ISSN 1172-4153 |  Volume 2  |  Issue 41  |  |  17 July 2009 

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ir Bust • The Chinese Migrant Issue 103

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Air BustIs the European airlinerstill safe to � y in?

The Strange Caseof Yongming YanThe migrant who knew the Ministersis arrested after our stories

The New PlagueAre bugs about to inherit the Earth?

PolicePlantingEvidenceThe MEN IN BLACK who bug phones and alter your phone records to put you in the wrong place at the right time...

EXCLUSIVE: CAUGHT ON VIDEO

FIRST INTERVIEW

INVESTIGATE

August 2009:

Phone Tapping • Air Bust • The Chinese Migrant Issue 103

NO ONE GETS CLOSER

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Air BustIs the European airlinerstill safe to � y in?The Strange Caseof Yongming YanThe migrant who knew the Ministers

is arrested after our storiesThe New PlagueAre bugs about to inherit the Earth?

PolicePlantingEvidenceThe MEN IN BLACK who bug phones and alter your phone

records to put you in the wrong place at the right time...

EXCLUSIVE: CAUGHT ON VIDEO

MORE QUAKES�  CivDef nervous� 

Page 3

GREAT S�NAKES�!� Pythons� loos�e in US� 

Page 9

GAME ON Wallabies� dangerous� 

Page 11

NZTONIGHT

Taito’s tight spot page 2

COMMENT

The moon landing legacy page 5

WORLD

Mischa Barton in psych wardpage 8

AucklandSat: 14°/9°    Sun: 13°/8°

HamiltonSat: 13°/8°    Sun: 12°/5°

WellingtonSat: 11°/8°    Sun: 10°/5°

QueenstownSat: 7°/-1°    Sun: 6°/-1°

ChristchurchSat: 10°/3°  Sun: 10°/-1°

DunedinSat: 9°/3°    Sun: 7°/3°

MUSIC

Casey Kasem signs offpage 14

on the INSIDE

Continue reading

WELLINGTON, JULy 17 –� Friends and colleagues of the New Zealander killed in the Jakarta bomb blasts have paid tribute to a dedicated and commit-ted man who could get things done.

Tim Mackay, 62, has been named as one of the nine people killed and 52 wounded, including 13 foreigners, in the bomb blasts at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels today.

He was president director of the Swiss-based Holcim cement company in Jakarta and had gone to the Marriott Hotel for a business meeting.

Prime Minister John Key expressed his sadness at the death.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said tonight it was not aware of any other New Zealand-ers injured in the blasts.

Jeremy Smith, Holcim’s managing director in Christchurch and a friend of Mr Mackay, told Camp-bell Live Mr Mackay was “a very dedicated, compe-tent person who knew how to connect with people.

“His untimely demise is just an absolute tragedy within the whole Holcim network”.

Mr Mackay ran Holcim’s Fiji operations for five years. A former colleague there said he was a workaholic and everyone cried when he left, One News reported.

“It was hard to come by such a boss,” she said. Mr Key, speaking at Napier airport, said: “Every-

thing I have seen suggests that this is a deliberate attack designed to kill and wound innocent people,” Mr Key said.

“While we are still receiving information from the embassy (in Jakarta) about what happened, I would like to convey my deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the New Zealander killed.

“I extend my deepest sympathy also to the people of Indonesia and all others who have been caught up in this terrible event.”

MFAT said the NZ Embassy in Jakarta was work-ing to make sure all New Zealanders there were safe.

“They are talking to local authorities and checking hospitals and hotels,” it said in a statement tonight.

“At this stage we are not aware of any injured New Zealanders.”

There are 281 New Zealanders registered as being in

Jakarta and 50 have been confirmed as safe and well. “New Zealanders concerned about family mem-

bers in Jakarta should try to make contact with them. Those with concerns about the well-being of relatives may call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Tributes flow for bombed NZer

By Ian Wishart

Police are again in the gun for alleged corrupt practices, this time with a video that shows a former Telecom executive explaining how he was ordered to alter phone call records to help police put people in jail.

The story is breaking this coming Monday in Investigate magazine, which had access to the video and reveals why it was filmed.

On the recording, the Telecom worker says it was common for him to get phone calls from Crown law-yers and police seeking access to people’s phone call records, and on occasion asking for details of certain phone calls to be erased from the records, or false phone calls entered.

The worker says he carried out the instructions not caring at the time whether it was legal or illegal, but that he now feels terrible about the lives he has wrecked.

The allegations, if true, would amount to a con-spiracy to pervert the course of justice on the part of police who made the requests, because it altered factual evidence that could prove a person either innocent or guilty.

The Investigate story is likely to strengthen calls for a Commission of Inquiry into the Police, as there are currently no regulatory agencies with sufficient power to investigate the police force.

Police accused in new corruption sting

17 July  2009 �

Dumb Crook sHoots His oWn testiCle offCINCINNATI, July 17 (uPI) – An Ohio judge s�aid he likely will not jail a man whos�e illegal gun in his� pocket cos�t him a tes�ticle. 

Thomas� Hatfield, 30, pleaded guilty Thurs�day in Cincinnati to being a felon with a firearm after he accidentally s�hot off one of his� own tes�ticles� May 4 with a .38-caliber s�emiautomatic handgun. He was� banned from owning the gun becaus�e of his� s�tatus� as� a con-victed felon, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thurs�day. 

Police s�aid Hatfield was� als�o in pos�s�es�s�ion of a s�ingle-s�hot 12-gauge s�hotgun. 

“Becaus�e you injured yours�elf, that’s� kind of bad enough right there, s�o I’ll cons�ider probation,” Hamilton County Common Pleas� Judge Robert Ruehlman told Hatfield after his� guilty plea. 

“Obvious�ly,” the judge told Hatfield, “you don’t know a whole lot about firearms�. You need to read the directions�.” 

Hatfield, who has� previous� convictions� for aggravated riot and attempted aggravated ars�on from 1997, is� due to be s�entenced Aug. 6. 

ex-Detroit poliCe CHief A Crime viCtim DETROIT, July 17 (uPI) – Former Detroit Police Chief James� Barren’s� hous�e was� hit by burglars� on the day he ended his� 31-year career with the department, police s�aid. 

Barren, forced out by Mayor Dave Bing, told the Detroit Free Press the burglars� took a televis�ion, cam-corder, computer and jewelry. 

They got me pretty good, he s�aid. The burglary occurred July 9 while Barren was� at 

work. He s�aid during his� years� in Detroit he has� had cars� s�tolen and one previous� burglary many years� ago, the Free Press reported. 

This� is� part of living in the big city, he s�aid. It goes� with the territory. 

Give tHem broomstiCks insteAD of sQuAD CArs lONDON, July 17 (uPI) – Pagan police officers� in England and Wales� can take time off on religious� holi-days� like Halloween and the S�ummer S�ols�tice, the Home Office s�aid Thurs�day. 

The days� off will be deducted from officers�’ annual vacation time, The Daily Telegraph reported. But practic-ing Wiccans� and Druids� will be guaranteed free time on their s�acred days�. 

Andy Pardy, a cons�table with the Hertfords�hire Police, follows� the Nors�e religion, wors�hipping Odin, Thor and Freya. He dis�cus�s�ed more official recognition for pagan officers� at meetings� this� week with the Home Office. 

Paganis�m is� not the new age, tree hugging fad that s�ome people think it is�, he told Police Review. It is� not the clandes�tine, horrible, evil thing that people think it is�. A lot of people think it is� about dancing naked around a fire but the rituals� are not like that. 

Officials� have als�o recognized the Pagan Police As�s�ociation, which advocates� for pagan officers� and their families�. There are believed to be about 35,000 practic-ing pagans� in England and Wales�. 

moon-A-tiCs in CHArGe of Asylum? BuRGESS HIll, ENGlAND, July 17 (uPI) – Parents� of children at a Britis�h s�chool s�aid young s�tudents� were trauma-tized when s�chool s�taff s�taged an alien abduction of a teacher. 

The parents� s�aid teachers� at S�outhway Junior S�chool in Burges�s� Hill, England, terrified s�tudents�, s�ome as� young as� 7, by faking a s�paces�hip cras�h near clas�s�-rooms� and having cos�tumed aliens� kidnap a teacher, the Daily Mail reported today. 

S�chool officials� s�aid the event was� des�igned to encourage s�tudents� to us�e their imaginations� during Everyone Writes� Day. 

Police, who were in on the plot, helped s�tudents� pro-duce eyewitnes�s� accounts� of the abduction, which were s�hared at an as�s�embly at the end of the day where the abducted teacher reappeared and revealed the hoax. 

Officials� s�aid many s�tudents� enjoyed the experience, but s�ome parents� s�aid the event went too far. 

“God only knows� what the s�chool was� playing at,” s�aid a mother who as�ked not to be named. “To s�hock children into thinking that the aliens� have landed and have abducted a teacher is� jus�t a little too much for 7-year-olds�.” 

“My daughter was� deeply ups�et by it all and came home looking s�hell-s�hocked, s�he s�aid. S�he was�n’t s�ure what had happened and really wanted to know that everything was� going to be all right.”

NEW ZEALAND

off BEAT

WELLINGTON, JULy 17 –� Intensive care units in the nation’s hospitals are filling up, a senior health official says.

The public can expect to see some surgery being postponed around the country over the next few weeks, Dr Darren Hunt, deputy director of public health told NZPA.

Intensive care departments are facing problems in coping with patients from major operations, in addi-tion to the mounting tide of seriously ill flu victims.

Dunedin and Invercargill hospitals are already preparing to take patients from Christchurch hospi-tal – which has been swamped with swine flu cases – though no patients have yet been transferred.

The last time the nation’s public health system was stressed like this – during the Sars outbreak in 2003 – health officials found New Zealand had lit-tle capacity to provide intensive care for infectious patients in sealed rooms with a lower air pressure than the rest of the hospital.

News reports yesterday said eight people were in the Christchurch ICU unit with swine flu or flu-like illnesses who needed ventilation.

The unit had also had to increase the number of patients from 12 to 15 and might have to send patients to other South Island hospitals.

