. Knowing that all feelings – both the enjoyable ones and the painful ones – subside is important because learning to deal with these more painful feelings without eating involves developing the ability to recognise this. Just feel the emotion in its entirety without doing anything to prevent it, let these feelings literally wash over you.
By eating while you're experiencing emotions that you find challenging, you are giving food a new significance, beyond just meeting your nutritional needs. Food becomes a coping strategy, making your desire for it intensify. You begin to believe that you need this food to get through these emotions you are experiencing. Research indicates that eating high-fat (poor quality) and/or high-sugar foods can affect activity in the parts of your brain that manage stress, further reinforcing a reliance on this as a coping strategy.
TREAT YOURSELF WITH KINDNESS
We wouldn't dream of speaking to a stranger, friend, colleague or family member, as harshly as we speak to ourselves sometimes. Have you ever berated yourself over something really silly? Said unkind things to yourself inside your head that made you feel worthless – such as "you're a failure", "you're weak" and so on? If a child came to you feeling upset would you say those things to them? Make it your mission to catch these thoughts as they arise. Thoughts only have power when we give them our attention. Choose not to engage with them, and instead treat yourself as you would an adored child.
Dr Libby is speaking across the country during October with her From Surviving to Thriving tour. More information and tickets available from www.drlibby.com
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/83655498/Dr-Libby-The-psychology-of-eating-when-food-becomes-your-comfort | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/39dd55947928b13020654cf1d3494df3f07680527ada756ac496b45eaa6e8e31.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:51:52 | null | 2016-08-30T07:50:39 | Lucrative black market for cigarettes fuelling increase in armed robberies, police say. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fcrime%2F83723820%2FBlack-market-for-cigarettes-fuels-robberies-in-Canterbury.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/6/8/4/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duhpo.png/1472546710290.jpg | en | null | Black market for cigarettes fuels robberies in Canterbury | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Black market for cigarettes fuels robberies in Canterbury
SUPPLIED A man armed with an axe robbed two Christchurch dairies on Monday.
A lucrative black market for cigarettes is fuelling an increase in armed robberies, with criminals targeting dairies and stealing tobacco products to order.
Some dairy owners are toying with the idea of pulling cigarettes from their shelves, but the decision is not an easy one with tobacco products making up a large amount of their business.
In the last seven weeks, robbers have targeted at least 17 Christchurch businesses, including dairies, pubs and bakeries. That compares to 12 in the first five months of the year.
The offenders have generally been males, aged in their mid to late teens. They commonly wore disguises and carried weapons, including guns, hammers, knives and axes.
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* Footage shows axe-wielding man demanding smokes from dairy owner
* 'They were going to kill me - dairy owner
* Robbers armed with pistol attack Christchurch dairy owner
* Christchurch souvlaki shop employee unfazed by armed robber
* Police investigate second armed hold-up at Christchurch bars
* Budget 2016: Cigarettes to soar in price
Arrests have been made in several cases, but many remain unsolved.
The majority of businesses targeted recently have been dairies. Cigarettes were often taken.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Ford said he believed many of the robbers were stealing to order rather than for personal use.
"There appears to be a strong black market for tobacco. It is a very valuable commodity. They [the robbers] are taking as much as they can."
Ford said police were making arrests, but "other people are filling the void and continuing on with it".
"Investigators are working their guts out to identify offenders for these robberies. We're following some very strong lines of inquiry."
He urged dairy owners to be vigilant. They needed to look at the layout of their stores and make sure they had quality security cameras installed.
"Comply with their instructions. The last thing we want is people getting hurt."
The price of tobacco products in New Zealand has climbed steadily over the last decade as a result of tax increases. A pack of 20 cigarettes is expected to cost about $30 by 2020.
Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford said robberies were an "ongoing issue nationally" and some people were "getting hurt and feeling threatened".
Dairy owners had discussed removing cigarettes from their shelves to avoid becoming a target, Harford said.
However, in some cases, up to 60 per cent of a store's turnover was from the sale of tobacco.
"[Dairies] are a lot of hard work for these people to run so if you took away major product lines it would seriously undermine the viability of these businesses."
The One Stop Convenience Store on Breezes Rd, Aranui, was robbed by two men in June. An employee was hit in the face with a hammer as the pair fled with cigarettes and cash.
The dairy's owner, Dhairya Mahida, said cigarette sales were a major part of his business and he had no plans to pull them from his shelves. The profit margin for each pack was about 7 per cent.
"At the same time, they [customers] are buying smokes they are also buying something else and that's major revenue for us."
Aggravated robbery carries a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment.
Criminologist Greg Newbold said he believed many people who committed robberies were "reckless young no hopers . . . who don't really think ahead".
"The chances of being caught is the greatest disincentive or incentive."
Earlier this month, a group of men and women were arrested after hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tobacco was allegedly taken from Imperial Tobacco, a tobacco factory in Wellington.
At the time, police said: "The unlawful and unregulated sale of stolen tobacco is a significant issue in the community and police want to warn those who purchase stolen or cut price tobacco that they may be committing a criminal offence."
A Customs spokeswoman said evidence suggested the black market for tobacco in New Zealand was not as big as other parts of the world, like Europe and Asia.
A 2010 estimate by the tobacco industry found illicit tobacco represented about 3.3 per cent of tobacco consumed in New Zealand, the spokeswoman said.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83723820/Black-market-for-cigarettes-fuels-robberies-in-Canterbury | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/3b2f96aaa34fa49025a2d51bd0a8c4bca4e4a26d6d3e9aa94684f96df2edd3ac.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:51:48 | null | 2016-08-30T08:38:44 | World Cup qualifiers not likely to happen for Barcelona's Lionel Messi, due to sore left hamstring. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2F83738462%2FMessi-in-doubt-for-World-Cup-qualifiers.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/t/3/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dut0e.png/1472546324534.jpg | en | null | Messi in doubt for World Cup qualifiers | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Messi in doubt for World Cup qualifiers
VINCENT WEST Lionel Messi is suffering from a sore hamstring.
Barcelona striker Lionel Messi has returned home to Argentina but remains doubtful for World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela with his club confirming the 29-year-old is struggling with a sore left hamstring.
Messi played in Sunday's (Monday NZ time) 1-0 league win at Athletic Bilbao but underwent tests on Monday (Tuesday NZ time) after admitting that the injury was causing him pain.
"Tests conducted have confirmed that Lionel Messi has a sore left adductor muscle.
VINCENT WEST Lionel Messi (front, kicking the ball) is a world-class footballer.
"Both the medical services of FC Barcelona and the AFA (Argentina Football Association) have agreed on this report," Barcelona said in a statement.
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"The player will travel to Argentina to join the national team and the evolution of the discomfort will decide his availability to play in the games scheduled."
Argentina are third in the 10-team South American qualifying group on 11 points from six matches, two points behind leading pair Uruguay and Ecuador.
Edgardo Bauza will take charge of Argentina for the first time when they host Uruguay in Mendoza on Thursday before the side travels to Venezuela for another qualifier in Merida five days later.
Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero and Paris St Germain midfielder Javier Pastore have already pulled out of the squad through injury, so the 2014 FIFA World Cup runners-up will be hoping Messi can be fit enough to play.
Earlier this month, Messi, who has scored 55 goals in 133 appearances for his country, reversed a decision to retire from the national team after they lost the Copa America final to Chile in a penalty shootout at the end of June.
- AAP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/83738462/Messi-in-doubt-for-World-Cup-qualifiers | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/42f7023ebd4fd03e8200e2a9d822ddbbfc83ff3c476bf06999f8f60b4711a5f9.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T10:50:56 | null | 2016-08-27T17:00:00 | Aroha. Those five letters saved Kiwi rugby league hero Paul Whatuira's life. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83574631%2FPaul-Whatuira-How-te-reo-Maori-saved-my-life.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/r/a/o/8/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dralj.png/1472378784061.jpg | en | null | Paul Whatuira - How te reo Maori saved my life | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Paul Whatuira - How te reo Maori saved my life
DAVID WHITE/ FAIRFAX NZ Former Kiwi League International Paul Whatuira used his heritage to bring him back from the brink of depression.
Aroha – love. It is only five letters but one of the most beautiful and powerful words in te reo Maori.
And it is a key in helping Kiwi rugby league hero Paul Whatuira stay in the light after emerging from the darkness of mental illness which cost him his sporting career, his marriage and nearly his life.
"Love is the answer to all pain," says Whatuira, 35, in New Zealand to share his heartrending but inspirational story, to give hope to others.
DAVID WHITE/ FAIRFAX NZ Whatuira with his daughter Gabriel.
His homecoming will further strengthen the two-time NRL premiership-winner and Kiwis test star's bonds with his Ngati Kahungunu and Tainui whakapapa. A reconnection with his whanau and culture includes studying te reo in an online course through Te Wananga O Raukawa.
READ MORE:
* Paul Whatuira: 'I wanted to kill myself'
* Paul Whatuira signs with the Eels
"Learning about my culture is my medication these days," says Whatuira, who has revealed he was on heavy prescription medication for five years after a psychotic episode in 2009 which plunged him into a personal hell.
Now healthy-looking with a ready smile, Whatuira willl on Sunday be at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland with Wests Tigers, the club with whom he won the 2005 grand final and has recently been appointed Education and Wellbeing Officer. He will be watching them play the Warriors, who the midfield sensation from Wainuiomata made his first-grade debut with at just 18.
The memories he is likely to share with star-struck fans will be in stark contrast to the depression and breakdown he suffered half a world away, in England, which spelled the end of his brilliant career.
The trigger for his breakdown was what should have been joyous news - that his then partner Venessa was pregnant with their first child.
Instead it brought back terrible memories from his own childhood.
Whatuira says his devoted parents did their best for him. But growing up he witnessed alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence in his surroundings, he says. "At a young age, unfortunately, I saw some things that I should not have seen."
At age six, Whatuira says, he was molested by a 12-year- old boy. He did not tell anyone of the abuse.
"I guess I just shut it out and I just kind of moved forward, and I never really thought about what happened to me. It was becoming a father myself, and the responsibility of being a father brought back those memories of the abuse and my surroundings… That's when the mental health issues started to really hit me."
Whatuira says he became increasingly depressed over several months, until a psychotic episode after seven days with no sleep.
The psychosis was so severe, he heard voices inside his head telling him to kill Venessa and their unborn baby, he says.
"It's the scariest time in my life," an emotional Whatuira says.
"Those voices were very real. Venessa called the ambulance, and I was taken to the hospital to get away from Venessa and my unborn child, to protect them."
But he says he "broke out" of the hospital and – still in the grip of his mental illness, and filled with "rage and anger" – attacked two men, innocent passersby. Police used a Taser on him, and he spent four weeks in a secure psychiatric facility.
He was not charged over the incident after being deemed "mentally ill".
He regrets the harm he caused the two men, "but I had no control over my actions". He says he has tried to reach out to his victims but "understandably" without success. "Hopefully one day I'll get to make peace."
Despite being physically fit, his state of mind meant his sport suffered. "I couldn't reach my fullest potential as an athlete, being heavily sedated throughout the day as well as preparing for the first time to become a father. I had no other option but to step away from the game."
Having to retire was shattering.
"It was very sad. I just proposed to Venessa, who was pregnant - things are going great, playing great football. All I wanted to do as a young child is to become a professional rugby league player, and I was doing that - and all of a sudden it was taken away from me."
Whatuira says he tried to move on with his life, marrying Venessa, who had given birth to their daughter, Gabrielle Kaea.
"I wanted to prove to her, and I wanted to prove to my family that I was still strong. We had the wedding in the Cook Islands, and two days later I had another psychotic episode. My parents practically had to carry me back to Aotearoa after the episode in front of my family and friends. I have never felt so lifeless and embarrassed as that moment.
"I was back to the hospital again, for two months. Back to square one again. And that's when, in 2011, I started to suffer from paranoia."
Whatuira, who returned to Sydney, says he "disconnected from my family and friends, my former teammates, I was in a little bubble. For instance I might have a family member text me and I'd look at that one text message for 30 minutes trying to analyse why this person is trying to hurt me.
"If one letter was missing from that word I'd believe that somebody was hurting me - that's paranoia. The only way that I could protect myself was to be on my own."
His marriage didn't survive.
"I was there physically for my partner and my child - the first three years of her life - but spiritually and mentally I wasn't there. Venessa was very loving and caring towards me, and very supportive, but I couldn't return to that. I couldn't love her back, because I didn't love myself."
Whatuira's despair became so severe he twice tried to end his life, he says.
"The last time I did try, I saw a picture of my daughter, and that stopped me." He was taken to hospital, "and I remember the doctor telling me that if I was to take my own life there will be a higher percent chance that my daughter will follow in the same footsteps as myself, and I couldn't leave that legacy to my daughter."
Determined to take control of his life, he says he decided in 2014 to stop the medication he was told he would need to stay on for the rest of his life.
"I just studied my own mind and educated myself and just followed my instincts."
While he stresses most people with mental illness such as he was suffering need to be on medication, he felt it wasn't working for him.
"Nothing was able to unlock my pain, and I had to find something to escape the pain that I was feeling every day."
He devoured self-help books, attended wellbeing courses, surrounded himself with positive people and reconnected with friends, whanau and former teammates.
"Learning about my culture and my Maori bloodlines and finding my identity through that aspect as well, was a big turning point for me.
"Throughout my whole career I always thought that I could be somebody through being a professional athlete. I thought that rugby league was who I am.
"But, you find your true identity within yourself, and your family, and your roots. I challenged my negative thoughts and reconnected with family and friends who truly loved me and I learned the true values of who I am and what I'm about, and to pay my respects to my ancestors who laid the footprints for me.
"I'm still learning. I have a long way to go, but I know who I am, I know my identity through my Maori bloodlines, and that's gotten me to where I'm at today. And, I'm healthy, and I'm sharing with others."
Marking his true identity is a ta moko adorning his left chest, shoulder and back. The work was done by artist Tuta Tuheke at Mokomania studio in Sydney.
Whatuira says he had been trying to find himself after going through an injury crisis in his league career when he had the ta moko.
Tuheke – "a great man in his craft" – had explained the profound meaning behind the designs, he says. "But at the time I wasn't really looking with my heart, I was just looking for the image.
"Then I went through my journey and for me to get healthy again I had to go back to the carvings that Tuta put on me and to learn my Maori bloodlines and to learn the true meaning behind the ta moko. And to understand that wherever I go, my ancestors walk with me and I'm not alone. And that's been my healing."
Whatuira, through his company Internal Strength, has moved into the public speaking arena and told his story to NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg and head staff, league teams across Australia and high schools in Sydney. Last week, he spoke to students at his home school, Wainuiomata High.
"I share my journeys, through my upbringing, and through my career, and obviously through my mental health issues. Most importantly I share with the audiences my values and the tools that I live by every day."
Those tools include learning to enjoy living in the moment. "I appreciate the little things in life. I appreciate waking up being grateful. I find gratefulness throughout my day. I don't live by next year, or next month, I live for today. All I can control is what I do right now. It's good to have a focus, and dreams, and goals, but to get to those goals you have to live for now."
Whatuira says many people in his audiences can relate to what he has been through. Knowing how good it feels to be well again, he is delighted to think he may be helping others recover, too.
"Suicide rates are big in New Zealand and Australia, mental illness affects a lot of people - one in four so, the more people I can help, the better. I am grateful that I'm able to share my journey because there's a lot of people who don't make it."
Whatuira also relishes his role as the Tigers' Education and Wellbeing officer, which allows him to "offer advice and guidance to all the pro athletes and future stars at the Wests Tigers".
"People really know what sort of pressures and demands our athletes go through, not just only our athletes but our society in general."
Whatuira understands "that with life curve balls will be thrown at you, but if you are strong on your feet you can make wiser decisions and take appropriate action to get back on track. We only get one chance at life, why not give it your best shot?
"Do I still get my ups and downs with mental health? No, I don't. When you are going through depression, your mind is in the past.
We all make mistakes but it is important to learn from them and move forward because time stops for nobody."
Part of his wellness is letting go of blame for hurtful things in his past. "I've forgiven everybody and I forgive myself. Jealousy and hatred - that's the stuff that will keep you down."
He says he has learnt how to love again, including himself, and has a great relationship with his daughter – something he cherishes.
"I found giving and being loving to others is the key to life sharing and helping one another. I'm just so grateful and happy to be living my life again to be alive."
- Sunday Star Times | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83574631/Paul-Whatuira-How-te-reo-Maori-saved-my-life | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/f8eedb96d4c71d42be4c9829f19a4c7d410786cca0712dc420c485327816a524.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T10:50:40 | null | 2016-08-27T09:40:57 | Panthers edge Titans to boost Warriors' top-eight chances. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83635091%2FWarriors-live-to-fight-another-day-as-Panthers-edge-Titans-in-thriller.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/l/k/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsl8z.png/1472291434551.jpg | en | null | Warriors live to fight another day as Panthers edge Titans in thriller | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Warriors live to fight another day as Panthers edge Titans in thriller
IAN HITCHCOCK/GETTY IMAGES Titans fullback Jarryd Hayne is contained by the Panthers defence.
The Warriors' season remains alive - but only just.
The Auckland-based club's top-eight hopes have been given a much-needed boost after the Panthers snatched a thrilling 15-14 victory over the Titans on the Gold Coast.
After clawing their way into finals contention during the second half of the season, back-to-back losses over the last two weeks meant the Warriors needed the Titans to lose their final two matches - and win their own games - to have a chance of ending their finals drought.
For a moment it appeared as though the Warriors would be playing for pride for the rest of the season as the home side stormed back from a 14-0 deficit to level the scores in the dying minutes.
READ MORE:
* Hayne shrugs off injury
* Warriors need mental edge
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But, much to Andrew McFadden's relief, Panthers fullback Matt Moylan had the final say, kicking a field goal with two minutes to go to seal his own team's place in the playoffs.
And with the Titans having to make the daunting trip to Townsville next week to face defending premiers the Cowboys, suddenly a place in the top eight for the Warriors does not seem out of reach - provided they hold up their end of the equation.
Another Titans defeat will mean nothing if they fail to beat the Tigers and Eels. Those are two very winnable games, both at Mt Smart, and the Warriors will only have themselves to blame if they can't deliver.
Their first task is to get past the Tigers on Sunday.
With Jason Taylor's side on the same amount of points as the Warriors on the table, they would have been equally buoyed by the Titans' defeat.
Yet the Tigers have only won once in four trips to New Zealand since 2008 and missing star fullback James Tedesco, the home side will start as strong favourites.
With Warriors players anxiously watching on from New Zealand, their nerves would have eased slightly when Moylan sliced through some flimsy defence to open the scoring.
They may have even thought about putting their feet up when the Panthers marched upfield for centre Waqa Blake to stretch over before a Nathan Cleary penalty made it 14-0 in the 28th-minute.
While the Titans were playing for a place in the top-eight, so were the Panthers and only one side looked finals-worthy in the first half.
The visitors were sharp from the outset, overpowering the Titans pack and running them ragged with skillful second-phase play.
Gold Coast had their moments on attack but lacked the polish at the end of their sets too build any sustained pressure.
With so much to play for, the Titans were always expected to respond and five minutes into the second half they were on the board when Auckland-born forward Leivaha Pulu crashed over.
The Panthers weren't as clinical as they were in the first half, allowing the Titans to find territory and possession much easier to come by.
But they didn't look like scoring until the 67th-minute when Greg Bird wrestled over to cut the margin to just two points.
That set up a grandstand finish and the game seemed destined for golden-point when a high tackle by the Panthers allowed Tyrone Roberts to level the scores.
Enter Moylan, who stepped up from 30m out to win the game and do the Warriors a huge favour in the process.
Let's see if they can make the most of it.
Panthers 15 (Matt Moylan, Waqa Blake tries; Nathan Cleary 3 goals; Moylan field goal) Titans 14 (Leivaha Pulu, Greg Bird tries; Tyrone Roberts 3 goals ). HT: 14-0.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83635091/Warriors-live-to-fight-another-day-as-Panthers-edge-Titans-in-thriller | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/17e2205b046d986ff6428aff4d1af4ba7d4b7afa5d206da9c39a808ab98efdc0.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:16 | null | 2016-08-31T00:11:52 | Is the rugby legend on to something with his dig? Figures show that more and more Irish are turning their noses up at NZ. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fall-blacks%2F83743845%2FIreland-rugby-great-Brian-O-Driscoll-denies-taking-shot-at-New-Zealand-with-petty-Twitter-comments.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/x/9/b/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dux5x.png/1472602807396.jpg | en | null | Ireland rugby great Brian O'Driscoll denies taking shot at New Zealand with 'petty' Twitter comments | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Ireland rugby great Brian O'Driscoll denies taking shot at New Zealand with 'petty' Twitter comments
STU FORSTER/GETTY IMAGES Brain O'Driscoll's tweet about New Zealand, which was quickly deleted, was captured by another Twitter user.
Perhaps Brian O'Driscoll has touched on a wider issue following his apparent dig at New Zealand, with figures showing fewer Irish people want to move here.
While Kiwis are big fans of Ireland, with more than 8000 people heading to the Emerald Isle in the past year and the number sticking around on the increase, the same can't be said in the other direction.
Rugby legend O'Driscoll suggested New Zealanders have the All Blacks and not much else - at least from an Irish perspective.
@NZStuffSport good night NZ. Looking forward to seeing u in the summer/winter. — Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 30, 2016
Let's all have another look at what Brian O'Driscoll really thinks of New Zealand, and the tweet that he deleted pic.twitter.com/IyVEcm4cIS — Paul (@rugga13) August 30, 2016
O'Driscoll denied taking a shot at the whole of the New Zealand, although he did admit his comments on Twitter came across as "petty".
All Blacks prop Owen Franks was under scrutiny from Wallabies for the alleged eye-gouging incident.
READ MORE:
* Franks is in the clear
* Kafer: Refs biased against Wallabies
* Are the ABs ruining world rugby?
SUPPLIED Television footage presented at a press conference by Sir Clive Woodward to back up his claims Keven Mealamu and Tana Umaga spear tackled Brian O'Driscoll during the All Blacks' 21-3 win in the first test mach at against the British and Irish Lions at Jade Stadium.
They may also be accurate, if you're an Irishman.
In the past three years, the number of Irish visitors to New Zealand each year has increased from 10,224 to 10,352. The number of people staying in New Zealand, however, is on a big decline.
In the year ending July 2016, 816 Irish residents had entered New Zealand with a work visa. Two years earlier, that figure was 1091, meaning the number of Irish workers coming to New Zealand had dropped by a quarter in only 24 months.
O'Driscoll was one of a host of former players to criticise Sanzaar's decision not to cite All Blacks prop Owen Franks over an alleged eye-gouge on Wallabies lock Kane Douglas during Saturday's Bledisloe Cup test in New Zealand.
"This is an absolute sham @WorldRugby ???! Makes a mockery of citing. If nothing comes of this it's a farce," O'Driscoll tweeted.
This is an absolute sham @WorldRugby ???! Makes a mockery of citing. If nothing comes of this it's a farce. https://t.co/sDr92ggzcU — Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 28, 2016
That didn't sit well with many All Blacks fans and O'Driscoll found himself going back and forth with several users.
But after sarcastically suggesting the All Blacks were never guilty of foul play, O'Driscoll appeared widen his target to the entire country.
"You lot are so blinded by your beloved team. It bangs of not having a whole lot else."
The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before it was captured in a screen-shot by one user and posted on Twitter.
But with the story gathering steam in New Zealand, O'Driscoll returned to Twitter to clarify his comments.
Replying to one user who labelled him "poor" for taking aim New Zealand as a whole, O'Driscoll said: "how's that the whole country?! I specifically said those fans that feel scrutinized."
But after another user pointed out that deleting the tweet wasn't a good look, O'Driscoll added: "in fairness that was petty & hence why it was deleted."
@RickyJoseph23 @shanobatey in fairness that was petty & hence why it was deleted. — Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 30, 2016
O'Driscoll then tweeted Stuff sport, saying: "good night NZ. Looking forward to seeing u in the summer/winter."
It didn't end there, though, as O'Driscoll continued the fun and games on the social network.
O'Driscoll is no stranger to foul play having been on the receiving end of a nasty spear tackle from Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu that ended his tour with the British and Irish Lions tour in 2005.
When one user jokingly asked if he had recovered from the incident, O'Driscoll quipped: "my therapist thinks I'm doing great, thanks for asking."
Then when one person suggested he could use the exposure to front a New Zealand tourism campaign, O'Driscoll quickly put his hand up to be the "Queenstown & Fergburger ambassador" in reference to the local burger restaurant.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/83743845/Ireland-rugby-great-Brian-O-Driscoll-denies-taking-shot-at-New-Zealand-with-petty-Twitter-comments | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/535386dfd29911d6a1e56e5672d25bda59082f84a3d907eb3fb0e757ed671112.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T02:50:54 | null | 2016-08-28T00:59:00 | Nearly 70 per cent of submitters against proposed airport runway extension. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2F83638931%2FBulk-of-submitters-oppose-300m-Wellington-airport-runway-extension.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/g/n/v/j/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dso7n.png/1472345940838.jpg | en | null | Bulk of submitters oppose $300m Wellington airport runway extension | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Bulk of submitters oppose $300m Wellington airport runway extension
SUPPLIED An artist impression of what an extended Wellington Airport runway would look like.
Nearly 70 per cent of submitters have voiced their opposition to the proposed $300 million Wellington Airport runway extension.
A summary of submissions showed 525 of 776 submitters were against the proposed 355m extension, which would be achieved by constructing reclamation at the southern end of the runway into the coastal marine area at Lyall Bay.
There were 228 submissions in support of the project, while five expressed conditional support and 17 were neutral.
Guardians of the Bay co-chair Richard Randerson said the figures were "decisive" evidence Wellingtonians did not support the proposal.
"The submissions show that a broad range of businesses, community groups and individuals are concerned about the many unanswered questions in this proposal, from the impact on Wellington rates, to Cook Strait wildlife and effects on surfing at Lyall Bay."
Wellington International Airport's resource consent application for the extension is set to go to the Environment Court early next year.
The airport has said it has strong support for the plan, expected to cost $300 million, citing submissions from the business community, tertiary and education institutes, tourism organisations and the creative sector.
There was a six-week period for submissions on the application.
- Dominion Post | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/83638931/Bulk-of-submitters-oppose-300m-Wellington-airport-runway-extension | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/6b1615d9ed3b346b41373f0a60dedf06eb8e973bfe33eefa5bf9dac1e16755d9.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T08:50:22 | null | 2016-08-27T07:10:26 | A mother clutched her baby and screamed loudly as a man tried to grab the child out of her arms. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fcrime%2F83630523%2FMan-allegedly-tries-to-steal-baby-from-mum-in-broad-daylight.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/e/v/n/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dshq3.png/1472281836160.jpg | en | null | Man allegedly tries to steal baby from mum in broad daylight | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Man allegedly tries to steal baby from mum in broad daylight
FAIRFAX NZ A man has been arrested for assault.
A mother clutched her baby and screamed loudly as a man tried to snatch the child out of her arms.
The woman could be heard yelling, "don't take my baby" as she fought back the alleged attacker on Timaru's main street on Saturday about 1pm.
The man, who wearing a loose fitted black hoodie, a cap, and dark sunglasses, was seen trying to wrestle the baby capsule stroller off the woman.
He allegedly punched the mother in the face several times, but eventually handed the baby back to the woman as a crowd of people came to her aid.
READ MORE:
* Woman tries to snatch babies from hospital
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One onlooker, who tried to calm the alleged attacker, was also punched in the face.
Gertu Phillips, 48, was shopping with her daughter when she heard a scuffle breaking out.
"We heard a lady screaming, it sounded like it was behind a car and there was some scuffling and fighting I believe," Phillip said.
It appeared the man was trying to steal the baby from the woman, she said.
"Well it looked like it, I first thought it's a family issue with the dad wanting the baby back because he was both, you know holding on to the baby's chair but we were quite far away but she was screaming, like very loud," Phillip said
The man then left the scene, and was seen grabbing a black backpack from a nearby car before casually walking down Stafford St.
Sergeant Grant Lord said two police officers had arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with the alleged assault about 1.27pm.
He had been found about 300m from the scene.
Lord said the man will appear in court facing two assault charges.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83630523/Man-allegedly-tries-to-steal-baby-from-mum-in-broad-daylight | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c4c043ba45de88fc7c28e8119e40ef117fc0dcafbfad443facf6bc14ed85b6cf.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:01 | null | 2016-08-29T22:41:59 | Where did homeowners make the best gains over the past 18 months? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Fmoney%2F83704364%2FWhich-Auckland-suburb-saw-prices-double-in-18-months.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/3/6/c/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1du2p8.png/1472516479995.jpg | en | null | Which Auckland suburb saw prices double in 18 months? | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Which Auckland suburb saw prices double in 18 months?
SHANE WENZLICK/PHOTOTEK.NZ Mission Bay is sought-after for its coastal lifestyle near the city.
People who bought a house in Mission Bay a year ago have experienced some of Auckland's best capital gains, real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson says.
It has released its list of "property hotspots" - areas with the biggest growth in sale prices for the six months between February and July this year, compared to the same time last year.
Waterfront Mission Bay topped the list. Its median price doubled over the last 18 months to $2.16 million.
DELWYN DICKEY/FAIRFAX NZ Prices were also soaring at Mangawhai Heads.
In the first half of this year, half the properties sold by the agency went for more than $2m.
READ MORE:
* Don Brash: Auckland house prices need to drop by up to 60 per cent
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"Mission Bay's ideal location and mix of city and coastal lifestyles make it a very desirable and high-end suburb. We've seen this demand push prices up across the board, and have also been involved in a greater number of high-value, multi-million dollar property sales," said Andy MacDonald, Barfoot & Thompson Mission Bay branch manager.
In second place was Mangawhai Heads, on the northern fringes of Auckland. There, prices were up 56 per cent to $655,000, while central suburbs Grey Lynn (up 48 per cent to $1.5m), One Tree Hill (up 40 per cent to $1.26m) and Royal Oak (up 36 per cent to$1.14m ) round out the top five.
Mangawhai branch manager Saull Hinton said the Mangawhai Heads area had been discovered by both baby-boomers looking for a lifestyle change and young people looking for a foothold in the market.
"There appear to be two distinct groups of buyers – those cashing out of Auckland to escape the traffic and enjoy a greater sense of community, and first-timers attracted by the affordability and growth potential here."
Some were commuting into the city, he said.
"This is one of our most diverse lists yet," said Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson.
"Most of the suburbs, 16 of 20, are new to the top 20 with a spread of locations from Rodney to Franklin and median prices from the mid $500,000s to over $2m.
"There has also been a rise in the number of outer suburbs placing on the list, such as Mangawhai Heads and Orewa in the north, and Weymouth, Waiuku and Tuakau to the south.
"Buyers have been attracted to these areas by their more affordable pricing and lifestyle aspects, while still being within a commutable distance to Auckland business centres like the North Shore and Manukau."
Thompson said the lists, released every six months, were particularly helpful in identifying price trends across the region, as well as at a suburb-by-suburb level.
"Alongside other data and salesperson expertise, the lists can help sellers identify where demand is strong, and can help buyers better judge value for money."
The list indicates the popular suburb of Grey Lynn is experiencing another round of value growth, having moved from near the bottom of the previous list with single-digit growth to the number three spot this time around.
"Development of nearby schools, residential blocks and entertainment precincts in the area is contributing to the price growth in this already popular neighbourhood."
Meanwhile many previously top performing suburbs dropped out of the top 20.
Tuakau, on the very fringes of Auckland, was benefiting from the city's "halo effect" as well as a surge in development in the area, said local Barfoot & Thompson branch manager Nick Bates.
"It's a more rural location that provides a peaceful, community lifestyle, but also the ability to commute to Manukau or the city."
Top suburbs
Mission Bay
Mangawhai Heads
Grey Lynn
One Tree Hill
Royal Oak
Orewa
Manukau Central
Browns Bay
Belmont
|Bucklands Beach
Sunnyvale
Tuakau
Greenlane
Waiuku
West Harbour
Albany
Dannemora
Weymouth
Otahuhu
Royal Heights
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/83704364/Which-Auckland-suburb-saw-prices-double-in-18-months | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/38b74dcd808ba91aaba77caad6de837ab72461286abade73f237d114e3a406e3.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:51:47 | null | 2016-08-29T22:56:07 | Son was expecting $34K from mother's estate. He got far more than that. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2F83704106%2FEstate-beneficiary-accidentally-overpaid-more-than-300-000.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/b/j/n/v/z/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1du2i2.png/1472517397974.jpg | en | null | Estate beneficiary accidentally overpaid more than $300,000 | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Estate beneficiary accidentally overpaid more than $300,000
SUPPLIED A New Zealand man was accidentally overpaid $308,000 after an internet banking error.
A man was mistakenly overpaid more than $300,000 after executors of a dead woman's estate added an extra 0 in the internet banking process.
Matthew Horsup was granted $34,312.38 from his mother Marie Horsup's estate following her death in 2014.
Sellar Bone & Partners lawyer Colin Lucas was named executor of the estate, according to a High Court judgment issued in August.
When Horsup was paid through internet banking an extra '0' was entered into the payment authority and Horsup received $343,102.38.
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After failed attempts to contact Horsup, Lucas and the firm's partners went to the High Court seeking an urgent application to prevent Horsup from spending the funds, and requiring him to pay back the extra amount.
"Nothing has been heard from Mr Horsup," Justice Matthew Palmer said in his judgment.
"The plaintiffs know nothing about him other than that he has a criminal record and, after his mother died, the house in which they were living tested positive for methamphetamine contamination."
The applicants sought an urgent interim injunction restraining Horsup from withdrawing and dealing with the funds, and requiring him to repay the money.
However Justice Palmer noted that the application by the plaintiffs was also filled with errors - it sought Horsup to pay the full amount back, rather than the difference of $308,790.
"I have corrected these errors here. I suggest Sellar Bone double check its documentation more carefully in future," Justice Palmer said in his judgment.
The interim injunction was granted, and the money has since been paid back.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/83704106/Estate-beneficiary-accidentally-overpaid-more-than-300-000 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/da986be29fd2ddfb3fca86cfb7709628dd6eae70d18f1b93491c99f634a1a269.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:14 | null | 2016-08-29T00:40:07 | All Blacks first five-eighth announces he's sticking with the Hurricanes and NZ Rugby until 2019. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fall-blacks%2F83668407%2FLive-Beauden-Barrett-re-signs-with-NZ-Rugby-until-2019.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/r/q/r/f/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtayf.png/1472431691972.jpg | en | null | Live: Beauden Barrett re-signs with NZ Rugby until 2019 | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Live: Beauden Barrett re-signs with NZ Rugby until 2019
Recap: Beauden Barrett announces his signing with NZ Rugby until the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
All Blacks first five-eighth Beauden Barrett has announced he's re-signed with the Hurricanes and NZ Rugby until the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
READ MORE:
* How much Richie is too much Richie?
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* Wallabies halfback caught ripping off Fekitoa's shoe
MORE SOON
PHOTOSPORT All Blacks first five-eighth Beauden Barrett.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/83668407/Live-Beauden-Barrett-re-signs-with-NZ-Rugby-until-2019 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/6734ad9bff91bafb8a80955941c4013d902639f7a86db464c41370987ca3dbb7.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T00:51:09 | null | 2016-08-28T00:09:10 | Claims that Isis planned to attack Australian players in Bangladesh. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fcricket%2F83638956%2FAustralian-cricketers-escaped-terrorist-attack-plot-claims-former-international.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/9/n/v/p/e/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dso8c.png/1472342950636.jpg | en | null | Australian cricketers escaped terrorist attack plot, claims former international | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Australian cricketers escaped terrorist attack plot, claims former international
GETTY IMAGES Australia's cricket tour to Bangladesh was called off last year due to security concerns.