The Dunedin hospital ICU, which has been on the redevelopment project list for many years, can accommodate 10 patients, but usually takes only six because of space and staffing issues.

In Australia, 36 people are in intensive care in NSW and five are being treated using cardiac bypass machines.

Hospitals on that side of the Tasman have ordered new machines from overseas in anticipation of a worsening of the situation, the vice-president of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, Michael O’Leary, told the Sydney Morn-ing Herald.

Dr O’Leary said Australia and New Zealand now have more confirmed swine flu infections per capita than any other country: 462 per million people, com-pared with 158 per million in Britain and 118 per million in the USA.

Dr Hunt declined to provide a specific figure for New Zealand, and said “accurate case rate data are not yet available to compare New Zealand’s rate”.

Australian authorities said they had currently had 202 swine flu patients in hospital, and 83 of them were in intensive care, with some hospitals deferring major operations, including cancer surgeries.

The patients include six pregnant women, in their second and third trimesters, who are fighting for their lives in intensive care units across western Syd-

Hospitals under heavy flu pressure

AUCkLAND, JULy 17 –� Taito Phillip Field said he felt “persecuted” by the media after the bribery allegations against him became public in Septem-ber 2005.

Field is on trial in the High Court at Auckland on 35 charges, which allege bribery and corruption while he was a member of Parliament in that he allowed work on his homes by Thai tradesmen in return for providing them with immigration help. Other charges relate to providing false statements to a subsequent inquiry headed by Noel Ingram QC.

Crown prosecutor David Johnstone asked Field today about allegations in the media, which started on September 12, 2005, with a broadcast on TV One.

“The media allegations were grossly unfair and unjustified. The media persecuted me and my family for three and a half years.

“It’s time to stop,” Field said. Mr Johnstone asked Field about the way the

Ingram inquiry was conducted. “Did you say to the Thai people that the inquiry

may cause problems for their immigration status and they had to be careful about how it proceeded?” Mr Johnstone asked Field.

“There was some expression of concern amongst the Thai people about the media frenzy surrounding my situation,” Field said.

“I suggest you have sought to portray a version of the truth which is not true and you have asked the Thai people and others to go along with that,” Mr Johnstone asked Field.

“That is not correct. I just wanted to allay some fears about what the police inquiry and Ingram inquiry was about,” Field said.

Mr Johnstone asked Field about when prime min-ister Helen Clark announced the Ingram inquiry.

“She called a meeting about the inquiry. It was clear that it was going to take nine days to deter-mine whether I had breached the cabinet manual in relation to my responsibility as a minister.

“There was an issue with conflict of interest with Mr Siriwan (Thai tiler Sunan Siriwan). My under-standing was that there was no suggestion of crimi-nality involved. There was no warning that what I may say may be used in a court of law,” Field said.

“Whether you were warned or not, there’s nothing wrong with telling the truth,” Mr Johnstone said.

“I’m suggesting that you were happy with the announcement of the Ingram inquiry as it meant you would not be facing charges,” Mr Johnstone added.

“For you to tell me what was in my mind is wrong. There was no suggestion whatsoever of criminality.

I did not ask for an independent inquiry. I agreed to it,” Field said.

“Did you welcome it?” Mr Johnstone asked. “I accepted it on the terms explained to me by

my colleagues at the time,” Field said. “Did you welcome an extension of the Ingram

inquiry so additional allegations would not be pur-sued by police?” Mr Johnstone asked.

“Absolutely not,” Field said. Field was expelled from the Labour Party in 2007, con-

tinuing to represent Mangere as an independent MP. – NZPA

Field says he was “persecuted” by media

tHere WAs no suGGestion WHAtsoever of CriminAlity. i DiD not Ask for An inDepenDent

inQuiry. i AGreeD to it

ney, while two Victorian swine flu patients were in intensive care units this week after giving birth.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists today urged pregnant women to wear masks in public and “wash themselves scrupulously” after coming into contact with others, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The college’s president, Ted Weaver, said preg-nant women did not have to “go into lockdown” but should work from home if possible.

“Be alert, but not alarmed – if it’s not essential to go out, stay home,” Dr Weaver said.

Swine flu can pass to a foetus through infected membranes in the placenta or can cause a baby to overheat if the mother is running a fever. Pregnancy reduces a woman’s immunity, and her capacity to breathe properly due to compression on her lungs from the foetus.

New Zealand has recorded 10 swine flu deaths so far, but the MOH said it was only recording deaths where swine flu was a definite contributing factor.

Dr Hunt said New Zealand health officials were unable to say how many women in advanced preg-nancy were among the swine flu patients who have been treated in NZ intensive care units, or how many of the confirmed swine flu cases had been in preg-nant women.

But pregnant women were a group at greater risk of complications from swine flu, including pneumo-nia, and needed to be particularly watchful for signs and symptoms.

Pregnant women who fell ill with influenza-like illness should seek medical advice promptly – any of these patients with swine flu qualified for free doses of the anti-viral Tamiflu.

The number of confirmed cases in New Zealand – only a tiny fraction of the actual number of swine flu patients – rose to 2230, up from 2107 yesterday.

– NZPA

17 July  2009  �NEW ZEALAND

Back to the front page

on 04 439 8000, with as many contact details as possible.”

The bomb blasts at the hotels were carried out by a suspected by a suspected terrorist group, Presi-dent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a news conference.

“This action was carried out by a terrorist group, though it is too early to say if it is the same network” responsible for a series of bombings in Indonesia in recent years, Jemaah Islamiyah.

“Those who carried out this attack and those who planned it will be arrested and tried accord-ing to the law.”

Mr Mackay’s first career was in the merchant navy, where he became a master mariner, and he then moved on-shore to work in the shipping indus-try. He gained an MBA at Massey University.

He was variously in charge of container terminal operations, logistics, marketing, research and devel-opment, ship chartering and broking, and trade management in Japan and Korea.

He joined Holcim Ltd for his third career in 1989, and worked for Holcim New Zealand Ltd in the early 1990s as shipping manager and manager of Buller Port services, based at Westport.

At the same time, he was chief executive of the Cement and Concrete Association NZ, and was chief executive of Holcim’s operations in Fiji.

He was appointed to Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2001, as chief executive of 900 staff at Holcim (Lanka) Ltd.

In 2004 he became president director of PT Hol-cim Indonesia, based in Jakarta.

In 2006, Mr Mackay changed the company’s name from PT Semen Cibinong to PT Holcim Indonesia and he was credited with helping transform the firm into a profitable and competitive company, improving efficiency and reducing staff numbers to about 2400.

PT Holcim Indonesia is 77.3 percent owned by the world’s second-largest cement maker, Holcim Ltd of Switzerland, and is Indonesia’s third-biggest cement producer with annual output of around 7 million tonnes.

WELLINGTON, JULy 17 –� Southlanders are being urged to prepare for a civil emergency as strong after-shocks continued to rock the southern region today, following Wednesday night’s 7.8 earthquake.

Four tremors measuring over five on Richter magnitude hit the area this morning, and another at 6.39pm this evening.

The first, measuring 5.3 in strength jolted South-land residents at 4.13am. It was centred 120km west of Tuatapere and was 30km deep.

The second at 5.27am measuring 5.6 was centred 130km northwest of Tuatapere and was 12km deep, the third at 10.18am measuring 5.5 was centred 150km west of Tuatapere and was 5km deep, and the fourth at 11.01am measuring 5.2 was centred 100km west of Tuatapere and 5km deep.

The fifth, in roughly the same location tonight, measured 5.6 and again was 5km deep. Wednesday’s quake, centred 100km northwest of Tuatapere and 12km deep, struck at 9.22pm and triggered an alert from the Pacific tsunami warning centre in Hawaii.

The warning was cancelled after only two small waves were recorded on the south coast of the South Island.

Southland Civil Defence regional controller Neil Cruickshank said the aftershocks were a normal consequence of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, and warned people not to be complacent about the apparent lack of widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure.

“The scientists are still considering what combination of geographical and geological factors have influenced the impact of this particular earthquake,” he said.

“People in coastal communities need to be aware that the quake did generate a small tsunami on Wednesday night, and that the potential for a dam-aging tsunami exists with every large earthquake.”

He suggested that residents checked their emergency supplies and stock up on essentials this weekend.

“We would like people to take the time this week-end to review their emergency plans and make the effort to go and buy or organise whatever they are lacking,” he said.

This could range from checking the state of torch batteries and refreshing bottled water to buying and installing fasteners for heavy furniture such as bookcases or water cylinders.

“Every home in Invercargill received a free first aid kit a couple of years ago. If you’ve been dipping into the plasters and the paracetamol, it might be time to replen-ish the supplies,” Mr Cruickshank said.

The weekend would also be a good opportunity to check buildings for dam-age from the earthquake.

Claims should be lodged with the Earthquake Commission, while any issues of structural integrity, such as buildings moving on their piles, needed to be reported to a local council.

The Earthquake Commission had received more than 500 claims by this afternoon, but none was for major damage.

“They’re all still looking very small – things like ripped wallpaper and cracks in the ceiling and out-side walls,” commission spokesman Lance Dixon told NZPA.

– NZPA

More quakes tonight

WELLINGTON, JULy 17 NZPA –� The Government says it is working on economic problems identi-fied by an international rating agency but Labour believes budget decisions contributed to the nega-tive review announced yesterday.

The Fitch agency revised its outlook for New Zealand’s credit rating from stable to negative, say-ing the country was living beyond its means and households needed to save more.

It maintained the rating at AA plus but said a continuing deterioration in New Zealand’s net external debt and liability position would likely lead to a downgrade. Fitch’s head of Asia Pacific sovereign ratings, James McCormack, said today he thought New Zealand’s current account deficit was a structural feature of the economy.

“It does tell us the economy as a whole is living beyond its means and borrowing money to finance that,” he said.

“When the economy is living beyond its means you can divide it into the public and private sector and the private sector is not saving enough money.”

Prime Minister John Key said the outlook review was concerning but surprising, given that Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s were holding positive outlooks.

Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s are more influen-tial than Fitch in the international money market.

Mr Key said he doubted Fitch’s review would impact on the country’s ability to borrow and the Government was addressing issues like the current account deficit by focusing on improving productiv-ity and boosting exports.

WELLINGTON, JULy 17 NZPA –� The New Zealand dollar fell on news of bomb attacks on two hotels in Jakarta in Indonesia.

Explosions at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels killed nine people, including a New Zealander, and injured 42 others, agencies reported.

The NZ dollar fell to around US64.30c from US64.70c when the news broke this afternoon NZ time, said ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley.

The NZ dollar was trading at US64.40c at 5pm from US64.83c at 8am and US63.90c at 5pm yesterday.

“Risk is back off the table,” Mr Hindley said. He said traders sold a range of currencies, includ-

ing the Australian dollar and euro on the news. For most of the day the NZ dollar sat around

US64.75c, having recovered from a fall yesterday when credit rating agency Fitch changed the out-look on its rating of New Zealand.

“In early Asia we had the news from Jakarta and it gave up all its gains and settled near the lower end of today’s range,” Mr Hindley said.

The NZ dollar was at A80.50c at 5pm from A80.10c yesterday. The NZ dollar was at 0.4564 euro from 0.4545 yesterday and 60.30 yen from 59.95 yen.

The trade weighted index rose to 60.58 from 60.21 yesterday.

– NZPA

NZ dollar dips after Jakarta blast

Finance Minister Bill English made similar comments yesterday, saying the problems identified by Fitch were the same as those identified by the Government.

“It’s telling us there’s a bit more work to do,” he said. Labour leader Phil Goff told NZPA the Govern-

ment should reflect on its policies, particularly those that affected savings.

He said the previous government established KiwiSaver and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to reverse what had been a very poor savings record over a long period.

“If the problem is that a lot of our current account deficit is caused by borrowing overseas ... then the answer is that New Zealanders need to save more and that is scarcely going to happen if you gut the key vehicle for encouraging savings, which was KiwiSaver, and cease to contribute to the other (the Superannuation Fund),” Mr Goff said.

A spokesman for Mr English said there was no

evidence yet that KiwiSaver had increased private sector savings.

“And borrowing to invest in the Superannuation Fund doesn’t increase savings, we would be increas-ing our debt to put that money in the fund,” the spokesman said.

Mr McCormack said household saving was par-ticularly low in New Zealand, even lower than in the US, and needed to come up to a higher level.

He said KiwiSaver and the New Zealand Super-annuation Fund were “probably not enough”.

Another concern Fitch raised was that the housing sec-tor may bounce back and lead to even more borrowing.

Mr McCormack said the agency would continue monitoring what happened in New Zealand.

The Fitch report impacted on the New Zealand dol-lar, sending it down from US64.63c to US63.90c yester-day but this morning it had recovered to US64.86c.

– NZPA

Fur flies over Fitch report

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68

FIRST INTERVIEW

INVESTIGATE

August 2009:

Phone Tapping • A

ir Bust • The Chinese Migrant Issue 103

NO ONE GETS CLOSER

$8.30 August 2009

Air BustIs the European airlinerstill safe to � y in?

The Strange Caseof Yongming YanThe migrant who knew the Ministersis arrested after our stories

The New PlagueAre bugs about to inherit the Earth?

PolicePlantingEvidenceThe MEN IN BLACK who bug phones and alter your phone records to put you in the wrong place at the right time...

EXCLUSIVE: CAUGHT ON VIDEO

OUTMONDAY

17 July  2009  �

By Bob McCoskrie

-QC slams S�macking LawAn Op-Ed by Grant Illingworth QC has� highlighted a num-ber  of  legal  concerns�  s�hared  by  Family  Firs�t  about  the anti-s�macking law.

In the article titled “Good Motive, but bad law”, Mr Illing-worth QC who s�pecializes� in public law s�ays� that the anti-s�macking law is� an inappropriate res�pons�e to the problem of child abus�e for three reas�ons� – “…the firs�t is� that the amendment is� an extremely poor piece of legal drafting in that it is� calculated to create confus�ion rather than clarity. The s�econd is� that it criminalizes� behaviour which s�hould not be clas�s�ified as� a criminal offence. The third is� that it fails� to provide adequate protection for thos�e whom it was� des�igned to help.”

He  als�o  attacks�  the  confus�ion  of  the  law, which  has� been  confirmed  by  recent  res�earch  commis�s�ioned  by Family Firs�t, and s�ays� that it “…trans�lates� into an abs�olute rule that you are never allowed to adminis�ter even a very mild s�mack if your purpos�e is� to help a child to learn how to behave. Confus�ed? S�o am I. And it s�eems� obvious� that a law which confus�es� people is� not going to help much in regulating their behaviour.”

Mr Illingworth rejects� the police dis�cretion claus�e and labels� it “muddled thinking” and “bringing the law into dis�-repute”. He s�ays� “It is� a s�erious� thing to s�ay that s�omeone has� committed a crime, irres�pective of whether the pers�on is� pros�ecuted. S�urely we s�hould res�erve that kind of con-demnation for s�ituations� that really warrant the intervention of the criminal law.”

S�ignificantly,  he  ridicules�  thos�e  who  have  attacked the Referendum ques�tion as� confus�ing and s�ays� “…the ques�tion is� a jus�tifiable res�pons�e to the problem created by the wording and  legal effect of  the new s�ection. The law, as�  it now s�tands�, means�  that  the us�e of mild  force for  the  purpos�e  of well-motivated  parental  correction  is� a criminal offence. The ques�tion pos�ed in the referendum s�imply as�ks� us� to s�ay whether that s�hould be s�o.”

Mr  Illingworth  is�  right  and  the  politicians�  s�hould  pay attention to this� legal analys�is�. If Q.C.’s� find the law con-fus�ing and unneces�s�ary, where does�  that place parents� s�imply trying to rais�e great kids�.  

Read Full Op-ed

-Cracks in National’s stance on ReferendumFamily  Firs�t  NZ  is� welcoming  comments�  from Hamilton Wes�t MP Tim Macindoe (Waikato Times, 13 July) that he will be voting no  in the upcoming Referendum and,  like Family  Firs�t,  believes�  that  the Ches�ter Borrows�  amend-ment is� the s�olution.

Tim Macindoe joins� Cabinet Minis�ter Paula Bennett and other National MP’s� who have s�ignalled their s�upport for a change in the law. We even had National MP’s� reques�ting copies� of the petition forms� demanding the Referendum in the firs�t place.

We call on the Prime Minis�ter to tes�t this� is�s�ue on his� Caucus�.  Virtually  all  of  the  National  caucus�  before  the election  was�  s�upporting  the  Borrows�  amendment.  Our unders�tanding  is�  that  the  current  National  Caucus�  has� not been tes�ted on this� is�s�ue. We believe John Key has� the numbers� with the s�upport of the ACT party to amend this� law s�o that good parents� aren’t criminalized for light s�macking for the purpos�e of correction.

We es�timate that there are probably only two to three National  MP’s�  who  would  oppos�e  an  amendment,  and there are potentially even s�ome Labour MP’s� who under a free cons�cience vote, which they have never had, would als�o s�upport a law change.

The Prime Minis�ter  is�  running out of excus�es�  for not changing the law. It’s� time he lis�tened, and acted.

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EDITORIAL

Comment

subsCribe to tGif!

editorial family matters

Chicago Tribune

WEDNESDAy, JULy 15 –� On July 20, 1969, just after 10:56 p.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong hopped down from a ladder, planted his boots on the moon’s surface and uttered the words now among the most famous ever spoken. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” came the faint, staticky voice from 238,855 miles away.

Yes, 40 years ago. The anniversary comes on Monday.

On every significant anniversary, the Apollo 11 moon landing has been trotted out, dusted off, and used as metaphor or milestone, to judge how far sci-ence – even humanity – has advanced. Or receded.

We tend to measure the moon landing by what came later. Or rather, what didn’t. By the failure to reach beyond the moon. By the disappointing space shuttle, putt-putting in low Earth orbit. By the ques-tions about what we’re doing in space, whether we’ll ever get to Mars, and whether it’s worth the billions of dollars to try.

This was inevitable. Some 167 million Americans under 40 were not yet born when those grainy, shad-owy television images riveted the world. They didn’t hear the first words uttered by a human being on another world: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

They missed a transcendent moment. Even stone-faced newscaster Walter Cronkite choked up. As word came of a successful landing, Cronkite, an avid space junkie, whipped off his black horn-rimmed glasses, ready to wipe away a tear. “Whew! Boy!” he said, grinning.

People were giddy. Even editorial writers. A day after the moon walk, a Chicago Tribune editorial said: “It is certainly a day for generosity and aspira-tion, and all of us chained to this planet must now be able to see, with fresh eyes and insight, that we are brothers in spirit and that we should be reach-ing out to validate what the moon journey has so convincingly demonstrated – that the unattainable no longer exists.”

And then came ... more moon landings. A golf shot on the moon. Astronauts digging up more rocks. Bouncing around in those space suits.

It all became routine.By 1979, the afterglow long faded, author Tom

Wolfe reminded us what really mattered about the space program. He dished up The Right Stuff, a glorious recounting of the first astronauts and the race into space.

Wolfe told the essential human truth of the Apollo program: That these were men who set out know-ing that they were taking a giant leap into hostile territory. Knowing that even after all the training, all the practice, something could, and usually did, go wrong. It didn’t have to be something big to be fatal. At the fifth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mis-sion, Armstrong said he estimated their chances at only 50-50. “I ... was surprised every time something worked. I had a continual suspicion that the next

item on the checklist would be the one that would crump out on us.” The astronauts averted calami-ties by fast thinking and resourcefulness: A broken switch almost doomed the moon men to a slow death on the lunar surface. Aldrin jammed a pen into the circuit-breaker so the engines could fire. Still, it was so dicey for a while that President Rich-ard Nixon prepared an address to tell Americans that the Apollo 11 astronauts had been stranded on the moon.

All of that is now relegated to history books and documentaries.

Armstrong himself has long since retreated to his

suburban Cincinnati home, rarely granting inter-views about that day. Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, recently said the days of American pre-eminence in space are over and that the moon really isn’t all that promising as a destination for humans. Robots could do the job there, if another moon shot materializes.