England's cricketers face some tough decisions before touring Bangladesh after details emerged of Australian players being directly targeted by terrorists last year.
The Daily Mail reported the Australian Government received intelligence before their team's proposed trip last October of a plot to attack captain Steve Smith's team during a reception with the Bangladesh players in Dhaka.
Australia immediately pulled out of the tour on security grounds, not long before 20 people including nine Italians and a US citizen were killed in the city.
REUTERS England captain Alastair Cook, right, and coach Trevor Bayliss have committed to touring Bangladesh after advice from security experts.
Former England one-day international Mal Loye told the Daily Mail he quit his job as Bangladesh Cricket head of performance upon learning of the plans to attack the Australians.
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"The week I left, the Australia team didn't turn up because the terrorists had planned to take us out when we had an event sorted with the touring team," said Loye, who lived on the same street as the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka where the attack occurred.
REUTERS Former England batsman Mal Loye quit as Bangladesh head of performance just before a terrorist attack in Dhaka which killed 20 people.
"My boss's wife was arranging the event with the Australians. The Australian Government saw the plans from the underworld guys about what was going to happen. The plans didn't work out for the terrorists because the Australia team didn't arrive there.
"The Italians got shot that week. The terrorists obviously thought they'd take a few people out while they were there. That was enough for me. I knew after the shootings that my freedom as a westerner had gone."
England Cricket Board managing director Andrew Strauss said no player would be forced to go on the upcoming trip, after an ECB delegation led by respected chief security officer Reg Dickason said they were satisfied with safety arrangements for the tour which is scheduled to begin on September 30.
England's players are yet to commit to the tour, with Jos Buttler expressing doubts on Friday, although senior players including Alastair Cook, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are more relaxed about travelling than several younger squad members, the Mail reported.
Coaches Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace, who were on the Sri Lanka team bus which was attacked by terrorists in Lahore in 2009, are committed to touring.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/83638956/Australian-cricketers-escaped-terrorist-attack-plot-claims-former-international | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/7e8d4a7c0d4d11ba77788a40b6e8a9bc6417b0b1424d5eef635f4ae6fc18f525.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:20 | null | 2016-08-27T02:03:57 | Residents say they knew the tree was eventually going to fall. And in Friday's storm it narrowly avoided crushing them. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fauckland%2F83628744%2FIt-could-have-killed-us-terrified-residents-had-concern-over-gum-tree.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/g/l/u/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsgco.png/1472263437197.jpg | en | null | 'It could have killed us': terrified residents had concern over gum tree | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | 'It could have killed us': terrified residents had concern over gum tree
ONE News 'The whole house shook' - Auckland mother's frightening account after severe gales toppled a tree onto her Narrow Neck home.
If the gum tree had toppled left instead of right, it would have have cut through Lianne Boucher's house, she said.
"One of the firefighters said to me basically I would have been a goner."
The multiple tonne gum tree in Hanlon Crescent, in the suburb of Narrow Neck on Auckland's North Shore, was ripped up by wild winds on Friday night and landed on Boucher's neighbours' house.
JOSH FAGAN Residents Shane Belch and Sharon Forty said they have raised concerns in the past about the gum tree in Hanlon Crescent, Narrow Neck in Auckland.
Neighbours Shane Belch and Sharon Forty said they were lucky the bulk of the trunk smashed into their concrete block garage and not the main part of their home.
READ MORE: Power outages, road closures across Auckland due to high winds
Otherwise it would have crushed their lounge room, they said.
JOSH FAGAN The gum tree landed square on a concrete block of a garage, which prevented it hitting the main part of the house.
Belch was having a nap on the couch and said he was woken by the enormous thud at about 8.30pm.
Forty said the whole house was shaken by the force of the crash.
"I was getting ready to get my son out of the bath. I don't know if he'd had a big fall or not. It was terrifying. It really did shake, I know we don't really have earthquakes here but that's what it felt like."
She said it was lucky no one was injured.
"If you were under it, you would be killed, that's it."
Belch said he wasn't surprised to see that particular tree fall.
He said he told Auckland Council last year that it was a hazard and had been swaying dangerously during strong winds in the past.
"I knew it was going to go," he said.
"I'd tried to tackle it myself but it was just too big. It's a few tonne of tree there."
On Saturday morning the gum tree was still resting on garage roof, with arborists due to come and clear it.
Lianne Belch said she has been concerned about the tree for the 18 years she's lived in the fibrelight Housing New Zealand property.
She was asleep upstairs when it came tumbling down on Friday night.
"It was just a big thud and you know, it's lucky the wind was blowing that way. If it had have swung back toward me that would have been it."
She said she was frustrated something hadn't been done about the tree sooner.
An Auckland Council spokeswoman said contractors were securing the tree on Saturday afternoon and were due to visit again on Monday to assess the situation.
Housing New Zealand has been approached for comment.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/83628744/It-could-have-killed-us-terrified-residents-had-concern-over-gum-tree | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c460eec971c606653a3717bac47b3a394d6539ea00ca53680e8a78e03df183ea.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:51:55 | null | 2016-08-30T06:19:27 | What began as a normal shift for a New Plymouth cabbie ended with the police being called. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Ftaranaki-daily-news%2Fnews%2F83724876%2FTaranaki-taxi-driver-takes-time-out-to-recover-after-alleged-group-attack.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/b/o/n/b/d/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duij0.png/1472537967269.jpg | en | null | Taranaki taxi driver takes time out to recover after alleged group attack | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Taranaki taxi driver takes time out to recover after alleged group attack
123RF Police have arrested four youths in connection with an alleged aggravated robbery of a New Plymouth taxi driver.
A taxi driver has taken a few days off work to recuperate after he was allegedly bashed by a group of teens who then stole his vehicle over the weekend.
Richard Morse, of New Plymouth Taxis, said one of his employees had been given time to recover from the incident, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The man, who has been employed by the company for about a year, was not physically hurt in the alleged attack but "was in shock" over what had happened to him, Morse said.
Detective Sheree Treloar said the cab driver picked up the group from the Brougham St taxi stand about 1.30am and drove them to the outskirts of the city.
READ MORE: Youths arrested after taxi driver robbed in Taranaki
The four youths are accused of trying to avoid paying the fare, before it is alleged they assaulted the driver and then stole the taxi.
Morse said the taxi cab had since been recovered but had sustained some damage.
Four teens were charged with aggravated robbery and have already appeared in the Youth Court.
Anyone with any information about the alleged robbery can contact Treloar on (06) 759 5500.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/83724876/Taranaki-taxi-driver-takes-time-out-to-recover-after-alleged-group-attack | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/48469b45e3e3c39767f40282b42ef69e878cf1c8b714f7befab80f614e430d02.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T22:51:23 | null | 2016-08-28T21:51:42 | NZ defender left unable to speak after Man City striker elbows him in the throat in EPL match. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Fworld-game%2F83655552%2FBan-looms-after-Winston-Reid-floored-by-elbow-during-West-Ham-defeat.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/1/4/o/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dt11c.png/1472421107273.jpg | en | null | Ban looms after Winston Reid floored by elbow during West Ham defeat | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Ban looms after Winston Reid floored by elbow during West Ham defeat
Aguero elbow. Intentional and deserves a 3 game ban pic.twitter.com/BPmI02100M — Osman (@OsmanZtheGooner) August 28, 2016
West Ham's New Zealand defender Winston Reid was unable to speak, his captain claimed, after copping an elbow to the neck during their 3-1 Premier League defeat to Manchester City.
Reid was left prone on the ground clutching at his throat after he was felled by an elbow from City's Sergio Aguero who faces a potential three-match ban.
The striker caught West Ham's central defender in the 76th minute, and Reid had to be substituted after receiving treatment.
DARREN STAPLES/REUTERS Winston Reid was forced to leave the pitch after he was hit by a stray elbow.
West Ham skipper Mark Noble said Reid was left unable to speak properly in the dressing room afterwards. "I know he couldn't talk. He said it was because he had got something in the throat."
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GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGES West Ham's Winston Reid and Sergio Aguero of Manchester City contest the ball at Etihad Stadium.
Referee Andre Marriner was close by but did not give a foul and it appeared after the Sunday night match that he was unaware of any violent conduct.
The Football Association are likely to look at retrospective punishment should Marriner claim he did not see the incident, the Daily Mail reported.
A suspension would see Aguero miss the Manchester derby with Jose Mourinho's United at Old Trafford on September 10, another Premier League game against Bournemouth before a trip to Swansea.
"I didn't see it, so I cannot comment," City manager Pep Guardiola said. "Hopefully nothing happens. If it happens, we accept and adapt. If we lose him, we lose him. We are [still] going to play with 11."
Manchester City's 3-1 win was sealed by a Raheem Sterling double and a Fernandinho header as the champions of 2012 and 2014 went top of the table.
Superior goal difference took them above Chelsea and neighbours Manchester United, who have also won their three opening games.
Having scored twice in the first 18 minutes through Sterling and Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho, Guardiola's team appeared set for an easy three points, only to be pegged back as the London side improved after halftime.
Michail Antonio reduced the deficit in the 58th minute but Sterling scored his second goal in stoppage time from an acute angle.
For his third league game in charge of City, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager again picked Willy Caballero in goal rather than Joe Hart, and the Argentine was not troubled for almost an hour until Antonio's unexpected intervention.
In the meantime, Sterling scored his first goal of the season following a fine move and Fernandinho added his first in the league since the same weekend last year.
He was left completely unmarked to head in Kevin de Bruyne's free kick as goalkeeper Adrian glared at his defence.
Bilic's side, again weakened by injuries and unable to use new loan signing Simone Zaza from Juventus, employed three centre halves plus wing backs, but defended poorly against City's fluent attacking.
In the second half, Bilic pushed Antonio further forward and he headed in a cross by Arthur Masuaku.
City briefly looked nervous but in the last few minutes David Silva hit a post and Sterling made the victory safe.
- Stuff, Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/83655552/Ban-looms-after-Winston-Reid-floored-by-elbow-during-West-Ham-defeat | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/6e3d2840b0c1907f1dcbe49089e4f53be9488c3eb46f8808e0eab8ffa89c1ffb.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T20:51:43 | null | 2016-08-29T20:22:13 | Englishman Ben Ryan lost for words as accolades flow in wake of Fiji's Rio gold medal success. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fsevens%2F83695906%2FFiji-gift-sevens-coach-Ben-Ryan-land-and-make-him-chief-as-Olympics-gold-medal-celebrations-continue.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/w/7/g/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtw6a.png/1472502133914.jpg | en | null | Fiji gift sevens coach Ben Ryan land and make him chief as Olympics gold medal celebrations continue | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Fiji gift sevens coach Ben Ryan land and make him chief as Olympics gold medal celebrations continue
GETTY IMAGES Ben Ryan and Ro Dakuwaqa celebrate Fiji's Olympics sevens gold medal success in Rio.
Fiji rugby sevens coach Ben Ryan has been given land and made a chief in the Pacific paradise.
Celebrations have continued in Fiji after Englishman Ryan masterminded their first Olympics medal – gold in the sevens where they beat Great Britain in the final.
Ryan has become a national hero in Fiji.
He had already been made a Companion of the Order of Fiji – the nation's highest honour.
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* Tew: Sevens to stay ABs
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Now the people of Serua have presented 1.2 hectares of land in Vunibau to him at a special ceremony.
He was also bestowed with a traditional chief's name - Ratu Peni Raiyani Latianara - by the people of Serua, one of Fiji's 14 provinces.
Coach @benjaminryan gifted 3 acres of land and the name Ratu Peni Raiyani Latianara by the people of #Serua #Fiji pic.twitter.com/RfLnXnxA0s — Fiji 7s Team (@Fiji7sTeam) August 29, 2016
Ryan, 44, said he was lost for words as accolades continue to come his way.
Fiji captain Osea Kolinisau said Ryan had made the difference to the team, giving them the consistency that earned them a World Series title and then the Olympics breakthrough as sevens made its debut in Rio.
"We are really blessed that he came and coached Fiji. He brought out the real Fiji. For years we tried to get back the Fijian flair and when Ben came, he brought that out and brought a real consistency to our game," Kolinisau said.
With his Olympics mission accomplished Ryan is expected to step away from the Fijian game.
He revealed he had received "about 20 offers" for other coaching positions since the Rio success.
Ryan coached the England sevens team from 2007-13 before taking up the Fiji position.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/sevens/83695906/Fiji-gift-sevens-coach-Ben-Ryan-land-and-make-him-chief-as-Olympics-gold-medal-celebrations-continue | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/31c0b2059403237a40374360c5fec299860135b931a1069f9da71b42ad1e0028.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:54 | null | 2016-08-30T02:45:43 | Kiwi NBA superstar spotted in Queenstown. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fbasketball%2F83720186%2FNBA-star-Steven-Adams-spotted-in-Queenstown-on-break-from-basketball.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/f/e/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duewq.png/1472525143886.jpg | en | null | NBA star Steven Adams spotted in Queenstown on break from basketball | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | NBA star Steven Adams spotted in Queenstown on break from basketball
Fairfax NZ Oklahoma City Thunder NBA star Steven Adams at Queenstown Airport on Tuesday afternoon.
Kiwi NBA superstar Steven Adams has landed in Queenstown on a break from running basketball training camps for kids.
The Oklahoma City Thunder centre landed at Queenstown Airport from Wellington with his entourage including teammates Andre Roberson and Nick Collison about 1pm on Tuesday.
Adams was not keen for photos from fans or media and was quickly whisked away after a brief meeting with officials inside the terminal.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER/FACEBOOK Steven Adams seems like he really enjoyed road tripping back in his home country.
A man claiming to be his brother said Adams' wanted to keep the visit low key.
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The brother had put the trip together, he said
CHRIS SKELTON/FAIRFAX NZ Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball player Steven Adams has been spotted in Queenstown.
New Zealand Maori Tourism member Pania Tyson-Nathan was at the airport to meet Adams and told media on Adams' behalf that he would not be taking interviews or photos.
He was in Queenstown on "holiday" until Thursday, she said.
Asked if he had enjoyed his latest trip back to New Zealand, Tyson-Nathan said: "What do you think? ... He's had 61,000 likes on Facebook."
Facebook If the cap fits...Steven Adams looks right at home in the prime ministerial office on Monday.
It's not known whether bungy jumping or skiing were on Adams' resort town schedule.
On Monday, Adams, Roberson and Collison visited Prime Minister John Key at the Beehive with Adams presenting Key with one of his No 12 playing shirts and also taking the chance to sit in the prime ministerial chair.
A carpool karaoke video featuring Adams and friends on a van trip around New Zealand was posted to the Thunder Facebook page on Tuesday.
Kevin Jairaj Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams (12) dribbles as Golden State Warriors centre Andrew Bogut (12) defends during the first quarter in game four of the Western conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Chesapeake Energy Arena earlier this year.
Adams is in New Zealand with Thunder teammates conducting training camps for Kiwi youngsters in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/basketball/83720186/NBA-star-Steven-Adams-spotted-in-Queenstown-on-break-from-basketball | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/4490bf4627fb64bff5d334f26b65aa0271df5181e6a138528586035380f02893.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:01 | null | 2016-08-26T11:45:00 | Brisbane Broncos build 20-4 lead, then hold off Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83524898%2FRecap-Melbourne-Storm-v-Brisbane-Broncos-NRL-Round-25.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/n/c/g/u/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dq882.png/1472216436522.jpg | en | null | Recap: Melbourne Storm v Brisbane Broncos - NRL Round 25 | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Recap: Melbourne Storm v Brisbane Broncos - NRL Round 25
BRADLEY KANARIS/GETTY IMAGES Sullies Vunivalu of the Storm scores a try during the round 24 NRL match against the Manly Sea Eagles.
The Brisbane Broncos built a 20-4 lead early in the second half, then held off the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park.
Team Form - rounds 16-24 (Oldest to latest) Broncos Storm Win Loss Bye KEY:
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83524898/Recap-Melbourne-Storm-v-Brisbane-Broncos-NRL-Round-25 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/16b4ecba6072803890331e3bb6524f5a21df030b5a1a93a9317eda6879fef301.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T18:51:27 | null | 2016-08-29T17:59:54 | Irish Olympic boss Pat Hickey has finally been granted bail after his arrest over ticket-scalping plot. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Folympics%2F83695303%2FTicket-scalping-accused-Irish-Olympic-boss-Pat-Hickey-freed-from-Rio-jail.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/o/f/n/g/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtvpj.png/1472493929687.jpg | en | null | Ticket-scalping accused Irish Olympic boss Pat Hickey freed from Rio jail | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Ticket-scalping accused Irish Olympic boss Pat Hickey freed from Rio jail
SUPPLIED/Policia Civil Rio de Janeiro's Civil Police arrest Irish Olympic president Pat Hickey on allegations of involvement in ticket-scalping.
Irish Olympic boss Patrick Hickey is finally able to leave a Rio de Janeiro prison, after his arrest nearly three weeks ago on ticket-scalping charges.
A Brazilian judge has agreed to temporarily release the top European official of the International Olympic Committee from a notorious maximum security prison in Rio, but he will be unable to leave the country while the investigation is ongoing.
The 71-year-old Irishman, who was also head of the Olympic Council of Ireland before his detention, has been in police custody since August 10.
GETTY IMAGES Irish Olympic boss Pat Hickey is accused of being part of a ticket-scalping plot at the Rio Olympics.
After filing a writ of habeas corpus last week, seeking proof of any wrongdoing in order to justify his continued detention, Hickey's Brazilian law firm said it expected to receive a favourable response this week.
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"Despite the accusations, there is no evidence that proves Hickey's involvement in such a scheme," said Helton Márcio Pinto, a partner at Arthur Lavigne Advogados Associados, the Rio law firm that is defending Hickey.
Pinto said Hickey's age and a history of health problems should weigh in his favour.
Hickey was rushed to hospital mid-arrest after complaining of chest pains, before being moved to prison.
The scheme, according to Rio police, allegedly involved the funnelling of Olympic tickets intended for use by the Irish committee and not authorised for resale to THG Sports, an international sports hospitality company.
Hickey temporarily stepped aside from his Olympic positions during the investigation, following his detention in his beach front hotel in Rio this month during the Olympic Games.
On Saturday, a court authorised the release of Kevin James Mallon, another Irishman and THG director who was arrested days before Hickey and was being held in the same prison. He left custody late on Saturday but is not allowed to leave Brazil, his lawyer told Reuters.
Police have said they have ample evidence of crimes committed by both men and other suspects in the case, but a full investigation and further court proceedings to determine their guilt or innocence could take months.
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83695303/Ticket-scalping-accused-Irish-Olympic-boss-Pat-Hickey-freed-from-Rio-jail | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/080f0cb07f6887c11c404b927e6639e41d2519146ff8f3ccb6186f16129bc2b2.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:30 | null | 2016-08-27T04:17:26 | Assistant coach urges team to sharpen up mentally for must-win Tigers clash. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83632262%2FErrors-all-in-the-mind-for-Warriors-as-Justin-Morgan-urges-team-to-sharpen-up-mentally.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/j/3/n/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsj2e.png/1472271446392.jpg | en | null | Errors all in the mind for Warriors as Justin Morgan urges team to sharpen up mentally | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Errors all in the mind for Warriors as Justin Morgan urges team to sharpen up mentally
ANDREW CORNAGA/PHOTOSPORT Assistant coach Justin Morgan says the Warriors are focused on finishing the season strongly regardless of whether they make the top eight.
With so much to play for at the back-end of the season, a lack of concentration should be the last thing the Warriors coaching staff have to worry about.
But heading into Sunday's must-win match against the Wests Tigers, assistant coach Justin Morgan admits the side has to sharpen up mentally if they are to snap their two-game losing streak.
After clawing their way back into finals contention, the team has reverted to the Warriors of old over the last two weeks, blighted by basic unforced errors and poor decision making.
Morgan said they were their "own worst enemies" during last week's 34-6 defeat and has put the onus on the players to get their minds right.
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"We haven't had to change our style or our structure a great deal because it wasn't like we were putting balls down based on the plays we were putting on - we were putting balls down without any pressure put on us," Morgan said.
"We know that they're unforced errors. We just need to make sure that when it's our opportunity we have to execute the technical side of things but also about concentrating."
The attitude the Warriors take into the game may well depend on Saturday night's result between Gold Coast and Penrith.
As well as winning their remaining two games, the Warriors' hopes of reaching the top eight rest on the Titans losing against the Panthers and North Queensland next week.
But Morgan is confident his side will be up for the Tigers clash regardless of Saturday's result.
"The main focus really and the main theme has been making sure we finish the season strongly," he said.
"Whether that's a fortnight or whether that's four weeks or six weeks or three weeks, part of that's out of our control. But the part that is in our control is finishing strongly."
The Tigers are in the same predicament as the Warriors in terms of their finals chances and also go into the game on the back of consecutive losses.
A key aspect of the Tigers this season has been the development of five-eighth Mitchell Moses and despite the absence of injured fullback James Tedesco, they boast plenty of strike power out wide in David Nofoaluma and Tim Simona.
Morgan added that limiting their offloads would be crucial for the Warriors.
"Guys like (Aaron) Woods, (Sauaso) Sue, Simona and Nofoaluma all promote the ball so our ability to contain the offload and if they do get one away, our ability to react to that needs to be at a high level."
Morgan, meanwhile, revealed that Issac Luke did not train with the side on Saturday and played down the hooker's chances of making an early return from a knee injury.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83632262/Errors-all-in-the-mind-for-Warriors-as-Justin-Morgan-urges-team-to-sharpen-up-mentally | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c70028f90d0dae1d02b062b75cc73a3853376453f0dce6a4c723bfda613d475e.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:36 | null | 2016-08-29T00:38:56 | From a safe full of expensive watches to the contents of a sex shop, storage units finds are big business. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Findustries%2F83668551%2FStorage-Wars-The-billion-dollar-business-based-on-junk.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/a/y/e/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtb2f.png/1472431136728.jpg | en | null | Storage Wars: The billion-dollar business based on junk | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Storage Wars: The billion-dollar business based on junk
PETER RAE / FAIRFAX NZ Penrith Auctions both sells and buys the contents of storage units, when the buyer has defaulted. Auctioneer Arron Caller holds a 1950s Golden Fleece petrol station sign.
Very often it's trash. But this time the "delinquent" storage unit contained a $37,000 stash worthy of a big reveal on the television reality show Storage Wars.
"Lo and behold, there was a safe with five exquisite watches," said Jason Lee*, the owner of Penrith City Auctions in Sydney, Australia.
Lee spotted the locked safe after buying the entire contents of the unit sight unseen.
The owner, Lee was told, had defaulted because he had been deported for overstaying his visa.
PETER RAE / FAIRFAX NZ You never know what you are going to find in a delinquent storage unit.
Each watch was worth $A7500 ($NZ7800).
Another unit he bought contained the stock of a sex shop including thousands of "devices" in different colours, shapes and sizes.
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As overall demand for storage has gone up, so too have complaints about unfair pricing and the seizure of goods for non-payment.
The number of unpaid storage units for auction on GraysOnline, for instance, has increased by 50 per cent, with around 50 "delinquent" auctioned each week.
Bidding on units starts at $9, but can reach the thousands, driven by Storage Wars' inspired buyers who are looking for treasure.
According to a report this month by IBISWorld, a research company, the storage industry's 692 players generate $1 billion in revenue, resulting in profits of around 20 per cent.
As rents and property prices go up, consumers are finding their stuff no longer fits in the smaller dwellings. E-commerce has also created a need for more storage for small online businesses, often operated at home.
Occasionally Lee will find himself bidding against a frantic owner, who wants to recover the contents of their seized unit. "You can tell when they bid, a storage unit worth only $A500 (and the owner) will bid $A2000."
Auction houses like Lee's are also contracted by local storage companies to sell and clear out the contents of delinquent units from Sydney sites.
NSW Fair Trading has received 24 complaints this year, mostly relating to fees, charges and loss and damage of property. Three concerned the seizure or sale of storage unit contents.
IT consultant Laszlo Molnar complained about unfair pricing on ProductReview.com.au about National Storage's policy of increasing prices every nine months on the unit he rented to store furniture for his daughter.
"Every nine months I got an increase of between 12 and 18 per cent. And when I asked National Storage, they said it was their policy to do a rental increase. It was above any rate of inflation or CPI."
When the price of the 1.8 metre square storage unit in Melbourne, which he originally rented for $A105 a month, was about to hit $A150, he decided that was enough and moved out. He said the manager of his storage centre had written to him that the price increases were company policy, handed down from head office.
A spokeswoman for National Storage told Fairfax Media that price increases were determined on a supply and demand basis, akin to hotel or airline industry pricing. Different centres have different pricing structures, she said.
Lee said he was increasingly competing against consumers who have watched the American television show Storage Wars and believe that they will find a jackpot by bidding on a delinquent unit on GraysOnline.
"They've watched the TV show, and believe they will buy a unit or two at auction and hit the jackpot by finding a five carat diamond ring. But you've got more luck (of getting rich) on the blackjack table," said Lee. His auction house specialises in selling deceased estates and unsold units.
Mostly Lee finds "decrepit old stuff" in amongst the abandoned household goods, motorbikes, hi-fi units and suitcases.
GraysOnline advertised a unit this week where the highlight was a DVD of the 1989 Julia Robert' movie, Steel Magnolias.
National Storage's spokeswoman said before the delinquent unit went to auction, the goods are catalogued and lodged with GraysOnline for sale. "Items are detailed and we don't sell units as unseen lots as they do on Storage Wars."
The company didn't sell personal items (eg documents) and these are held for collection by the customer.
"We are not obliged to do this but feel this is the right thing to do in these circumstances," she said.
- Sydney Morning Herald | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/83668551/Storage-Wars-The-billion-dollar-business-based-on-junk | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/af5afaefb8d2f635e59d5ee6f1a02f3573140fe6f40ef75ada865d79ea2d2451.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:15 | null | 2016-08-28T17:04:45 | Italian rescue teams are struggling to recover the bodies of earthquake victims. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Feurope%2F83651787%2FBodies-discovered-in-Italian-hotel-rubble-as-earthquake-toll-nears-300.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/y/5/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsy4r.png/1472403885834.jpg | en | null | Bodies discovered in Italian hotel rubble as earthquake toll nears 300 | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Bodies discovered in Italian hotel rubble as earthquake toll nears 300
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS Rescuers work to recover the bodies of those who died in the collapsed Hotel Roma.
Rescuers believe they have found more bodies buried deep in the rubble of the ruined town of Amatrice, five days after a devastating earthquake struck central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
Residents of the hill town estimated that up to 10 people were still missing and emergency services said they had located three corpses in Amatrice's Hotel Roma, which, like much of the historic centre, was wrecked by Wednesday's quake.
Deputy Mayor Gianluca Carloni said his uncle's body had still not been recovered from the hotel, which was particularly busy at this time of year because of a food festival.
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS Emergency services were struggling to reach bodies buried in the rubble.
"It is absolutely vital to finish as soon as possible this initial (search) phase to make sure that there are no more bodies under the rubble," he said.
READ MORE:
* Quake victim's hug saved sister's life
* Italy holds state funeral
* Hamilton kindy teacher loses family in Italy earthquake
* Italy earthquake death toll keeps rising, with 267 dead and hundreds injured
* Why Italy's earthquake was like Christchurch
* Dozens dead, thousands displaced after strong earthquake hits central Italy
GOOGLE STREET VIEW A view from behind the hotel before the quake.
Museums across Italy donated proceeds from their ticket sales on Sunday to help the rebuilding effort, while top flight soccer teams held a minute's silence before their weekend matches out of respect for the victims.
Pope Francis led prayers for the dead in his weekly address in St Peter's Square in Rome, saying he wanted to go to the earthquake zone to bring comfort to the survivors.
"Dear brothers and sisters, as soon as it is possible, I hope to come and visit you," he said.
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS The hotel was wrecked in the quake.
Priests in the quake zone held their regular Sunday services in large tents. Amatrice's municipal website said the town had 100 churches, but every one was damaged by the disaster and many would have to be demolished.
FALLEN MASONRY
With aftershocks continuing to rattle the region, including a magnitude 4.4 quake centred on the nearby city of Ascoli Piceno, residents were still struggling to absorb the disaster.
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS Italian police patrol a street in Amatrice.
"It took me 20 years to get my house, and then, in just 10 seconds, it was gone, like so many others," said Ascenzio Attenni, who lived in the hamlet of Sant'Angelo outside Amatrice, where eight people died.
"We have to thank God that we are alive," he said, before breaking down in tears.
Rescue operations in most of the area were halted two days ago, but teams were still combing Amatrice, which is 105km east of Rome. The fire service said it was trying to remove some of the fallen masonry at the Hotel Roma and create a safe path to retrieve the three bodies as soon as possible.
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS Amatrice was levelled in the quake.
The Civil Protection Department lowered the official death toll on Sunday to 290 from a previously given 291. A number of foreigners were among the dead, including 11 Romanians, the foreign ministry in Bucharest said.
Many Romanians work in Italy and Bucharest said 14 of its nationals were still unaccounted for.
Italy has promised to rebuild the shattered communities and has said it will learn from the mistakes following a similar earthquake in the nearby city of L'Aquila in 2009, where much of the centre is still out of bounds.
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS Firefighters stand next to a collapsed house in Amatrice.
The rebuilding effort was stalled following allegations that organised crime groups had muscled in to obtain lucrative contracts. Italy's anti-mafia chief Franco Roberti said the experience of L'Aquila would serve well this time around, but warned that the government could not lower its guard.
"The risks are there and it is pointless to pretend otherwise," he told la Repubblica newspaper. "Post-quake reconstruction is always very appetising for criminal gangs and their business partners."
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/83651787/Bodies-discovered-in-Italian-hotel-rubble-as-earthquake-toll-nears-300 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/2e94010695a576bc9a28fccc97011e56ac780c01112cca7b1c9605a881302c63.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T04:50:57 | null | 2016-08-28T04:46:58 | NZ's oldest Paralympian this year is Chris Sharp, who joins a three-man crew six years after a motorbike accident left him in a wheelchair. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Folympics%2F83395448%2FRio-Paralympics-2016-Chris-Sharp-and-New-Zealands-para-sailors-aim-to-surprise.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/p/v/n/k/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dngc8.png/1472359618722.jpg | en | null | Rio Paralympics 2016: Chris Sharp and New Zealand's para-sailors aim to surprise | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Rio Paralympics 2016: Chris Sharp and New Zealand's para-sailors aim to surprise
DAVID WHITE/FAIRFAX NZ NZ Paralympians talk about their hopes and dreams for the up coming Paralympics in Rio.
Chris Sharp is still recovering from the motorbike accident that left him in a wheelchair.
But that hasn't stopped him competing in a sport he's loved since he was a young boy growing up in Kerikeri.
Sharp is bowman for New Zealand's three-man para-sailing team, which is ready to spring a few surprises at the Paralympic Games in Rio.
Hagen Hopkins Chris Sharp will compete in his first ever Paralympic Games at the age of 58.
Experience could be key for Sharp and his crew, which is something they're not short of.
READ MORE: NZ selects three-man sailing crew
The boat's mainsheet man, Richard Dodson, is 40, with the helm manned by Andrew May, who's 57.
Phil Walter/Getty Images Chris Sharp, left, with Paralympics New Zealand chief executive Fiona Allan, and his crew, Richard Dobson (second front right), and Andrew May.
Sharp will turn 58 just a few days before the Paralympics begin on September 8 (NZ time), meaning he's the oldest member of New Zealand's 29-strong team.
He's not the oldest at the Games, though, with 73-year-old Australian shooter Libby Kosmala set for her 12th Paralympics.
Now based in Auckland, Sharp's whole life is dedicated to his sport, and this year's 15th Summer Paralympics will be his first. They come six years after he was left paralysed from the waist down when he crashed his motorbike into a tree.
Phil Walter Sharp, May and Dobson aboard their boat, the Maserati.
"I'm sitting in a wheelchair as a result of having a very strong passion for motorbikes," he said.
"The accident took me out of the frame for a couple of years and I've been recovering ever since. I'm still recovering now."
Sharp's been involved with sailing since he was eight, but he hadn't been in a boat since his accident until he met up with crew mate Dodson and the Kiwi Gold Sailing team a few years ago.
And then Paralympics New Zealand were keen to get him back into competitive sailing.
"I've always been a sailor, but I got into this when I was minding my own business and they chased me down.
"This seemed like it was too much for me a few years ago but I'm here. The sport now has become my whole life."
Sharp and his crew raced in last year's World Championships in Melbourne. They finished as New Zealand's best placed team.
Their eighth-placed finish among a fleet of 18 boats secured a berth in this year's Paralympics, where they'll compete in the three-person keelboat event (Sonar).
They will have May at the helm. He's also a paraplegic and raced in the Paralympics in 1996 and 2000, with Dodson, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, as the mainsheet man.
Dodson was part of New Zealand's successful America's Cup team in 1995 and 2000 and he's the former strategist for Team New Zealand.
New Zealand has never won a medal in para-sailing since the Paralympics began in 1968.
So Sharp and his crew have the know how, but they'll have to be shipshape when they're battling with other crews on the water at Rio's Marina da Glória, which hosted a warm-up event for Paralympic teams earlier this year.
"Our jobs are all quite unique and separate from each other," said Sharp.
"We're an experienced team and we've got a fast boat. We're looking forward to the fact that people aren't going to pay a lot of attention to us.
"We can actually make an inroad into this competition before they realise what they're up against."
The first two Sonar races begin at 6am and 7:30am on Tuesday 13 September (NZ time).
AT A GLANCE:
Name: Chris Sharp
Age: 57
Event: Sailing
Classification: Sport Class 4
Disability: Loss of muscle power (Paraplegia)
Record: 8th - Sonar Class, 2015 Para-Sailing World Championships
Personal: Prior to his accident, Sharp was an arborist who loved to hang from trees with a chainsaw in his hand.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83395448/Rio-Paralympics-2016-Chris-Sharp-and-New-Zealands-para-sailors-aim-to-surprise | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/5820204c2785b2df3e0f5f9efaa51ef4a6d4fb2d8745a4e52b2785c76c36754d.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:14 | null | 2016-08-30T20:37:15 | Singer leaves house surrounded by police after reports he pulled gun on woman. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fentertainment%2Fcelebrities%2F83741702%2FSinger-Chris-Brown-ends-police-standoff-triggered-after-woman-claims-gun-incident-report.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/v/p/l/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duvie.png/1472589436155.jpg | en | null | Singer Chris Brown ends police standoff triggered after woman claims gun incident - report | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Singer Chris Brown ends police standoff triggered after woman claims gun incident - report
TMZ VIDEO Members of Brown's entourage line up for police outside of the house.
Chris Brown has come out of his US home after officers responding to a woman's call for help served a search warrant, police say.
The development ended a standoff that began hours earlier Tuesday when the woman called from outside the home, with media reports saying the woman claimed the pop star had pointed a gun at her.
Police said she was not inside the home in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.
LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS "I don't sleep half the damn night I just wake up to all these ... helicopters, choppers is around, police out there at the gate," Brown said on an Instagram video.
Police Lieutenant Chris Ramirez says about a half-dozen people were escorted out of the residence and will be interviewed.
.@chrisbrown is in a tense stand-off with police after woman claimed pop star pulled a gun on her. #9News https://t.co/D1A3ArZvXG — Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) August 30, 2016
READ MORE:
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* Chris Brown tickets will be refunded if concert cancelled
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* Concert promoter says Chris Brown controversy is unfair and inconsistent
Ramirez says nobody has been arrested and everyone has been cooperative.
Brown posted videos to social media declaring his innocence before his lawyer Mark Geragos arrived.
He denied any wrongdoing and said in posts on Instagram that he had woken up to find police outside and that they would need a warrant to enter the property in the Tarzana neighbourhood.
"This morning, around three o'clock, officers responded to a radio call for a woman requiring assistance. The incident involved the residence of Mr Chris Brown, where officers responded and met with that person," Ramirez told reporters at an earlier press conference.
TMZ.com said the apparent stand-off outside Brown's home was triggered by an unnamed woman who had been a guest at the house on Monday night, and who told police the singer had pulled a gun on her.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the woman said Brown had pointed a gun at her in a violent rage and that she had run outside to call police.
In 2009, Brown assaulted his then girlfriend Rihanna, and in 2015 he finished a lengthy term of probation, community service and domestic violence classes. Brown has also been involved in several other incidents involving violence.
"I don't sleep half the damn night I just wake up to all these ... helicopters, choppers is around, police out there at the gate," Brown said on an Instagram video.
"What I do care about is you are defacing my name and my character and integrity," he added, saying he had done nothing wrong and criticising police actions.
"I don't care y'all going to stay playing with me like I'm the villain out here, like I'm going crazy ... good luck when you get the warrant or whatever you need to do. You're going to walk right up in here and you're going to see nothing you idiots," he added.
- Reuters and AP
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/83741702/Singer-Chris-Brown-ends-police-standoff-triggered-after-woman-claims-gun-incident-report | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/52805b251a79e1e99892a185a6b9683b928d61a96d75dfc8189bcd6956cdbf2a.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:29 | null | 2016-08-28T19:44:57 | In the shadow of Mt Taranaki stands a symbol of NZ's dominance in the global dairy trade. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Ffarming%2Fdairy%2F83651789%2FHow-a-dairy-factory-at-the-end-of-the-Earth-is-trying-to-rule-the-world.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/9/s/i/y/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsy4t.png/1472413497214.jpg | en | null | How a dairy factory at the end of the Earth is trying to rule the world | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | How a dairy factory at the end of the Earth is trying to rule the world
Fonterra's Whareroa milk plant, one of the world's largest.
In the shadow of a snow-dusted volcano in the North Island, a sprawling expanse of stainless steel vats, chimneys and giant warehouses stands as a totem of the tiny nation's dominance in the global dairy trade.
The Whareroa factory was until recently the largest of its kind, churning out enough milk powder, cheese and cream to fill more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools a week.
The plant has helped make owner Fonterra Co-operative Group the world's top dairy exporter and its farmer-suppliers among the greatest beneficiaries of China's emerging thirst for milk.
Now, faced with reduced Chinese demand that's eroded milk prices and helped drag 80 per cent of New Zealand's dairy farmers into the red, the 44-year-old factory has come to symbolise Fonterra's struggle to climb the value chain.
READ MORE:
* Fonterra investment of $38 million in Whareroa secures site's future
* Fonterra milk price boost to inject $1 billion into NZ's economy
While a global shift toward more natural foods has spurred even Coca-Cola to develop new milk products, Fonterra's business remains largely wedded to commodities traded on often-volatile international markets. That's frustrated the ranks of the co-operative's 10,500 farmer-shareholders, who are set to receive the lowest return in nine years for the milking season just ended, and turned Fonterra's strategy into the subject of national debate.
"Fonterra hasn't taken the opportunity to put itself in a position to really weather these storms as well as they should be able to," said Harry Bayliss, 63, a former Fonterra director who still supplies the cooperative from farms about 30 kilometres west of the Whareroa factory.
"What the board has focused on in the last 10 years haven't been areas that have created real ongoing value for the shareholders or the company."
Auckland-based Fonterra has responded by selling assets, cutting jobs and closing a factory to improve efficiency and strengthen its balance sheet.
"We have confidence in the long-term fundamentals of dairy, and we remain focused on securing the best possible returns for our farmers by converting their milk into high-value products for consumers around the world," chief executive Theo Spierings said in a statement on Thursday that announced a 10 New Zealand-cent dividend payment and reiterated a forecast for improved earnings.
A NOKIA DOWN UNDER
Forged in 2001 from the merger of New Zealand's two largest dairy companies and the agency that controlled the nation's dairy exports, Fonterra was promoted as a means of creating critical mass for Kiwi farmers. A kind of Nokia Down Under, it was to drive innovation and thrust the country onto the world stage by taking on the likes of Nestle and Kraft Food.
Yet, even with a near-monopoly over New Zealand's milk output and an empire spanning Australia, the Americas and China, Fonterra is more likely to supply those companies than compete with them on supermarket shelves.
"The idea was to move New Zealand's dairy industry up the value chain, and push hard to become a global brands company," said Oyvinn Rimer, a research analyst at Harbour Asset Management in Wellington, who has tracked the co-operative for about five years. "It just has not happened."
Every six hours, a train pulls in to the Whareroa factory, near Mount Taranaki in the small town of Hawera, to pick up five containers of Fonterra product -- milk powder makes up almost half.
The commodity, with a six-month shelf life, has been New Zealand's core farm export for more than 20 years. In fact, the South Pacific nation supplies about two-thirds of the whole milk powder traded internationally.
"The problem is we put all our eggs, or nearly all our eggs, in that whole milk powder basket," said Keith Woodford, an honorary professor of agri-food systems at New Zealand's Lincoln University, who has followed Fonterra since its formation.
"We locked ourselves into this one product and Fonterra lacks the capital at hand to now change direction quickly."
Prices for whole milk powder, an ingredient in everything from cookies to ice cream, have dropped by half over the past three years as purchases by China, the biggest buyer, dwindled amid a glut in global dairy supplies. That dragged down the fortunes of export-dependent dairy farmers worldwide, but especially in New Zealand, where they rely on China and other major markets to buy about 95 per cent of their output.
"In my 35 years of farming, this is by far the worst downturn that we've been in," said Phil Nixon, 59, a second-generation farmer whose 350-cow herd supplies the Whareroa factory.
While Nixon is "very, very passionate" about Fonterra, he says the co-operative has been a frequent source of frustration. "I'm damn sure that with everything efficient, they could return us more than what they have," Nixon said.
Milk payments to farmers dropped to an estimated $3.90 a kilogram of milk solids for the year ended May 31, half the record $8.40/kg paid two years earlier. While the current season's price is predicted to increase to $4.25/kg, at that level it will still be about 20 per cent below what farmers need to cover their costs.
DAIRY PRICES PLUMMET
S&P Global Ratings downgraded Fonterra to A- in October, four rungs above junk, citing its "peak capital expenditure," as well as global market volatility. Capex exceeded operating cash flow by $948 million in the year ended July 31, 2015, as dairy prices plummeted.
Earnings are forecast to improve as the milk glut abates, reaching 50-to-60 New Zealand cents a share in the current financial year, Fonterra said in an August 1 statement, from an estimated 45-to-55 cents a year earlier. This shows the company is making "good progress in continuing to increase value through our consumer and foodservice businesses," CEO Spierings said at the time.
The relatively wide earnings range indicates Fonterra remains sensitive to commodity-price variability, said Arie Dekker, head of institutional research at First NZ Capital Securities in Auckland, in a report. "Ultimately, investors are looking for more consistent results."
Farmers, too, want more. Some sold their equity in the co-operative and switched to supplying competitors. Fonterra's share of New Zealand's milk supply has dropped to 84 per cent from more than 95 per cent in 2001, according to Wellington-based Infometrics.
Laws passed at Fonterra's creation aimed at safeguarding competition in New Zealand's dairy industry compel the cooperative to collect fresh milk from any farmer who wants to supply it. That guarantee has contributed to a quadrupling of the nation's milk supply since 1984.
Kiwi farms are forecast to produce about 22 billion litres of milk this year - almost four times the production of Ireland, which has a similar climate and population size, according to KPMG.
Collecting this "huge wave of milk," as Fonterra director David MacLeod calls it, has become less economic as a 22 per cent increase in land used for dairy farming in New Zealand since 2008 forces the cooperative to travel further from its factories to pick up supplies. The legislation, which also requires Fonterra to sell milk at regulated prices to smaller processors, is currently under review, with the government proposing that Fonterra no longer be obliged to collect output from dairy startups.
"It will give us more options," said Rob Spurway, Fonterra's chief operating officer for global operations, in an interview. "We can invest more in the value-add areas in the business rather than simply coping with large volumes of milk."
As it is, Fonterra creates less value from raw milk than Danone, Nestle and the majority of its global competitors, according to estimates compiled by the International Farm Comparison Network this year.
"Danone and Nestle, they just buy milk as they require," CEO Spierings said in an interview at one of Fonterra's cheese plants in June. "We are a co-operative, we have to take all the milk. We have to take it in and we have to create value off everything -- we will never be the same."
Geography is a challenge, too. While New Zealand has a temperate climate and abundant rainfall, making it ideal for dairying, it's 2500 km from Australia, its closest major market. Going abroad hasn't been without difficulty either.
In Australia, where Fonterra is facing a backlash from its farmer-suppliers over milk-price cuts, it is selling its loss-making yoghurt and dairy desserts brands to the local unit of Italy's Parmalat, after shedding a 9 percent stake in Bega Cheese in October.
A key part of Fonterra's current strategy is to expand supply to 30 billion litres by 2025 in as many as six so-called global milk pools. That includes China, where the company has two farming hubs that posted a $29m first-half loss before interest and taxes.
Fonterra is now counting on an investment in Beingmate Baby & Child Food - which has about 7 per cent of China's baby food market - as a salve for the collapse of its former partner Sanlu Group amid a food scandal involving melamine-tainted infant formula in 2008.
Some farmers are wary of developing an over-dependence on China.
China's consumers "are great for New Zealand - they're great for the world," said Dave Ellis, whose farm in South Canterbury on the South Island is one of Fonterra's biggest suppliers. "But we've got very reliant on them."
The broader issue for Fonterra, said Ian Proudfoot, global head of agribusiness for KPMG in Auckland, is the need to extract more from its milk.
"Having a strong position in an important sector like dairy is valuable to New Zealand," he said. "The challenge for us, though, is we've got to ensure that's a high-value position and we're not just sweat-shopping out low-value commodities."
- The Washington Post | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/83651789/How-a-dairy-factory-at-the-end-of-the-Earth-is-trying-to-rule-the-world | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/2219ee91a151796fc6625c131c3c0657f13a126dd5be1a24c65fa604e518868c.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:25 | null | 2016-05-28T00:56:35 | Breast cancer survivor's Kiwi cover-up tattoo captures hearts around the world. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2F83629837%2FKiwi-tattooists-cover-up-breast-tattoo-wins-hearts-the-world-over.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/h/c/r/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsh71.png/1472264884248.jpg | en | null | Kiwi tattooist's cover-up breast tattoo wins hearts the world over | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Kiwi tattooist's cover-up breast tattoo wins hearts the world over
FACEBOOK Alison Habbal's floral tattoo was created by Kiwi tattooist Makkala Rose of Hamilton.
Kiwi tattoo artist Makkala Rose, from Hamilton, has gained attention right around the world following Instagram posts of a tattoo she created for a breast cancer survivor in Australia.
Alison Habbal of Sydney commissioned Rose to create the large, floral tattoo on her right breast after her nipple was removed and she was left with scarring following a lumpectomy to cut out her cancer.
BBC News reported that the 36-year-old did not like the idea of re-creating a nipple through plastic surgery.
"I didn't want a fake nipple made from some other piece of flesh. I thought I'm just going to get a tattoo," Alison says.
"During the year I was sick I had the idea of me with the blonde crop and the tattoo. The whole time I was sick I would trawl tattoo artists over the internet."
And it was 24-year-old New Zealander Makkala Rose that caught her eye. Alison says comments have been overwhemingly positive. More than 23,000 people have liked her Instagram photo, which has been reposted multiple times.
Saturday morning snuggles A photo posted by Alison (@secretary925) on May 27, 2016 at 5:56pm PDT
Alison is pictured with her seven-year-old daughter Bessie.
"Because there's no nipple, I can blast it everywhere all over Facebook and Instagram, and they can't censor it, which I think is really funny," Alison says.
Makkala said Alison was an "absolute champion" for sitting through 13 hours of intense work on painful, sensitive areas - an experience her client called "blood-curdlingly horrific".
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/83629837/Kiwi-tattooists-cover-up-breast-tattoo-wins-hearts-the-world-over | en | 2016-05-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/8de36fb8d60a9ca300c9059ae532f209929aa0300ed8abf67d5f9db3fcf5857e.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T08:51:01 | null | 2016-08-28T07:47:24 | Jamie Whincup brings up a century of race wins, while Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen finishes fifth in Sydney V8 race. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fmotorsport%2F83649798%2FJamie-Whincup-wins-to-reach-Supercars-ton-as-Shane-van-Gisbergen-finishes-fifth.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/w/n/y/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dswli.png/1472370444794.jpg | en | null | Jamie Whincup wins to reach Supercars ton as Shane van Gisbergen finishes fifth | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Jamie Whincup wins to reach Supercars ton as Shane van Gisbergen finishes fifth
Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images Jamie Whincup enjoys the moment after winning race 2 of the V8 Supercars Sydney SuperSprint.
Holden's Jamie Whincup has become the second driver in Supercars history to claim 100 career race wins.
The six-time champion reached his ton with victory in the 200km race at Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday.
Whincup, who finished second in Saturday's race, jumped veteran Craig Lowndes in the pits midway through to streak to his third win of the year.
Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images Jamie Whincup, left and Craig Lowndes spray each other with champagne after finishing first and second in race 2 in Sydney.
The Red Bull Racing star (2109pts) now holds a 137-point lead in the championship standings over teammate Shane van Gisbergen (1972).
READ MORE:
* Holden's Shane Van Gisbergen wins at Sydney Supercars
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* Fabian Coulthard confident results will come
Lowndes, celebrating an unprecedented 600th career start, came home second after leading for the early part of the race.
Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images Shane Van Gisbergen drives his Holden Commodore VF into fifth place in race 2 and after winning race 1.
The 42-year-old is the only other driver to have posted 100 wins and holds the record with 105 victories.
But Whincup has taken far less time to reach the milestone, with the 33-year-old's 100th race win coming in just his 398th start.
Ford's Chaz Mostert, who started from pole position, finished third as his wait for a win in 2016 continues, while Kiwis Fabian Coulthard, van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin were fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Van Gisbergen, who won Saturday's race, finished fifth after a run-in with Volvo's James Moffat on lap 48.
Moffat was issued a drive-through penalty for his role in the accident, which cost him a top 10 finish.
Sunday's win continues Whincup's sensational record of a victory every four races during his career including a decade of dominance which has brought him six drivers' championships and four Bathurst 1000 wins.
"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a little bit of relief there," Whincup said.
"Three tough seconds and to finally get there, I'm very, very proud."
Defending series champion Mark Winterbottom has relinquished third place in the title standings to Lowndes after completing a shocking weekend with a 14th-placed finish.
The next round of the championship will be the Sandown 500 on September 18.
- AAP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsport/83649798/Jamie-Whincup-wins-to-reach-Supercars-ton-as-Shane-van-Gisbergen-finishes-fifth | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/16a4e903f1f3cc69b0ce16f28148ef0b067dae3cc1c12840bab7915e3194a347.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:50:30 | null | 2016-08-27T12:28:21 | Cronulla thump Sydney Roosters to bounce back from winless run in NRL. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83636145%2FCronulla-Sharks-back-on-song-with-solid-win-over-Sydney-Roosters.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/m/2/d/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsm29.png/1472300901517.jpg | en | null | Cronulla Sharks back on song with solid win over Sydney Roosters | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Cronulla Sharks back on song with solid win over Sydney Roosters
JASON MCCAWLEY/GETTY IMAGES Sharks' Ben Barba (centre) celebrates with teammates after scoring a try against the Roosters.
Cronulla ended a four-game winless run and got their minor premiership challenge back on track with a strong 37-12 win over the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night.
The Sharks are now one point behind leaders Melbourne Storm heading into the final round, and facing a trip south to AAMI Park on Saturday night for a clash to decide the minor premiership.
Cronulla captain Paul Gallen was outstanding in his return from a calf strain that kept him out of their losses to the Dragons and South Sydney, with Sosaia Feki also returning on the wing.
JASON MCCAWLEY/GETTY IMAGES Sharks' Ben Barba puts one over the line.
In a horror start for the Roosters, they lost lock Sio Siua Taukeiaho to a knee injury in the second minute after falling awkwardly under a tackle.
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On the next play Mitchell Pearce screwed a kick wildly out on the full to give the Sharks early field position.
But it was the visitors who scored first.
A scrappy last tackle saw Jared Waerea-Hargreaves fling a long pass out to young five-eighth Connor Watson on the right, who crashed through two Sharks' tackles to score.
A Latrell Mitchell penalty goal put the Roosters out to an 8-0 lead as both sides struggled to hold onto the ball.
Six handling errors in the first 18 minutes – three from each side – led to a scrappy opening, with the Sharks bombing a chance to narrow the margin.
Sosaia Feki won the race to a Gerard Beale grubber kick into the in-goal area, but the Sharks winger failed to ground the ball, knocking on in the process.
Cronulla were punished immediately, as the Roosters went down the other end of the field for Pearce to find Mitchell with a perfect cross-field kick, with the Roosters winger climbing above Feki to give his side a 12-0 lead.
The Sharks hit back three minutes later – courtesy of another error – with Matt Prior scoring under the posts after Watson had failed to field a Michael Ennis grubber.
The Roosters were resilient in defence, repelling four Cronulla sets on their own line as the Sharks mis-firing attack looked to be having another off night.
The intensity lifted just after the half hour mark when Gallen was penalised following a push and shove.
But if the Sharks' attack had been off for a few weeks, Ben Barba showed why with their class they need only a half chance to punish their opposition.
With Cronulla attacking the Roosters' line three minutes before half-time, a Wade Graham offload was knocked down and scooped up by Barba.
The mercurial fullback accelerated through the Roosters' defenders before breezing past Ferguson to level the score at 12-all.
The Sharks' first half resurgence wasn't done, with James Maloney potting a 40-metre field goal on the stroke of half-time to give Cronulla a 13-12 lead at the break after Waerea-Hargreaves had been penalised for a late tackle on Gallen.
Six minutes into the second half Cronulla extended their lead with Beale touching down from a Barba kick.
The Roosters then put their kick-off out on the full, as Cronulla began to find the grind that worked so well for them on their 15-game winning streak.
Gallen put the Sharks out to a 25-12 lead with 25 minutes to play when he somehow held off four Roosters defenders to stretch out and score under the posts, before a Jayson Bukuya try five minutes later all but sealed the result.
A late Valentine Holmes try and an Ennis penalty goal – in his final home game for the Sharks made it 37 unanswered points for Cronulla, with the Sharks looking as though they have found their mojo just in time for the semi-finals.
- Sydney Morning Herald | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83636145/Cronulla-Sharks-back-on-song-with-solid-win-over-Sydney-Roosters | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/f4847202bd0678a42843ff2706e4516941ec33ba2a7eee91966d5831f4b09693.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:52:10 | null | 2016-08-29T22:32:29 | Helen Clark needed things to go her way, but there was no good news in latest vote on the next UN boss. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fpolitics%2F83695913%2FUN-Sec-Gen-vote-Helen-Clark-in-or-out.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/m/s/p/p/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtw6h.png/1472510247742.jpg | en | null | UN Sec-Gen vote: Helen Clark in or out? | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | UN Sec-Gen vote: Helen Clark in or out?
MORNING REPORT/Radio New Zealand A make or break poll in Helen Clark's bid for the United Nations's top job is underway. She needs to do better to stay in the running.
Helen Clark needed things to go her way today. But the latest round of voting on the next United Nations boss has failed to boost her prospects.
Early reports have Clark placing seventh in the poll – six votes in favour, eight discourage votes and one "no opinion".
Former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres is still the front-runner.
UN Helen Clark is caught in the middle of a battle for influence and geopolitical horse-trading between the US and Russia.
The two bottom candidates were Natalie Gherman and world climate-change csar Christina Figueres, and there is now speculation they are likely to drop out of the race.
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If the vote was by popular choice, Clark would have been a front-runner. Her bid for the top job has had a huge head of steam on social media and elsewhere, thanks to her high visibility on Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.
Clark has been the flag-bearer for the push to appoint a woman secretary general for the first time in the UN's 70-year history. And she is also seen as representative of the mood among the wider UN membership to decide the next secretary-general on competency.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
But Clark is caught in the middle of a battle for influence and geopolitical horse trading between the United States and Russia, two of the most powerful members of the so-called P5 club – the five permanent members of the 15 member security council.
Phil Walter/Getty Images PM John Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully have been on a worldwide charm offensive in support of Helen Clark but have so far failed to make the difference.
Clark received a much higher number of votes "discouraging' her candidacy in the early rounds of voting, suggesting at least one of the permanent members voted against her. That increases the likelihood of Clark facing a veto down the line.
Prime Minister John Key has acknowledged Clark's failure to get more traction was, in part, a result of her lacking a "champion" among those P5 members. But sources suggest Clark's high profile has also made her a victim of "tall poppy syndrome".
Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully have been on a worldwide charm offensive in support of Clark but have so far failed to make the difference. Even a personal approach by Key to US President Barack Obama appears to have been rebuffed, with the US widely believed to be backing the Argentine foreign minister, Susana Malcorra.
MAARTEN HOLL/Fairfax NZ Prime Minister John Key speaking on Helen Clark's bid for the UN top job.
But Malcorra, seen as the establishment candidate after previously serving as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's offsider, might struggle to survive a veto by Russia.
TWO FACED DIPLOMACY
The Russians, meanwhile, have made no bones about their preference for an Eastern European candidate, says Key. The Russians have, if any thing, been refreshingly upfront about their reasons for refusing to back Clark.
That is a rarity in the murky and highly secretive system of straw polls surrounding the appointment process where it has become clear that some countries are saying one thing in public, and voting the other way behind closed doors.
MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS The US is believed to be backing Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra.
But like Malcorra, any favoured candidate of Russia faces a veto by the US.
Clark had always hoped to emerge as the compromise candidate once the dust had settled on the vetoes, but Guterres appears poised to take that title instead.
As a temporary member of the Security Council, New Zealand is believed to have used its vote during the last straw poll to oppose Guterres, largely as a spoiling tactic, though the Government refuses to say.
NEXT MOVE?
Denis Balibouse/Reuters Former Portuguese PM António Guterres looks to be the front-runner.
Speaking before the result was announced, Labour MP Phil Goff told TVNZ Clark would have to reconsider her campaign if she fell in the straw poll.
"Where there's life, there's hope, but if the vote goes down then she's going to have to look at that very strategically and say, 'Is there any chance?', [and] if there's no chance you preserve your dignity and you step aside."
Goff told TVNZ Clark's strongest chance was to come through as a compromise candidate, although that would depend on what the P5 wanted a strong secretary-general or someone "more flexible".
She was unlikely to stay on at the UN if knocked back for the top job and could return to New Zealand, although there would be plenty of jobs on offer for her elsewhere.
"She's worked so hard for so many years, she'd be a fantastic ambassador for New Zealand anywhere in the world."
Labour foreign affairs spokesman David Shearer, who worked at the UN for nearly 20 years, told TV3 Clark should "absolutely" stay in the race.
"If there's a standoff between the United States and Russia ... if they cancel each other's candidates out then there's a chance for Helen to come through the middle."
However, there was a chance she would "look at what her options are" if she fell in the poll and other candidates increased their support.
* Audio courtesy of RNZ.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83695913/UN-Sec-Gen-vote-Helen-Clark-in-or-out | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/16fbe04116e4d591f66b24bf2d8389f3e0bae65dfc3753e07570ac57a37487de.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:52:12 | null | 2016-08-30T21:01:51 | There was a reason the manhole cover wouldn't stay put. Beneath the street, children lived. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Famericas%2F83742895%2FThis-could-have-been-life-and-death-Signs-children-lived-in-sewers-near-Seattle.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/w/o/l/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duwfj.png/1472596827997.jpg | en | null | 'This could have been life and death': Signs children lived in sewers near Seattle | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | 'This could have been life and death': Signs children lived in sewers near Seattle
Last Friday afternoon in Federal Way, a city south of Seattle in the United States, utility workers came across a manhole that refused to stay closed.
Meter readers with Lakehaven Utility District first noticed the sewer cover left ajar. They pushed it shut; to fall down an open manhole, after all, could mean injury or worse. It proved to be a stubborn grate. Later in the day - twice - workers found the manhole open again. The third time, the meter readers had enough, summoning the Lakehaven sewer crew, who decided to investigate how a 36kg metal slab could behave like a screen door with a busted latch.
What the crew found was even stranger.
DON SCOTT Meter readers in a city south of Seattle couldn't work out why a manhole cover kept being moved. Then sewer workers discovered children had been living underground.
At the bottom of the 4.2 metre descent was a cache of kids' items, miscellany that belonged in a tree house or rec room: a pair of binoculars, snacks and toys, including a pistol for shooting foam darts. They discovered clothes, too, as well as a makeshift bed made out of plywood.
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* Housing for homeless not guaranteed - Bennett
This should not happen at all," as Ken Miller, a product engineering manager with Lakehaven Utility District, told KIRO 7 News. "This is where all our waste goes from our houses and our businesses."
And, finally, the crew noticed the two boys watching.
They appeared to be about 12 or 13. When approached, one said he had been living within the manhole. Miller was shocked. "I've been doing this kind of work for over 30 years, and I've never, never come across it before," he said. "No one should be down there ... this could have been life and death."
He warned the children that the sewers were dangerous. Crews like Lakehaven's wear protective gear when entering the sewers. Methane gas can build up in the system, a byproduct of decomposing waste. Though not harmful at low concentrations, if the gas displaces enough oxygen it can be suffocating. Would-be sewer spelunkers may also encounter rodents and other animals that carry disease. If a car were to park above the sewer cover, the children could be trapped below.
Such hazards do not mean the systems are always uninhabited. As Jennifer Toth famously wrote in her 1995 book, The Mole People, within the New York City underground live some 5000 homeless who have found shelter in the sewer systems and old subway lines. Disputes about the details of Toth's account aside (one critic said that her adventurous tone was an attempt to spice up "sad visits to dirty holes in the ground"), subsequent reporters and photojournalists have documented homeless living in urban tunnels, not only in New York but cities like Las Vegas as well.
As for the children in Federal Way, people living in the neighbourhood said the kids had been occasionally spotted above ground. Of the 2.5 million homeless children estimated across the United States in the 2012 to 2013 school year, more than 60,000 lived in Washington state. That young homeless population puts the state at the 40th worst out of 50 states, according to the National Centre for Family Homelessness.
Though the manhole had been seen uncovered at various times throughout the past month, it was unclear if or how long the children had been living in the sewer, if they had run away from home or were using the sewer to play. The Lakehaven Utility District and Federal Way Public Works Department were unable to answer calls for comment from The Washington Post; the Federal Way Police Department did not have any information publicly available as of late Monday night.
Workers removed the toys, clothes and bed. The children, according to local media reports, have not been seen since.
- The Washington Post | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/83742895/This-could-have-been-life-and-death-Signs-children-lived-in-sewers-near-Seattle | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/7651c29d2970ee9c5cfd893902457bdd3c2dda1965647a958da3bd9217482033.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:51:47 | null | 2016-08-29T22:49:39 | Their symptoms are so different from men's - women often miss these 5 heart attack signs. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2Fwell-good%2Fteach-me%2F83696858%2FHeart-attack-signs-missed-in-women.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/1/c/z/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtwwq.png/1472510979658.jpg | en | null | Heart attack signs missed in women | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Heart attack signs missed in women
123RF/ Andrey Popov A tummy bug, or a sign of a heart attack?
On a family trip to the cinema in August 2012, Claire-Marie Berouche began to feel unwell. At first she assumed it was indigestion from a sandwich she had eaten before the film.
But for the next six days, she was struck by severe nausea and became convinced she had a tummy bug. "The strange thing was I couldn't vomit - I felt so sick and uncomfortable, with waves of this clammy, horrible feeling," says Claire-Marie, 49, who lives in west London with her husband, Bouchaib, and son, Yousef, 21.
When Bouchaib finally called an ambulance the following Wednesday, the last thing Claire-Marie expected was paramedics to shout out "code blue" after doing an ECG. She had been having repeated mini-heart attacks since Friday night and was in the midst of life-threatening heart failure.
"I still remember sitting in the ambulance in disbelief," Claire-Marie remembers. "I never smoked, barely drank and I'd had none of the symptoms I thought signalled a heart attack: no crushing pain in my chest."
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123RF Back pain is another sign you could be having a heart attack.
Because women's heart attack symptoms are more subtle than men's, they are more likely to be misdiagnosed. Indeed, 76,000 women die each year from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK - twice as many as breast cancer and a quarter of all female deaths.
Research published in 2012 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 42 per cent of women admitted to accident and emergency for heart attacks had no chest pain at all. Another study from January this year, published in the journal Circulation, found that women having a heart attack were more likely to experience less common symptoms, such as the nausea Claire-Marie had, along with vomiting, shortness of breath and back or jaw pain.
PUTTING EVERYONE ELSE FIRST
Women are also less likely to seek help. Claire-Marie had been struck by repeated episodes of "indigestion" since January that year, which her doctors now think were heart attacks. "It happened when I was running for the bus or climbing the stairs at work - probably about 15 or 16 times," says Claire-Marie, a former retail manager. "But I put it down to having wolfed down my breakfast or lunch, thinking, 'Oh, I must get some Rennie.' I thought about having it checked out, but I didn't want to let people down by taking time off for something that seemed so small."
"Claire-Marie's story highlights the fact that it's not uncommon for both patients and their doctors to mistake women's heart attacks for indigestion," says Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director of the BHF. "It's compounded by the fact that women are most often the carer in the family, and their concerns are often more for their children or elderly parents, so they ignore symptoms or put them down to something else."
Swedish researchers found women who survived heart attacks reported delaying going to hospital or seeking help from their doctors, often neglecting their symptoms because of a need to maintain social responsibilities.
Once at accident and emergency, Claire-Marie's doctors, who weren't sure she would make it through the night, admitted her immediately for life-saving surgery in which a "stent" - a small, self-expanding metal tube - was placed in her right coronary artery to restore the blood supply to the heart. Three months later, she was admitted for open-heart surgery.
Claire-Marie had been active, but today she can no longer work and gets breathless and exhausted after standing up and cooking a meal.
"I can't walk out on my own," she says. "I rely on a mobility scooter. I can't climb a flight of stairs, I need a stairlift. I get so angry with myself for not picking up the signs sooner."
Despite being fit, a non-smoker and only a light drinker, Claire-Marie has type 1 diabetes, which increased her risk of developing a heart attack at such a young age (women typically experience heart problems in their fifties and sixties, 10 years later than men do).
WHY EARLY DIAGNOSIS COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING
If you get symptoms such as indigestion out of the blue, especially if this is accompanied by pressure or pain in the chest, neck and arms, breathlessness, nausea, sweating and pallor, it's reasonable to call 999, says Dr Knapton. "No one will criticise you for misusing the health service because the sooner you get treatment, the less damage to the heart muscle there will be. This is crucial."
Diagnosis is straightforward and involves an electrocardiogram, which is painless, and a blood test to measure levels of troponin, a protein that can indicate damage to the heart muscle, the most common cause of which is heart attack.
A study published in the British Medical Journal and funded by the British Heart Foundation found a newer, high-sensitivity troponin blood test could be a vital tool in diagnosing heart attacks in women. The research looked at 1,000 men and women admitted to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh with chest pain, and found the more sensitive test doubled the diagnoses of heart attack in the female patients.
"This suggests women have a lower threshold of troponin levels for diagnosis of heart attack and that if we keep using the same threshold as used in men, we will keep missing some heart attacks in women," says Dr Knapton.
Researchers are now preparing to carry out a larger clinical trial of 26,000 women to confirm their findings.
A GENE FOR HEART DISEASE?
Other research is set to change things even further. Academics at University College London last year published a paper in which they discovered that a particular version of a gene called BCAR1 could increase a woman's risk of heart disease.
They found those with the high-risk version of BCAR1 had a 6.1 per cent increased risk of heart attack or stroke compared with those with the low-risk version, at 2.5 per cent risk.
Men do not seem to be affected by the gene in the same way. If the link is confirmed, gene testing could potentially be used to identify those women at higher risk and target lifestyle advice towards them, says Dr Knapton. "It also means that if we understand the mechanisms by which genes affect the heart, we might be able to develop targets for drugs in the future to combat this."
WOMEN AND HEART ATTACK: DON'T MISS THE SIGNS
If you're experiencing any of these symptoms for the first time, especially if you're over 40, seek help urgently, advises Dr Mark Knapton of the British Heart Foundation. Early diagnosis is crucial to prevent irreversible damage to your heart.
- Chest pain or discomfort - the most recognised symptom of a heart attack, though not always present.
- Pain radiating to the arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back. For some people the pain is severe, but for others just uncomfortable.
- A feeling of indigestion or reflux-type pain - this is often ignored in the hope that it will pass.
- Feeling sick, sweaty, breathless or light-headed with associated chest pain or discomfort.
- A general feeling of being unwell or lethargic if accompanied by chest pain or discomfort.
- The Telegraph, London | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/83696858/Heart-attack-signs-missed-in-women | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/cbe457af735ce1a3f34cb092bcca93858b0b293881010dcd38d10872a97d54de.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:51:58 | null | 2016-08-30T10:27:32 | Ireland has been told it must recover NZ$20 billion in illegal tax benefits from Apple. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Fworld%2F83739644%2FApple-must-pay-up-to-NZ-20-billion-in-back-taxes.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/b/p/b/i/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dutx8.png/1472553056543.jpg | en | null | Apple must pay up to NZ$20 billion in back taxes | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Apple must pay up to NZ$20 billion in back taxes
REUTERS Ireland has been told it must recover NZ$20 billion in illegal tax benefits from Apple.
The European Union says Ireland has given illegal tax benefits worth up to 13 billion euros (NZ$20.08bn) to Apple and must now recover the unpaid back taxes from the US technology company, plus interest.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: "Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies - this is illegal under EU state aid rules."
The announcement was made on Tuesday night, NZ time.
She said a three-year investigation found Ireland granted such lavish tax breaks to Apple over many years that the multinational's effective corporate tax rate on its European profits dropped from 1 per cent in 2003 to a mere 0.0005 per cent in 2014.
The Commission said "Ireland must now recover the unpaid taxes in Ireland from Apple for the years 2003 to 2014 of up to €13 billion, plus interest".
The Irish government denied granting favourable fiscal treatment to the maker of the iPhone and other consumer electronics products, computer software and online services. "Ireland's position remains that the full amount of tax was paid in this case and no state aid was provided," the Irish statement said. "Ireland does not do deals with taxpayers."
The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, said he would seek approval from the Irish Cabinet to appeal the EU Commission's ruling to European courts.
"It is important that we send a strong message that Ireland remains an attractive and stable location of choice for long-term substantive investment," Noonan said. "Apple has been in Ireland since the 1980s and employs thousands of people in Cork."