Talk about a buzz kill.No, we don’t expect to colonize the moon. Or even

reach Mars any time in the next few decades, no matter what NASA planners say.

So was the moon shot a waste? Of course not. It boosted the aerospace industry, ignited innovation and inspired Americans.

Americans went to the moon because the Rus-sians lifted a capsule into space first. And President John F. Kennedy needed to answer.

Author Andrew Smith argued in his 2005 book Moondust that Apollo “was a performance, pure and simple. JFK wanted something to capture the global imagination, and to excite his own people, and he found it. . . . In the end, it was theater – the most mind-blowing theater ever created. In fact, at around $120 per American over the nine years of the ‘60s in which it ran, or $13 a year, it was astonish-ingly cheap theater.”

The curtain rose 40 years ago, as the Saturn V rockets fired and people at Cape Kennedy shielded their eyes.

Hundreds of millions across the globe watched Armstrong’s leap. But there was even a greater leap in the minds – and hearts – of so many people who were inspired to believe, even if only for that brief, incandescent moment, that the unattainable no longer existed.

What a gift.Moonwalk One movie trailer   

Apollo 11 lift off   

Incredible footage of S�aturn V ignition   

The moon landing   

Infinity, and beyond

AmeriCAns Went to tHe moon beCAuse

tHe russiAns lifteD A CApsule into spACe first. AnD presiDent JoHn f. kenneDy neeDeD to AnsWer

Once again, terror strikes. This time, in the heart of Jakarta, Indonesia. I couldn’t help but notice as we put this issue of TGIF together today how much of the news is dominated by terror or the threat of it. In Pakistan, as one of our correspondents is indicating tonight, there’s now a real threat that the Taliban will take control of not only Pakistan, but its nuclear arsenal.

India won’t wait to see Mumbai nuked, it will strike first.

Iran, meanwhile, is on the verge of having nuclear weapons and at the same time Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan – unlikely bedfellows at the best of times – appear to have entered into some kind of

secret deal to tacitly support an Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran.

It is an interesting turn of events, because when Saddam Hussein was in charge of Iraq, Israel and Iran were quite palsy and Iran helped Israel knock out Saddam’s first nuclear reactor.

How times change in a region where my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

Israel, too, has little option. If Iran militarises its nukes under the current (albeit unpopular) regime, few doubt the mad mullah running the show, AhMADinejad, will flick the switch to usher in his vision of Armageddon.

There was much speculation in the wake of the

US invasion of Iraq as to whether Saddam’s WMD programme had been smuggled out of the coun-try, and Israel provided some significant clues in that regard when an air raid last year against Syria blew up a secret nuclear reactor project. Syria is still refusing to cooperate with the Atomic Energy Agency officials trying to investigate the illegal project and its wreckage.

And yet, amidst all this uncertainty and tragedy, is it just me or have we all become a little more immune to terror attacks? Once upon a time they appeared traumatic, and of course they still are for all of those directly affected by them. But I get the feeling we’re starting to harden up and accept that the threat of terror is now a real part of the fabric of modern society post-9/11.

The threat of terror

17 July  2009 �ANALYSIS

By Arnaud de Borchgrave, UPI Editor at Large

WASHINGTON –� A senior adviser on South Asia to three U.S. presidents is now warning about Arma-geddon in Islamabad.

At the request of President Obama, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA expert on the region, also chaired an interagency policy review on Afghanistan and nuclear Pakistan. His latest assessment says, “A jihadist victory in Pakistan, meaning the takeover of the nation by a militant Sunni movement led by the Taliban, would create the greatest threat the United States has yet to face in its war on terror…(and) is now a real possibility in the foreseeable future. It would bolster al-Qaida’s capabilities ten-fold,” Riedel concludes. “It would also give terrorists a nuclear capability.

“Pakistan’s creation of and collusion with extremist groups has left Islamabad vulnerable to an Islamist coup,” Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, concludes in a lengthy study in the July/August issue of The National Interest. An Islamist coup would not be possible without the collusion of at least some army units in Rawalpindi, the gar-rison town 20 minutes from Islamabad. Pakistan has suffered four military coups in 60 years, living half its existence under military rule.

Beginning with the war against the Soviet occupa-tion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Islamization of Pakistan was organized by the late military dictator Zia ul-Haq, and encouraged and funded by Saudi Arabia and the United States as a counter to com-munist ideology. This spawned thousands of single-discipline madrassas (free Koranic schools) that, in

turn, spawned thousands of jihadis brainwashed to hate American, Indian and Israeli apostates. It also led to the creation of such nationwide terrorist groups as lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e- Mohammed under the supervision of ISI for the Kashmir front against India. Officially banned, they moved underground.

Pakistan’s all-powerful Inter-Services Intelli-gence agency also volunteered some 10,000 young jihadis from the Mohmand tribal agency to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but the Taliban had already collapsed and the untrained youngsters were quietly shipped back to Pakistan with denials on all sides.

After U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, ISI spread the word among tribal chiefs in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas that Pakistan is next. A two-star ISI general briefed tribal chiefs after the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 on U.S. plans following the conquest of Afghanistan. This reporter was briefed by one of the chiefs next day. The Bush administration, the general had explained, plans to attack Pakistan in an attempt to seize its nuclear arsenal and leave it naked to Indian aggression.

Pakistan is plagued by a dozen terrorist groups that are officially banned but seem to operate with virtual impunity. Suicide bombers have targeted every major city in Pakistan – more than once. Some 8,000 were killed in 2008. Al-Qaida’s facili-ties, in safe havens along a 1,400-mile border with Afghanistan, are difficult to distinguish from the Taliban when bombed by U.S. drones.

The man who convinced millions of Pakistanis that Sept. 11 was a CIA and Mossad plot to give the United States a pretext to launch a war on Islam

was none other than Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief (1987-88) who has been strategic adviser to extrem-ist politico-religious parties. Known as the godfa-ther of the Taliban, he is back in the news pushing direct talks between his friend Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban chief in hiding for the past eight years with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, and the United States to negotiate an end to the Afghan war. Gul, who had spent two weeks in Afghanistan immediately prior to Sept. 11, presum-

ably knows where Mullah Omar can be contacted. He is believed to be near Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, which has long been an R&R area for Taliban fighters back from Afghanistan.

As long as FATA is a privileged sanctuary for the enemy, Afghanistan is unwinnable. A spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations denied an inter-view that CNN’s Michael Ware had just conducted with ISPR Director Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who stated the obvious: “ISI still has contacts with all

the clandestine groups operating against the U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.”

“A jihadist, nuclear-armed Pakistan,” writes Riedel, “is a scenario we need to avoid at all costs.” But, he adds, “There is good reason for pessimism. Working with the existing order in Pakistan may not succeed. But there is every reason to try, given the horrors of the alternative.

“To begin with, U.S. aid levels should not be the product of temper tantrums on Capitol Hill,” says Riedel. “We should help Pakistan deal with its illiteracy rate, because literate women will fight the Taliban. We should provide the Pakistani army with the helicop-ter fleet it needs to combat insurgents in the western badlands. We should stop trying to legislate Pakistani behavior by attaching conditions to aid legislation, a tactic that has consistently failed with Pakistan in the past. Our goal should be to convince Pakistanis that the existential threat to their liberty comes not from the CIA or India, but from al-Qaida.”

Across the border in Afghanistan, a surge of 4,000 U.S. Marines, 4,000 Britons and 750 Afghan troops in Helmand province came as no surprise to Taliban insurgents. As they do in any guerrilla war, insur-gents fade out before a superior force. Defense Secre-tary Robert Gates is under no illusions when he says that even moderate successes against the Taliban will only be seen over the next five to 10 years. Most NATO allies want out by 2011. Britain, whose troop strength, mostly in Helmand, is now increasing from 6,000 to 7,700, is under mounting pressure in both Parliament and public opinion polls to fix a timeline for withdrawal. With eight soldiers killed in a day, it was the deadliest 24 hours for British troops since the 1982 Falkland Islands war.

Islamic emirate nightmare

By UPI intelligence analysts

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL –� Israel’s recent deployment of one submarine and two missile corvettes in the Red Sea has been widely seen as a display of Israel’s grow-ing strategic reach in its standoff against Iran.

The deployment underlined Israel’s growing interest in the Red Sea region, a key shipping route, amid a sharp increase in Iranian support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including arms shipments through the Red Sea. Israeli officials said there were no plans for a permanent submarine deployment in the Red Sea/Horn of Africa region, which is becom-ing increasingly turbulent.

But in recent months Iranian warships have deployed in the Gulf of Aden, ostensibly to work with an international flotilla combating piracy off Somalia. This deployment has aroused some concern in Israel, given Tehran’s recent efforts to establish naval bases in that region.

Possibly the most important aspect of the Israeli deployment, since the warships have to transit Egypt’s Suez Canal from their normal deployment zone in the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, is what some observers see as the emergence of an informal alliance between Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia against the Islamic republic.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Sunni-dom-inated Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, fear that the spread of power and influence by overwhelm-ingly Shiite Iran could engulf them. This is an exis-tential threat that Israel also fears.

According to well-informed regional sources, the intelligence services of all three countries, along with those of Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emir-ates, have met at various times, and not always with Israeli participation, to discuss the threat all perceive from a nuclear-armed and expansionist Iran.

These gatherings, usually secret, have sometimes included senior officials of the U.S. Central Intel-ligence Agency and the State Department.

There has been no indication that these intel-ligence meetings produced any formalized joint military planning.

But the Israeli warships’ use of the Suez Canal in June and July indicates that Egypt and Israel have come to some arrangement for the speedy deploy-ment of Israeli warships from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, from where they can access the Arabia Sea and move within cruise-missile range of Iran.

Permission to do so would have to come from the highest level in the Cairo government.

The Israeli submarine Leviathan, one of the Israeli navy’s three German-built Dolphin-class boats, transited the canal into the Red Sea in June escorted by the Saar 5-class corvette Hanit for maneuvers off Eilat, Israel’s only port in the Red Sea. The nuclear-capable Leviathan returned to its base at Haifa on the Mediterranean on July 5.

Israel has two more Dolphins on order and once they are delivered sometime in 2014, Israel would

be able to keep at least one of these boats in the vicinity of Iran at all times.

The Hanit, along with another Saar-5 vessel, the Eilat, passed through the canal heading south on Tuesday. The Hanit was badly damaged in July 2006 when it was hit off the coast of Lebanon by a Chinese-designed C-802 anti-ship missile fired by Hezbollah during a 34-day war.

An Egyptian official was quoted as saying the corvette deployment was to stop arms smuggling to Gaza.

That is a plausible explanation. In January and February Israeli aircraft were reported to have attacked truck convoys carrying Iranian weapons for Hamas across Sudan, which lies on the Red Sea’s western shore.

However, Egypt’s acquiescence in allowing the Israelis to use the canal – allowing their warships to

reach the southern Red Sea in days rather than the weeks normally needed to sail around Africa – indi-cates that Cairo would probably have no objection to facilitating an Israeli deployment if a decision was taken to strike Iran.

Going through the canal also is the only way for Israeli ships to get to the Arabian Sea without refu-eling, a vital consideration if hostilities broke out.

Egypt and Israel wanted to show their coordination in the face of Iran pursuing its nuclear program, Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot commented on July 14.

There were reports earlier this month that Saudi Arabia would allow Israeli warplanes to use its air space in an attack on Iran. That was widely denied, but Egypt’s agreement on the Israeli naval deployments suggests the possibility of wider Arab participation.

– UPI

Israeli warships deploy in Red Sea

pAkistAn is plAGueD by A Dozen terrorist

Groups tHAt Are offiCiAlly bAnneD but seem to operAte WitH virtuAl impunity. suiCiDe bombers HAve tArGeteD every mAJor City in pAkistAn – more tHAn onCe

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CUR3399 Exceptionals INVESTIGATE.indd 1 16/6/09 5:02:28 PM

17 July  2009 �

flu GettinG more ‘AGGressive’MADRID (DPA) – S�panis�h health authorities� were concerned about the occas�ional aggres�s�ivenes�s� of s�wine flu, which killed a 33-year-old woman without health problems� that would explain the rapid progres�s�ion of her dis�eas�e, radio reports� s�aid Friday.

The woman died today on the Balearic is�land of Majorca. S�he had been hos�pitalized s�ince July 12.

A 71-year-old man als�o died Thurs�day in Madrid of the H1N1 s�train of the flu. He was� s�uffering from a chronic dis�eas�e.

The two deaths� brought the death toll to four in S�pain, which has� about 1,200 confirmed cas�es� of H1N1.

The firs�t victim was� Dalilah Mimouni, 20, who had an emergency Caes�arian s�ection before her death. A medical error then led to the death of her baby at a Madrid hos�pital. 

oC’s misCHA bArton CommitteD to psyCH WArDlOS ANGElES (DPA) – Hollywood s�tar Mis�cha Barton has� been hos�pitalized under involuntary ps�ychiatric hold, Access Hollywood reported today. 

The 23-year-old actres�s� is� at Cedars�-S�inai Medical Center in Los� Angeles�, the report s�aid. 

Police confirmed to People magazine that they removed her from her hous�e but gave no further details�. 

“S�he has� been dealing with a lot of pers�onal is�s�ues�,” a friend told People. “I don’t know if s�he really ever gave up s�ome of the bad habits� that had gotten out of control a couple years� back.” 

Barton was� arres�ted and charged with drunk driving and marijuana pos�s�es�s�ion in April 2007. 

femAle politiCiAn JAileD After suGGestinG rivAl be rApeD luCKNOW, INDIA, July 17 (uPI) – A s�enior female politician from India’s� ruling Congres�s� Party faces� 10 years� in pris�on for s�ugges�ting a rival female leader s�hould be raped, authorities� s�aid. 

Rita Bahuguna Jos�hi, the leader of the Congres�s� Party in Uttar Prades�h, s�aid in a s�peech that rival politician Mayawati, the Dalit, or untouchable, chief minis�ter of the s�tate, s�hould be raped s�o s�he can better unders�tand the victims� of s�exual crimes�. 

Jos�hi, who allegedly als�o made derogatory remarks� about Mayawati’s� low cas�te origins�, was� arres�ted and impris�oned hours� later and her home was� burned to the ground, allegedly by Mayawati s�upporters�, Britain’s� Daily Telegraph reported. 

It is� illegal to make derogatory comments� about lower cas�tes� under Indian laws�. 

Jos�hi had criticized the awarding of 25,000 rupees� (about $515) each to compens�ate s�everal Dalit women who were raped in Uttar Prades�h and s�aid the women s�hould throw the money at Mayawati’s� face and s�ay to her, ‘You s�hould be raped and I will give you 10 million rupees�.’ 

Jos�hi later apologized for her remarks�, but was� jailed for two weeks� pending inves�tigations� for allegedly ins�ulting a woman’s� modes�ty, ins�ulting a pers�on of lower cas�te and promoting s�ocial enmity. All three offens�es� are punis�hable by a 10-year pris�on s�entence. 

Jos�hi was� not charged with any crime pending the inves�tigation’s� conclus�ion. 

WORLD

updatein �0 seconds

JAkARTA –� Two powerful explosions hit the JW Mar-riott and Ritz-Carlton hotels Friday morning in the Indonesian capital, killing at least nine people and injur-ing dozens of others, police and media reports said.

Jakarta police spokesman Chrysnanda told Elshinta radio that nine people were confirmed dead in the blasts, most in the Ritz-Carlton.

Four foreigners were killed, including the presi-dent of the local unit of Swiss cement maker Hol-cim, Timothy Mackay, local media reported.

At least 29 people were injured in the blasts and were taken to nearby hospitals.

Television footage showed severely injured vic-tims, including foreigners, being taken out of the Marriott hotel.

Chrysnanda, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, confirmed that the blasts came from bombs, but he did not give more details. “An investi-gation is under way by bomb experts,” he said.

The first explosion hit the Ritz-Carlton, destroy-ing its facade, and the second blast hit the nearby

Marriott minutes later. A witness said the explosions were about five minutes apart.

“I was having a breakfast in the nearby restau-rant when I heard a very strong blast,” said Intan, an officer worker.

“I saw several foreigners covered in blood taken out of the hotel,” she told the TV One channel.

The hotels in the business district were popular with foreigners as a venue for business meetings because they were thought to be well-protected.

The blast was the second bombing on the Jakarta Marriott. In August 2003, a militant drove a bomb-laden truck into the lobby of the hotel and set it off, killing 12 people and injuring 150.

“The only group that has the ability to carry out such attacks is Jemaah Islamiyah,” terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna told Channel News Asia.

Until Friday, Indonesia had not had a major bombing since October 2005 when militants belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional terrorist group affiliated with al-Qa’ida, blew themselves up

at three restaurants in Bali, killing 20 people.Jamaah Islamiyah is also blamed for the October

2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign holidaymakers.

Analysts have said that the group’s violent faction has been severely weakened after the arrest of scores of operatives in recent years but determined militants were still capable of mounting a deadly attack.

The blasts came a little more than a week after the July 9 presidential election, in which incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appeared set to win a second five-year term although the final results have yet to be officially confirmed.

Yudhoyono has been credited with restoring security after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah since the start of the decade.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said Yudhoyono would make a statement later in the day.

“This is something very disconcerting,” Mallar-angeng told Metro TV.

– DPA

TERROR ATTACK: The Latest

WASHINGTON (DPA) –� The five suspects in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks refused to attend a pre-trial hearing in the military tribunals Thursday at Guantanamo Bay.

The alleged mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the other four defendants refused to leave their cells as the hearing was to begin, the Miami Herald reported.

The court was convening to hear motions and to begin the process for determining whether two of the suspects, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are sufficiently mentally competent to serve as their own defence lawyers.

Hearings have resumed at the remote naval installation on Cuba since President Barack Obama decided in May to try some of the 230 suspects being held at the facility. The decision drew criticism from human-rights activists.

Hearings took place on Thursday in the cases of three other suspects, including Omar Khadr, the so-called “child soldier” suspected of using a hand grenade to kill a US soldier in 2002. Khadr was 15 years old at the time of the attack.

Obama said the revised commissions provide expanded rights to the defendants. The new rules place limits on hearsay evidence and ban infor-mation obtained through inhumane interrogation techniques. The accused have expanded rights in selecting their lawyers.

Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo by January but has encountered congressional oppo-sition to bringing detainees to the United States for possible incarceration or trial.

Congress earlier this year passed legislation ban-ning the transfer of detainees to the United States until at least the end of September. Obama has struggled to find other countries willing to resettle detainees slated for release.

– DPA

9/11 terror suspects on strike

BEIJING –� China has sentenced a well-known environmental activist and his daughter to “reform through labour” after accusing them of “endanger-ing state security” by disclosing details of radioactive pollution from a uranium mine, rights groups said Friday.

Sun Xiaodi, a former employee of the state-run Number 792 Ura-nium Mine in the north-western province of Gansu, has campaigned for more than a decade to draw attention to pollution from the mine.

Public security officials in Gansu last week

ordered that Sun, 53, serve two years at a labour camp, claiming he had been “illegally providing state secrets overseas” and was guilty of “rumour mongering,” US-based Human Rights in China and other groups said.

His daughter Sun Haiyan, 25, was sentenced to 18 months of reform through labour for help-ing him, the reports said.

Reform-through-labour (RTL) sentences are passed by local judicial

committees without trial. “If the authorities have evidence that Sun Xiaodi

and his daughter endangered state security, they should present it in an open and fair trial,” Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, said in a statement.

“Instead, they chose RTL – a non-transpar-ent process of administrative punishment lacking procedural protections – raising strong suspicions about their handling of these cases,” Hom said.

The rights group said local authorities had “intensified their monitoring and harassment” of Sun Xiaodi since he won an international Nuclear-Free Future Award in 2006.

Sentences to labour camps are often used to silence local rights activists in China.

– DPA

China still using concentration camps

17 July  2009  �WORLD

WASHINGTON (DPA) –� The United States put other countries on notice today that it will no longer toler-ate trade violations and will clamp down on sub-standard labour practices around the world.