- AP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/83739644/Apple-must-pay-up-to-NZ-20-billion-in-back-taxes | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/470b9baea8c2f7ffa98c3860d66490730ea98966dea77ed8282a084c5980510b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T22:50:51 | null | 2016-08-27T17:00:00 | He doesn't regret missing 4 years' capital gains by not buying a house. And he's an economist. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Fmoney%2F83488358%2FShould-you-buy-a-house-to-live-in-or-rent-and-invest-the-savings.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/a/9/f/v/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dpg12.png/1472333269370.jpg | en | null | Should you buy a house to live in, or rent and invest the savings? | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Should you buy a house to live in, or rent and invest the savings?
SUPPLIED Shamubeel Eaqub is happy with his decision to rent, but can understand why some people want to own their homes.
If you live in one of New Zealand's biggest cities, you've probably had this conversation with your friends.
Should you buy a house to live in - probably further from the city centre than you are currently living, and pay more for the privilege of owning the roof over your head?
Or should you continue to rent and try to save the difference between what you pay and what mortgage payments might be, so that you're still provided for in retirement?
RODNEY DICKENS The proportion of income required to service a mortgage compared to the cost of renting.
The best option depends a lot on your own attitudes to money, ability to save and the sort of conditions you are happy to live in.
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Economist Shamubeel Eaqub is one of the country's most outspoken proponents of lifelong renting. He said it did not make sense to buy a house from a purely financial perspective.
123rf It's usually cheaper to rent than buy - but does it leave you better off in the long run?
In the biggest centres, it is significantly cheaper to rent a house than it is to buy one.
Barfoot and Thompson data shows the Auckland average for a three-bedroom rented property on its books is $515 a week.
That compares to an average sale price for the agency of $874,623, which would work out at $867 a week on current interest rates, over 30 years with a 20 per cent deposit.
What's it like to be a renter? Share your stories, photos and videos.
In the central suburbs the difference is more stark - in Parnell the median rent is $650 a week, compared to a purchase price of $1.3 million, or $1238 a week.
Wellington prices have moved 13.7 per cent over the past year according to the Real Estate Institute, compared to rents that had only increased 5 per cent, by Trade Me rental data. In Kelburn, the median rent is $450 compared to a median price of $740,500 - or $770 a week.
Nationwide, rents rose just 4.8 per cent over the past year, compared to prices which are up 8.6 per cent.
"Can you invest that money better elsewhere," Eaqub said. "It comes down to your personal preferences. How much debt you want to have especially for an overvalued asset."
Eaqub has been saying he would not buy an Auckland house since he moved to the city four years ago.
But in that time, prices have risen 52 per cent. Eaqub said he did not regret missing out on those capital gains. "The share market has doubled over the last four years. I like to invest in things that create jobs and prosperity, not just a house."
But he said he could understand why some people wanted to own their homes, especially if they had children and did not want to be faced with the prospect of moving frequently.
Analyst Rodney Dickens said Eaqub was taking too short-term a focus.
"From a lifestyle perspective the issue is very different."
He said people who kept renting would probably end up spending more on consumer items than those who had a mortgage, which would leave them with less in savings when they needed to cover their housing costs in retirement.
They would also find their rent payments increased over time.
"Option two: buy now and pay more upfront in total accommodation cost than renting, but you have fixed your debt level and over time you will pay it off while on average property prices will go up and further add to your equity; then after about 20 years you will have paid off you mortgage and it will be all equity and your outgoing on housing will fall dramatically," he said.
"When you look at the issue from a life-cycle perspective, the only sensible option is to buy, although this can be complicated by divorces and so on along the way.
"Maybe house prices fall at some stage and people who opt to rent now will be able to buy later at better prices, but I don't think the average economists let alone the average Kiwi will be able to [time] things so nicely."
Dickens does regular analysis of the interest cost of paying an average mortgage, compared to the cost of rent, as a percentage of average income.
He has found that generally buying has been cheaper - but that does not take into account the added costs that come with owning a house, such as maintenance, rates and insurance.
Adviser Liz Koh agreed opting to rent for the financial benefits would only work in some situations.
"If you are in a situation where you have very low rent due to exceptional circumstances, it can be a good idea to take advantage of this in the short term to save up a bigger deposit for a first home. In the long term, it is nearly always cheaper to own."
"So while, in the short term, rents may be cheaper than mortgage payments, in the long term rents will increase while mortgage payments will decrease with the effects of inflation."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/83488358/Should-you-buy-a-house-to-live-in-or-rent-and-invest-the-savings | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/1dcd81669f533523ac294e833ddbd8c8e0e6f7b6cd17c8fc168178cacdcc38d1.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:51 | null | 2016-08-30T01:32:03 | Unable to keep pace with technology, this rural cinema was stuck playing old movies. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fentertainment%2Ffilm%2F83621792%2FCentury-old-cinema-decked-out-with-latest-technology.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/s/5/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsazk.png/1472521788634.jpg | en | null | Century-old cinema decked out with latest technology | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Century-old cinema decked out with latest technology
David Unwin/ Stuff Majestic Cinema in Taihape is upgrading its technology to digital which will allow it to show the latest movies.
A historic provincial cinema has had its lifeline to Hollywood reconnected.
While many boutique and smalltown cinemas have struggled to keep the curtain raised, The Majestic Theatre in Taihape is set to roll out the red carpet for the latest Hollywood blockbusters after raising $80,000 to upgrade to a digitised projection system.
The cinema, which is open three days a week, ran out of new movies to screen in 2014, unable to keep pace with the industry's progression from film projectors to digital systems. It was reduced to playing DVDs.
David Unwin/Fairfax NZ The Majestic Theatre in Taihape is to get a $80,000 to upgrade to a digitised projection system. Left, manager Simone Simpson and Gail Larsen, chairwoman of the theatre's management committee.
The money took two years to raise, with the cinema applying for grants and trying several novel fundraising ideas, such as asking farmers to donate the proceeds from lamb and ewe sales.
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The Majestic Theatre manager Simone Simpson said a digital projector had now been bought and was on site, but they were waiting on the sound system to arrive from overseas.
David Unwin/Fairfax NZ Hollywood blockbusters are on their way back to Taihape's Majestic Theatre.
The new system is expected to be up and running by the end of November and screening the summer blockbusters.
"We'll have new speakers, more surround sound and the quality will be better. With the higher resolution the experience is just going to be so much better.
"We can now show all the blockbusters and I imagine it's going to go off very well."
The upgrade is a boost for movie-buffs in the provinces, where cinemas have struggled to remain viable amid changing technology and viewer habits.
The Regent in Pahiatua was saved in 2014 when the Central Energy Trust provided it with an $80,000 grant to upgrade to digital, while its namesake in Dannevirke has been closed since 2012. In the same year Reading shut down its multiplex in Hastings and two cinemas closed in Hamilton.
Simpson said The Majestic still had to secure rights to show films from distribution companies such as Disney and Roadshow Films. Once the theatre had secured those rights they could plan for an opening weekend to debut the new theatre.
"In the past, Taihape people have either had to go to Whanganui or Palmerston North to watch movies and if you're taking a family it soon turns into a daytrip and gets very expensive."
Simpson said the theatre had no plans to increase its prices and would remain $12 for an adult and $10 for a student.
"We want to be affordable and we want people coming through the doors."
It was decked out with new carpet and seats eight years ago, and Simpson said they would like to make further upgrades in the coming years.
"Because we're a heritage building we've got to keep the old look, but there are little elements I think we'll look to modernise in the future."
The cinema, which was almost demolished in 1998 before being rescued by the Taihape Heritage Trust, celebrates its centenary next year.
It is the second cinema to occupy the site after the first one, built in 1912, burnt down in 1916. The current building was opened in 1917 under the name Kings Theatre which was changed to The Majestic in 1929 after a change of ownership.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/83621792/Century-old-cinema-decked-out-with-latest-technology | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/da9401d6afbc9f864e4d32df23c24873458045fb58650a582242705282649e64.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:51:25 | null | 2016-08-29T07:54:39 | Students wielded knives and bits of wood and threw chairs at each other during a major fight in south Auckland. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fauckland%2F83691695%2FStudents-use-knives-and-hurl-chairs-in-south-Auckland-KFC-brawl.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/p/t/4/d/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtsxb.png/1472457279908.jpg | en | null | Students use knives and hurl chairs in south Auckland KFC brawl | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Students use knives and hurl chairs in south Auckland KFC brawl
FAIRFAX NZ Students from two Auckland schools brawled in the KFC on Monday.
A mass brawl between knife-wielding students in south Auckland involved up to 100 people, police said.
The teenagers also used bits of wood and threw chairs at each other during the fight that spilled into KFC on Massey Rd in Mangere East about 4pm Monday.
The group of teens gathered at Walter Massey Park before the brawl carried on up and down Massey Rd and into KFC, witness Roger Fowler said.
*Were you there? Email newstips@stuff.co.nz
Fowler, the Mangere East Community Centre director, said it was an "ugly" scene that looked to have been pre-arranged between students.
A police spokesman confirmed there were knives, chairs and bits of wood involved, although he said no-one was reported to be injured.
Two teens and two adults were arrested, he said.
"We now need to review the CCTV footage to determine why it started and who was involved."
Fowler said it was mostly between students from Southern Cross Campus and some from De La Salle College.
"It was evident something was up and they weren't just walking through they were congregating and standing around," he said.
"They were eyeballing each other. Eventually some pushing and shoving and punching started to take place, directly involving several dozen kids.
"There was a lot of brawling type stuff going on, chasing each other back and forth. Mostly punching and that sort of thing."
Fowler said most of the main aggressors were male teens aged between 16 and 18.
He said it became a spectacle for many of the other students who were filming the fight on their phones.
"It was a large mobile audience. The unfortunate part is all the theatrics and acting up. When there's an audience there's probably a temptation to get a bit carried away."
The brawlers were also "darting in and out among cars" and there were several near misses as they were running along Massey Rd, he said.
"Eventually police arrived. They seemed to go for the ringleaders, the ones that were provoking the disturbances. I saw at least two or three getting arrested.
"Initially it was just one female constable in the car, she called for back up, eventually about eight vehicles turned up including a paddy wagon."
The fight also left frightened diners inside the KFC, with several students carrying on punching each other inside the fast food store.
Southern Cross principal Robin Staples said, when contacted, he had not been alerted to the incident by police.
He said the school would deal with the incident if, and when, approached by police.
"The school takes such incidences of this nature very seriously."
Staples said as far as he was aware there was no animosity between pupils from the two schools.
Fowler said it was a "rare" event for the area, though there used to be a lot of student fights in previous years.
"By and large we haven't seen that sort of behaviour for a few years. By and large these mass incidents have become very rare."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/83691695/Students-use-knives-and-hurl-chairs-in-south-Auckland-KFC-brawl | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/412e9788555d5094345cad02989210c0b3dad89ad9e98965d232c512d05c1385.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:49 | null | 2016-08-30T02:17:12 | Poll shows 4 in 10 get annoyed by women who apply makeup during their morning commute. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2Fbeauty%2F83654170%2F42-per-cent-of-women-say-applying-makeup-on-morning-commute-is-not-OK.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/e/k/f/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dszyy.png/1472523432213.jpg | en | null | 42 per cent of women say applying makeup on morning commute is not OK | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | 42 per cent of women say applying makeup on morning commute is not OK
123rf A surprising number of women say it's 'socially unacceptable' to do your makeup in public.
It has become a common and yet divisive sights of the morning commute - a woman rapt in concentration as she carefully applies her makeup, from foundation to the finishing touches of mascara.
But as her fellow passengers seethe in quiet irritation, wondering why she did not do all this at home, they might take comfort in the knowledge that many commuters find this behaviour off-putting. And it appears that women are even more likely to disapprove of others applying makeup on trains and buses than men.
It is thought socially unacceptable by 42 per cent of women, a survey in the UK by Ipsos MORI found.
While a third of men had no strong feelings either way, 41 per cent disapproved of the practice, with just 22 per cent saying it was no problem.
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"Our advice is that a quick touch-up of mascara or lipstick is acceptable, but best to refrain from more extensive grooming in public," said Lucy Hume, editorial manager at Debrett's, the traditional arbiter of etiquette.
Wielding devices such as eyelash curlers on packed, and often juddery, trains or buses is a different matter altogether, said Hume, adding: "That is probably down to personal judgement, but the health and safety factor, apart from anything else, would be a concern."
Pippa Bailey, senior director of Ipsos Marketing, which commissioned the research as part of a study of attitudes towards grooming and cosmetics, said: "It's fascinating to see how divided we are on the issue of applying makeup in public.
"To think that around four in 10 of your fellow public transport passengers are offended by this, with men and women virtually aligned, with 41 per cent of men and 42 cent women finding it unacceptable."
The poll also found that women are more forgiving than men in attitudes to that other contentious grooming issue - beards. Overall 65 per cent of women said employers had no right to ban beards as part of uniform codes, compared with only 58 per cent of men.
But on one thing there is almost unanimous agreement. Overall 90 per cent of women and almost 80 per cent of men agreed that women are still under greater pressure than men to look well-groomed.
"It's still widely accepted that women are held to higher standards than men and are spending more of their time on personal grooming," said Bailey.
She added that future attitudes to makeup and grooming may start to cross the gender divide, as male makeup becomes more common.
"As traditional gender roles start to become less relevant in modern society, it's interesting to take a look at how this is affecting our attitudes to personal grooming," said Bailey.
"There are signs that younger generations have less rigidly gendered views. Looking to the future, the fact many people say men wearing makeup will be unremarkable could be a sign the gender divide for personal care will start to blur."
- The Telegraph, London | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/beauty/83654170/42-per-cent-of-women-say-applying-makeup-on-morning-commute-is-not-OK | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/5dc0b304e0bb9b216c46657fe74fba1be9b1305b529ac84ab5550cd1d6386009.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T04:51:42 | null | 2016-08-29T04:38:24 | One man is facing up to 20 counts of burglary. He is one of 218 offenders arrested in the Waikato over the past three months. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fcrime%2F83249372%2FWaikato-police-operation-nets-218-burglars-in-three-months.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/o/n/8/9/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dkbmk.png/1472445505155.jpg | en | null | Waikato police operation nets 218 burglars in three months | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Waikato police operation nets 218 burglars in three months
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/Stuff.co.nz Peter Gilbert was a recent burglary victim which successfully received all of his items back from police.
Burglary rates across the Waikato have risen by more than a thousand offences in the last year, sparking a major crackdown by police.
And it's working - Waikato burglary numbers are dropping as a consequence.
In the three months since the operation launched in May, more than 200 thieves have been arrested.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/FAIRFAX NZ Peter Gilbert believes the thieves staked out his home in Tamahere before coming down a long driveway and loading his goods into a car.
And some offenders - as young as 12 - are prolific, racking up more than a dozen charges each.
Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Ambler, who's head of Hamilton police's Tactical Crime Unit, said about 150 burglaries a week are being committed across the Waikato police district, which stretches from the tip of the Coromandel to the King County.
About 50 of those are daytime burglaries of people's homes.
"Dishonesty is obviously a big problem - the scope of what we are dealing with is large," Ambler said.
"When we started this operation, there were about 160 offences a week. We have driven it down to 115 offences."
Police figures released by Statistics NZ show an 18 per cent increase in burglaries in the region in the last two years - up from 6372 offences in 2015 to 7494 burglary reports in the year to June 2016. That's more than 20 thefts a day.
Of the 218 arrested since May, most were prolific offenders, Ambler said.
"These guys tend to be on active charges - under court conditions and still committing crimes."
One 15 year old was on 24-hour curfew when he allegedly committed a spate of ram raids on commercial properties targeting cigarettes.
A 33-year-old man arrested in Hamilton East is facing eight counts of burglary, which could increase to as many as 20 as police sift through a mound of property stolen in the Hillcrest and Hamilton East area.
"It's a single person, operating alone, and there is no suggestion he is working with anyone else - but clearly offending at a horrific rate."
In Waihi, a man is facing 14 charges after police searched a Galbraith Street home and found a large amount of drugs and drug utensils.
Under the new reporting tool, burglaries included everything from home break-ins and car thefts to a goat being shoved through the window of a Coromandel home.
Ambler was unable to pinpoint a particular trigger for the rise, but said contributors are a growing population and better roads that aid "cross border offending", where thieves travel both in and out of other districts to commit crimes.
Copycat burglars are also using YouTube to gain tips on how to commit ram raids, he said.
"People who are dishonest will commit crime depending on the opportunity.
"They are looking to make some money, find something to sell. And if the opportunity is in front of them, they will take it."
"If you leave your window open in your house where there are offenders living [in the area], they will break into your house."
Some burglars are more sinister, targeting homes with aluminium joinery, where they can pop out panes of glass. Some cut power to houses to burgle them.
"Knocking on the door, asking for someone who lives there, is common. That's not why they are knocking on your door, they are there to see if someone is home."
Preventing burglary is everyone's responsibility, he said, and people need to remove that opportunity.
"Don't wait until you have been burgled to increase your security. Put stickers on your house, make sure alarms are on, gates are shut, windows are closed and doors are locked."
"CCTV footage is invaluable and affordable."
Recording serial numbers of household items helps ensure police can return property if it's recovered.
BRAZEN BURGLARS BUSTED
A lone hair tie found trampled among gravel outside a Hamilton home was a key piece in a jigsaw that led police to a prolific burglar.
Help from Hamilton's Cash Converters also meant almost $3000 worth of Peter Gilbert's property stolen in a burglary of his Tamahere home was returned to him within 48 hours.
Enough evidence meant police could charge a man in his 20s with the theft, along with his mother for selling her son's stolen loot.
Gilbert is one of dozens of victims whose homes are cleaned out by burglars in Hamilton each week.
The St Paul's Collegiate director of high performance sport remembers clearly thinking something was amiss when he drove into the driveway he shares with a neighbour after a day at work.
The gate that keeps he and his partner's miniature schnauzer inside was slightly ajar.
"I thought that was strange. The first thing I wanted to do was check the dog was still there. Thankfully, he was still there, but the potential for the little schnauzer to go missing was pretty big."
Next he found the internal door from the garage to a storage room was open.
"I went inside and found all the gear had gone missing."
Golf clubs - a gift from his son for Christmas - were gone, as were $3000 worth of tools, chainsaws and other goods.
Neighbours who had CCTV cameras had recorded a grey sedan leaving the shared driveway about midday.
That night, Gilbert came across a girl's hair tie lying on the drive.
"That was unusual, as we don't have a little one. Police were able to identify that it belonged to the family, and must have fallen out of the car while they were getting stuff in or out."
At the same time, a pair of golf clubs matching Gilbert's were taken to Cash Converters in Hamilton, and staff alerted police.
The following day, the burglars tried to pawn the rest of Gilbert's goods.
"Basically, within 48 hours I had everything back. Police even personally brought the stuff around. It was just magic."
It was clear the burglars had cased the home, which is down a long driveway on a dead end street, Gilbert said.
Scene examination showed they had tried to gain access to the house itself, but were caught out by locked gates and instead went for the easy-access shed.
He said is was incredible not one spotted the brazen attempt.
Gilbert said the theft left them feeling violated.
"Insurance could have covered it, but the fact there are people on your property, uninvited, who attempt to get into the house, that hurts."
He is contemplating a restorative justice session.
"If this was a first time for this individual or group, then I would be involved. But recidivist offenders? I wasn't interested."
Gilbert recommends installing CCTV cameras and locking internal doors between homes, garages and internal storage rooms.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83249372/Waikato-police-operation-nets-218-burglars-in-three-months | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/ad209f94a662e002e3da8c6387fa38ce0093d2ae3818fe04b208ba2b4a63f585.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:18 | null | 2016-08-29T06:49:34 | Kaye Gates' engagement ring turns up - 28 years after it was stolen. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2F83677477%2FGreytown-woman-rediscovers-long-lost-engagement-ring.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/o/b/n/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dthyd.png/1472453374526.jpg | en | null | Greytown woman rediscovers long-lost engagement ring | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Greytown woman rediscovers long-lost engagement ring
PIERS FULLER/Stuff.co.nz Greytown woman Kaye Gates finds her stolen engagement ring after 28 years.
Kaye Gates remembers the last time she saw her engagement ring.
In early 1988, she wandered down to her local jewellers in Lower Hutt, carrying her beloved ring after she'd bent it out of place during a particularly robust day landscaping her garden.
She thought she'd get it back in a few days, maybe a week. She couldn't have imagined she wouldn't see it for another 28 years.
PIERS FULLER/ FAIRFAX NZ Kaye Gates' engagement ring, with the single stone, was stolen 28 years ago.
Soon after she handed it in, the jewellers' workshop was burgled and the ring disappeared.
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She kept an eye out through the years, occasionally strolling through antique and secondhand shops on the off chance it would reappear, but without much hope.
PIERS FULLER/ FAIRFAX NZ Kaye Gates with a photo of her wedding to husband in 1967.
Last week, everything changed. "I was trawling through Trade Me for no real reason," she said. "I was looking around and then I decided to take a look at the jewellery.
"I scrolled down and one jumped out that was exactly like mine. I was absolutely gobsmacked."
She wasn't completely sure if it was hers – it had been 28 years since she'd last laid eyes on it, after all – but she was confident enough to drop down $360 and buy it on the spot.
On Monday morning it turned up. Her daughter rushed out to meet the courier and hurriedly carried a small cardboard box inside. Mother and daughter opened it together, crossing their fingers that it was the right one.
It was.
The ring's return after so many years brought tears and a flood of recollections. Gates, who married husband John in Invercargill in 1967, still remembers the first time he put it on her finger.
"When we got it, my husband and I hopped in a taxi to go and show it to my grandmother," she said. "He put it on my finger in that taxi for the very first time. The driver was so touched he refused to let us pay him."
Through the years they've remained together, their time marked by both joy and sadness. The ring was stolen just nine months after their daughter was killed in a car crash.
John is not well these days, suffering from Alzheimer's and living in a care home down the road from his wife.
The ring's return has brought back memories from a different time. "It feels," Kaye said, "like bringing part of him back to me."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/83677477/Greytown-woman-rediscovers-long-lost-engagement-ring | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/192c94894fc680da99bed75f239ac0f3ca7c536604b8638d900d140b95503edc.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:51:23 | null | 2016-08-29T13:38:21 | Police investigate whether building was set alight by terrorists or organised crime group. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Feurope%2F83694871%2FExplosions-heard-in-attack-on-Belgium-crime-laboratory.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/v/e/3/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtvdj.png/1472477901458.jpg | en | null | Explosions heard in attack on Belgium crime laboratory | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Explosions heard in attack on Belgium crime laboratory
AFP A explosion "of criminal origin" at Belgium's national criminology institute in Brussels caused a fire and major damage but no casualties, according to officials.
Belgium's criminal forensics laboratory was set alight in the early hours of Monday in an attack that prosecutors said was more likely linked to organised crime than terrorism.
Five people were detained near the National Institute of Criminology in Brussels over the fire which caused an explosion but no casualties but were later released.
"It was arson, deliberate arson, at the laboratory of the federal police," prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said. "With a fire you get explosions, but it's not that explosives were thrown inside or installed."
ERIC VIDAL/REUTERS A partially-destroyed part of the Belgium's National Institute of Criminology.
When asked whether the attack could be terrorism she said: "It is a path we are looking down. But certainly not the first one we are thinking about."
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ERIC VIDAL/REUTERS Police officers secure a road near the Belgium's National Institute of Criminology.
"We are thinking more of deliberate arson by organised crime. We have no indications that it was terrorism."
Belgium has been on high alert since Islamist attacks over the past year.
Several attackers entered the site of the institute by car around 2 a.m. and went into the wing of the building where the laboratories are located, prosecutors said.
ERIC VIDAL/REUTERS Police were yet to determine the motive behind the attack.
More details about how the fire was started were not yet known, as investigators needed to wait until the building was declared safe to enter.
The institute is linked to the Belgian ministry of justice and carries out forensic investigations in criminal cases, its director said. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/83694871/Explosions-heard-in-attack-on-Belgium-crime-laboratory | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c77a4fc038be0156ca65bb50ffecc74c5e8634a6950ab51ae7915f8c1d1eca1c.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T10:50:34 | null | 2016-08-27T09:15:43 | Three of the South Island's luckiest punters are splitting tonight's million dollar first division Lotto draw. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83635367%2FSouth-Island-lucky-in-Lotto-as-three-winners-split-win.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/a/p/0/i/v/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dslgn.png/1472289347397.jpg | en | null | South Island lucky in Lotto as three winners split win | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | South Island lucky in Lotto as three winners split win
SUPPLIED Saturday night's three Lotto winners are splitting $1 million.
Three of the South Island's luckiest punters are splitting tonight's million dollar first division Lotto draw.
Each is in for a $333,333 boost to the bank balance.
The winning tickets were sold at Countdown Rangiora East in Rangiora and through MyLotto from two players in Dunedin and Invercargill.
Powerball was not struck this evening and has rolled over to Wednesday night, with a $6m jackpot up for grabs.
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Strike Four also rolled over tonight and will be $300,000 on Wednesday.
Last week, a Dunedin winner scooped a $13.3m jackpot in the Powerball. The ticket was bought as
The winning ticket was sold at South Dunedin Night N Day and is made up of $13 million from Powerball First Division and $333,333 from Lotto First Division.
Anyone who bought their ticket for Saturday's draw from Countdown Rangiora East should write their name on the back of the ticket and check it immediately at any Lotto outlet, online at MyLotto.co.nz or through the Lotto NZ ticket-checker app.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83635367/South-Island-lucky-in-Lotto-as-three-winners-split-win | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/e8a672674200895f9a448baecdfc4c23cb46fdb4e8ed2f606ab5bd3b8cea58f1.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T22:50:54 | null | 2016-08-27T22:32:28 | He's spent three decades on the run. Police say he may be living as a woman. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2F83638149%2FHes-spent-three-decades-on-the-run-Police-say-he-may-be-living-as-a-woman.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/n/q/9/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsnlx.png/1472337148977.jpg | en | null | He's spent three decades on the run. Police say he may be living as a woman | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | He's spent three decades on the run. Police say he may be living as a woman
Twitter Authorities described Gentry as 5-feet 7-inches, and around 154 pounds.
The last time anybody heard from John Kelly Gentry Jr. was in a postcard from Southern California.
It was 1983 and the 30-year-old Michigan man had recently disappeared after his 25-year-old girlfriend, Barbara Gerber, was discovered stabbed to death at her home in Summerfield Township, Michigan, according to Reuters.
Days later, police discovered the bludgeoned body of William Veith, an Ohio man who investigators believe was also in a relationship with Gentry, Reuters reported.
Investigators eventually decided that Gentry was responsible for both killings. He has eluded police for more than three decades and now investigators believe they know, in part, how he avoided detection so successfully.
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"The US Marshals Service received information in the last five years that Gentry was possibly living in California as a woman, that dresses as a woman," Monroe County, Michigan, Sheriff's Detective Jeff Smith said.
Smith told the Los Angeles Times that investigators suspect Gentry began using his middle name and may have been a regular in West Hollywood at one point.
But he told Reuters there's another possible reason that would explain why Gentry's fingerprints and DNA - which remain in an FBI database - have never been flagged by authorities: He's dead.
"If he's alive he's obviously living somewhat of a law-abiding life, because otherwise the prints should come back a match," Smith said.
Authorities described Gentry as 5-feet 7-inches, and around 154 pounds, according to the Times. He is white, has brown eyes and hair, with a circular burn scar on his left elbow and the letters "LCI" burned into his upper part of the same arm, the paper reported.
John Kelly Gentry, Jr., fugitive 1983 murder suspect, may be living as a woman in Los Angeles, report says https://t.co/578nTdz16O — Cyborg Gens v23∞ (@comgenKDT) August 26, 2016
"Though a motive has not been officially determined, authorities speculate that Gerber and Veith learned of each other. In April 1983, Gerber was sexually assaulted, stabbed and her throat was slit. Police believe Gentry turned on her gas stove and left a burning candle nearby in hopes it would cause an explosion."
That same car later turned up in Toledo, Ohio, the same city where Veith's body was discovered in the basement of his rare coin shop, Reuters reported. His car was also missing, but was later located in South Bend, Ind.
A nationwide arrest warrant issued in 1988 for Gentry in Gerber's murder remains active, but investigators told the Times they have little to work with.
"We've tried numerous things. We've got nothing substantial to go on," Smith said.
- The Washington Post | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/83638149/Hes-spent-three-decades-on-the-run-Police-say-he-may-be-living-as-a-woman | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c7a8bbee75d53b50962c23cbfc3a695fb4a89a0fc1fe0ce12212681115ebd2a7.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T18:50:29 | null | 2016-08-27T17:00:00 | Two brothers have met violent deaths within six months, leaving a family desperate for answers. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fcrime%2F83455059%2FFamily-of-murdered-gang-member-asks-why-it-took-so-long-for-homicide-inquiry-to-be-launched.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/r/k/3/c/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1doqc3.png/1472254672827.jpg | en | null | Family of murdered gang member asks why it took so long for homicide inquiry to be launched | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Family of murdered gang member asks why it took so long for homicide inquiry to be launched
PETER MEECHAM / FAIRFAX NZ Family members hoping for closure, from left: Nadia McFall, Sarah Moore, Marama Moore, Marco Solomon and Billy Moore. The family are holding out hope of seeing their brother and son Kimble Moore alive. He disappeared in Northland in March this year.
Billy Moore says the best thing about having a large family is the support they give one another in times of need.
It's that family unity that the 82-year-old father of six is clinging to after the violent deaths of two of his sons within six months of one another.
"What's the chances of that? The two brothers? They were most cruelest deaths you could think of," he says.
SUPPLIED Kimble Moore, 48, who disappeared from Taipa, Northland, in March. Police are investigating the Tribesman gang member's vanishing. His family suspect foul play. First use Sunday Star-Times, August 28.
He's trying to stay strong for his three daughters, who have gathered at his Mangere home on a rainy Wednesday to pore over photos of their sons and brothers Kimble and Gary Moore.
READ MORE:
* Man appears in court charged with murder
* More charges likely after 'altercation' in Otara leaves man dead
* Homicide investigation launched in Northland
SUPPLIED Gary Moore, whose body was found at his Otara home on July 31. A man has been charged with his murder.
There's lots of laughter as they remember the good times. There's tears too.
Kimble, 48, was last seen in Taipa, east of Kaitaia, on March 18 in the company of fellow Tribesmen Rawden Yates.
Yates went on the run but was later arrested on outstanding matters.
SUPPLIED Kimble Moore, 48, who disappeared from Taipa, Northland, in March. Police are investigating the Tribesman gang member's vanishing. His family suspect foul play. First use Sunday Star-Times, August 28.
Five months after Kimble's disappearance, police on Thursday announced they had launched a murder inquiry and are seeking information from the public.
The news is bittersweet for Moore's extended family, who have spent months combing Northland looking for their brother.
It was during their search that they got news that their brother Gary Moore had died too.
Gary Moore's body was found by his partner at his Otara home on July 31.
The 57-year-old's colleague Teina Taunga, 29, has been charged with his murder and bailed without plea to reappear in the High Court in September.
Gary's death shattered the family, but at least they have a body to bury, they say.
Gary, who was also close to Kimble, died not knowing what happened to his brother.
Moore's sisters fear they will die waiting for information too.
Despite Kimble's gang connections they say he was a role model to young men, and a caring son and brother.
The former butcher was the kind of man who'd buy roses from roadside stalls to give to each of his sisters, they say.
He moved to Northland years ago and was on a waiting list for a triple bypass when he vanished.
"He was our everything," Marama Moore says.
"He looked after us, he protected us. If there was anything we needed he'd offer to help us."
The family have mixed feelings about the police investigation, which they say wasn't quick enough.
Although they say they have been treated well by Northland detectives, news of the up-scaling of the inquiry never reached them and they read about the murder investigation in the news.
"He was a gang member, but he was our eldest brother and we just want to know if it was because he was a gang member, is that why things haven't happened so fast? Or is it because it's a big investigation? We don't know," Marama says.
"It is good news (about the inquiry) but it was always a homicide to us," she says.
The family is asking Northland residents to check their boundaries for any sightings of Kimble, and to pass any information to the police.
"If you know something, it's easy to write it on a piece of paper and send it in," sister Nadia McFall says.
"Make a discrete phone call, so we can bury our brother."
Police declined to answer any questions about the case.
* Anybody with information should contact Kaitaia Police Station on 09 408 6500.
- Sunday Star Times | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83455059/Family-of-murdered-gang-member-asks-why-it-took-so-long-for-homicide-inquiry-to-be-launched | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/cc2dec3ce39fa1bbf38f0e74bad2acc1d574273cbfe0b0fc8f97b241c11c2457.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:35 | null | 2016-08-30T02:48:18 | Sarah Higgins had a big political future ahead of her, making the 24-year-old's death all the more shocking. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fpolitics%2F83715146%2FShock-at-death-of-Sarah-Higgins-the-young-Auckland-politician.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/b/0/0/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dub0q.png/1472525298542.jpg | en | null | Shock at death of Sarah Higgins, the young Auckland politician | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Shock at death of Sarah Higgins, the young Auckland politician
SUPPLIED Local board member Sarah Higgins died suddenly over the weekend.
One of New Zealand's youngest ever female politicians has died suddenly, shocking those who knew her.
Sarah Higgins, a real estate agent for Barfoot & Thompson and member of the Franklin Local Board, died on the weekend.
Higgins was just 22 when she won her seat on the Pukekohe subdivision of the Board in 2013.
SUPPLIED/FACEBOOK Her death left the local board absolutely devastated.
At the time she said she'd fallen in love with the Pukekohe community and wanted the chance to use her passion for politics.
"I think it is important to know about what is going on in the community as best as you can," she said.
However, Higgins was not planning on standing again for the board in this October local body elections.
Thinking of Sarah Higgins family & friends. So sad to see a young fellow local board member with so much potential leave the world this way. — Richard Hills (@richardhills777) August 29, 2016 Really sad to learn of the death of Sarah Higgins. An amazing woman with a huge future. RIP. — Stewart Sowman-Lund (@StewartLundNZ) August 30, 2016
Board member Murray Kay said her death was a "tragic loss and waste of life".
"She had a lot to offer. I'm at a loss for words and the sadness - it's a whole heap of emotion."
He said she was a pleasure to work with and represented the new face of Franklin.
SUPPLIED/FACEBOOK Higgins was New Zealand's youngest ever female politician.
"Most people think Council matters were for the grey haired, but Higgins worked to represent the younger demographic.
"I think she was trying to make her way in the world as a young person."
Andre Baker, board chairman, said Higgins was never afraid to challenge, speak her mind or take a contrary view.
SUPPLIED/FACEBOOK Higgins was just 22 when she won her seat on the Pukekohe subdivision of the Board in 2013.
"But her most endearing qualities for me were her smile and sense of humour, her friendly personality and her unabashed desire to be recognised as a good rural person
"We are a tight team as a Board and we will sincerely miss her and are incredibly saddened by her loss and what that means to those who were even closer to her than we are."
Awaroa ki Tuakau Ward councillor Jacqui Church said she was deeply saddened by the news.
"As politicians, we all share the common goal of advocating for our areas to the best of our abilities.
SUPPLIED Sarah Higgins, fourth from the left, with her local board members.
"Sarah leaves a huge gap in the Franklin Board and our Franklin communities and will be deeply missed. I pass on our family's sincere and heartfelt sympathies to Sarah's family for their loss."
Politicians from further afield also expressed their sadness.
Andrew Bayly, MP for Hunua, said that Higgins was instrumental in the work that led to him filing a private member's bill on methamphetamine testing in residential properties.