In a speech to steelworkers in Pittsburgh, Penn-sylvania, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk prom-ised stiffer enforcement of existing trade rules to protect US workers – both by pressing governments to change and through legal action before the World Trade Organization.

“Our new approach to enforcement is simple: We will deploy our resources more effectively to identify and solve problems at the source,” Kirk said. “But make no mistake, we will pursue legal remedies when other options are closed.”

The United States will not accept labour laws that don’t meet international standards, shifting

from a “complaint-driven” approach to confronting governments on their labour infringements, Kirk said.

“We will engage governments of countries that violate the rules, to restore workers’ rights quickly,” Kirk said. “And if they won’t fix their labour prob-lems, we will exercise our legal options.”

While rejecting protectionism and lauding the benefits of trade for US businesses, Kirk signalled action on a whole range of issues, including blocks on agricultural products, such as beef restrictions resulting from the swine flu outbreak, and piracy. The administration will set up an “early warning” system to catch trade barriers early.

Obama has long sought a tougher approach to trade, suggesting in the 2008 presidential campaign that he would renegotiate the North American Free

Trade Agreement. US businesses have been con-cerned with the so-called “Buy American” provi-sions in February’s stimulus package that restricted foreign company access to government funds.

“Enforcement cuts both ways. The United States has not always lived up to its own commitments under trade agreements,” said Myron Brilliant of the US Chamber of Commerce. “Keeping our own trade commitments gives us credibility when we call on others to keep their own.”

Obama’s administration has launched two legal cases since coming to office in January, against Chinese quotas on raw materials and Canadian lumber restrictions. Obama has also been slower to press ahead on pending free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama.

– DPA

US lurches toward protectionismtHe uniteD stAtes Will not ACCept

lAbour lAWs tHAt Don’t meet internAtionAl stAnDArDs, sHiftinG from A “ComplAint-Driven” ApproACH to ConfrontinG Governments on tHeir lAbour infrinGements

JERUSALEM –� A pro-Israeli group has released its own collection of testimonies from Israeli sol-diers who fought in last winter’s Gaza war, as part of a public-relations campaign aimed at countering charges of widespread Israeli violations.

The Stand With Us organization, which has offices mostly in the US but also one in Israel and in Australia, has launched a website, on which it has posted video accounts of 14 Israeli soldiers giving positive testimony on the conduct of Israeli troops – including of how Israeli soldiers helped wounded Palestinians.

In a statement sent to reporters overnight, the organization said it was responding to a report published earlier this week by Israeli left wing activist group Breaking the Silence, which alleged severe Israeli violations during the Gaza offensive in January 2009.

That Breaking the Silence report contains accounts of some 30 Israeli soldiers, who said the Israeli army used “insane” firepower to protect its own troops in utter disregard of Palestinian civilians, forced Pales-tinian civilians to act as “human shields,” and carried out wanton destruction during the 22-day war.

“I remember a few cases (in) that it wasn’t our sol-diers we took out from the fighting zone with IDF (Israel Defence Forces) ambulances and helicop-ters, but it was Palestinians civilians – kids, women, men, of all kinds – that we took back to Israel to hospitalize and to receive the medical treatment here,” countered Nina, 24 and a medic, in one video account on the site.

She said the Israeli military teaches its medics to treat the most seriously injured first, whether Palestinian militants, Palestinian civilians or their own comrades.

While Breaking the Silence says the accounts it pub-lished show that abuses were widespread, the Israeli military insists that any such cases were singular ones by delinquent soldiers, and will be investigated.

The army says that it did what it could to prevent civilian deaths while fighting in a densely popu-lated area, including by issuing advance warnings of airstrikes, in leaflets dropped from the air and in telephone calls to neighbours’ houses by Arabic-speaking Israeli officers.

But amongst the serious international law viola-

tions described in the Breaking the Silence report was the continued use by the Israeli army of a practice previously known as the “neighbour pro-cedure” which had been prohibited by also Israel’s own supreme court.

Under the practice, Israeli soldiers used Palestin-ian civilians, often neighbours, as “human shields” by ordering them to enter and check houses in which Palestinian gunmen were holed up. In one instance described in the report, the same neighbour was sent in three times while the army was holding back its fire to see if the gunmen were still alive. A soldier testifying in the report said the Palestinian civilians used by troops to carry out chores for them were called “Johnies.”

One soldier said troops would even place their rifle butts over the “Johnies” shoulder and then advance, taking cover behind him.

The Breaking the Silence report is the latest sharply criticizing Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, which killed over 1,417 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Other recent reports however, including by

New kind of war over Palestine

By David Fleshler Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. –� A crew of expert snake handlers will stalk the wilderness fringes of Florida’s western Broward and Palm Beach counties to catch and decapitate Burmese pythons, in a campaign to prevent the nonnative constrictors from extending their range beyond Everglades National Park.

Just a small group of snake killers will participate in the initial hunt, as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission assesses whether this is a feasible way to control a bizarre threat to South Florida’s native wildlife.

The snake hunters will travel along roads and levees where hunters shoot deer and hogs.

The men engaging in the hunt are people from the reptile industry, which largely has been blamed for the problem.

State and federal biologists have said the Ever-glades snakes descended either from released unwanted pets or from an escape during the time of Hurricane Andrew.

Although the state will allow them to sell the meat and hide as compensation, three hunters inter-viewed said they didn’t expect to earn anything.

“We’re doing this to show that the reptile industry is interested in getting these snakes removed,” said Greg Graziani, a Central Florida reptile breeder who will go on the hunt. “We want to be part of the solution.”

As for the carcass, he said, “I don’t know anyone who buys meat or hides. For right now the carcass is not worth anything to me personally. There may not be enough meat or skin to do anything with.”

After a day or two of preliminaries, in which they

will survey the land, speak with local hunters and obtain maps, they will head out.

They usually will work at night. When they encounter a Burmese python, they will photograph it, note the location with a Global Positioning Sys-tem, take measurements, determine its sex and cut off its head. They will examine its stomach contents on the spot.

They will not be allowed to use traps or firearms.Shawn Heflick, of Palm Bay, Fla., an approved

python hunter, said he’s caught lots of pythons in southeast Asia, and there’s really no danger to expe-rienced hunters.

“We’re not the prey,” he said. “They’re the prey. We’re the predators.”

If it’s a small one – say a mere 8-footer – he’ll pick it up with his hand. “You’re going to get bit,” he said. “But you kind of get used to that.”

The reptile industry feels threatened by the pub-licity over the Everglades pythons and the recent

death of a 2-year-old girl in Central Florida who was strangled by a pet python. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, has introduced a federal bill to ban the import and interstate trade in Burmese pythons, as well as the smaller ball python, which breeders and dealers consider a harmless species unfairly caught up in the Burmese python hysteria.

In a separate development today, the U.S. Depart-ment of the Interior announced it is considering an expansion of a tightly controlled hunting program at Everglades National Park, where about a dozen volunteers catch pythons. And it said it’s working on a program to allow hunters of deer, hogs and other game at Big Cypress National Preserve to shoot the snakes.

Although there has been talk of up to 150,000 pythons in the Everglades, state officials say they can’t really estimate the numbers and prefer to sim-ply say there are “thousands.” The snakes have been dining on the native wildlife, such as wading birds, bobcats and deer.

The hunters are all reptile experts.“I got my first snake when I was 4,” said Michael

Cole, of Haines City, Fla., another approved python hunter, who owns Ballroom Pythons South, a reptile company. “I bred my first snake at 13. I was catching and tagging rattlesnakes when I was 15.”

Although he says the media and some scientists have unfairly blamed the industry for putting pythons in the Everglades, he acknowledged the industry got them into the country originally. Now he said they want to help solve the problem.

“We’re not doing this for the skins or the meat,” he said. “We’re doing this to get rid of things that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, were based mainly on Palestinian accounts.

The Israeli organization says its soldiers’ testi-monies are anonymous to allow those wishing to cooperate to speak their minds freely, without fear of prosecution of themselves or their comrades.

But the pro-Israeli pressure group publishing its own, on-the- record, counter testimonies, charged that Breaking the Silence was “breaking the rules for any kind of serious reporting.”

“They are a fringe group with a political agenda who have collected anonymous ‘testimony,’ the major-ity of which is based on hearsay and rumor,” said Michael Dickson, Israel director of Stand With Us.

Roz Rothstein, the group’s international director, said, “we created this website because a few isolated allegations from ‘anti-war’ Israeli soldiers are being used to defame the IDF.”

She said the 30 soldiers represented only a frac-tion of the thousands who served in the Gaza war.

While the war has been over for six months, the PR battle is now in full swing.

– DPA

Florida python hunters on the prowl

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17 July  2009  11SPORT

By Chris Barclay of NZPA

AUCkLAND, JULy 17 –� Graham Henry’s love-hate relationship with the New Zealand’s rugby public will endure until the 2011 World Cup but rival Rob-bie Deans’ honeymoon period could be on the wane if he cannot mastermind a rare Wallabies win on Eden Park tomorrow.

While the All Blacks are under pressure, having produced three less-than-spectacular performances against France and Italy last month, Henry might take comfort in the fact the time has arrived for Deans to deliver in the Tri-Nations opener.

Twelve months on from the Wallabies’ stunning victory in Sydney – the perfect start to the Deans reign soon after he failed to replace Henry as All Blacks coach – Australia have lost three on the bounce against their neighbours.

And ominously they have not won on Eden Park in 10 attempts since 1986.

Henry’s stocks rose when Richie McCaw’s return enabled the side to exact revenge in Auckland a week after the Sydney debacle.

Ultimately the Bledisloe Cup was locked down before the All Blacks’ dominance was confirmed in the fourth test of the series in Hong Kong last November.

Deans’ first year in charge also included a record 53-8 hiding in in South Africa and only their second loss to Wales since the 1987 World Cup.

So for all the scrutiny Henry is exposed to, former Crusaders coach Deans needs to prove his methods can mould an adaptable and mentally strong unit.

Once again, his team must win three of the four Bledisloe matches this season if the Cup is to reside in Sydney for the first time since 2003.

Fitness, composure and self belief were lacking when the Wallabies flunked the Eden Park test last year but Deans and senior players insist they have learned from that humiliation.