"It's something Sarah led," he said.
"I've really enjoyed working with her, I'm going to miss her immensely. She made contributions to the whole community and I'm really going to miss her."
He understood her funeral would probably held up in Northland later this week.
North Shore councillor Richard Hills posted a tribute to the young politician on his Facebook page.
"It's truly tragic to see a fellow young politician die like this, the times that I had spoke with her she was so positive and confident and seemed to have a big future ahead of her.
"I am so gutted that our little country is so sad and so many young people feel so helpless.
"Life is tough and Politics can be a busy, lonely and intense job at times and we often deal with angry abusive people on our own.
"Let's talk, my inbox, phone, door and hugs are always open. Glad to have so many who do the same and look out for me too."
Meanwhile friends have taken to her Facebook pages to express their grief.
"Such sad news. You will be missed by so many people from all parts of your life. Rest peacefully gorgeous girl," one wrote.
WHERE TO GET HELP
Lifeline (open 24/7) - 0800 543 354
Depression Helpline (open 24/7) - 0800 111 757
Healthline (open 24/7) - 0800 611 116
Samaritans (open 24/7) - 0800 726 666
Suicide Crisis Helpline (open 24/7) - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.
Youthline (open 24/7) - 0800 376 633. You can also text 234 for free between 8am and midnight, or email talk@youthline.co.nz
0800 WHATSUP children's helpline - phone 0800 9428 787 between 1pm and 10pm on weekdays and from 3pm to 10pm on weekends. Online chat is available from 7pm to 10pm every day at www.whatsup.co.nz.
Kidsline (open 24/7) - 0800 543 754. This service is for children aged 5 to 18. Those who ring between 4pm and 9pm on weekdays will speak to a Kidsline buddy. These are specially trained teenage telephone counsellors.
Your local Rural Support Trust - 0800 787 254 (0800 RURAL HELP)
Alcohol Drug Helpline (open 24/7) - 0800 787 797. You can also text 8691 for free.
For further information, contact the Mental Health Foundation's free Resource and Information Service (09 623 4812).
* An earlier headline on this story incorrectly said Higgins was 22. She was 24.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83715146/Shock-at-death-of-Sarah-Higgins-the-young-Auckland-politician | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/5c81d1be2f73ce019474a18fa5d65461db480becde9cbc5f931fdcba1e35941c.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T00:50:59 | null | 2016-08-28T00:29:27 | The truck is between Taupo and Turangi. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83640371%2FTruck-burns-between-Taupo-and-Turangi.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/etc/designs/ffx/nz/stuff/social-media-logos/stuff-180x180.jpg | en | null | Truck burns between Taupo and Turangi | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Truck burns between Taupo and Turangi
A burning truck closed a lane of State Highway 1, between Taupo and Turangi.
Police were told about the burning truck - which was just south of Motuoapa - soon before 11am on Sunday, a police spokeswoman said.
Police and firefighters were at the scene and one lane of the highway was shut for a period, she said.
The highway is expected be down to one lane until about 2.30pm, while the vehicle is removed and the road cleaned up.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83640371/Truck-burns-between-Taupo-and-Turangi | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/00c8ad314c78f5a00e02f1383684fc76e999264e6ce3e0021e7bd620b717f6f9.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:10:20 | null | null | You can donate your holiday stop newspapers to our Good Turns programme. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsunday-star-times%2F15435124%2FDonate-your-papers-to-Good-Turns.json | en | null | Donate your papers to Good Turns | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Donate your papers to Good Turns
You can donate your holiday stop newspapers to our Good Turns programme.
Newspapers generously donated through the Good Turns programme are provided to local schools and community organisations who are doing their own good turns in your community. Your newspapers will end up in the hands of local pupils, patrons or patients.
To put your paper on hold and donate your papers to Tools for Schools:
Phone: 0800 339 000
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Call centre hours are Monday to Friday 6.30am - 6.00pm, Saturday 7am - midday. We require a minimum of 24 hours notice prior to temporary stop commencing.
Are you a school or community organisation that would benefit from receiving newspapers via our Good Turns programme? Click here to register your interest. | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/15435124/Donate-your-papers-to-Good-Turns | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c6f068d30c69208da3bd8a52c6b84c662f36cfb52f5571d140589b8db22b76a0.json | |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:33 | null | 2016-08-30T23:43:42 | He turned up at the office on Sunday. Finding no-one there, Dubai's ruler got angry. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Fworld%2F83749320%2FDubais-ruler-orders-management-shake-up-after-absences.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/v/5/t/l/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dv1e0.png/1472603894825.jpg | en | null | Dubai's ruler orders management shake-up after absences | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Dubai's ruler orders management shake-up after absences
khalifasaeed / instagram Dubai's ruler has ordered a shake-up of the city state's management, including the retirement of nine senior officials, a day after he conducted a surprise spot check of government offices and found a significant number of employees absent.
Dubai's ruler has ordered a shake-up of the city state's management, including the retirement of nine senior officials, a day after he conducted a surprise spot check of government offices and found a significant number of employees absent.
On Sunday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum's government posted online a video of him making an unannounced visit to a government office and finding it empty, an exercise which a Dubai media official said was intended to "send a message".
Governments around the Gulf are trying to make their bureaucracies more efficient as low oil prices pressure state finances, and the move by Sheikh Mohammed is one of the most dramatic efforts in that direction so far.
REUTERS On Sunday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum's government posted online a video of him making an unannounced visit to a government office and finding it empty.
He ordered the retirement on Monday of nine members of Dubai Municipality's executive management, including directors and assistant director-generals in departments such as legal affairs and planning, the United Arab Emirates' state news agency WAM reported.
On Monday, Sheikh Mohammed thanked the nine retired officials for their service but said he wanted to allow a new generation of young leaders to take control and provide top-quality services to the public, WAM reported.
The working week in Dubai is generally Sunday to Thursday.
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/83749320/Dubais-ruler-orders-management-shake-up-after-absences | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/508beeda91b8e131092953514e100cda430360c033de860d545259e0de449cfa.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T04:51:01 | null | 2016-08-28T03:30:00 | The Warriors' play-off hopes are hanging by a thread. Follow live as they take on the Tigers. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83560836%2FLive-New-Zealand-Warriors-v-Wests-Tigers-NRL-round-25.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/k/l/a/6/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dqzyc.png/1472356263865.jpg | en | null | Live: New Zealand Warriors v Wests Tigers - NRL round 25 | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Live: New Zealand Warriors v Wests Tigers - NRL round 25
GETTY IMAGES Can Shaun Johnson help keep the Warriors alive?
The Warriors' play-off hopes are hanging by a thread. Follow live as they take on the Tigers at Mt Smart Stadium.
PLAY-BY-PLAY: Warriors v Tigers
Team Form - rounds 16-24 (Oldest to latest) Warriors Wests Tigers Win Loss Draw Bye KEY:
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83560836/Live-New-Zealand-Warriors-v-Wests-Tigers-NRL-round-25 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/2df684ac8986baac99612a34cdd6cd5d3d93ae07fe23a37cb7e3ed1dba2cf52b.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:06 | null | 2016-08-28T20:32:10 | The coal industry is on the up after a long decline, which may give a boost to the sale of the coal-miner's assets. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Findustries%2F83653216%2FSolid-Energy-asset-sale-anticipated-as-coal-prices-rise.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/z/h/j/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsz8g.png/1472416330917.jpg | en | null | Solid Energy asset sale anticipated as coal prices rise | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Solid Energy asset sale anticipated as coal prices rise
SARAH-JANE O'CONNOR/FAIRFAX NZ Solid Energy entered voluntary administration in August 2015.
Rising coal prices after years of decline could help boost the sale of Solid Energy assets, which went up for sale last year.
There is interest from both local and international buyers, with some interested in buying all the state-owned enterprise's assets while others are looking only at Stockton Mine near Westport.
Coal prices have risen, generally, since February this year, piquing the interest of potential buyers that use coal for the steel industry, which is Stockton's specialty.
MORNING REPORT/Radio New Zealand The coal industry on the West Coast is warming up again, after years of falling prices.
The Mayor of Buller is confident of a sale, but a Sydney analyst has doubts about the sustainability of rising prices.
READ MORE:
* Aussie buyers can't be bothered to check out Solid Energy Stockton mining equipment
* More jobs lost at Solid Energy on the West Coast
SARAH-JANE O'CONNOR/FAIRFAX NZ Solid Energy's coal-handling facility at Ngakawau, north of Westport, which services Stockton Mine.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/83653216/Solid-Energy-asset-sale-anticipated-as-coal-prices-rise | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/45508e336d796d28f881f0ab613f9ede572efae1142eb97cc21c1698cd6caa19.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:23 | null | 2016-08-30T18:12:40 | Number of confirmed cases of Zika virus in Singapore rises to 82. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Fasia%2F83740664%2FSingapore-confirms-Zika-spread-some-countries-issue-travel-warnings.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/u/s/7/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duupk.png/1472580760667.jpg | en | null | Singapore confirms Zika spread; some countries issue travel warnings | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Singapore confirms Zika spread; some countries issue travel warnings
BEAWIHARTA/REUTERS Passengers arriving from Singapore walk near a warning about Zika virus at the Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, that reads, "Beware of mosquitoes that spread Zika virus."
The number of confirmed cases of Zika virus in Singapore rose to 82 on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ Time), with some of the latest infections detected beyond the area of the initial outbreak.
Several countries advised pregnant women or those trying to conceive to avoid travelling to the city-state.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. It poses a risk to pregnant women as it can cause severe birth defects. It has been linked in Brazil to more than 1800 cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect where babies are born with abnormally small heads and brains.
EDGAR SU/REUTERS A worker sprays the common area of a public housing estate with insecticide, near the vicinity where locally transmitted Zika cases were discovered in Singapore.
At least five of 26 new cases confirmed late on Tuesday were detected outside the initial cluster in the Aljunied area in the southeast of Singapore, the health ministry and National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a joint statement.
READ MORE: Dozens of locally-transmitted Zika virus cases in Singapore
BEAWIHARTA/REUTERS Airplane passengers walks through feverscan camera system used to detect human temperature shortly after arriving from Singapore at the Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Australia, Taiwan and South Korea issued travel warnings, and Singapore advised pregnant women to take a free Zika test if they showed any symptoms or if their partners tested positive.
"This is regardless of whether they have been to Zika-affected areas," the statement said.
The outbreak and advisories come as the tourism industry in one of the world's busiest travel hubs already faces weak global economic growth. Singapore's Tourism Board said it was premature to consider any impact on the sector, adding it remained a "safe travel destination".
More than 55 million people pass through Singapore's Changi airport every year. In the first half of this year, tourism arrivals topped 8 million, around 1 million more than a year earlier.
MOZZIE SPRAY SALES
Singapore reported its first case of locally-transmitted Zika at the weekend, and the number of confirmed infections has risen steadily since then. At least three dozen patients have made a full recovery.
Neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia have stepped up protective measures, introducing thermal scanners at airports and border checkpoints with the island state.
Singapore residents responded to government calls to be vigilant and to take precautions against mosquito bites.
Online retailer Lazada Singapore said sales of insect repellents jumped fivefold in the past three days. FairPrice supermarkets and Watsons pharmacies said their sales of such products had doubled.
Most of the early infections were among foreign workers, hundreds of thousands of whom, mainly from the Asian sub-continent, work on Singapore's construction sites and in the marine sector.
The Singapore government has not said where the infected foreign workers are from. The foreign ministry directed queries to the health ministry, which did not respond to Reuters questions on the issue. The Ministry of Manpower also did not respond to a request for comment made outside working hours.
The High Commission of Bangladesh, which represents the largest community of foreign workers, said none of those infected were Bangladeshis, and the Thai foreign ministry said none were from Thailand. The embassies of China, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar said they had not been notified by Singapore whether their citizens were among those infected.
Authorities inspected thousands of homes in seven parts of Singapore, including five foreign worker dormitories, spraying insecticide and removing potential mosquito breeding habitats.
The NEA has inspected about 5000 premises in and around the initial outbreak area, issuing 400 notices to owners of buildings they could not access. The NEA can force entry into those premises if needed.
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/83740664/Singapore-confirms-Zika-spread-some-countries-issue-travel-warnings | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/f0d4e86ce43c399f1ada021314a457aa62980281c631ea4c068a782df7c55fdc.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T22:50:22 | null | 2016-08-26T21:27:57 | One person suffers serious injuries in crash. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83627125%2FCar-and-quad-bike-collide-near-Waitomo.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/b/q/u/k/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsf3p.png/1472246877907.jpg | en | null | Car and quad bike collide near Waitomo | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Car and quad bike collide near Waitomo
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/FAIRFAX NZ One person was injured when a car and quad bike collided near Waitomo.
One person has been flown to Waikato Hospital with serious injuries after a quad bike and a car collided near the Waitomo Caves on Saturday morning.
Details remain sketchy, however St John Ambulance and Fire Service crews, as well as the Hamilton-based Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter, were scrambled to the crash on Waitomo Caves Road at 8.09am.
Initial reports were of a person trapped, but that turned out not to be the case, Fire Service Northern Communications staff said.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83627125/Car-and-quad-bike-collide-near-Waitomo | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c450c4cf07ecf73f5f690eaf0b2769f0f6a876ce1258e94f06ad105599d16bde.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:41 | null | 2016-08-27T04:33:10 | Searchers combing North Taranaki beaches for the body of a missing fisherman did not find him. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Ftaranaki-daily-news%2Fnews%2F83627021%2FNo-sign-yet-of-man-missing-off-Taranaki-coast-despite-35-volunteers-out-searching.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/n/w/z/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsf0t.png/1472272390692.jpg | en | null | No sign yet of man missing off Taranaki coast despite 35 volunteers out searching | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | No sign yet of man missing off Taranaki coast despite 35 volunteers out searching
Andy Jackson Aircraft are involved in the search for Matt Smith who has been missing since he was thrown from his boat on Monday.
A team of 35 search and rescue volunteers and police officers spent a fruitless day combing the north Taranaki coastline for an 18-year-old man missing since Monday morning.
A fixed wing aircraft was used to patrol the water while the searchers from Whanganui and Taranaki checked the shoreline between Waiwakaiho and Oakura on foot, said acting area commander Senior Sergeant Thomas McIntyre of New Plymouth.
However, nothing of interest was found on a day hampered by rough seas and stormy weather, although conditions improved slightly during the day.
ANDY JACKSON/Stuff.co.nz The search for a missing 18-year-old along the Taranaki coastline continued for more than 36 hours after he was thrown into the sea.
The Whanganui volunteers had gone home after Saturday's search but a team from Taranaki would return to join police staff again on Sunday, he said.
Matt Smith disappeared on Monday when the 5.3m aluminium boat he and a friend were using to check their cray pots was hit by a rogue wave, capsizing the vessel about one kilometre off the coast from Port Taranaki around 6.30am.
Smith's fishing companion was able to swim to shore and raise the alarm about 9.20am which triggered an extensive search of the region's coastline from the Waiwhakaiho River in the north to Oakura in the south.
Andy Jackson A search and rescue operation is underway off the New Plymouth coast to find the occupant of a capsized boat.
READ MORE:
* Search for capsize victim waits for big push over the weekend
* Search for missing 18-year-old after boat capsizes off New Plymouth coast
So far searchers have found no signs of Smith, who was believed not to have been wearing a lifejacket, and on Wednesday police said they no longer expected to find him alive and their focus was on recovering his body.
On Friday afternoon the MetService issued a gale warning for the Raglan coastal area, which runs from Cape Egmont in the south to Muriwai in the north, and it was expected to remain in force until midnight on Saturday.
Andy Jackson Police and surf lifesavers searched at Back Beach in New Plymouth during the week.
Northwest winds of up to 30 knots would changing to southwest winds reaching 40 knots over night before easing to 30 knot westerly winds on Saturday morning and then dropping to 20 knot southwest on Saturday evening.
The sea would become very rough for a time with a Northwest swell of three metres easing.
The Metservice forecast there would be poor visibility during showers which would ease on Saturday afternoon.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/83627021/No-sign-yet-of-man-missing-off-Taranaki-coast-despite-35-volunteers-out-searching | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/2d1035e7dd49d369553bd9897322ab28e04a8adea6a52d1b821f7d3adeff2438.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:52:04 | null | 2016-08-30T04:30:17 | In South Africa, the Silver Ferns have an opponent they should beat easily, but one they don't know that much about. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fnetball%2F83710663%2FPlenty-of-unknowns-for-Silver-Ferns-as-they-prepare-to-play-South-Africa-in-Hamilton.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/8/w/o/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1du7k7.png/1472531422232.jpg | en | null | Plenty of unknowns for Silver Ferns as they prepare to play South Africa in Hamilton | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Plenty of unknowns for Silver Ferns as they prepare to play South Africa in Hamilton
GETTY IMAGES Kayla Cullen and the Silver Ferns won't be taking South Africa lightly on Wednesday.
There are some things the Silver Ferns know, and there are some things they don't.
They play South Africa on Wednesday night in Hamilton in the second match of the Quad Series, which will be the 28th meeting between the two sides.
The Ferns have won 26 of the 27 so far, most of them by large margins - the one loss came at the 1995 world championship.
But while they will head into the game knowing a win is likely, they will also be up against a side they don't know much about.
READ MORE:
* Watson credits consistency and maturity
* Plenty of work ahead for Silver Ferns
* Silver Ferns trounce England
* Southby's tenure finally gets underway
New Ferns coach Janine Southby said as much after training on Monday, though she also revealed they do have a bit of an idea what to expect.
"We haven't seen a lot, we've got the footage from their game the other night [against Australia], we've got footage from last year. We know that their shooting circle's pretty accurate and they're happy to shoot long, so we certainly know there's some work [for us to do] in that space," she said.
"We know their middies can be quite unorthodox and they're also quite fit, and they do things a little bit differently. So our middies have to be prepared for that. And defensively, they've got a couple of really tall defenders with long arms, and we can't get caught up in that aerial game, because that brings them into it."
Faced with a few unknowns, what's important is for the Ferns to focus on their own game, and get themselves in tune for what is likely to be a series decider against Australia in Melbourne on Sunday.
"We're really trying to keep the focus on ourselves, that's the big thing," said Southby.
"The ability to stay in the moment, read it and play what's in front of us. We want confident players who make great decisions out there. And those decisions will change for every situation. So from a coaching point of view, it's our job to work with the players to build their confidence and put them in situations that they do feel confident to be able to do that."
While beating England by 26 goals in their first match of this era was a great result, there was still plenty for the Ferns to improve on, Southby said.
"People may have expectations of us now, but from our point of view, while we're happy with the outcome, there's some parts of the way we did things that we're not particularly pleased with, so there's certainly some work in that space.
"I think there was a few connection, pass placement at times was pretty poor, just reading what was happening and the type of pass we gave to someone put ourselves under a bit of pressure at times. And defensively we didn't put enough pressure on through the court."
Against South Africa then, the trick will be to continue building on the performance against England while trying to give some of the squad's less-experienced members some game time.
"In an ideal world that would be fantastic to be able to do that [give debuts], but again, we have to lay really strong foundations for those things to happen," said Southby.
"You want people to go out there and have successful debuts, and so to have buildup and to have success around them is really important."
First centre pass for Wednesday night's game is at 7.45pm.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/netball/83710663/Plenty-of-unknowns-for-Silver-Ferns-as-they-prepare-to-play-South-Africa-in-Hamilton | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/1bd7e52bb4cc2dc5dce893f91849884b81c6ef5bb1adb42bad15c5e38d2952db.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T22:50:53 | null | 2016-08-27T22:44:55 | Sanzaar appear satisfied that the All Blacks prop wasn't guilty of foul play. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fall-blacks%2F83636109%2FAll-Blacks-prop-Owen-Franks-to-escape-punishment-for-incident-against-Wallabies.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/n/h/u/k/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsm19.png/1472337895179.jpg | en | null | All Blacks prop Owen Franks to escape punishment for incident against Wallabies | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | All Blacks prop Owen Franks to escape punishment for incident against Wallabies
Sky Sport All Blacks prop Owen Franks under scrutiny from Wallabies for alleged eye-gouging incident.
It appears All Blacks prop Owen Franks won't have to face a judicial hearing following concerns over eye-gouging in the wake of Saturday night's Bledisloe Cup match in Wellington.
Franks had his left hand over the face of Australia lock Kane Douglas, early in the first half of Saturday's match.
However, competition governing body Sanzaar has apparently said there will be no citings from the match, with no incidents referred by either team.
GETTY IMAGES All Blacks tighthead prop Owen Franks Franks looks to have avoided a citing.
New Zealand beat Australia 29-9 at Westpac Stadium, to heap more misery on the visitors and retain the coveted trophy.
READ MORE:
* Bledisloe Cup stays put
* Recap: All Blacks v Wallabies
* Wallabies bring niggle, but little else
* Play-by-play: how the Aussies received another thumping
* All Blacks player ratings
"We saw it at the time but I'm sure the match review will pick it up," Cheika said of the incident involving Franks, which didn't draw a reaction from Douglas or referee Romain Poite.
ANTHONY AU-YEUNG/GETTY IMAGES Wallabies head coach Michael Cheika did his best to obscure the result of Saturday's clash with the All Blacks.
"They couldn't miss it, it was pretty in the open. It'd be pretty hard for the match review to miss," Cheika said on Saturday night.
The media contingent at the match hadn't seen the incident live and footage only emerged after All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen had done his post-match press conference.
Hansen is due up again on Sunday morning, where Franks' hand and its movements will no doubt be on the agenda, as well an apparent Australian Rugby Union (ARU) complaint about a meeting with Poite.
It's alleged Hansen and Poite met before the match in Wellington, with Cheika not informed at the time. Reports have since surfaced that the ARU have made a formal complaint to World Rugby about the meeting.
Cheika doesn't give the impression he believes that he and the team and captain Stephen Moore get the rub of the green from officials and made comments after the match that could make his own immediate future a little precarious.
He entered a referees' room at halftime, while coaching the Waratahs in Super Rugby last year and was basically on probation.
That didn't appear to water-down his post-match comments on Saturday about Poite's performance.
"I was bitterly disappointed to be honest," said Cheika, among other things.
"I'm on record with the referees boss Alain Rolland about the treatment to our captain and our players by Romain Poite. There was a time there in the game where in a break in play, when the national captain of Australia was asking the referee when might be an opportunity for me to talk to you and he absolutely ignored him."
- Dominion Post | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/83636109/All-Blacks-prop-Owen-Franks-to-escape-punishment-for-incident-against-Wallabies | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/4b201923ad19c4a264597daefca427b9d15169ce44ee06d8c516b5ec38ca53bd.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T04:51:47 | null | 2016-08-29T04:35:46 | A post-mortem on dead Czech tramper Ondrej Petr is being carried out while DOC says it's unlikely track will close. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83661242%2FPost-mortem-on-Czech-tramper-carried-out-track-unlikely-to-close-over-winter.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/r/l/c/o/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dt5fe.png/1472445347348.jpg | en | null | Post-mortem on Czech tramper carried out, track 'unlikely' to close over winter | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Post-mortem on Czech tramper carried out, track 'unlikely' to close over winter
SUPPLIED/FACEBOOK Czech tramper Ondrej Petr died after falling on the Routeburn Track.
A post-mortem is being carried out on the body of dead Czech tramper Ondrej Petr to determine his exact cause of death.
A police media spokeswoman said police investigations into the tragedy were complete and the matter was now in the hands of the Coroner.
A coronial national office spokesman said findings of the investigation would be available in the coming days.
NZ POLICE DOC has said it's unlikely the Routeburn Track will be closed during the winter months.
Petr, 27, died after he slipped down a bank and became wedged between rocks and shrubbery in wintry conditions on the Routeburn Track on July 28.
His partner Pavlina Pizova tried desperately to free him but was unsuccessful.
READ MORE:
* Czech tramper Pavlina Pizova familiar with death on the mountains
* Czech tramper Pavlina Pizova's bid to escape remote Fiordland hut
* Czech tramper dead on Routeburn Track, partner rescued after month in hut
IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Pavlina Pizova was spent a month in the warden's hurt by Lake MacKenzie.
Pizova then survived a harrowing month-long ordeal in a warden's hut near Lake MacKenzie following three freezing nights in the snow. She was rescued by police and a Land Search and Rescue (SAR) team on Wednesday.
The Czech woman has been staying at the home of consul general for the Czech Republic Vladka Kennett near Glenorchy since she was rescued.
Despite the death, the Routeburn Track and others in the area were unlikely to close over winter, Department of Conservation (DOC) Wakatipu operations manager Geoff Owen said.
A map showing huts on the Routeburn Track.
Closures might be discussed in an operational review of the incident though, he said.
"We're in that sort of hard place because there will always be those that say we should do that [close the track].
"Even in light of what's happened, we probably wouldn't.
IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Pavlina Pizova, left, with Consul for the Czech republic Vladka Kennett at a media conference on Friday. Pizova was commended for her strong state of mind after her month-long ordeal.
"We don't have a policy on actually closing tracks."
It was about tramper responsibility and in Pizova and Petr's case, "their first decision wasn't a good one", Owen said.
The couple ventured onto the Routeburn track despite DOC advising them against it due to forecast snow.
IAN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ MacKenzie Hut on the Routeburn Track near Queenstown where Pavlina Pizova was rescued on Wednesday.
The pair did not leave their intentions with anyone and did not carry a locator beacon. Pizova struggled for three days through waist deep snow and poor visibility to reach the hut. Her feet were swollen and her fingers were frostbitten due to the cold.
"[The incident] could well be something I put on an agenda just to think about.
"We just look at it from the point of view, 'is there anything different we could be doing?', Owen said.
IAIN MCGREGOR / FAIRFAX NZ Pavlina Pizova addresses media on Friday after being rescued from the MacKenzie Hut on the Routeburn track near Queenstown.
Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club vice-president Antony Pettinger said the club tramped into the Routeburn at least once a year during winter and would not support a winter closure.
They would normally not do the entire track due to the weather, he said.
"The club would be definitely against it. It's public access across public land."
ULTIMATE HIKES Lake Harris on the Routeburn Track between Falls Hut and Lake Mackenzie Hut on August 4. There had been heavy snow in the area since July 24 - the day Czech trampers Pavlina Pizova and Ondrej Petr set out.
Pettinger said it was about people using good judgement when tramping in winter.
"We would encourage people to check the conditions and take notice of what they have been told."
Ultimate Hikes general manager Noel Saxon, whose company operates guided walks on the track, said they did not operate through the winter months due to lower demand from people and a "higher amount of risk".
"It would be quite problematic to try and operate during that time. We just wouldn't be able to do it.
Saxon said it was DOC's responsibility to decide whether tracks should remain open and it would not have much of an affect on Ultimate Hikes tracks were to close over winter.
Kennett told NZME that Pizova wanted to donate money to Land SAR and DOC as a thank-you.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83661242/Post-mortem-on-Czech-tramper-carried-out-track-unlikely-to-close-over-winter | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/cb0ee271cb819bf079ff93d02a02116e4480e92ae8c638b9f7c76e955a337e67.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T20:51:10 | null | 2016-08-27T20:12:16 | After finishing third at Rio, Tom Walsh flourished in Paris with a record throw. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2F83636689%2FNew-Zealand-shot-put-ace-Tom-Walsh-scores-big-win-at-Diamond-League-in-Paris.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/m/7/0/i/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsmhd.png/1472328736820.jpg | en | null | New Zealand shot put ace Tom Walsh scores big win at Diamond League in Paris | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | New Zealand shot put ace Tom Walsh scores big win at Diamond League in Paris
GETTY IMAGES Tom Walsh backed up his Olympic Games bronze with a Diamond League win in Paris.
Olympic bronze medallist Tom Walsh has scored a notable win in his first event post-Rio.
The Kiwi shot putter set a new New Zealand and Oceania outdoor record when claiming the win at the prestigious Diamond League event in Paris on Sunday morning (NZ time).
Walsh recorded a throw of exactly 22 metres to break the mark and notch a new personal best.
READ MORE: Win for Adams a week late
The throw came in the final round, after he'd earlier gone past the previous best mark with a throw of 21.81m in the second round.
The final throw allowed Walsh to take the meeting victory over Olympic champion Ryan Crouser of the United States by just a centimetre.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Crouser won gold with an Olympic record put of 22.52m, with Walsh third behind Joe Kovacs of the US (21.78m) with a throw of 21.36m
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/83636689/New-Zealand-shot-put-ace-Tom-Walsh-scores-big-win-at-Diamond-League-in-Paris | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/689f2e06458ae34317101e8509a8f544335b8026b30b96f809995bb8161dafdf.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:31 | null | 2016-08-29T06:10:56 | Two men have been charged with murder after the shooting death of an NBA star's cousin. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fbasketball%2F83651635%2FTwo-men-charged-over-killing-of-NBA-star-Dwyane-Wades-cousin.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/s/6/t/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsy0j.png/1472451056024.jpg | en | null | Two men charged over killing of NBA star Dwyane Wade's cousin | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Two men charged over killing of NBA star Dwyane Wade's cousin
USA TODAY SPORTS Dwyane Wade is reeling from the death of his cousin.
Chicago police say two brothers have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of the cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade as she was walking to register her children for school.
Authorities say 26-year-old Darwin Sorrells Jr and 22-year-old Derren Sorrells were charged Sunday (Monday NZ time) in the death of Nykea Aldridge.
My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough — DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016 Police say the 32-year-old mother of four was pushing a baby in a stroller near the school when two men walked up and fired shots at a third man. They hit Aldridge in the head and arm. Police say she wasn't the intended target. Police say the suspects have criminal records. READ MORE: NBA star's cousin killed Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson plans to release more information later. RIP Nykea Aldridge... #EnoughIsEnough — DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
- AP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/basketball/83651635/Two-men-charged-over-killing-of-NBA-star-Dwyane-Wades-cousin | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/570a9570d09adade181afe19c7cc5a467450a71ad98e964cedc0fa0b317eb8c8.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:26 | null | 2016-08-28T20:12:46 | Anti-mafia prosecutor says organised crime gangs infiltrated lucrative construction contracts after previous quakes. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Feurope%2F83651882%2FItaly-probes-whether-negligence-played-role-in-quake-toll-calls-for-mafia-to-be-blocked.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/y/4/z/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsy7e.png/1472415437512.jpg | en | null | Italy probes whether negligence played role in quake toll, calls for mafia to be blocked | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Italy probes whether negligence played role in quake toll, calls for mafia to be blocked
REUTERS Crowds of people gather to watch a state funeral for 35 of the 290 people who died during a 6.2 earthquake in central Italy.
Italian authorities are vowing to investigate whether negligence or fraud in adhering to building codes played a role in the high death toll in last week's earthquake in Italy.
They also called for efforts to ensure organised crime doesn't infiltrate lucrative construction contracts to eventually rebuild much of the picturesque towns levelled in the disaster.
Meanwhile, rescue workers pressed on with the task of recovering bodies from the rubble, with hopes of finding anymore survivors virtually vanished four days after the powerful quake.
CIRO DE LUCA/REUTERS Firefighters stand next to a collapsed house following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy.
Over the past two days, they found six more bodies in the rubble of Hotel Roma in Amatrice, the medieval hill town in mountainous central Italy that bore the brunt of destruction and loss of life in the powerful quake. They recovered three and by late Sunday were still working to retrieve others that were hard to reach.
READ MORE:
* Bodies discovered in hotel rubble as earthquake toll nears 300
* Why Italy's earthquake was like Christchurch
* Italian quake victim Giulia Rinaldo's hug saved little sister Giorgia
* Hamilton kindy teacher loses family in Italy earthquake
CIRO DE LUCA Italian Police patrol along a rubble-filled street.
It wasn't clear if those six were included in the overall 290 death toll given by authorities.
MORNING REPORT/RADIO NEW ZEALAND A state funeral has been held in Italy for some of the 291 people killed in the deadly earthquake last week.
The quake that struck before dawn Wednesday also injured nearly 400 people as it flattened three medieval towns near the rugged Apennines. Prosecutor Giuseppe Saieva, based in the nearby provincial capital of Rieti, said the high human death toll "cannot only be considered the work of fate.''
"The fault lines tragically did their work and this is called destiny, but if the buildings had been built like in Japan they would not have collapsed,'' Saieva said in comments carried by Italian media.
Investigations are focusing on a number of structures, including an elementary school in Amatrice that crumbled despite being renovated in 2012 to resist earthquakes at a cost of 700,000 euros (NZ$1m). With schoolchildren's summer vacations in their final weeks, the school wasn't yet in use. Many were shocked that it didn't withstand the 6.2 magnitude quake.
STRINGER A drone photo shows the damages following an earthquake In Saletta, central Italy.
After an entire first-grade class and a teacher were killed in a 2002 quake in the southern town of San Giuliano di Puglia, Italian officials had pledged citizens that safety of schools, hospitals and other critical public buildings would be guaranteed.
Questions also surround a bell tower in Accumoli that collapsed, killing a family of four sleeping in a neighbouring house, including a baby of 8 months and a 7-year-old boy. That bell tower also had been recently restored with special funds allocated after Italy's last major earthquake, which struck nearby L'Aquila in 2009.
Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor, Franco Roberti, also vowed to work to prevent organised crime from infiltrating public works projects which will be eventually begun to rebuild the earthquake zone.
CIRO DE LUCA Firefighters remove a painting from a collapsed house.
"This risk of infiltration is always high,'' he said in comments Sunday in La Repubblica newspaper. "Post-earthquake reconstruction is historically a tempting morsel for criminal groups and colluding business interests.''
Deadly quakes that have led to criminal investigations of suspicions ranging from misuse of funds or corruption involving awarding of construction contracts include the 1980 temblor in the Naples area and a 2009 quake in L'Aquila, central Italy.
Roberti noted he wasn't involved in the local prosecutors' probes into last week's quake. But he added that if buildings are well-constructed according to regulations for earthquake-prone zones, "parts of buildings can be damaged and cracked but they don't pulverize and implode.''
Italy's national museums, meanwhile, embarked on a fundraising campaign, donating their proceeds Sunday to relief and reconstruction efforts in the quake-stricken areas.
Besides homes and low-rise apartment buildings, Wednesday's quake badly damaged scores of churches, town halls, bell towers and other centuries-old cultural treasures. The idea is to use art for art - harnessing the nation's rich artistic heritage to help repair and restore other objects of beauty in the hard-hit towns.
"It's a way to rediscover our cultural heritage, to give our small but significant contribution so that endangered artwork that was gravely damaged may have a new chance, be restored and recovered,'' Cristiana Collu, the director of Rome's National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Also on Sunday, Pope Francis told faithful in St. Peter's Square he hopes to soon visit people in the quake-ravaged regions to bring them "the comfort of faith.''
Amatrice bore the brunt of earthquake's destruction, with at least 229 fatalities and its medieval heart nearly obliterated. Eleven others died in nearby Accumoli and 50 more in Arquata del Tronto, 16 kilometers north of Amatrice.
On Saturday, a state funeral took place for 35 of the victims in the town of Ascoli Piceno, which escaped the heavy damage of other towns in the region. That funeral involved most of the dead from Arquata del Tronto. Some of the dead from Amatrice were still in the town's makeshift morgue. Identified bodies were being kept in refrigerated trucks in an airport hangar in Rieti, 65 kilometers away. On Tuesday, a memorial service - without the bodies - will be held for the dead of Amatrice on the town's outskirts.
The last survivor was extracted from rubble on Wednesday evening, and hopes have virtually vanished of finding any living in the ruins.
The number still missing is uncertain, due to the many visitors seeking a last taste of summer in the cool hill towns when the quake struck.
The quake left a few thousands of people without homes, with nearly 2,700 hosted in a total of 58 tent "towns'' set up on the outskirts of the ravaged areas, or improvised shelters, like a gym with a basketball court in Amatrice. Countless more who fled damaged homes - or even the ones without any heavy damage - went to stay with relatives in Rome and other Italian cities.
- AP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/83651882/Italy-probes-whether-negligence-played-role-in-quake-toll-calls-for-mafia-to-be-blocked | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/764418d0b70553dc95461874b3b9bc7aa4b8c569c10cfeaeb830b5af14577e54.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:43 | null | 2016-08-31T06:28:09 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83769588%2FHundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-to-fix-Dunedins-broken-stormwater-system.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/v/j/2/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dvh10.png/1472624889826.jpg | en | null | Hundreds of millions of dollars to fix Dunedin's broken stormwater system | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Hundreds of millions of dollars to fix Dunedin's broken stormwater system
JOHN COSGROVE/SUPPLIED Flooding in South Dunedin in June last year.
Dunedin is facing a bill for hundreds of millions of dollars to fix its strained stormwater network.
The system capitulated last year after heavy rain drenched the city, leaving parts of south Dunedin and Mosgiel under water. Two-hundred and eighty homes were seriously damaged and another 973 affected by flooding.
A Dunedin City Council report in November said stormwater infrastructure could be improved "but would not prevent serious flooding in a similar future rain event".
JOHN COSGROVE/SUPPLIED Traffic negotiating a submerged street in South Dunedin during the 2015 floods.
A report to a meeting of the council's infrastructure services committee on Tuesday said "high level" upgrade options were now being investigated for South Dunedin and would be available this year. A separate study would consider solutions in Mosgiel.
READ MORE:
* Flooding wreaks havoc in Dunedin
* Dunedin flooding clean-up could take weeks
* Dunedin flooding costs insurers $28 million
* Serious Dunedin flooding event unable to be prevented: council report
Council water and waste group manager Laura McElhone previously said a citywide upgrade could cost more than $1 billion, but said on Wednesday the figure was an impromptu estimate.
"'Hundreds of millions' is probably more accurate."
Upgrade options were "broad brush" and still being worked through, she said. Whatever they were, money would be an issue.
"Progressing these options will be subject to provision of additional funding or reallocation of existing funding through the annual plan process," the report said.
Stormwater capacity was a "long-term" issue, McElhone said.
Mosgiel's network was only designed to cope with water from a one-in-two-year event.
Flooding in parts of South Dunedin last year was exacerbated by "quite significant" overland flow from neighbouring catchments, the report said.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83769588/Hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-to-fix-Dunedins-broken-stormwater-system | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/0f98c761a54360c95ed9613d14d9246b623d8acbfdb3d5e3b3a0fcbeaf6f5b60.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:37 | null | 2016-08-31T04:52:46 | Caught with a cigarette, a student claims they received a scorching punishment. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Feducation%2F83756628%2FProbe-after-teacher-allegedly-stubbed-out-students-smoke-on-hand.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/v/j/l/m/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dv710.png/1472619166147.jpg | en | null | Probe after teacher allegedly stubbed out student's smoke on hand | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Probe after teacher allegedly stubbed out student's smoke on hand
MARK TAYLOR FAIRFAX NZ A student claims a cigarette was put out on her hand after a teacher caught her smoking.
A teacher accused of putting a cigarette out on a student's hand has quit after an investigation.
The girl was allegedly caught by the teacher smoking near the toilets at Ngaruawahia High School, during school time, about two months ago.
When the Waikato school got a complaint about the teacher allegedly stubbing out the offending smoke on the student's flesh, it hired an external investigator.
CHRIS HILLOCK/FAIRFAX NZ Ngaruawahia High School principal Chris Jarnet said he could not comment as the matter was before "another body".
A two-week investigation was inconclusive and the school is staying tight-lipped on the matter.
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MARK TAYLOR/FAIRFAX NZ An investigation is understood to have been inconclusive but the teacher involved has resigned.
But the teacher has since resigned and the body that registers teachers is now also probing the incident.
The Education Council is talking to Ngaruawahia High about "a possible situation with a teacher" and the school is getting advice from the New Zealand School Trustees Association.
A complaint to the school alleged that the teacher - who stuff has decided not to name - put the cigarette out on the student's hand, sources say.
There were no other witnesses.
Principal Chris Jarnet had agreed to discuss the school's response at a Wednesday interview but then sent an email saying the School Trustees Association had told him to postpone it.
"The matter is now before another body and I cannot compromise that process," he said.
Jarnet could not be reached by phone after that and the school office said he was not taking media calls.
But the school has been talking to the Education Council, the professional organisation for teachers.
The council had not received a complaint about the teacher at the time of a mid-August enquiry, but on Wednesday said it was in contact with the school to clarify a possible situation with a teacher.
A source who declined to be named said Ngaruawahia High School's external investigator spent about two weeks looking into the student's complaint.
Another source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the incident happened about two months ago and could not understand why the Education Council hadn't been told sooner.
"It's quite common knowledge around the town," the source said.
The student involved was still at the school, they said.
New Zealand School Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr said the organisation never comments on specific incidents.
It has an agreement with the Ministry of Education to support school boards in their governance and employment roles.
The general process for a child hurt by a teacher is to go to a staff member, such as a dean, to make a complaint, Kerr said.
The school would look into the complaint to find out the facts and whether it needed to be reported to another body, such as the police or the Education Council.
The school had to be careful about keeping all parties safe in the process, Kerr said.
"If you're an 18 year old being questioned by a group of adults, how would you feel?"
No complaint had been made to Police, who were not investigating.
Teachers under investigation
A number of teachers have faced investigation in the past six months.
* Rathkeale College, Masterton: a former teacher is under investigation by the Education Council. Sources said the male teacher had a relationship with a Year 13 girl from St Matthew's, who went to joint classes at Rathkeale.
* Whanganui High School: the school was working with police, the School Trustees Association and the Ministry of Education after a male staff member allegedly assaulted a female colleague in June 2016.
* Auckland teacher: allegedly smacked a Year 4 student, and came in front of the Education Council's disciplinary tribunal in June 2016. The council reserved its decision.
* Tokoroa high school teacher: police were investigating the male teacher in June 2016, as he had allegedly slept with a 15-year-old female student.
* Hamilton high school teacher: she allegedly performed oral sex on a senior student in November 2015 and has agreed not to teach while the Education Council investigates.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/83756628/Probe-after-teacher-allegedly-stubbed-out-students-smoke-on-hand | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/b1f49caf308138f0dbb4afac16071926336fedaefee9e0ba0118ebbd1d0dd55c.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:09 | null | 2016-08-28T20:27:48 | Phoebe Connop took her own life fearing she would be branded a racist over a joke photo. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2F83652315%2FTeenager-took-her-life-fearing-she-would-be-branded-racist-over-joke-photo.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/y/k/g/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsyjf.png/1472416931133.jpg | en | null | Teenager took her life fearing she would be branded racist over joke photo | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Teenager took her life fearing she would be branded racist over joke photo
Facebook/Phoebe Connop Phoebe Connop.
A teenager who took her own life was afraid she would be branded a racist for posting a joke photo showing her with dark skin and a headscarf.
Phoebe Connop, 16, edited a photograph she posted during an online relationship with an Asian man.
Connop, a gymnast, sent private photographs to friends on Instagram explaining that the only way she would win the approval of her boyfriend's parents would be if she looked like the girl in the photos, the Daily Mail reported.
Facebook The teenager was worried about a backlash after she posted photos to a private group.
One image was circulated more widely than she had wanted, an inquest in the United Kingdom was told.
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She was working with her father in July this year but asked to be taken home because she was feeling unwell.
Her father found his daughter's body later that day.
Laurence Connop told the inquest there was no indication anything was wrong.
"She was a lovely girl who would never want to cause offence to anyone.
"She had shown me no indication in the weeks leading up to her death that there was anything wrong, let alone anything that would lead her to do this."
At the inquest, Detective Sergeant Katherine Tomkins said: "From speaking to her friends in the weeks following her death, we discovered that the image had circulated further than she wanted it to.
"There had been some negative reaction and she confided in her friend, who did take the image down at her request, that she was scared of what the reaction might be from the Asian community in her area."
The teenager was a student at Windsor High School, Halesowen, in the West Midlands.
Principal Stephen Lanckham said Connop was warm, caring, and involved in all aspects of school life.
Where to get help:
The Mental Health Foundation's free Resource and Information Service (09 623 4812) will refer callers to some of the helplines below:
• Lifeline (open 24/7) – 0800 543 354
• Depression Helpline (open 24/7) – 0800 111 757
• Healthline (open 24/7) – 0800 611 116
• Samaritans (open 24/7) – 0800 726 666
• Suicide Crisis Helpline (open 24/7) – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.
• Youthline (open 24/7) – 0800 376 633. You can also text 234 for free between 8am and midnight, or email talk@youthline.co.nz
• 0800 WHATSUP children's helpline – phone 0800 9428 787 between 1pm and 10pm on weekdays and from 3pm to 10pm on weekends. Online chat is available from 7pm to 10pm every day at whatsup.co.nz.
• Kidsline (open 24/7) – 0800 543 754. This service is for children aged 5 to 18. Those who ring between 4pm and 9pm on weekdays will speak to a Kidsline buddy. These are specially trained teenage telephone counsellors.
• Your local Rural Support Trust – 0800 787 254 (0800 RURAL HELP)
• Alcohol Drug Helpline (open 24/7) – 0800 787 797. You can also text 8691 for free.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/83652315/Teenager-took-her-life-fearing-she-would-be-branded-racist-over-joke-photo | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/9970df0ac3021746277b071b1c5d34a47625c2867066888f822641357786dae9.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:49 | null | 2016-08-30T02:35:18 | Nelson Asofa-Solomona ends speculation about his future by re-signing with Melbourne. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fleague%2F83721613%2FGiant-Kiwi-forward-Nelson-Asofa-Solomona-re-signs-with-Melbourne-Storm.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/g/b/7/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dug0d.png/1472524519369.jpg | en | null | Giant Kiwi forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona re-signs with Melbourne Storm | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Giant Kiwi forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona re-signs with Melbourne Storm
BRADLEY KANARIS/GETTY IMAGES Nelson Asofa-Solomona was linked with a move to the Hurricanes earlier this year.
Promising Kiwi forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona has ended speculation about his short-term NRL future by re-signing with the Melbourne Storm for one more season.
The former Wellington College first XV star was linked to a return to rugby with the Hurricanes earlier this season.
Cronulla and Manly were also said to been keen on signing the 201cm, 122kg wrecking ball but he has decided to remain at the Storm until at least the end of 2017.
Asofa-Solomona, 20, has emerged as one of the NRL's most exciting young forwards over the last 12 months and has played 26 games for the Storm since making his debut last year.
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He is expected to play a key role off the bench in Melbourne's finals tilt, however, is set to miss Saturday's minor premiership-deciding clash against the Sharks due to suspension.
Asofa-Solomona is one of five players to re-sign with the Storm, including fellow New Zealander Kenny Bromwich.
Bromwich, who has inked a two-year extension, has enjoyed a breakout season in 2016, playing every game for Craig Bellamy's side.
He was rewarded with his Kiwis debut in May's Anzac test, running out alongside older brother and Storm teammate Jesse Bromwich, who captained his country for the first time.
Felise Kaufusi, Mark Nicholls (one-year deals) and Cheyse Blair (two-years) round out the re-signings, which Storm football director Frank Ponissi said was crucial for the club's future success.
"All five players are an integral part of Melbourne Storm both now and into the future," said Ponissi.
"It was important for us to see these boys stay at the club to help us strive for continued success.
"We look forward to seeing all of them continue to develop, improve and play good football in Melbourne next season and beyond."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/83721613/Giant-Kiwi-forward-Nelson-Asofa-Solomona-re-signs-with-Melbourne-Storm | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c57ac0f4af9b2689792f1ed975929b0f09dddb492adfdb6f8bfa340c1c41d136.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T22:50:34 | null | 2016-08-26T22:05:36 | Stormy weather is hampering searchers combing North Taranaki beaches for the body of a missing fisherman. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Ftaranaki-daily-news%2Fnews%2F83627021%2FVolunteers-battle-stormy-seas-in-search-for-man-missing-off-Taranaki-coast.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/n/w/z/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsf0t.png/1472249136429.jpg | en | null | Volunteers battle stormy seas in search for man missing off Taranaki coast | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Volunteers battle stormy seas in search for man missing off Taranaki coast
Andy Jackson Aircraft are involved in the search for Matt Smith who has been missing since he was thrown from his boat on Monday.
A team of 35 search and rescue volunteers and police officers are out in stormy weather combing the north Taranaki coastline for an 18-year-old man missing since Monday morning.
A fixed wing aircraft was patrolling the water while the searchers from Whanganui and Taranaki checked the beaches on foot, said acting area commander Senior Sergeant Thomas McIntyre of New Plymouth.
The rough seas on Saturday morning made it too risky to use boats but a crew was standing by in case anything of interest was spotted by the air patrol, McIntyre said.
ANDY JACKSON/Stuff.co.nz The search for a missing 18-year-old along the Taranaki coastline continued for more than 36 hours after he was thrown into the sea.
Matt Smith disappeared on Monday when the 5.3m aluminium boat he and a friend were using to check their cray pots was hit by a rogue wave, capsizing the vessel about one kilometre off the coast from Port Taranaki around 6.30am.
Smith's fishing companion was able to swim to shore and raise the alarm about 9.20am which triggered an extensive search of the region's coastline from the Waiwhakaiho River in the north to Oakura in the south.
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Andy Jackson A search and rescue operation is underway off the New Plymouth coast to find the occupant of a capsized boat.
So far searchers have found no signs of Smith, who was believed not to have been wearing a lifejacket, and on Wednesday police said they no longer expected to find him alive and their focus was on recovering his body.
The weather conditions were forecast to improve on Saturday and if they did the search would carry on until 3pm.
If Smith was not found, the search would begin again on Sunday, when the weather was predicted to have cleared up, he said.
Andy Jackson Police and surf lifesavers searched at Back Beach in New Plymouth during the week.
On Friday afternoon the MetService issued a gale warning for the Raglan coastal area, which runs from Cape Egmont in the south to Muriwai in the north, and it was expected to remain in force until midnight on Saturday.
Northwest winds of up to 30 knots would changing to southwest winds reaching 40 knots over night before easing to 30 knot westerly winds on Saturday morning and then dropping to 20 knot southwest on Saturday evening.
The sea would become very rough for a time with a Northwest swell of three metres easing.
The Metservice forecast there would be poor visibility during showers which would ease on Saturday afternoon.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/83627021/Volunteers-battle-stormy-seas-in-search-for-man-missing-off-Taranaki-coast | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/bf09cb544104c41b3fad1354eb830ef6c86e8709f27af95f51a4694688be96e4.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T06:51:02 | null | 2016-08-28T06:05:09 | Anton Lienert-Brown made an excellent first impression. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fall-blacks%2F83644292%2FA-decent-run-in-the-All-Blacks-could-beckon-for-Anton-Lienert-Brown.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/t/q/v/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dssck.png/1472364309766.jpg | en | null | A decent run in the All Blacks could beckon for Anton Lienert-Brown | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | A decent run in the All Blacks could beckon for Anton Lienert-Brown
CHRIS SYMES/PHOTOSPORT Anton Lienert-Brown made most posts a winner on his test debut.
It would be hard to leave Anton Lienert-Brown out after that.
The 21-year-old made an accurate and assured All Blacks debut on Saturday and must be a good odds to retain his place at second five-eighth when the team meet Argentina on September 10. Ryan Crotty will be back in the selection mix by then, but definitely looks to have some competition following Lienert-Brown's performance in Saturday's 29-9 win over Australia.
"Amazing experience...loved every moment," Lienert-Brown said afterwards.
Anthony Au-Yeung First five-eighth Beauden Barrett had another fine game for the All Blacks.
The Chiefs player made an immediate impact, making a good decision, then clever pass to put wing Israel Dagg over for a seventh-minute try. He also lived up to his reputation as a very sound defender.
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"It's the little details and making sure you nail your role because 14 other boys on the park are doing theirs and that's what I noticed. But they do theirs so well it almost makes yours easier," said Lienert-Brown.
Coach Steve Hansen was impressed with what he did, as were Lienert-Brown's team-mates.
"Not once did I see the young man over-think or have a blank face," first five-eighth Beauden Barrett said.
"He was just out there expressing himself and playing footy. That's what I wanted him to do."
The All Blacks don't possess an abundance of quality midfield options. Malakai Fekitoa has started the bulk of this year's tests at centre and while you couldn't accuse him of not trying and not being eager, he continues to make errors. Seta Tamanivalu looks a similar work in progress.
Crotty is over his concussion and will return to action shortly, while George Moala is back jogging and a candidate to play against South Africa on September 17 or else travel for October's games in Buenos Aires and Durban. Wing Waisake Naholo (hamstring) is also set to be on that trip.
Midfield, though, remains an interesting area with Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith gone and others such as Sonny Bill Williams and Charlie Ngatai injured. Lienert-Brown's timing could hardly better, really.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/83644292/A-decent-run-in-the-All-Blacks-could-beckon-for-Anton-Lienert-Brown | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/58bc986fe6c49f0bc62c585e2f07086209e9957dd653c8dbb69e6699f4b05b38.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T02:51:16 | null | 2016-08-29T02:37:19 | Get your bum off the couch and make the most of that bingewatching time with these 6 exercises. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2Fwell-good%2Fmotivate-me%2F83672542%2FSix-ways-to-keep-moving-while-you-watch-TV.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/g/r/d/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dte5a.png/1472438239756.jpg | en | null | Six ways to keep moving while you watch TV | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Six ways to keep moving while you watch TV
123rf You don't have to give up bingewatching, but you really should get off the couch while doing it.
It was around the fourth episode of Outlander one wet weekend that I understood the true glueing-your-bum-to-the-seat effect of TV on demand and streaming services like Netflix.
As one gripping episode of drama rolls seamlessly into the next, there's not even an ad break to nudge you off the couch. Before you know it you've watched three hours of TV and barely moved a muscle.
Just when you thought we couldn't get more sedentary than we already are, along comes a glut of good TV drama delivered in formats capable of turning even natural born fidgets like myself into sofa- bound sloths.
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Watching multi-episode blocks of Game of Thrones or The Night Manager might be fabulous entertainment - but with a pile of studies linking prolonged sitting to chronic disease and death, it's no way to end a day already rich with long bouts of sitting in a car or behind the desk.
My Outlander binge made me think that maybe we need a view-and-move habit. In other words, find easy ways to mix viewing with simple movements. Doing stretches is one, but Alex Lawrence, Industry Development Officer from Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA), has a few others.
"I wouldn't recommend watching back to back episodes for long periods but if you do there are ways to break up the inactivity and get some benefits for your body as well," he says. "As well as jumping on a treadmill or an exercise bike in front of TV, there are simple exercises that build strength and balance by using your own body weight."
1. BODY WEIGHT SQUAT
Stand with feet shoulder width apart and hands stretched out in front for extra balance. Lower yourself by bending your knees until they're almost at a right angle with your thighs parallel to the floor. Keep your back straight; don't let your knees extend over your toes. Try 8-15 squats and aim for two or three sets.
2. WALL SIT
Stand with your back against a wall and feet in front of you. Bend your knees and slide your back down the walls until you're in a squat position. Feet should be hip distance apart, thighs parallel to the ground and knees should be over your ankles. Hold for 45 seconds. Holding a heavy object at the same time makes it harder.
3. CALF RAISES
Stand up straight and slowly move up onto your toes, lifting your heels off the ground. Slowly lower your heels. Aim for three sets of 10-20 repetitions.
4. SIDE PLANK
Helps strengthen core muscles. Lie on your side propped on one elbow. Your shoulder should be directly above your elbow. Raise your hips so that your body is in a straight line. Aim for 45 seconds each side.
5. STANDING ON ONE LEG
Helps maintain balance - worth doing because balance diminishes without our realising it, says Alex Cross. Stand on one leg for as long as possible - and swap legs. For an extra challenge, pass a tennis ball from one hand to the other at the same time.
6. INVEST IN A THERAPY BAND
These stretchy bands (AKA resistance or exercise bands) are great for building strength with simple exercises. The UK's National Health Service website has an easy at-home workout which includes exercises using resistance bands.
"Breaking up long periods of sitting for any reason is good advice - and it's best to involve movement not just standing up," says Associate Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis of the University of Sydney's School of Public Health.
There's very little evidence that standing is enough to make muscles contract - and it's the muscle contraction that comes with movement that helps keep levels of blood glucose healthy and reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, he explains.
As for counteracting a long day's sitting, new research published in The Lancet in July found that 60 to 75 minutes daily of moderate intensity exercise (like brisk walking) seemed to eliminate the risk of both premature death from any cause and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease linked to long hours of sitting. But as Stamatakis points out, not many of us manage to fit that in.
"The reality is that sitting now plays a big part in our lives so it's important to highlight the importance of reducing sitting time or breaking it up regularly and frequently with movement – but ideally this should be in addition to regular moderate to vigorous physical activity," he says.
But The Lancet study also found that an hour or so's exercise didn't seem to cancel out the risk of death when the sitting involved long hours in front of TV.
The reason why may be complex – there are question marks over whether the health risk linked to heavy TV viewing is due to sitting, adds Stamatakis.
"There are other factors linked to watching a lot of TV that are associated with poor health including unemployment – and TV time may also be linked to increased snacking," he says.
- Juicedaily.com.au | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/motivate-me/83672542/Six-ways-to-keep-moving-while-you-watch-TV | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/9bd8d1a788d43d80590ed5a804d90f2883feb46190af3b5ee6123466fbf86f51.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T08:50:20 | null | 2016-08-27T07:53:26 | Kane Williamson decides to bowl first after winning the toss ahead of the second and final test against South Africa. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fcricket%2F83634765%2FSAvNZ-Black-Caps-win-toss-bowl-first-against-South-Africa-in-series-decider.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/l/1/w/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dskzx.png/1472284407020.jpg | en | null | #SAvNZ: Black Caps win toss, bowl first against South Africa in series decider | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | #SAvNZ: Black Caps win toss, bowl first against South Africa in series decider
LEE WARREN/GALLO IMAGES Unfinished business: Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor will have a big part to play if the Black Caps are to win their first test series against South Africa.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has won the toss and opted to bowl first in the series-deciding second test with South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.
Williamson is banking on his seam attack making the most of any life in what is expected to be a docile pitch - and causing more issues for a batting order that was unconvincing during the drawn encounter in Durban, with the exception of Hashim Amla.
"Any opportunity to exploit some conditions that are handy for you is always important. Hopefully early on with our seamers we can get a bit out of it," Williamson said.
PHOTOSPORT South African pace bowler Dale Steyn took 10-91 when New Zealand first played a test at Centurion in 2006.
New Zealand has named an unchanged team while South Africa made one enforced alteration to their top order after opener Dean Elgar rolled an ankle during fielding drills on Friday.
He is replaced by Stiaan van Zyl, who averages 27.30 from 11 tests with a highest score of 101*, scored on debut against the West Indies at Centurion in December 2014.
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MUZI NTOMBELA/PHOTOSPORT South African opener Dean Elgar has been ruled out of the second and final test against the Black Caps with an ankle injury.
The 28-year-old played in South Africa's previous test series against England in December-January but was dropped before the four-match series concluded at Centurion.
Van Zyl will slot into the middle order with wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock promoted to open the batting with Stephen Cook.
The Centurion pitch ready for action! Second Test starts soon #savnz ^CE pic.twitter.com/roYOYhsu0w — BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) August 27, 2016
The Black Caps are seeking to secure their first series win over South Africa after at a ground where they have lost heavily on their previous two tests in 2006 and 2007.
South Africa has only lost two of 21 tests staged at SuperSport Park since its debut as a test venue in 1995.
South Africa: Stephen Cook, Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis [captain], Temba Bavuma, Stiaan van Zyl, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn, Dane Piedt.
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson [captain], Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner, Doug Bracewell, Neil Wagner, Tim Southee, Trent Boult.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/83634765/SAvNZ-Black-Caps-win-toss-bowl-first-against-South-Africa-in-series-decider | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/0509a6fe7c87ae980678a3bed70f8891700eb5de9b80a9205406fb7e0f576ea9.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:24 | null | 2016-08-16T04:58:27 | After lashing out at fans and fighting with his ex, Selena Gomez, the megastar is back online. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fentertainment%2Fcelebrities%2F83695035%2FJustin-Bieber-back-on-Instagram-after-lashing-out-at-mean-comments-about-Sofia-Ritchie.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/v/i/m/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtvi3.png/1472484166265.jpg | en | null | Justin Bieber back on Instagram after lashing out at mean comments about Sofia Ritchie | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Justin Bieber back on Instagram after lashing out at mean comments about Sofia Ritchie
MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS Justin Bieber had a brief Instagram hiatus after an online fight with his ex, Selena Gomez.
Justin Bieber has reactivated his Instagram account, two weeks after leaving the social media site.
The 22-year-old singer temporarily closed down his profile on the social media a fortnight ago, after being targeted with nasty comments about his new girlfriend Sofia Richie, 18.
But on Monday, Beliebers were delighted when the singer reappeared on the photo sharing site. The star made no reference to his return, with the last share on the site a video of his new puppy, Todd.
A video posted by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Aug 15, 2016 at 9:58pm PDT
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However, his followers commented on his comeback via the Todd video, with many welcoming him back with open arms.
Bieber had previously threatened to delete his account, telling his followers: "I'm gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don't stop the hate this is getting out of hand, if you guys are really fans you wouldn't be so mean to people that I like."
I'm gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don't stop the hate this is getting out of hand, if you guys are really fans you wouldn't be so mean to people that I like A photo posted by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Aug 13, 2016 at 10:34pm PDT
His remark garnered a reply from his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, who wrote in a comment: "If you can't handle the hate then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol - it should be special between you two only. Don't be mad at your fans. They love you and supported you before any one ever did."
Bieber hit back at Gomez by implying she used him for attention, and their dispute worsened when she responded with, "Funny how the ones that cheated multiple times, are pointing the finger at the ones that were forgiving and supportive, no wonder fans are mad. Sad. All love."
Justin then made the decision to change his account to private, before deciding to delete it completely on August 16.
He's now deleted both Gomez and his most recent ex, Hailey Baldwin.
- Cover Media | http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/83695035/Justin-Bieber-back-on-Instagram-after-lashing-out-at-mean-comments-about-Sofia-Ritchie | en | 2016-08-16T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/993e21f0373c622652ea4b06fdd12caef0a452eb914dbbed79fadaf693c2e754.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:52:02 | null | 2016-08-30T22:32:21 | Swimmers told to stay out of Wellington harbour as burst pipe creates potential health hazard. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fdominion-post%2Fnews%2Fwellington%2F83744082%2FWastewater-main-bursts-sending-sewage-into-Wellington-lagoon.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/z/w/i/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duxci.png/1472596342121.jpg | en | null | Wastewater main bursts, sending sewage into Wellington lagoon | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Wastewater main bursts, sending sewage into Wellington lagoon
MONIQUE FORD / FAIRFAX NZ The sewage came from a pipe that burst on Victoria St early on Wednesday morning.
Anyone keen on a winter's day dip in Wellington harbour is being warned to stay out of the water.
Diluted sewage from a broken wastewater main on Victoria St has flowed into the inner harbour and Frank Kitts Park lagoon.
The pipe cracked in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard Maclean said.
MONIQUE FORD/FAIRFAX NZ The city council is warning people to stay out of Frank Kitt's Lagoon and the inner harbour after diluted sewage from a broken pipe ran into the water.
"We've had a bit of a sewage fountain occurring in that area, and so it's gone into the harbour through the stormwater network."
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The council had also let the sewage flow into the harbour through the street side gutter, but that flow had now stopped.
Hoses and chemicals had been used on the areas where the sewage had travelled.
"The smell's gone away but obviously we have to fix the break."
Maclean said it was not clear when the pipe would be repaired, but council hoped to have it sorted before the day was out.
Victoria St is down to one lane between Harris and Willeston streets, and motorists are advised to avoid the area until the break has been repaired.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/83744082/Wastewater-main-bursts-sending-sewage-into-Wellington-lagoon | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/4ff22091ee65f71f98c268bb85eb4c8b260dba32002dd9713fc5e4d921c06cc3.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:23 | null | 2016-08-29T10:40:52 | Black Caps face massive deficit as wickets tumble | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fcricket%2F83692011%2FSouth-Africa-claim-three-wickets-as-Black-Caps-wilt.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/t/e/p/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtt63.png/1472467252083.jpg | en | null | South Africa claim three wickets as Black Caps wilt | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | South Africa claim three wickets as Black Caps wilt
SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS New Zealand's hopes of posting a tangible response to South Africa's first innings at Centurion rested on captain Kane Williamson.
South Africa has made a triple breakthrough to leave Kane Williamson requiring the ultimate captain's knock as New Zealand face a massive deficit on day three of the second and final test at Centurion on Monday.
After negotiating the opening hour at SuperSport Park without further loss, the Black Caps lost Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling and Mitchell Santer before lunch as New Zealand slumped to 118-6 in reply to South Africa's imposing 481-8 declared.
SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS Henry Nicholls triggered the Black Caps slid on day three of the second test at centurion when he was dismissed for an encouraging 36.
Williamson remained resolute on 40 while Doug Bracewell was not out on one at lunch as New Zealand face the prospect of following on if they cannot cobble together 280.
The morning started promising for the Black Caps as Williamson and Nicholls initially defied the three-pronged pace attack while boosting the overnight score of 38-3 without any major anxiety.
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SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS Kagiso Rabada's appeal for lbw against Henry Nicholls was eventually upheld after a review by third umpire Richard Illingworth.
Nicholls, who was dropped on his overnight score of four before peeling three boundaries from a Dale Steyn over early in the session, was trapped lbw by South Africa's quickest paceman, Kagiso Rabada for 36 from 67 balls after Faf du Plessis wisely questioned Paul Reiffel's judgment.
BJ Watling [8] was also undone by South Africa's astute use of the DRS when UltraEdge technology showed a Steyn delivery brushed the wicketkeeper's glove before it was caught down the legside by counterpart Quinton de Kock.
The Black Caps plight worsened shortly before the break when Vernon Philander bowled Mitchell Santner for a four-ball duck via an inside edge.
RYAN WILKISKY/BackpagePix Dale Steyn in full cry as he appeals for the wicket of New Zealand opener Tom Latham, who was given out caught behind.
Williamson, who resumed his innings on 15, eclipsed his career average of 34.25 against the Proteas, though that is scant consolation as his goal of leading New Zealand to a historic series win is revised to trying to salvage a draw.
South Africa has held the ascendancy since Williamson opted to bowl first on Saturday, a decision that condemned his players to spending 154 overs in the highveld sunshine.
New Zealand then lost three wickets during a tough 16-over initiation late in the final session on Sunday as Steyn and Philander continued their historic torment of the Black Caps top order.
In a mirror image of the first test at Durban, openers Martin Guptill and Tom Latham failed to combat the Proteas pace spearheads although the latter was a touch unlucky to be given out caught behind by third umpire Richard Illingworth after UltraEdge technology detected faint contact.
Guptill's difficulties opening in tests continued when he edged to the slip cordon shortly after having a reprieve in the same area - he now averages 10.83 in six innings against South Africa and has a highest score of 48.
The Black Caps were 13-2 in 4.3 overs and then any hope of Williamson and Ross Taylor righting the innings were scuppered when the former captain ran himself out for one after trying to get off strike during Rabada's opening over.
Taylor, who made 366 runs without being dismissed in two test against Zimbabwe and the stalemate in Durban, unfortunately succeeded where the bowlers failed by attempting a suicidal single.
The only positive for the Kiwis from the Proteas mammoth batting exercise was ironically provided by a local with Pretoria-born quick Neil Wagner taking 5-86 from 39 overs, his fourth five-wicket bag in tests.
SuperSport Park was Wagner's home ground before he relocated to New Zealand in 2008 so he was rapt to have his named added to the ground's honours board.
"It was a bit of a dream, I never thought I'd achieve it, or get close to it. It's a bit of a fairytale thing, I'm quite amazed by it," said Wagner, who spent several years playing and training with du Plessis.
Failing to remove his old mate was the only downside for Wagner, who watched as the Proteas new skipper top scored with an unbeaten 112.
"All that backyard cricket, maybe he knows too much about what I'm trying to do," he said.
Meanwhile, history is against the Black Caps securing a draw, let alone winning their first test in South Africa since 1994 in Johannesburg.
New Zealand has been soundly in their two previous tests at Centurion by 128 runs and an innings and 59 runs in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/83692011/South-Africa-claim-three-wickets-as-Black-Caps-wilt | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/823918d38b17d02a383fb89ce43309a658da7dead8d112872cebd7e1636866c2.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:06 | null | 2016-08-30T16:57:18 | Disgraced US swimmer Ryan Lochte signs up for 'Dancing with the Stars' after fake 'Rio' robbery scandal. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2F83740522%2FRyan-Lochte-joins-Dancing-with-the-Stars-says-Rio-robbery-scandal-was-overblown.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/q/m/5/c/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duulm.png/1472576238574.jpg | en | null | Ryan Lochte joins Dancing with the Stars, says Rio 'robbery' scandal was overblown | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Ryan Lochte joins Dancing with the Stars, says Rio 'robbery' scandal was overblown
GETTY IMAGES Ryan Lochte is looking to overhaul his tarnished image.
Disgraced US swimmer Ryan Lochte is hoping to dance his way back into the public's good books, after his fabricated tale of a gunpoint robbery in Rio de Janeiro cast a pall over the United States' Olympic success earlier this month.
As widely predicted, Lochte has joined the next season of Dancing With the Stars - as he maintains his lie about being robbed was "blown out of proportion".
Dancing With the Stars - in which celebrities are paired with professional ballroom dancers and voted off by the public - has been a popular venue for those seeking a comeback or trying to change their public image. Past contestants have included Bristol Palin, daughter of the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and singer Donny Osmond.
LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS Ryan Lochte's fabricated tale saw him swiftly fall out of favour with US media.
Other Dancing With the Stars contestants this season will include former Texas governor Rick Perry, model Amber Rose (who you may know as Kanye West's ex), rapper Vanilla Ice (of Ice Ice Baby fame), and several other athletes, including 16-year-old US Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, former NFL star Calvin Johnson and IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe.
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MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS US gymnast Laurie Hernandez, who won silver in the balance beam event, will compete against Lochte.
Lochte, 32, was dropped by four of his major sponsors after admitting he "overexaggerated" a tale about being held at gunpoint with three other swimmers after a party during the Olympics.
Brazilian police said in reality, the group destroyed a service station bathroom and urinated in public, and have recommended that Lochte be charged with falsely reporting a crime. He is set to be summonsed to appear in a Rio court.
In the days after the incident, two of his Olympic teammates, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, were pulled off a plane by police as they tried to fly out of Brazil, while a third, James Feigen, was made to pay a massive fine before being allowed to leave the country - all while Lochte was safely back in the United States.
DANNY MOLOSHOK/REUTERS What's rapper Vanilla Ice been doing since the 90s? Hopefully practising his dance moves.
The swimmer, who was vilified over the incident, did not say whether he planned to return to Brazil to face the charges.
"I think it's everyone blowing this way out of proportion. I think that's what happened," Lochte told Good Morning America on Tuesday, when asked whether he had embarrassed the United States with his actions.