If nothing else, Deans has had longer to make his imprint on the squad. he had a short lead-in last season after coaching the Crusaders to Super 14 glory days before switching allegiance.

“Our understanding and clarity on what we’re trying to achieve has improved,” said Wallabies cap-tain Stirling Mortlock.

Second five-eighth Berrick Barnes felt progress was inevitable now Deans had bedded down his philosophies.

“It was good to come into this year and have the structures down pat,” he said.

“I think that showed in the (season opening) Bar-barians game, the way we were able to get things together and get rolling as a team.

“We’re not as fluid as we want to be but we know if we can get our game plan right and get our guys in the right positions we can create a lot of stress on the opposition.”

Deans, meanwhile, has experienced less stress in one regard since returning home – his coaching duel

Under Pressure: history against Wallabies

with Henry is not as prominent as last year. “It was ludicrous, everyone was talking about the

coaches,” he said. “Now its settled into a more normal frequency.” Henry has certainly cut a more jovial figure this

week. However, unlike the corresponding fixture last

year, he is not facing the prospect of three straight losses so soon after his controversial reappointment as head coach.

He also has the security of having McCaw avail-able for the first time this season to engage nemesis George Smith, in what is the Australian flanker’s 100th test.

Rodney So’oialo, Andrew Hore and Sitiveni Sivivatu are also back from injury although, like McCaw, they are underdone and there is a massive

leadership void in the backline with Daniel Carter not back until September at the earliest.

Teammates and management have rallied around first five-eighth Stephen Donald before his 12th test, where he must counter Wallabies maestro Matt Giteau.

“We’ve gone through the normal process, he always prepares well,” Henry said of Donald’s men-tal state.

Although the All Blacks have some breathing space against the Wallabies given Deans needs three victories for a tangible reward, Henry realises the continua-tion of New Zealand’s 15-year unbeaten record at the venue will relieve some pressure before tests against the Springboks in Bloemfontein and Durban.

The All Blacks head for the Republic on Sunday morning.

– NZPA

VITTEL, FRANCE –� Former Danish national champion Nicki Sorensen won the 12th stage of the 2009 Tour de France, as decisive stages in the Alps await.

The 34-year-old Team Saxo Bank rider was part of a seven-man breakaway group that formed at the 77km mark of the 211.5km course from Tonnerre to the spa resort of Vittel.

He eventually broke away on his own with 5.5km to go and outrode his rivals to the finish to score his first-ever Tour stage victory, as most of the pack’s riders saved energy for the upcoming stages in the Alps.

Frenchman Laurent Lefevre finished second, 48

seconds adrift, with Italy’s Franco Pellizotti in third.The winner’s time for the hilly course was 4 hours 52

minutes 24 seconds, a brisk average speed of 43.4 kph.Most of the leaders finished with the main pack

of riders 5 minutes 58 seconds behind the winner, leaving Italian Rinaldo Nocentini in the race lead-er’s yellow jersey, 6 seconds ahead of Spain’s Alberto Contador and 8 seconds clear of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong.

With a difficult mountain stage coming up tonight, this may have been the 31-year-old Nocen-tini’s last day in the yellow jersey.

As a result, his AG2R team spent most of the stage

at the head of the pack, to display what is probably the most prestigious symbol of success in cycling.

During Friday’s 13th stage, riders will be able to communicate by radio with team managers after the world governing body UCI said Thursday it had lifted the planned ban on the radios.

Most of the riders in the peloton had staged a protest slowdown when the radio ban was first applied in Tuesday’s 10th stage. They claim that being unable to communicate by radio with team officials makes road racing more dangerous.

The Tour ends July 26 in Paris. – DPA

By Stefan Bondy

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. –� David Beckham embraced Landon Donovan with a hug, a pat on his head, then a tap on his backside.

Everything was right in L.A. Galaxy-land, even if it didn’t start out that way.

Beckham brought the crowd and flashing bulbs, but it was his teammate/nemesis, Dono-van, who provided the highlights with a goal and an assist Thursday in a 3-1 victory over the Red Bulls.

“There was never a doubt in our minds that these guys would work together,” Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. “It certainly was a great moment when they embraced with all the buildup and the so-called rift. It certainly was a nice moment and hope-fully there will be more of those.”

The league’s top stars had been forced to publicly discuss their rocky relationship in the lead-up to Beckham’s MLS return Thursday. Donovan’s criti-cisms of Beckham were revealed in a book released Tuesday, “The Beckham Experiment,” which por-trayed Becks as a distant teammate, a prima donna and a player on cruise control.

Donovan questioned Beckham’s work ethic in the book, saying: “He didn’t give everything through all this. He still didn’t care.” Both players said they reconciled in a private meeting earlier in the week, and whatever beef that was remaining seemed to dissolve on the field.

Beckham did nothing spectacular in his first MLS game since October, but he was Donovan’s biggest cheerleader after the goals. Beckham’s return coin-cided with the Galaxy’s greatest offensive output of the season, while the Red Bulls (2-14-4) fell deeper into the Eastern Conference basement with their

fourth straight defeat.The 23,238 in attendance paled in comparison

to Beckham’s first Galaxy appearance in Giants Stadium in 2007, when 66,237 reached the upper levels. It also was considerably less than last year’s game that drew 46,754, though it represented a season high for the Red Bulls.

The crowd exhibited mixed reactions for Beck-ham, who missed half the MLS season after forcing an extended loan to AC Milan. He drew cheers and camera clicks during his corner kicks that were often drowned out by boos. Red Bull supporters even threw fake dollar bills at Beckham as he walked into the tunnel at halftime.

Beckham was removed in the 70th minute to loud jeers, a sharp contrast to the hero reception he received in his last two Giants Stadium appearances.

“I’ve had a lot more boos before,” Beckham said. “I expected it. It’s sometimes nice to get the boos

because it gives you inspiration when you play the way we did and win the way we did.”

In terms of getting a positive result, however, Beckham couldn’t have picked a better opponent to make his return against.

The Galaxy’s Alecko Eskandarian, a Montvale resident and Bergen Catholic graduate, punished the desolate Red Bulls early with a 25-yard volleyed goal in the third minute.

Donovan added another volleyed goal 28 min-utes later – his seventh of the season – prompting the warm embrace from Beckham. Donovan then assisted on Eddie Lewis’ goal in the 45th minute, ensuring another embarrassing outing for a Red Bull squad threatening the worst record in league history. Red Bulls striker Juan Pablo Angel scored his seventh goal of the year on a penalty kick in the 87th minute, but then missed another penalty shot three minutes later.

Beckham and Donovan bend it together

Crucial Alps stages loom in Tour

lachie Turner runs the ball up at the Wallabies rugby captains run ahead of the first Tri-Nations test against the All Blacks, Eden Park, Auckland. NZPA / Wayne Drought

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17 July  2009  1�WEEKEND

tv & film

By Hal Boedeker The Orlando Sentinel

At 61, the Emmys have struck a surprisingly hip pose. Nominators threw a lot of love at Fox’s “Family Guy” and HBO’s kiwi-flavoured “Flight of the Conchords,” two cutting-edge comedies. Both will compete for top comedy series with HBO’s “Entourage,” CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother,” NBC’ “Office,” Showtime’s “Weeds” and NBC’s “30 Rock.” The favorite would seem to be “30 Rock,” which has won the award the past two years and received 22 nominations, the most for any program this year.

AMC’s “Mad Men,” which won the drama prize last year, is the heavy favorite to repeat this year. The drama about 1960s advertising received 16 nomina-tions. It is up against Showtime’s “Dexter,” AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” FX’s “Damages,” Fox’s “House,” ABC’s “Lost” and HBO’s “Big Love.”

A surprising omission was FX’s “Shield,” which concluded its run in memorably unsettling style. Nominators also ignored HBO’s “True Blood,” which is growing into a major hit for that channel.

The reality competition pits “American Idol,” America’s favorite series, against “Project Run-way,” “Top Chef,” “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Amazing Race.” “Race”, fronted by New Zealander Phil Keoghan, has won the prize six years in a row.

The Emmys will be presented Sept. 20 on CBS. Neil Patrick Harris of “How I Met Your Mother” will host.

Here are some other major categories:The contenders for music/variety series are “The

Colbert Report,” “The Daily Show With Jon Stew-art,” “Late Show With David Letterman,” “Real Time With Bill Maher” and “Saturday Night Live.” “Daily Show” has won the prize six years in a row.

Lead dramatic actress: Sally Field of “Brothers & Sisters,” Kyra Sedgwick of “The Closer,” Glenn Close of “Damages, Mariska Hargitay of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Elisabeth Moss of “Mad Men” and Holly Hunter of “Saving Grace.” Close won last year. Field and Hargitay are previous winners for their roles. Don’t be surprised if Moss triumphs here for her subtle work.

Lead dramatic actor: Simon Baker of “The Men-talist,” Hugh Laurie of “House, Michael C. Hall of “Dexter,” Jon Hamm of “Mad Men,” Gabriel Byrne of “In Treatment” and Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad.” Cranston won last year, and he’s a good bet to repeat because he gives such a searing performance. Baker’s nomination was encouraging because the Emmys recognized a series in its freshman year.

Lead comedy actor: Jim Parsons of “The Big Bang Theory,” Jemaine Clement of “Flight of the Conchords,” Tony Shalhoub of “Monk,” Steve Carell of “The Office,” Alec Baldwin of “30 Rock” and Charlie Sheen of “Two and a Half Men.” Baldwin won last year. Shalhoub has won three times for his role. Par-sons, a breakout star, seems the likely victor.

Lead comedy actor: Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” Christina Apple-gate of “Samantha Who?,” Sarah Silverman of “The Sarah Silverman Program,” Tina Fey of “30 Rock,” Toni Collette, “United States of Tara” and Mary-Louise Parker, “Weeds.” Fey won last year, and Louis-Dreyfus is a previous victor for her role. Collette has the showiest role, a wife and mother with multiple personalities, and is a good bet to win.

Only two miniseries were nominated: HBO’s “Gen-eration Kill” and PBS’ “Little Dorrit.” Talk about apples to oranges. HBO probably has the edge.