"Like I said, I did lie about that one part," said Lochte, referring to his claim that a gun was held to his head. "I take full responsibility. I'm human. I made a mistake. A very big mistake."
DANNY MOLOSHOK/REUTERS Model Amber Rose is also competing on the show.
"Everyone has got to be sick and tired about hearing about this. I just want to move forward," added Lochte, his silver-dyed hair now returned to a more natural brown.
The 12-time Olympic medallist said he wasn't just joining the show to try to curry favour with an upset public, adding that his appearance was under discussion before he went to the Rio Games.
"I'm definitely really excited. This is completely new for me," he said in a statement.
"I think it's time for me to hang up the Speedo and put on my dancing shoes and get in that ballroom.
"I'm going to treat this kind of like going into the Olympics ... You train for so long and you have that one shot to put it all out there, and I think that's what I'm going to do."
After the London Olympics in 2012 he was given his own, short-lived reality TV show, What Would Ryan Lochte Do?.
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/83740522/Ryan-Lochte-joins-Dancing-with-the-Stars-says-Rio-robbery-scandal-was-overblown | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/c724127f4fee1dcc680a332b7454317c288efca8486544cdd32f4fdcb22efacc.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:21 | null | 2016-08-28T20:02:15 | Owen Franks has been cleared of eye gouging Kane Douglas, but this video doesn't look good. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fall-blacks%2F83652933%2FOwen-Franks-cleared-of-eye-gouge-but-this-video-doesn-t-look-good.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/z/4/n/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsz0l.png/1472416892476.jpg | en | null | Owen Franks cleared of eye-gouge, but this video doesn't look good | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Owen Franks cleared of eye-gouge, but this video doesn't look good
Fairfax Media Australia A Sydney Morning Herald-produced video raises questions over whether All Blacks prop Owen Franks eye gouged Wallaby Kane Douglas in the Bledisloe test in Wellington.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has defended Owen Franks, saying Sanzaar made the right decision not to suspend him for an alleged eye-gouge on Australia's Kane Douglas during Saturday night's Bledisloe Cup match.
New video of the incident emerged late on Sunday that shows Franks clearly making contact with Douglas' eyes, but Sanzaar deemed there were no incidents from the match that reached a red card threshold.
Franks will be free to play for the remainder of the All Blacks' Rugby Championship campaign.
FOX SPORT Owen Franks appears to gouge Kane Douglas.
It comes after Wallabies coach Michael Cheika accused Franks of deliberately eye-gouging Douglas during a maul in the seventh minute of his side's 29-9 loss in Wellington.
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World Rugby laws state that a player cannot make "contact with the eye area", while two different angles suggest Franks touched Douglas's eyes on one occasion, then grabbed him around the neck seconds later.
"We saw it at the time but I'm sure the match review will pick it up," Cheika said after the match.
"They couldn't miss it, it was pretty in the open. It'd be pretty hard for the match review to miss."
However, Hansen, when asked about the incident on Sunday, was adamant his player had done nothing wrong.
"I've seen the footage and I agree with the independent person who said there's nothing to answer for," Hansen said.
"You've got to be really, really careful until you see all the views, and social media I think alerted everyone to it. Whoever was running it has obviously seen all the angles and believes there's nothing to answer for. I think at times people might have been a little over-keen, but it was all push and shove. There's nothing really in it really.
Phil Walter/ Getty Images Owen Franks celebrates the All Blacks' retention of the Bledisloe Cup in Wellington at the weekend.
"I saw his [Cheika's] comments but I don't want to make any comment about it. It's been dealt with, end of story."
According to World Rugby regulations, a team can refer incidents from a match to the citing commissioner for them to investigate, for up to 12 hours after the match. However, on this occasion the visitors did not make an official complaint. It is understood this was because they were convinced Sanzaar would pull up Franks for the alleged foul play.
A matter can be re-opened if an aggrieved player makes a complaint, but it is understood that Douglas had no wish to do so.
Cheika spoke to the media on Sunday morning at Sydney airport but was unaware Sanzaar had not cited Franks.
Hansen tried to explain Franks' actions, saying similar incidents occurred throughout the match.
"In the same game, you can go to two or three other lineouts where they're driving and the same thing happens," Hansen said.
"It's an unfortunate by-product I think of the mauling rules that we have because the only way you can get there is through clamouring over the top, and then that creates a response, people try and pull them out of the way and the only thing they can use is the head area.
"We'll look at that and try and make sure we don't go around that area because it creates a problem. But if there's no case to answer, there's no case to answer.
"There's a fine line between being in the zone and being too much in it, or not enough in it."
Footage of the incident was shared prolifically on social media, with opinions divided as to whether there was anything sinister in Franks' wayward fingers.
Suggestions of an eye gouge from Owen Franks on Kane Douglas. What do you think?Via - the tight five rugby union pic.twitter.com/UtZyrx5pPS — EatSleepRugby (@eatsleeprugby) August 27, 2016
- Sydney Morning Herald | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/83652933/Owen-Franks-cleared-of-eye-gouge-but-this-video-doesn-t-look-good | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/aeb3bc8fc16a6747e2b1bdc13b369a207fd4ef069b9826f5bd529500a1df811f.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:08 | null | 2016-08-28T18:10:43 | Finland, the world's most literate nation, has a history of producing the highest global test scores in the Western world. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Feurope%2F83651875%2FThis-is-why-Finland-has-the-best-schools.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/y/7/6/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsy77.png/1472408251209.jpg | en | null | This is why Finland has the best schools | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | This is why Finland has the best schools
Heikki Saukkomaa In Finland, children don't receive formal academic training until the age of seven.
OPINION: The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans: "Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States."
Following his recommendation, I enrolled my seven-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu. Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian border.
OK, I wasn't just blindly following Gardner – I had a position as a lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland for a semester. But the point is that, for five months, my wife, my son and I experienced a stunningly stress-free, and stunningly good, school system.
Finland has a history of producing the highest global test scores in the Western world, as well as a trophy case full of other recent No 1 global rankings, including most literate nation.
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In Finland, children don't receive formal academic training until the age of seven. Until then, many are in day care and learn through play, songs, games and conversation. Most children walk or bike to school, even the youngest. School hours are short and homework is generally light.
Unlike in the United States, where many schools are slashing recess, schoolchildren in Finland have a mandatory 15-minute outdoor free-play break every hour of every day. Fresh air, nature and regular physical activity breaks are considered engines of learning. According to one Finnish maxim: "There is no bad weather. Only inadequate clothing."
One evening, I asked my son what he did for gym that day. "They sent us into the woods with a map and compass and we had to find our way out," he said.
Finland doesn't waste time or money on low-quality mass standardised testing. Instead, children are assessed every day, through direct observation, check-ins and quizzes by the highest-quality "personalised learning device" ever created – flesh-and-blood teachers.
In class, children are allowed to have fun, giggle and daydream from time to time. Finns put into practice the cultural mantras I heard over and over: "Let children be children", "The work of a child is to play", and "Children learn best through play".
The emotional climate of the typical classroom is warm, safe, respectful and highly supportive. There are no scripted lessons and no quasi-martial requirements to walk in straight lines or sit up straight.
In Finland teachers are the most trusted and admired professionals next to doctors, in part because they are required to have a master's degree in education with specialisation in research and classroom practice.
"Our mission as adults is to protect our children from politicians," one Finnish childhood education professor told me. "We also have an ethical and moral responsibility to tell businesspeople to stay out of our building."
In fact, any Finnish citizen is free to visit any school whenever they like, but her message was clear: Educators are the ultimate authorities on education, not bureaucrats, and not technology vendors.
Finland delivers on a national public scale highly qualified, highly respected and highly professionalised teachers who conduct personalised one-on-one instruction; manageable class sizes; a rich, developmentally correct curriculum; regular physical activity; little or no low-quality standardised tests and the toxic stress and wasted time and energy that accompanies them; daily assessments by teachers; and a classroom atmosphere of safety, collaboration, warmth and respect for children as cherished individuals.
One day last November, when the first snow came to my part of Finland, I heard a commotion outside my university faculty office window, which is close to the teacher training school's outdoor play area. I walked over to investigate.
The field was filled with children savouring the first taste of winter amid the pine trees.
"Do you hear that?" asked the recess monitor, a special education teacher wearing a yellow safety smock.
"That," she said proudly, "is the voice of happiness."
• William Doyle is a 2015-2016 Fulbright scholar and a lecturer on media and education at the University of Eastern Finland.
- Los Angeles Times | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/83651875/This-is-why-Finland-has-the-best-schools | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/a703bcf72fee0c387cb10fa9b9485e125de190be7ea265b2135f7b927d4dc32b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:35 | null | 2016-08-27T01:53:31 | Kiwi world golf No 1 shoots three-under round to be tied fourth at halfway point of Canadian Women's Open. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2F83629657%2FMid-round-birdie-blitz-keeps-Lydia-Ko-right-in-the-hunt-at-Canadian-Womens-Open.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/h/c/y/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsh21.png/1472263885764.jpg | en | null | Mid-round birdie blitz keeps Lydia Ko right in the hunt at Canadian Women's Open | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Mid-round birdie blitz keeps Lydia Ko right in the hunt at Canadian Women's Open
GETTY IMAGES World No 1 Lydia Ko is a three-time champion at the Canadian Women's Open.
Lydia Ko remains right in the hunt for a fourth Canadian Women's Open title after a solid second round took her into a five-way tie for fourth.
Tournament winner in 2012, 2013 and 2015, the Kiwi world No 1 shot a three-under 69 to slide one place down the leaderboard in Calgary on Friday (Saturday NZ time).
Ko made five birdies and two bogeys at the Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club, taking her to eight-under alongside South Korea's Mi Jung Hur, Chella Choi, Sei Young Kim and Hyo Joo Kim.
GETTY IMAGES The 19-year-old from Auckland's North Shore reacts to a putt on the sixth green during her second round at the Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club.
Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn, who won three LPGA events on the bounce in May and was crowned British Open champion last month before withdrawing during the third round of the Rio Olympics tournament with a knee injury, held the outright lead at 12-under after a birdie-laden eight-under second round display.
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Northern Irelands's Stephanie Meadow and In Gee Chun were tied second at nine-under par.
While Ko was not able to match her five-under opening round, the 19-year-old from Auckland's North Shore still did enough to stay in touch with the overall leaders.
The Olympic Games silver medallist made just one birdie in the first seven holes and although that was cancelled out by a bogey at the par three eighth, she eventually found her range to make a quick jump up the leaderboard.
Ko made four straight birdies at the par four ninth, par four 10th, par three 11th and par five 12th to get to nine-under and just three shots adrift of Jutanugarn.
A second bogey for the day at the par four 14th brought her back into a tie for second, before she closed out the round with four pars.
Somewhat unusually for Ko, it was a slightly wayward day of approach shots which prevented her from getting closer to Jutanugarn.
The Kiwi hit 13 of 14 fairways and needed only 26 putts, but was only able to manage 11 of 18 greens in regulation.
Ko became the youngest winner in LPGA history and the tour's first amateur winner in 43 years when she took out the 2012 Canadian Open at Vancouver Golf Club aged just 15.
She won the event again as an amateur the following year, an impressive five shots ahead of runner-up Karine Icher in Edmonton, before returning to Vancouver in 2015 and lifting the silverware after a playoff with leading US player Stacy Lewis.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/golf/83629657/Mid-round-birdie-blitz-keeps-Lydia-Ko-right-in-the-hunt-at-Canadian-Womens-Open | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/09353fd8ae35ccd17da2b5bc8756cfb7cf6811a2c975230aba1c3ba67ccc5d55.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:18 | null | 2016-08-30T19:32:03 | North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered unusual death for two more officials, reports say. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Fasia%2F83741437%2FDeath-by-anti-aircraft-gun-as-Kim-Jong-Un-executes-officials.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/c/a/c/0/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duvb1.png/1472587596813.jpg | en | null | Death 'by anti-aircraft gun' as Kim Jong Un executes officials | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Death 'by anti-aircraft gun' as Kim Jong Un executes officials
KCNA Kim has carried out a series of executions since taking power in 2011 after his father's death as he puts his mark on the leadership of the isolated nuclear-armed nation.
Two senior North Korean officials were executed with an anti-aircraft gun in early August on the orders of Kim Jong Un, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reports.
Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education ministry - possibly the minister - was arrested for dozing off during a meeting with Kim and charged with corruption before being killed, the paper said.
Former Agriculture Minister Hwang Min was purged over a proposed project seen as a direct challenge to Kim's leadership, it said.
SERGEI KARPUKHIN/REUTERS Kim purged his defence minister Hyon Yong Chol (pictured) for dozing off at a rally, reportedly also with an anti-aircraft gun.
If true, it would mark the first executions ordered by Kim from outside his party or the military, the paper said. A spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry said he couldn't immediately confirm the JoongAng report.
READ MORE:
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* What happens to NK missiles launched into the sea
Kim has carried out a series of executions since taking power in 2011 after his father's death as he puts his mark on the leadership of the isolated nuclear-armed nation.
The most high profile was the killing three years ago of his uncle and one-time deputy Jang Song Thaek. He had about 50 officials executed in 2014 on charges ranging from graft to watching South Korean soap operas.
"Kim is continuing to replace the old guard of his father's regime with loyalists," said Robert Kelly, a political science professor at South Korea's Pusan National University. "The charges are obviously trumped up, and this is how promotion or demotion often works in totalitarian states without legitimate venues for opposition."
Kim had his military chief Ri Yong Gil executed in February on charges including corruption, Yonhap News reported at the time. In January last year he executed General Pyon In Son, head of operations in the army, for disagreeing with him; and in May of that year he purged his defence minister Hyon Yong Chol for dozing off at a rally, reportedly also with an anti-aircraft gun.
Still, reports of purges of senior North Korean officials are not uncommon and at times have proven to be unreliable.
Earlier this month, Seoul announced that a senior North Korean diplomat based in the U.K. had defected to South Korea. The man was among seven diplomats who have defected this year, according to JoongAng Ilbo.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday the defections signal a "serious fracture" within the North Korean regime and raise the prospects of fresh provocations as Kim seeks to maintain control. Her comments came as South Korea and the U.S. hold annual military drills that North Korea calls a prelude to an invasion.
Even so, Kelly at Pusan University said that the isolated state is probably more stable than many people think or want it to be.
"I don't think there has been a fracture," he said. "So long as China keeps the goodies flowing into Pyongyang, which is like a city-state in an ocean of deprivation, the elites won't turn on each other."
- The Washington Post | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/83741437/Death-by-anti-aircraft-gun-as-Kim-Jong-Un-executes-officials | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/ba8ccb763669dfde0c061812d732a7f76392f9e9ed2feb7f8963b94c3b4d2050.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:52:47 | null | 2016-08-31T09:24:16 | It's been a lucky night for the regions, with two lotto players from Paihia and Invercargill winning $500,000 each. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83779310%2F500k-each-for-two-Lotto-winners-in-Paihia-and-Invercargill.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/o/7/8/f/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dvoj2.png/1472639216412.jpg | en | null | $500k each for two Lotto winners in Paihia and Invercargill | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | $500k each for two Lotto winners in Paihia and Invercargill
Michael Bradley/Fairfax NZ $500k each to two lucky winners.
It's been a lucky night for the regions, with two lotto players from Paihia and Invercargill winning $500,000 each.
The first division winners bought their tickets at the Paihia Four Square, and Windsor New World in Invercargill.
Powerball was not struck and will be rolled over to Saturday night. The jackpot will be $7 million.
Strike Four was also not struck tonight and will also roll over to Saturday, but it will only be worth $400,000.
READ MORE:
* How you could splurge $34m
* Lotto presenter's big-draw nerves
* Ashburton couple 'stunned' after massive Lotto windfall
* NZ Lotto winners spend cash on fish 'n chips and mortgages
* Behind-the-scenes look at Lotto's exclusive winners' room
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83779310/500k-each-for-two-Lotto-winners-in-Paihia-and-Invercargill | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/528b55b6da4989a930b46d22ddf7df2f7b34304324134ee66a49c57e2f75f11b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:51:50 | null | 2016-08-30T06:41:33 | Novak Djokovic fights through arm pain to win his first-round US Open match. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Ftennis%2F83727378%2FNovak-Djokovics-painful-US-Open-win-over-Jerzy-Janowicz.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/l/c/e/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dukgi.png/1472539293753.jpg | en | null | Novak Djokovic's painful US Open win over Jerzy Janowicz | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Novak Djokovic's painful US Open win over Jerzy Janowicz
ELSA/GETTY IMAGES Novak Djokovic struggled with an arm injury before beating Jerzy Janowicz of Poland during his first round singles match at the US Open.
Novak Djokovic double-faulted, then shook his right arm and grimaced.
Seconds later, a weak serve produced a wince, then was followed by a missed forehand that gave away a set in the defending champion's first-round match at the US Open on Tuesday NZT.
While he managed to emerge with a 6-3 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, there were plenty of signs of trouble, starting with a visit from a trainer who massaged Djokovic's bothersome arm after only five games.
GETTY IMAGES Jerzy Janowicz of Poland was gutted to lose the match.
Asked about his health during an on-court interview, Djokovic deflected the question, saying, "I don't think it's necessary to talk about this now. I'm through. I'm taking it day by day.''
READ MORE:
* Energised Rafael Nadal completes straight-sets win in opener
* Murray seeks fourth Slam title
* Williams chases singles record
ELSA/GETTY IMAGES Actor Alec Baldwin likes what he sees during the match between Novak Djokovic and Jerzy Janowicz.
When the subject arose at his news conference, Djokovic again avoided the topic, saying only that the trainer's visit "was just prevention; it's all good."
During the match, Djokovic hit first serves around 160kmh, sometimes slower - 40kmh or so below what's normal for him. He flexed that right arm, the one he has used to wield a racket on the way to 12 Grand Slam titles, and appeared generally unhappy.
In the stands, Djokovic's coach, Boris Becker, gnawed on his fingernails, looking nervous as can be.
All in all, Djokovic's issues figure to loom large as the tournament progresses, and therefore amounted to the most noteworthy development at Flushing Meadows, even if there were results of interest elsewhere.
Those included No 8 seed Madison Keys' 4-6 7-6, 6-2 comeback victory over 60th-ranked Alison Riske in the last match of the night. It finished at 1:48am local time, well after Keys took a medical timeout while a trainer worked on her right shoulder in the second set, and extended Riske's Grand Slam losing streak to 10 matches.
That was one of three intriguing all-American contests Monday. The others were 20th-seeded John Isner's comeback from two sets down to edge 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe before a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd at the new Grandstand, and 26th-seeded Jack Sock's five-set victory over another 18-year-old, Taylor Fritz.
More drama, too: A first-round loss by Rio Olympics gold medallist Monica Puig, and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza's complaints about having trouble breathing after dropping the first set of a match she would go on to win in three.
This was the No 1-ranked Djokovic's first match at a major since losing to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon, which ended the Serb's bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam after titles at the Australian Open and French Open. He exited the Rio Olympics in the first round this month, then sat out the Cincinnati Masters because of a sore left wrist.
"After all I've been through in last couple of weeks, it's pleasing, of course, to finish the match and win it," said Djokovic, who lost to his next opponent, Jiri Vesely, at Monte Carlo in April. "Look, each day presents us some kind of challenges that we need to overcome, accept and overcome."
Earlier in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Rafael Nadal stood near the net after winning his first Grand Slam match in three months - 6-1 6-4 6-2 against Denis Istomin - and unravelled the thick wrap of white tape protecting his all-important left wrist. He said he's still not back to hitting his forehand the way he does when he's at his best.
The good news for Nadal, he said afterwards, is that the pain is gone from his wrist, which whips those violent, topspin-heavy forehands that are the key to his success - 14 of his 21 winners came off that wing.
Nadal's summation of his day: ``Not very good; not very bad."
- AP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/83727378/Novak-Djokovics-painful-US-Open-win-over-Jerzy-Janowicz | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/4c10ed076a400440ffa6721f6476f57d299e21c9a0cf6068266691d1515c5e82.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:45 | null | 2016-08-31T05:36:23 | Children's ceramic daffodil display, two years in the making, | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83758862%2FCeramic-daffodil-display-in-Marlborough-mowed-by-vandal-on-golf-cart.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/v/9/g/9/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dv8r2.png/1472623174509.jpg | en | null | Ceramic daffodil display in Marlborough 'mowed' by vandal on golf cart | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Ceramic daffodil display in Marlborough 'mowed' by vandal on golf cart
SCOTT HAMMOND/FAIRFAX NZ Fairhall School pupils Zoe Materman, 5, left, and Samantha Williams, 7, planted clay daffodils for the Cancer Society Marlborough last Sunday.
A cancer fundraiser two years in the making has been destroyed by a vandal on a golf cart.
About 3500 ceramic daffodils handmade by primary school children in Marlborough had been installed along the river to raise funds for the Cancer Society Marlborough.
The project had received high-profile support with daffodils painted by Prime Minister John Key and filmmaker Peter Jackson.
SCOTT HAMMOND/FAIRFAX NZ Ceramic daffodils at the Taylor River Reserve in Blenheim.
However, while out walking on Wednesday morning, mayor's wife Thelma Sowman said she saw a man on a motorised golf cart driving through the daffodil display.
READ MORE:
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Sowman said the man "did a loop" around the outside of the installation at the Taylor River Reserve and "mowed" down the daffodils.
"This chap in a golf cart did a shortcut from Nelson Street, came hooning down and went right through the daffodils," she said.
"It was just unbelievable. He was going very, very fast."
The daffodils were meant to be removed on Monday, but the Cancer Society Marlborough decided to leave the installation up for another week because of public demand.
"He knew exactly what he was doing, he was aiming for them," Sowman said. "You have to make a concerted effort to knock them down.
"I'm just disgusted that anyone would do that."
Sowman said the vehicle was a white golf cart, complete with canopy roof and orange flag on the back.
"Because he had a high-vis vest on, I thought he was a worker," she said.
Cancer Society Marlborough fundraiser Zoe Gray said the man had "been and gone" before police arrived at the scene.
"I'm pretty sad," she said. "We had sold quite a lot of them."
Gray said she was sad for the children who were behind the project.
"The children were really proud of what they had created with these daffodils," she said.
"This is taking something beautiful they had created and destroying it."
Gray said although she was disappointed, the act did not ruin the project entirely.
"The joy from the community throughout far outweighs the negative of this," she said.
The project was a joint fundraiser by the Marlborough Cancer Society and the Marlborough Community Potters and was planned for the past two years.
Blenheim police said they were looking to speak to a man in his 50s regarding the incident.
Sowman said the man should apologise and make a donation to the Cancer Society.
"A large donation too, not just a few dollars," she said. "I just hope he's found."
Sowman said the man returned to the footpath on Nelson St and continued in the direction of Springlands.
Daffodils can still be purchased from the Cancer Society Marlborough office at Market Place.
- The Marlborough Express | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83758862/Ceramic-daffodil-display-in-Marlborough-mowed-by-vandal-on-golf-cart | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/3b2438a509fe66ecf936b260b10b418a416d52aa971d696ec9c11f7773228c28.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T20:51:34 | null | 2016-08-27T20:32:15 | A Southwest passenger jet flying over the US made an emergency landing after a high-skies drama. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Ftravel%2Ftravel-troubles%2F83636782%2FSouthwest-Airlines-planes-engine-torn-apart-in-midair-forcing-emergency-landing.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/m/p/9/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsmjy.png/1472329935954.jpg | en | null | Southwest Airlines plane's engine torn apart in midair, forcing emergency landing | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Southwest Airlines plane's engine torn apart in midair, forcing emergency landing
LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS The airline didn't yet know the cause of the problem.
Passengers on a United States flight had a terrifying emergency landing after part of an engine was ripped apart in mid-air.
Southwest Airlines confirmed a flight from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, was diverted on Saturday morning after a problem with an engine.
Spokesman Chris Mainz said the flight landed in Pensacola, Florida - some 720 kilometres from its destination - about 9.40am local time (12.40am Sunday, NZ Time).
TWITTER The plane's left engine was ripped apart in mid-air.
Passengers posted photos online, showing the metal around front of the plane's left engine had been torn off.
@10TV southwest plane from New Orleans to Orlando's engine blew in the sky. This was my dads boss's picture he got pic.twitter.com/TFoAQ9i0tZ — lexy (@lexydray) August 27, 2016
Mainz said there were no injuries to the 99 passengers and five crew members.
A Wall Street Journal reporter on board the plane, John Ostrower, tweeted that there was also damage to its fuselage and wing root.
He said the 104 on board were "very lucky".
Airlivenet suggested there was an explosion in the engine.
PHOTO UPDATE Inflight picture of Southwest jet after losing part of the engine (@AirportWebcams) pic.twitter.com/CAM8VK82n0 - @NewsHazbail — AIRLIVE.net (@airlivenet) August 27, 2016
The plane was now out of service and the airlines was scrambling to find a replacement to take passengers to Orlando.
Southwest Airlines had notified the National Transportation Safety Board.
Mainz said the airline would inspect the damage when authorised, and work with the agency to determine the cause of the problem.
- AP and Stuff
- AP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/83636782/Southwest-Airlines-planes-engine-torn-apart-in-midair-forcing-emergency-landing | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/2ee09fe1ba34c4c32ab1c2bf10bf058edc314fd83d195c60845a360fea09e66a.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T04:51:01 | null | 2016-08-28T04:39:09 | At least 10 police cars and the Armed Offenders Squad have been seen. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fcrime%2F83646452%2FLarge-police-presence-in-Warkworth-north-of-Auckland.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/p/t/4/d/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsu0k.png/1472359149817.jpg | en | null | Large police presence in Warkworth, north of Auckland | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Large police presence in Warkworth, north of Auckland
SIMON MAUDE/FAIRFAX NZ At least 10 police cars have been seen rushing to Warkworth.
A large police presence has been reported in Warkworth, about 60km north of Auckland.
Stuff readers have reported at least 10 police cars, an ambulance and the Armed Offenders Squad rushing to the township along the northern motorway.
A police spokeswoman said the police could not "release any information at this time".
More to come.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83646452/Large-police-presence-in-Warkworth-north-of-Auckland | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/fb6fe29778a93906dfac0d7745fdea18e741d0da853a3aa92d2ddfd2dd20e5b4.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:51:50 | null | 2016-08-30T09:48:57 | Mountain dotted with mass graves where Isis have killed and buried more than 15,000. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2F83738040%2FIsis-buried-thousands-in-72-mass-graves-AP-finds.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/s/s/o/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dusoo.png/1472550888664.jpg | en | null | Isis buried thousands in 72 mass graves - AP finds | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Isis buried thousands in 72 mass graves - AP finds
This image released by the the Mass Graves Directorate of the Kurdish Regional Government shows a human skull in a mass grave containing Yazidis killed by Islamic State militants in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in May, 2015.
Surrounded by smoke and flames, the sound of gunshots echoing around him, the young man crouched in the creek for hours, listening to the men in his family die.
On the other side of the mountain, another survivor peered through binoculars as the handcuffed men of neighbouring villages were shot and then buried by a waiting bulldozer. For six days he watched as the extremists filled one grave after another with his friends and relatives.
Between them, the two scenes of horror on Sinjar mountain contain six burial sites and the bodies of more than 100 people, just a small fraction of the mass graves Islamic State extremists have scattered across Iraq and Syria.
STRINGER/IRAQ A bone, suspected to belong to a member of Iraq's Yazidi community, is seen in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, November 30, 2015. K
In exclusive interviews, photos and research, The Associated Press has documented and mapped 72 of the mass graves, the most comprehensive survey so far, with many more expected to be uncovered as the Islamic State group's territory shrinks.
In Syria, AP has obtained locations for 17 mass graves, including one with the bodies of hundreds of members of a single tribe all but exterminated when Isis extremists took over their region.
READ MORE:
* 500 Yazidis slaughtered by Islamic State
* Kurdish forces launch battle to retake Iraq's Sinjar
* Iraqi Kurds uncover mass graves in Isis-held Sinjar
For at least 16 of the Iraqi graves, most in territory too dangerous to excavate, officials do not even guess the number of dead. In others, the estimates are based on memories of traumatised survivors, Islamic State propaganda and what can be gleaned from a cursory look at the earth. Still, even the known victims buried are staggering - from 5200 to more than 15,000.
Sinjar mountain is dotted with mass graves, some in territory clawed back from Isis after the group's onslaught against the Yazidi minority in August 2014; others in the deadly no man's land that has yet to be secured.
The bodies of Talal Murat's father, uncles and cousins lie beneath the rubble of the family farm, awaiting a time when it is safe for surviving relatives to return to the place where the men were gunned down. On Sinjar's other flank, Rasho Qassim drives daily past the graves holding the bodies of his two sons. The road is in territory long since seized back, but the five sites are untouched, roped off and awaiting the money or the political will for excavation, as the evidence they contain is scoured away by the wind and baked by the sun.
REUTERS Kurdish peshmerga forces look at bones in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, February, 2015.
"We want to take them out of here. There are only bones left. But they said 'No, they have to stay there, a committee will come and exhume them later,''' said Qassim, standing at the edge of the flimsy fence surrounding one site, where his two sons are buried. "It has been two years but nobody has come.''
Isis made no attempt to hide its atrocities. In fact it boasted of them. But proving what United Nations officials and others have described as an ongoing genocide, and prosecuting those behind it, will be complicated as the graves deteriorate.
"We see clear evidence of the intent to destroy the Yazidi people,'' said Naomi Kikoler, who recently visited the region for the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
RODI SAID/REUTERS Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border in 2014/
"There's been virtually no effort to systematically document the crimes perpetrated, to preserve the evidence, and to ensure that mass graves are identified and protected.''
Then there are the graves still out of reach. The Islamic State group's atrocities extend well outside the Yazidi region in northern Iraq.
Satellites offer the clearest look at massacres such as the one at Badoush Prison in June 2014 that left 600 male inmates dead. A patch of scraped earth and tire tracks show the likely killing site, according to exclusive photos obtained by the imagery intelligence firm AllSource Analysis.
STRINGER/IRAQ Bones, suspected to belong to Iraq's Yazidi community, are seen in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, November 30, 2015
Of the 72 mass graves documented by AP, the smallest contains three bodies; the largest is believed to hold thousands, but no one knows for sure.
ALL THEY COULD DO WAS WATCH THE SLAUGHTER
On the northern flank of Sinjar mountain, five grave sites ring a desert crossroads. It is here that the young men of Hardan village are buried, under thistles and piles of cracked earth. They were killed in the bloody IS offensive of August 2014.
Through his binoculars, Arkan Qassem watched it all. His village, Gurmiz, is just up the slope from Hardan, giving a clear view over the plain below. When the jihadis swept over the area, everyone in Gurmiz fled up the mountaintop for refuge. Then Arkan and nine other men returned to their village with light weapons to try to defend their homes.
Instead, all they could do was watch the slaughter below. Arkan witnessed the militants set up checkpoints, preventing residents from leaving. Women and children were taken away.
Then the killings began. The first night, Arkan saw the militants line up a group of handcuffed men in the headlights of a bulldozer at an intersection, less than a kilometre down the slope from Gurmiz. They gunned the men down, then the bulldozer ploughed the earth over their bodies.
Over six days, Arkan and his comrades watched helplessly as the fighters brought out three more groups of men - several dozen each, usually with hands bound - to the crossroads and killed them. He didn't always see what they did with the bodies. One time, he saw them lighting a bonfire, but he couldn't see why.
Finally, the jihadis brought in artillery and prepared to make an assault on Gurmiz. Arkan and his comrades fled up the mountain to where their families had taken refuge.
Now, since Isis fighters were driven out of the area, the 32-year-old has returned to his home. But he's haunted by the site. As documented by the aid group Yazda, which has mapped the Sinjar sites, the graves are in a rough pentagon flanking the crossroads, largely unprotected. Around one of them is a mesh fence and a wind-battered sign. As Arkan spoke at the site, a shepherd herded his flock nearby.
"I have lots of people I know there. Mostly friends and neighbours,'' he said. "It's very difficult to look at them every day.''
"THIS BODY IS WEARING MY FATHER'S CLOTHES''
As Isis fighters swarmed into the Sinjar area in early August 2014, Talal fled his town along with his father, mother, four sisters and younger brother. They and dozens of other men, women and children from his extended clan converged on an uncle's farm outside the town of Tel Azer. They prayed it was remote enough to escape the killings that were already engulfing so many Yazidis.
It wasn't.
The jihadis fired at the house from a distance. Then they rolled up in their vehicles and shot one man in the head as they stood in the yard. They surrounded the farmhouse, ordered everyone outside and demanded the impossible: Convert.
The Yazidi faith, one of the region's oldest, has elements of Christianity and Islam but is distinct. Yazidis worship the Peacock Angel, fallen and forgiven by God under their tradition, and their shrines feature carved images of the birds and references to the sun. Muslim extremists condemned them as "devil worshippers'' and over the centuries have subjected them to multiple massacres - 72, by the Yazidis' count.
In its own propaganda, the Islamic State group made clear its intention to wipe out the Yazidi community. In an issue of its online English-language magazine Dabiq, it scolded Muslims for allowing the Yazidis to continue existing, calling their ancient religion a form of paganism. It quoted Quranic verses to justify killing the Yazidis unless they become Muslim.
Thwarted in their halfhearted attempt at conversions, the fighters separated about 35 teenage girls and young women from the rest, crammed them into a few cars and drove away. The militants herded the older women and young children into the farmhouse and locked the door.
Then they lined the men and teenaged boys against the wall of the stables - about 40 in all, including Talal.
There were too many of them, too bunched up, to efficiently mow down, so the fighters then ordered them to lie on the ground in a row, Talal said. That was when his uncle told him to make a run for it. Talal bolted into his uncle's hayfield, as did several other men. The militants fired at them, and the bullets ignited the hay, dry from the summer sun. The fire covered Talal's escape, and he took shelter in a nearby creek.
There he hid, listening as the gunmen shot his family to death. He eventually fled toward the mountain, joined by three others who had survived the massacre. Four out of 40.
Back at the farm, the gunmen eventually left and the women and children emerged, looking around with growing horror.
Nouri Murat, Talal's mother, found her husband. His body was untouched, but his head was shattered. Her daughters, she said, were confused at first. "This is strange, this body is wearing my father's clothes,'' one of them said. As Nouri frantically searched around the property for any surviving menfolk, her 9-year-old daughter Rukhan lay down beside her father's corpse.
Finally, other women persuaded the family to head to the mountain before the Islamic State fighters returned.
As they began the long walk north, Nouri noticed Rukhan's bloody fist. Fearing her daughter was wounded, she pried open the girl's clenched fingers. Inside were a handful of her father's teeth.
"THEY DON'T EVEN TRY TO HIDE THEIR CRIMES''
Nearly every area freed from Isis control has unmasked new mass graves, like one found by the sports stadium in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Many of the graves themselves are easy enough to find, most covered with just a thin coating of earth.
"They don't even try to hide their crimes,'' said Sirwan Jalal, the director of Iraqi Kurdistan's agency in charge of mass graves. "They are beheading them, shooting them, running them over in cars, all kinds of killing techniques, and they don't even try to hide it.''
No one outside Isis has seen the Iraqi ravine where hundreds of Shiite prison inmates were killed point blank and then torched. Satellite images of scraped dirt along the river point to its location, according to Steve Wood of AllSource. His analysts triangulated survivors' accounts and began to systematically search the desert according to their descriptions of that day, June 10, 2014.
The inmates were separated out by religion, and Shiites were loaded onto trucks, driven for a few kilometres (miles) and forced to line up and count off, according to accounts by 15 survivors gathered by Human Rights Watch. Then they knelt along the edge of the crescent-shaped ravine, according to a report cited by AllSource.
"I was number 43. I heard them say '615,' and then one Isis guy said, 'We're going to eat well tonight.' A man behind us asked, 'Are you ready?' Another person answered `Yes,' and began shooting at us with a machine-gun. Then they all started to shoot us from behind, going down the row,'' according to the Human Rights Watch account of a survivor identified only as A.S.
The men survived by pretending to be dead.
Using their accounts and others, AllSource examined an image from July 17, 2014, that appeared to show the location as described, between a main road and the railway outside Mosul. The bodies are believed to be packed tightly together, side by side in a space approximately the length of two football fields end to end, in what the AllSource analysis described as a "sardine trench.'' Tire tracks lead to and from the site.
"There's actually earth that has been pushed over and actually moved to cover parts of the ravine. As we look across the entire ravine we only see that in this one location,'' said Wood. "Ultimately there are many, many more sites across Iraq and Syria that have yet to be either forensically exhumed or be able to be detailed and there's quite a bit more research that needs to take place.''
The key, Wood said, is having photos to indicate a grave's location taken soon after its creation.
Justice has been done in at least one Isis mass killing - that of about 1700 Iraqi soldiers who were forced to lie face-down in a ditch and then machine-gunned at Camp Speicher. On August 21, 36 men convicted in those killings were hanged at Iraq's Nasiriyah prison.
But justice is likely to be elusive in areas still firmly under Isis control, even though the extremists have filmed themselves committing the atrocities. That's the case for a deep natural sinkhole outside Mosul that is now a pit of corpses. In Syria's Raqqa province, thousands of bodies are believed to have been thrown into the giant al-Houta crevasse.
Conditions in much of Syria remain a mystery. Activists believe there are hundreds of mass graves in Isis-controlled areas that can only be explored when fighting stops. By that time, they fear any effort to document the massacres, exhume and identify the remains will become infinitely more complicated.
Working behind Isis lines, local residents have informally documented some mass graves, even partially digging some up. Some of the worst have been found in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. There, 400 members of the Shueitat tribe were found in one grave, just some of the up to 1000 members of the tribe believed to have been massacred by Isis when the militants took over the area, said Ziad Awad, the editor of an online publication on Deir el-Zour called The Eye of the City who is trying to document the graves.
In Raqqa province, the bodies of 160 Syrian soldiers, killed when Isis overran their base, were found in seven large pits.
So far, at least 17 mass graves are known, though largely unreachable, in a list put together from AP interviews with activists from Syrian provinces still under Isis rule as well as fighters and residents in former IS strongholds.
"This is a drop in an ocean of mass graves expected to be discovered in the future in Syria,'' said Awad.
- AP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/83738040/Isis-buried-thousands-in-72-mass-graves-AP-finds | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/dd5b11fae326fb40a5b72614a1768587e186f46056e0b257e1e2855a5e309d61.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T18:50:33 | null | 2016-08-27T16:36:18 | One-sided win puts Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table, while champions Leicester nab first win of the season. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Fworld-game%2F83636249%2FChelsea-top-Premier-League-with-win-over-Burnley-Leicester-begin-title-defence.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/m/9/h/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsm55.png/1472322896183.jpg | en | null | Chelsea top Premier League with win over Burnley, Leicester begin title defence | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Chelsea top Premier League with win over Burnley, Leicester begin title defence
EDDIE KEOGH/REUTERS Chelsea's Victor Moses celebrates scoring their third goal.
Arsenal and Leicester City picked up their first Premier League wins of the season by beating Watford and Swansea City respectively on Saturday while Chelsea continued their 100 percent start with a 3-0 stroll over Burnley.
Danny Rose's strike cancelled out James Milner's penalty as Tottenham Hotspur came from behind to draw 1-1 with Liverpool.
First-half goals from Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil gave Arsenal a 3-1 win at Watford to ease the pressure on long-serving manager Arsene Wenger.
"We had two difficult away games," Wenger told Sky Sports. "But today I believe we had a good solid performance."
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Cazorla opened the scoring with a ninth-minute penalty and Sanchez and the outstanding Ozil struck again before halftime.
"We had a good cushion at halftime," Wenger added. "At the moment we're not completely there physically and you could see that in the second half."
Debutant Roberto Pereyra pulled one back for Watford with an unstoppable shot.
Champions Leicester got back to winning ways after Jamie Vardy's trademark strike and Wes Morgan's second-half effort downed Swansea City 2-1 at a rain-swept King Power Stadium.
Vardy beat Lukasz Fabianski after being picked out by Danny Drinkwater before captain Morgan slammed home from close range.
Leroy Fer pulled one back in the 80th minute after Leicester's Riyad Mahrez had a 56th-minute penalty saved by Fabianski.
Goals from Eden Hazard, Willian and Victor Moses sent Antonio Conte's Chelsea provisionally to top spot with a 3-0 win over Burnley in a one-sided match at Stamford Bridge.
A revitalised Hazard beat Tom Heaton in the ninth minute and Willian added a second in the 41st minute after being played in by Diego Costa.
"The team played very well, created a lot of chances," Conte said. "To keep the clean sheet is very important and to increase our confidence in the work we are doing. Now we must continue."
Substitute Moses added a third as Chelsea's revival continues apace.
Juergen Klopp was left frustrated at Tottenham as Liverpool failed to kill the game despite their first-half dominance.
Milner opened the scoring with a 43rd-minute penalty after Erik Lamela had fouled Roberto Firmino, but Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane were both denied during a one-sided first half.
Rose made Liverpool pay for their profligacy in the 72nd minute to leave Klopp ruing an opportunity missed.
"We must be more clinical," Klopp said. "It's not a game you win four or five. It's difficult to create one chance, we had a few."
Everton continued their unbeaten start when they overcame Stoke City 1-0 thanks to keeper Shay Given's own goal. Southampton and Crystal Palace scored late equalisers to 1-1 draws with Sunderland and Bournemouth respectively.
Hull City host Manchester United in the late kickoff.
- Agencies | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/83636249/Chelsea-top-Premier-League-with-win-over-Burnley-Leicester-begin-title-defence | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/4cff6207bb19cdd2d3e4f79962ccf95071e7d5c33014e46651156c8cc462f270.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:51:42 | null | 2016-08-30T06:37:37 | Ever-controversial Aussie tennis player knows what he'd do if he won the silverware at Flushing Meadows. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Ftennis%2F83736936%2FAussie-tennis-player-Nick-Kyrgois-says-US-Open-win-would-trigger-retirement.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/c/n/f/y/x/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1duru0.png/1472539057777.jpg | en | null | Aussie tennis player Nick Kyrgois says US Open win would trigger retirement | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Aussie tennis player Nick Kyrgois says US Open win would trigger retirement
GETTY IMAGES Nick Kyrgios' best result in singles at the US Open is the third round in 2014.
Ever-controversial Australian player Nick Kyrgios has tweeted he'll leave tennis if he wins this year's US Open.
On the eve of his opening-round match against Great Britain's Aljaz Bedene, Kyrgios, the 14th seed, opened up his social media account to a public Q and A.
The 21-year-old, who has previously flagged his desire to leave the sport before he turns 27, then said he'll walk away should he win the tournament.
@skiforhim if I won the US open now u would never see me again — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) August 30, 2016
"If I won the US open now u (sic) would never see me again," he replied to a fan.
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Another user's question drew a presumably tongue-in-cheek response.
When asked who he would pay money to watch play, Kyrgios tweeted "Monfils, me" making reference to world No.12 Gael Monfils.
Kyrgios's previous best result at Flushing Meadows is the third round in 2014.
He's placed in the same half of the draw as previous champion Andy Murray and will meet Swiss third seed Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round, should the pair win through.
- AAP | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/83736936/Aussie-tennis-player-Nick-Kyrgois-says-US-Open-win-would-trigger-retirement | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/0ab24c249130c1e400fa658150b56c487c88f8d66c8a669fa66845468fc5455c.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:59:30 | null | 2016-08-26T09:02:11 | Rowing administrator wasn't at a controversial meeting that angered Eric Murray and wife Jackie. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2F83624989%2FDual-Olympic-gold-medallist-Eric-Murray-apologises-to-wronged-rowing-selector.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/n/5/h/g/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsdgd.png/1472204470904.jpg | en | null | Dual Olympic gold medallist Eric Murray apologises to wronged rowing selector | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Dual Olympic gold medallist Eric Murray apologises to wronged rowing selector
GETTY IMAGES Eric Murray and Hamish Bond won their second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the men's pair at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Double Olympic gold medal-winner Eric Murray has confirmed rowing selector Barrie Mabbott wasn't present in a controversial meeting that threatened to split New Zealand's superstar pair.
In an autobiography of Murray and famed crewmate Hamish Bond, The Kiwi Pair, Murray described a meeting that challenged his desire to return to New Zealand from Europe for the birth of his son prior to the 2011 World Rowing Championships.
He faced opposition at a meeting that included selector Conrad Robertson, high performance manager Alan Cotter and coach Dick Tonks.
In the book, Murray claimed Mabbott was also present.
READ MORE: NZ win u-23 world champs gold
However, minutes from the meeting have confirmed Mabbott was not in attendance, with Mabbott being a junior selector at the time. Murray has rung Mabbott to apologise for the error.
In the book, Murray said that convener of selectors Robertson told him "men didn't come home from war just because women were having children".
"It was the most insane thing I had ever heard, in the worst meeting of my life," Murray said.
"To see my wife demeaned in that way because we'd chosen to have a baby was absolutely appalling."
Rowing NZ chief executive Simon Peterson said Robertson was handed a warning over his actions and Rowing NZ apologised to Murray and his wife Jackie.
Robertson remains the convener of selectors, although Peterson added: "There's a review of selectors and selection at the end of the Olympic cycle, which is now, so everything is up for review, including his role as convener."
* An earlier version of this story reported Barrie Mabbott was at the 2011 meeting to decide whether Eric Murray could return home. We accept Mabbott was not at the meeting, nor was he a selector at that time.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/83624989/Dual-Olympic-gold-medallist-Eric-Murray-apologises-to-wronged-rowing-selector | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/adf01dea8dc905508a8b6f4898bc9e1d19a9feacb425c3a068563c16bc21734f.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T22:51:25 | null | 2016-08-28T21:56:06 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Flife-style%2Flove-sex%2F83658032%2FThe-photo-that-revealed-my-husband-had-fallen-out-of-love.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/2/x/t/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dt2y8.png/1472421366193.jpg | en | null | The photo that revealed my husband had fallen out of love | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | The photo that revealed my husband had fallen out of love
123rf "I was furious that it had taken a photo to shake me out of my naivety."
For months Peter, my husband of 12 years, had been moody and withdrawn. I'd put it down to work stress - he'd been overseeing a big project in his high-profile public service job - and booked us a holiday, where I hoped we'd have a chance to reconnect.
It worked. We spent a happy week snorkelling, cycling and reminiscing over the last time we'd been in the Caribbean - our first ever holiday together, in 1997. Over balmy evenings fuelled by rosé, we agreed that on our return home Peter would focus less on work and we'd both make our marriage more of a priority.
We came back happier than we'd been in a long time. Or so I thought.
On our first weekend back, we went for a walk in a lavender field near our home. The light was so perfect that I grabbed my phone and took a series of selfies. Later that afternoon, I downloaded the photos to my computer. One of them jolted me.
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In the picture, the sun was blazing and Peter was looking directly at me with an expression unlike any I'd seen before.
It can only be described as thinly-veiled contempt - there was a sneer on his lips and a strange look in his eyes, as though he hated me. I was smiling at the camera in my sundress, unaware. In that moment, I knew our marriage was over.
Five years earlier, Peter had confessed to an affair with a colleague; I'd forgiven him and we'd moved on. Suddenly I recalled how he'd been snappy and impatient around that time, and it hit me that he might be cheating again.
That night, while he was in the bathroom, I had a look at his work phone. There I found a text message, sent the previous week, arranging to meet the same colleague he'd had the affair with all those years ago.
I stood silently outside the bathroom for 10 minutes and, when Peter came out, I told him I knew. He immediately got defensive; saying he'd heard this woman had cancer and he'd wanted to see how she was. The fact he could lie so swiftly and easily stung almost as much as the infidelity.
That night I was numb. But two days later I felt calmer and asked him to move out. He finally broke down and admitted the affair.
I was furious that it had taken a photo to shake me out of my naivety. But mostly I felt desperately angry that I'd given up having children for this man.
Peter was nine years older than me and already had a grown-up daughter when we got together; he told me he didn't want more children. Reluctantly, I'd agreed - telling myself that just the two of us would be enough.
After he left I felt my life was over. I couldn't get out of bed, barely ate or slept, and my hair began falling out. I started seeing a counsellor.
After a few months, I realised how unhappy I'd been with Peter. Since the first affair, my self-esteem had been eroded.
Gradually I began doing things alone; I went to the theatre, took a spa holiday and started considering my future.
Two years on, I've set up my own social-media business and learnt to scuba dive. I've also sold our home and furniture and bought my own house - a real fresh start.
I've come to terms with the fact that, at 50, I can't have children. And though I'd like to find a partner, I'm in no hurry. I'm enjoying being "me". And yes, that photo has been deleted forever.
- smh.com.au | http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/love-sex/83658032/The-photo-that-revealed-my-husband-had-fallen-out-of-love | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/31fe0c7968d7376425652ea761d3017925ded3416b2ad3a049d4cdc27df4d8d3.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:05:19 | null | 2016-08-26T10:05:08 | Explosion at a police HQ in Cizre, Turkey kills at least 11, leaves dozens injured. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2F83622327%2F11-dead-dozens-hurt-after-truck-bomb-explodes-at-police-HQ-in-Turkey.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/s/d/c/m/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dsbef.png/1472205908971.jpg | en | null | 11 dead, dozens hurt after truck bomb explodes at police HQ in Turkey | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | 11 dead, dozens hurt after truck bomb explodes at police HQ in Turkey
REUTERS TV Smoke rises from buildings at the site of a car bomb explosion at a police headquarters in Cizre, Turkey.
A suicide truck bombing at a police headquarters in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast killed at least 11 and wounded dozens on Friday, two days after Turkey launched an incursion against Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters in Syria.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said there was no doubt that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was responsible for the attack in Sirnak province, which borders Syria and Iraq.
The provincial governor's office said 11 police officers were killed and 78 people, three of them civilians, wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
CAGDAS ERDOGAN/GETTY IMAGES A member of a armed group Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), a youth division of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, stands guarded as he poses with his AK-47.
The bombing in the town of Cizre was the latest in a series of attacks since a ceasefire with the PKK collapsed more than a year ago, and comes as Turkey tries to recover from a failed July 15 military coup.
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More than 1700 military personnel have been removed for their alleged role in the putsch, including some 40 per cent of admirals and generals, raising concern about the NATO member's ability to protect itself as it battles Islamic State in Syria and Kurdish militants at home.
At a news conference in Istanbul, Yildirim said Turkey had opened a war on all terrorist groups. His deputy, Numan Kurtulmus, said on Twitter that Islamic State, the PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia were all attacking Turkey to take advantage of last month's coup attempt.
"Turkey is in an intense fight against terrorist organisations ... The PKK/YPG and Islamic State seized the July 15 coup attempt as an opportunity," Kurtulmus wrote.
Large plumes of smoke billowed from the blast site in Cizre, footage on CNN Turk showed. The broadcaster said a dozen ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.
Photographs broadcast by private channel NTV showed a large three-storey building reduced to its concrete shell, with no walls or windows, and surrounded by grey rubble.
On Thursday (local time), Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the PKK of attacking a convoy carrying the country's main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The government has blamed the PKK for a series of attacks this month in the southeast. The group has claimed responsibility for at least one attack on a police station.
- Reuters | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/83622327/11-dead-dozens-hurt-after-truck-bomb-explodes-at-police-HQ-in-Turkey | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/22a215870b5371685303e9445b0463ce4052d7e41609962eb0a7336d94161c90.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T04:50:53 | null | 2016-08-28T04:39:55 | There are cockfights, lack of food and water, run-ins with dogs and the risk of getting hit by a car. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2F83502652%2FRoosters-dumped-roadside.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/q/j/3/u/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dpr24.png/1472359195665.jpg | en | null | Roosters dumped roadside | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Roosters dumped roadside
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/Stuff.co.nz "Attenborough" narrates the dumped roosters' plight.
It's a tough life for an unwanted rooster.
You're banished from the city and your owners wish you were a hen.
They can't bear to kill you and the kids have become attached.
DOMINICO ZAPATA/FAIRFAX NZ People dump their unwanted roosters at a spot known as 'The Divi', near Raglan, where they end up making a home in the nearby bush.
So you're outta there, in the middle of the night, dumped on the side of the road to fend for yourself.
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Gone. Lost. Forgotten.
Hundreds of roosters end up on rural roads, highways, reserves and parks around New Zealand.
There are cockfights, lack of food and water, run-ins with dogs and the risk of getting hit by a car.
And it's not just the roosters that pay the price. Don't forget the crowing: all day and night sometimes.
Waikato Poultry and Pigeon Club president Fiona Taylor said roosters are getting a bad name.
"It makes poultry people look bad and chickens look bad as well. And it's the owners who signed up to look after them and didn't finish the job."
In the poultry world, hens rule the roost.
People want hens because they produce eggs.
Taylor said the problem is there is no way to tell the sex of a newborn chick early on.
"It can take around five to six months before it starts crowing for you to figure out it's a boy," she said. "But by that time, you've become attached to it. You can't find a new home and you don't feel comfortable to kill them."
A man who did not want to be named fits Taylor's profile exactly. He, his wife and three children kept chickens on a lifestyle block.
Out of the 15 hatched chicks, only three were hens and the rest were roosters.
"They bred, quite prolifically. And we couldn't tell whether they were going to be a rooster or a hen until they made this horrendous racket."
He said they tried to sell them, and even placed an ad in the local paper. But no one was interested.
"No one wanted them, and I thought, I can't kill them. I wouldn't be able to do that at all.
"So I thought the best thing to do was to release them."
Placing them into cardboard boxes in his vehicle, the man set off near the bush line and began releasing them every few kilometres.
"I just thought they would have a really nice time, hang out and eat bugs and sleep in the trees."
He never saw them again.
Taylor said dumping roosters is irresponsible and not in the best interest of the animal.
"That rooster has been cared for as a domesticated animal, so once it is set free, it is nothing short of cruel. It hasn't necessarily got the survival instincts for food to prevent him from going hungry.
"So it just gives the bird a bad reputation. They're seen as a nuisance, as a pest."
Taylor said roosters should be treated like cats and dogs.
"If you could imagine the outcry of people for taking a dog and dumping it or taking a cat and dumping it, and it goes from getting daily food and water to being dumped in the wild - it should be no different."
Figures from Hamilton City Council show there are only five registered roosters in Hamilton. The city's Animal Nuisance Bylaw helps regulate some animals, including roosters, in the city.
"If we receive a complaint about a rooster, we usually manage to resolve these with the voluntary rehoming of the rooster to an out-of-town address by the owner or the owner signing the rooster over to us," council animal education and control manager Susan Stanford said.
Council records show that in 2015, there were 28 complaints about roosters. This year, so far, there have been 18 complaints.
The Hauraki District Council recently removed roosters causing a ruckus at a Waihi reserve by knocking them out with a special anaesthetic-coated food.
The birds were temporarily relocated and if they can't find a home, the roosters will be "humanely euthanised", council communications officer Paula Trubshaw said.
Trubshaw said roosters have been an ongoing issue in the region.
"It's not something that we want to be dealing with," she said. "When they are dumped in the parks and reserves, they do cause problems. They can be aggressive around young children if they're not being fed and they can crow at all hours of the night."
NZTA Waikato/ BOP highways manager, Niclas Johansson said roosters are occasionally spotted around the Waikato.
"Our contractors who monitor the highways around the Waikato every day tell us that the animals tend to stay on the sides of the highway, where they can hide and feed in the vegetation."
Some areas where roosters and other poultry including ducks are spotted include: Near SH27 at the Kaihere Hill rest area, near SH23 between Hamilton and Raglan and on the side of SH1 around Hydro Road in Huntly, north of Ngaruawahia.
"While it is upsetting that these unwanted animals are dumped off at these sites, we do not consider them to be a major safety concern to road users in the region."
Taylor admitted people who want to get rid of roosters have few options. They can be sold for breeding purposes, to be eaten or they can be humanely killed.
It's a tough life for an unwanted cock.
Free-range in Tuakau
Kim Solleder drives over the Tuakau Bridge every day and sees roosters loitering around the reserve.
Six years ago, she decided to capture one of them after setting up her own free-range chicken operation on her lifestyle block.
She named him Buck Rogers.
"He was a very randy rooster. He was huge, probably the biggest one in the pack and not aggressive at all."
He fathered around 40 chickens and was mainly used for breeding purposes.
"I got this explosion of chickens. It was amazing."
He was put down after contracting a disease, but his chickens live on.
"I've got another rooster now that's been part of the family. He's Buck Rogers' son, Roger Ramjet."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83502652/Roosters-dumped-roadside | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/d62e31e698932a964143326f29111811f13fc32a92d00959cb14404e2b768117.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:13 | null | 2016-08-31T04:11:19 | The government watchdog might not like them, but Air New Zealand's lavish safety videos appear to have plenty of fans. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Ftravel%2Fnews%2F83769581%2FAir-NZ-customers-defend-safety-videos.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/o/l/l/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dvh0t.png/1472616679587.jpg | en | null | Air NZ customers defend safety videos | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Air NZ customers defend safety videos
Other The authority has expressed concern about the extra content in one of the airline’s videos.
The government watchdog might not like them, but Air New Zealand's lavish safety videos appear to have plenty of fans.
Yesterday, One News revealed that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) warned the airline that all the extra entertainment in their highly-produced safety videos could actually distract from the safety.
"As we have commented previously, the [Surfing Safari] video diverges materially from the 'safety message' at times, and whilst I appreciate the need to engage the viewers, the extraneous material detracts from the scope and direction of the safety message," an email from the regulator read.
Air NZ "The extraneous material detracts from the scope and direction of the safety message."
The Surfing Safari video in question starred nine pro surfers, including Sports Illustrated model and surfer Anastasia Ashley.
READ MORE: Air NZ swimsuit model safety video criticised by regulator
After the news broke several fans headed to the airline's Facebook page, sending messages of support amongst the regular stream of complaints and questions.
"Don't listen to those boring stuffed shirts at the CAA!" wrote Simon Cross.
"Your safety videos are excellent and people actually watch them! Keep up the great work, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next."
"Hey AirNZ we LOVE your safety videos, will watch them time and again when I fly because I enjoy them," wrote Tania Yorwarth.
"Whilst I can understand CAA's concern the message may be lost, I'm not sure they are right, please keep entertaining us whilst telling us the safety message!"
"Air NZ you are the worlds best air line. keep up with the great saftey videos [sic]. Others are not liking that you are thinking outside the box," wrote one.
"OMG. Please Air NZ don't stop your fabulous safety videos. When I've travelled with you I've watched every second of them. There's even kids watching them."
But not everyone was so happy.
Alan MacDonald scolded the airline in much the same way the CAA did.
"I think your attempts to engage people with your bloated and absurd videos are a waste of time and ineffective. By all means engage stars to tell the story, but its no time to be funny and have long segments of pure comedy. They are silly silly. You want passengers to take safety seriously, then be serious."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/83769581/Air-NZ-customers-defend-safety-videos | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/f7ba01c032c21e25b8d49c14579492268696d75021b903c9b1b650af823f3d48.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:51:58 | null | 2016-08-29T21:48:12 | Seven Sharp got a little awkward on Monday night, when host Mike Hosking mispronounced a reporter's name. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fentertainment%2Ftv-radio%2F83699170%2FDid-Mike-Hosking-just-forget-Carolyn-Robinsons-name.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/z/t/2/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtyoy.png/1472507292418.png | en | null | Did Mike Hosking just forget Carolyn Robinson's name? | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Did Mike Hosking just forget Carolyn Robinson's name?
TVNZ/ONDEMAND Seven Sharp hosts Mike Hosking and Toni Street.
Well, that's a bit awkward.
Mispronouncing a co-worker's name is bad enough, however making the blunder on live television is a whole lot worse.
During Monday night's broadcast of Seven Sharp, host Mike Hosking mispronounced reporter Carolyn Robinson's name, following a segment about the art of sword fighting.
Mike Hosking put his own unique twist on Carolyn Robinson's name on Monday night.
"I wasn't paying attention there because Caro was particularly pleased with her accent," Hosking laughed, immediately after Robinson's story aired.
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* Carolyn spills the beans
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"'Cah-ro', is it?" responded co-host Toni Street.
Hosking, seemingly oblivious to the slip up, continued making fun of Robinson's poorly-executed Spanish accent.
"What was that (accent)? Russian? Or Spanish?" the presenter asked.
Tonight @SevenSharp the art of sword fighting. Watch it. Or else... pic.twitter.com/AdX7hk8KwN — Carolyn Robinson (@MsCaroRob) 29 August 2016
Robinson, a former veteran TV3 presenter, announced in January that she would be leaving the network.
Prior to her departure, Robinson had been with TV3 for more than 15 years, serving as a presenter for the late news show Nightline, before going on to present 3News as the show's weekend anchor, and filling in for Hilary Barry on week nights.
Robinson also hosted the MediaWorks' consumer affairs show What's Really In Our Food.
At the time, the network said the mother of three was looking forward to "having her weekends back and spending them with family".
Instead, Robinson signed on with rival network TVNZ in July, filing in as a Seven Sharp reporter while reporter Matt Chisholm films the upcoming Survivor NZ on location in South America.
However despite host Hosking's muddled pronunciation, Robinson appears to be thoroughly enjoying her new TVNZ gig.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/83699170/Did-Mike-Hosking-just-forget-Carolyn-Robinsons-name | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/f907d9652c0b947e3b5fce02d4481e51c35a6f93e2f8abb5aaa9729d99e1a05b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:40 | null | 2016-08-30T02:48:23 | Prime Minister dismisses comments from a National Party leader who praised the | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fpolitics%2F83703605%2FChristchurch-National-Party-leader-apologises-for-praising-the-sweet-explosive-justice-of-KiwiSaver-weapons-investment.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/u/5/o/z/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1du245.png/1472525304531.jpg | en | null | Christchurch National Party leader apologises for praising the 'sweet explosive justice' of KiwiSaver weapons investment | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Christchurch National Party leader apologises for praising the 'sweet explosive justice' of KiwiSaver weapons investment
Prime Minister John Key with Peter Maguire.
A National Party leader has apologised for defending controversial KiwiSaver fund investments in weapons.
Christchurch East party chair Peter Maguire had praised the "sweet explosive justice" of killing terrorists in comments during a Facebook discussion on Friday, attracting the ire of other users.
On Tuesday he backed down, saying "I made those comments in a personal capacity and they were made in the heat of the moment during a Facebook discussion. They were misguided and I apologise."
MARK TAYLOR/FAIRFAX NZ Companies that make "anti-personnel" mines are among those on the NZ Super Fund's exclusion list.
Prime Minister John Key dismissed Maguire's comments, saying they were made in a personal capacity.
READ MORE:
* KiwiSaver, cluster mines, bombs and nukes
* How to check if your KiwiSaver is invested in cluster bombs, land mines or nukes
* KiwiSaver should have ingredients labels
* No KiwiSaver review amid concerns some funds investing in weapon firms
The party had not asked Maguire to offer the apology, he said.
REUTERS A boy sits in an ambulance after being injured in an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria, on August 18. His brother died.
"The reality is we have ethical investment rules in New Zealand and they should be followed," he said.
"The challenge for ACC and the likes has been around investment through collective investment vehicles, where they haven't been aware of what's in there.
"My understanding is the way their policy works is that if they're made aware of that, then they negotiate with the provider to get rid of those investments."
Peter Maguire's comments sparked outrage from other Facebook users.
The Facebook discussion was about several KiwiSaver providers having been revealed as investing in companies that produce weapons including cluster bombs and land mines.
"To be honest I don't mind [the weapons investment]," Maguire wrote.
"The world needs weapons. If I profit from that then that's fantastic. Every time a bomb drops on ISIS I can sleep happily knowing I made a profit from that sweet explosive justice [sic]."
ABDALRHMAN ISMAIL Women protest while burning tyres, which they said is used to create smoke cover from warplanes, in Aleppo, Syria on July 31. The text on the banner reads:" We will stay here, till the pain is gone".
When challenged by other commenters, he continued:
"More people die in the world from tobacco and piss everyday than by military grade weapons and war [sic].
"War is a unfortunately necessary in this world [sic]. If I can profit from the defence of my country and others I'm all for it."
Comments in response to Maguire included: "Wow. Just wow."
"I am now done with this thread. And done with you."
The Government has said it will not review the KiwiSaver providers' practice. Prime Minister John Key said it was up to savers to be aware of where their money was invested. Such companies are on the New Zealand Super Fund's "exclusion list", barring investment for ethical and legal reasons.
Labour Christchurch East MP Poto Williams said Maguire's justification that weapons killed bad people was misguided.
"Most of us would think that weapons of any sort are fairly indiscriminate in who they target and it's often very innocent people who are targeted and I think that's the distress that's been caused by this investment issue.
"None of us would want to think that our investments are funding the miseries of families or communities anywhere in the world. The notion of terrorism and ISIS is abhorrent but we've got to be mindful that that's not necessarily the target of these weapons."
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83703605/Christchurch-National-Party-leader-apologises-for-praising-the-sweet-explosive-justice-of-KiwiSaver-weapons-investment | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/b0c8c9d502de70162a636400221166fde54de7af529e961ecc85b7b3681e5398.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:52:00 | null | 2016-08-30T04:22:10 | Police probing a serious assault allegedly carried out by a gang of men in New Plymouth. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fnational%2Fcrime%2F83698457%2FVictim-brutally-bashed-by-gang-of-men-in-his-New-Plymouth-home.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/y/v/t/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dty55.png/1472531672426.jpg | en | null | Victim brutally bashed by gang of men in his New Plymouth home | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | Victim brutally bashed by gang of men in his New Plymouth home
FAIRFAX NZ A patrol car and police tape block off access to the scene of a serious assault on Mangorei Rd, New Plymouth.
A man was left with facial injuries after a brutal bashing by a gang of assailants in his New Plymouth home, police say.
Police had cordoned off an address in Mangorei Rd, on Tuesday morning following the serious assault, which is being investigated by the CIB.
The attack on the 41-year-old, which left him battered and bruised, is alleged to have been carried out by a gang of men between 1.30pm and 3.30pm on Monday.
SIMON O'CONNOR/FAIRFAX NZ It's alleged the man was bashed by a group of offenders.
He required medical attention at Taranaki Base Hospital but didn't need to be admitted.
A scene examination was carried out at the house on Tuesday and police spoke to neighbours seeking information to identify the alleged offenders.
READ MORE
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* Police still looking for the victim of vicious assault in New Plymouth
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Detective Sergeant Drew Bennett confirmed police were investigating the bashing.
"It is alleged that there was a number of assailants and the victim required medical attention," Bennett said.
"He's recovering but he is sore as you would expect."
The victim received facial injuries but Bennett couldn't say if a weapon had been used in the attack or if it was gang related.
"We are still trying to determine that.
"On the information that we currently have there doesn't appear to be any link like that."
Bennett said it was disturbing when someone had been assaulted in their own home.
"It's always a concern to us when members of the public are attacked in this manner, as it has been alleged to us.
"People should feel safe in their homes and we want the public to feel safe in their homes."
However Bennett said it was likely the victim and his attackers were known to each other.
"I don't believe that this is a random attack where other members of the community need to be worried about their safety."
Bennett said police were seeking information from the public that could lead to the identification of the offenders.
"We are interested in sightings of groups congregating on Mangorei Rd in the area between Kauri St and and the New World supermarket between 1.30pm and 3.30pm on Monday and any vehicles that appeared out of place or that may be linked to this group congregating in this time frame.
"We have spoken to a number of people who have certainly provided us with some helpful information."
Anyone with information about the attack or saw any suspicious behaviour in the Mangorei Rd area is encouraged to contact the New Plymouth police station on 06-759 5500 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
- Stuff | http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83698457/Victim-brutally-bashed-by-gang-of-men-in-his-New-Plymouth-home | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/31b98359fae18e49f2d0007b253b2f63f54f091912cf541efd676d888feb9b8a.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T20:51:36 | null | 2016-08-29T19:21:22 | A cyclist has filmed the moment a truck driver threaten to | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Faustralia%2F83695832%2FI-ll-smash-you-Cyclist-films-furious-truck-drivers-threats.json | http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/t/w/4/0/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dtw48.png/1472500636881.jpg | en | null | 'I'll smash you': Cyclist films furious truck driver's threats | null | null | www.stuff.co.nz | 'I'll smash you': Cyclist films furious truck driver's threats
Following an attempt at being run off the road, a cyclist claims to have been threatened and verbally abuse by the driver of a large truck.
A cyclist has filmed the moment a truck driver threaten to "smash" him in a road rage row.
The Australian man, who does not wish to be named, said he was riding two-abreast in light traffic on an overpass in Yarraville about 9.30am on Saturday.
He claims the truck suddenly swerved within 30 centimetres of him.
Supplied The cyclist and truck driver got into a row.
"This truck came alarmingly close," he said. "I got the biggest fright."
READ MORE:
* Australian cyclist threatened with knife in shocking road rage incident
* Taupo cycle road rage video leads police to Wellington man
* Video: Cyclist and 4x4 driver in pure road rage fight
Supplied The cyclist claims the truck driver came very close to him.
The 43-year-old cyclist said he then rode up to the truck where it had stopped at a set of red lights and told the driver he had "nearly killed" him.
He admits he then "flipped the bird" at the driver.
The cyclist said the driver got out of his truck and threatened to "smash" him.
"Once I realised he was doing that, I was fearing for my safety and moved away," he said.
The cyclist turned on a camera fitted onto his bike and circled back to get the truck's number plate.
He can be heard on the video, since uploaded onto YouTube, yelling at the driver: "Why are you so angry? What have I done to you?"
The truck driver replies: "I'll ****ing smash you."
By this stage, about eight more cyclists from the riding group had caught up to them.
"You tried to run me off the road," the cyclist says.
"I tried to cut you off? Nah," the driver says.
Another cyclist, who dismounts his bike, tells the driver to "calm down mate".
The driver, who was heading back towards his truck, then turns around and heads back saying "you better shut the **** up" as he rolls up his sleeves.
"Settle," the second cyclist says. "You don't want to go to court."
The second cyclist then tells the driver to "get in your ****ing truck and **** off", which further aggravates him.
The cyclist reported the incident to police later that morning, bringing with him the footage, a pre-written statement, the truck's number plate and phone numbers of witnesses on a USB stick.
However, he claims he was more upset with the response from police than at the actual incident.
He said the officer he spoke to refused to look at the USB and questioned why he didn't call triple zero.
"I am really shocked," he said.
"He had no interest in anything I presented. He just wanted to question the legitimacy of my report."
After he complained, the cyclist made his report to a second officer.
Victoria Police has been contacted for comment.
- The Age | http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/83695832/I-ll-smash-you-Cyclist-films-furious-truck-drivers-threats | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.stuff.co.nz/3340af1fbfc0bc8945fadafe2303ffdce83c642cbc9e6282425bbc8db208af69.json |
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