Made-for-TV movie: “Coco Chanel,” “Grey Gar-dens,” “Into the Storm,” “Prayers for Bobby” and “Taking Chance.” HBO dominated the category with nominations for “Gardens,” “Storm” and “Chance.” I liked “Chance” best, but “Gardens” probably will win. “Gardens” collected 17 nominations, and “Into the Storm” picked up 14.

Supporting actor, drama series: William Shatner

of “Boston Legal,” Christian Clemenson of “Bos-ton Legal,” Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad,” William Hurt of “Damages,” Michael Emerson of “Lost” and John Slattery of “Mad Men.” I expect Paul will win because he is most crucial to his series’ success as a foil for Cranston.

Supporting actress, drama series: Rose Byrne of “Damages,” Sandra Oh of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Chan-dra Wilson of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Dianne Wiest of “In Treatment,” Hope Davis of “In Treatment” and Cherry Jones of “24.” Jones gave a wrenching performance as a U.S. president facing tremendous pressures.

Supporting actor, comedy series: Kevin Dillon of “Entourage,” Neil Patrick Harris of “How I Met Your Mother,” Rainn Wilson of “The Office,” Tracy Morgan of “30 Rock,” Jack McBrayer of “30 Rock” and Jon Cryer of “Two and a Half Men.” Cryer is a co-star on his series and could easily win. I think Harris has the edge.

Supporting actress, comedy series: Kristin Che-noweth of “Pushing Daisies,” Amy Poehler of “Satur-day Night Live,” Kristin Wiig of “Saturday Night Live,” Jane Krakowski of “30 Rock,” Vanessa Williams of “Ugly Betty” and Elizabeth Perkins of “Weeds.” Poeh-ler and Wiig did the most memorable work here.

Actor, miniseries or movie: Kevin Kline of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Brendan Gleeson of “Into the Storm,” Ian McKellen of “King Lear,” Kevin Bacon of “Tak-ing Chance,” Kiefer Sutherland of “24: Redemption,” Kenneth Branagh of “Wallander: One Step Behind.”

What a great category. My choice: Branagh.Actress, miniseries or movie: Chandra Wilson of

“Accidental Friendship,” Shirley MacLaine of “Coco Chanel,” Drew Barrymore of “Grey Gardens,” Jessica Lange of “Grey Gardens” and Sigourney Weaver of “Prayers for Bobby.” It’s a toss-up between Bar-rymore and Lange. I predict voters will go for Bar-rymore; I’d prefer Lange.

Supporting actor, miniseries or movie: Ken Howard of “Grey Gardens,” Len Cariou of “Into the Storm,” Bob Newhart of “The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice,” Tom Courtenay of “Little Dorrit” and Andy Serkis of “Little Dorrit.” Here’s one category that’s a lock: Courtenay.

Supporting actress, miniseries or movie: Marcia Gay Harden of “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sen-dler,” Jeanne Tripplehorn of “Grey Gardens,” Shohreh Aghdashloo of “House of Saddam,” Janet McTeer of “Into the Storm” and Cicely Tyson of “Relative Stranger.” McTeer seems to have the edge here.

Emmys: ‘Family Guy,’ ‘Flight of  the Conchords’ up for top comedy

Every food recall pus�hes� Food, Inc., Robert Kenner’s� docu-mentary about the s�tate of our food s�upply, into the news�.

“There’s� a tremendous� interes�t in this� s�ubject,” Kenner s�ays�. “Every time s�omething we eat is� recalled, interes�t goes� up.”

Rave reviews� aren’t the only reas�on a movie that  is�n’t playing in many theatres� is� creating a s�tir.

“It’s� a documentary about the American food s�ys�tem the way Raiders of the Lost Ark was� a documentary about archae-ology,” griped the National Chicken Council.

We reached the 59-year-old PBS� vet in Los� Angeles�. Question: How has� the food we eat been trans�formed 

by McDonald’s�? Answer: All  thes�e companies� tried to figure out how 

to s�erve food more efficiently, more cheaply. That’s� not evil. The problem is� there’ve been cons�equences� with it. S�ugar and s�alt have been tucked into everything. We’re not s�eeing the real cos�t at the checkout counter. One in every three Americans� born after the year 2000 will have early ons�et diabetes�, thanks� to what’s� in the food. That would bankrupt our health care s�ys�tem. 

Not only has� the food trans�formed, we’ve been trans�-formed. We’re fatter. Kids� are developing earlier becaus�e of the hormones�. 

Q: Mos�t of what’s� in this� film has� been reported by authors� s�uch as� Eric S�chlos�s�er (Fast Food Nation), who is� in the movie. What s�urpris�ed you?

A. I went to a hearing about whether or not to label “cloned meat.” I didn’t even know we had cloned meat. But when an indus�try repres�entative got up there and s�aid they thought it would be “too confus�ing” to the cons�umer, I got goos�e-bumps�. Corporations� are trying to s�top you from finding out what’s� in your food.

Q: You don’t s�eem to have gotten a lot of cooperation or input from feed lot operators�, chicken proces�s�ors�, chemical companies�, the folks� who would take is�s�ue with your film. 

A: I was� totally prepared to repres�ent all points� of view in this� film. But indus�trial producers� of pork or beef or what have you did not want to talk. Now, after the movie’s� come out, they’re trying to come after it.

There are companies� like Cargill that are s�aying that “We WELCOME this� convers�ation.” They s�ee the benefits� of indus�-trial farming, but they’re willing to look at a myriad of s�olutions�. I appreciate that res�pons�e.

Wal-Mart was� the s�hock of s�hocks�, in terms� of who would go on camera and talk to me. We found a lot of interes�ting, wonderful and outs�poken farmers�. Talking about food today is� s�omething you do at your peril.

Q: For all the alarming things� “Food, Inc.” reports�, it s�eemed to me a pretty optimis�tic film. 

A: Wal-Mart announced, while we were filming, that they were not going to buy any more milk with RBS�T. The govern-ment didn’t s�top them – their cos�tumers� told them they didn’t want hormones� in their milk and s�topped buying it. Then, gues�s� what? Mons�anto s�old the corporation that made the hormone. Cons�umers� us�ed their power and changed s�omething.

Q: S�o, what did you have for breakfas�t? A: Oatmeal, locally grown cantaloupe. It’s� not hard to buy 

local produce. No one s�hould be s�cared of the food that’s� there. But we 

vote three times� a day with our forks�. You can take one of thos�e meals� and try to eat organic, try to eat locally grown foods�. You HAVE a voice.

Watch the trailer – By Roger Moore

Documentary Food, Inc. is out to change way we eat

Movie picksNew review

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Ice Age

My SisterÕs KeeperI Love You, Beth Cooper

CheriBruno

© 2009 MCT

Transformers

Public Enemies

Whatever Works

17 July  2009 14

music

REVIEWS

By Glenn Garvin McClatchy Newspapers

You can divide the world into two kinds of people: Those whose hearts cracked a little bit last weekend at the news that Casey Kasem was doing his final radio countdown of the hits, and those who said, “Casey who?” OK, there’s probably a third group, maybe the largest of all – the ones who said, “What’s radio?”

For those of us who grew up listening to Kasem play the top 40 records in America every weekend, the only thing sadder than his retirement is that he outlived his own medium. When it comes to music, radio is a desiccated shell of its old self.

But back when radio mattered, nobody on it mat-tered more than Kasem, whose “American Top 40” was ubiquitous – and I’m not using the word lightly. In 1998, while live on the air in Los Angeles, Kasem called information for a telephone number. After he’d gotten it, his co-host asked the operator if she knew who she’d been talking to. “Sure!” she chirped. “Casey Kasem!”

Kasem’s supple, mellifluous voice was unmistak-able. But he was much more than just a talented set of vocal cords. The first rock ‘n’ roll jock to knit together a national radio audience, he was a major force in creating a national pop-music culture and documenting its history.

Before “American Top 40” came along on July 4, 1970 – 39 years to the day before Kasem signed off for the last time – rock ‘n’ roll radio was strictly a local affair. There was no way for a kid in, say, Albu-

Casey Kasem’s countdowns rocked our worldquerque, N.M., to know what the kids in New York and Los Angeles were listening to. In those days before digital shape-shifting, there was no Internet, no MTV and practically no pop-culture coverage in newspapers.

Rock ‘n’ roll consisted of the 25 or 30 records your local station was willing to play at any given moment. If a local program director decided to ban a record – out of racial impulses (in Albuquerque, we never heard James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”) or unease at risque lyr-ics (“Let It All Hang Out” by the Hombres never made our local airwaves) or even just personal taste (the now New Zealand-domiciled Barry McGuire’s pounding, apocalyptic “Eve of Destruction”) – it simply didn’t exist.

All that changed with “American Top 40.” Kasem played Billboard magazine’s top 40 records each week, and unless a local program director was will-ing to start hacking up the reel-to-reel tapes on which the show was distributed, there was no way to censor it. Politically incendiary records like “Ohio,” Crosby, Stills Nash & Young’s anguished shriek about the National Guard shootings at Kent State, and lascivious, erotic wallows like Sylvia’s “Pillow Talk” could suddenly be heard on stations that had shied away from “Wake Up Little Susie.” Even when “American Top 40” started providing warning notes to program directors with instructions on how to edit songs out of the show, most found it not worth the trouble.

Along with allowing kids from coast to coast to hear one another’s favorite records, “American Top

40” gave them a sense of their own history. Rock ‘n’ roll had always been a disposable culture; records climbed the charts and then dropped off into the mists of late-night oldies shows; teenagers grew up and were replaced by new audiences.

But Kasem studded his show with anecdotes and chart information from years gone by that both quantified and personalized the music’s history. When he announced, during the opening moments of the first American Top 40, “This week at No. 32, a song that’s been a hit four different times in 19 years,” I was inextricably hooked. (It was the Four Tops version of “All in the Game,” if you’re interested

... which if you’ve read this far in a story about Casey Kasem, I know you are.)

These days, with the wealth of information availa-ble with a few keystrokes to the wireless generation, “American Top 40” had lost much of its impact. The show, which once aired on more than 500 stations, an astonishing number in the pre-satellite age, had dwindled as technology and microtargeted radio formats ate away at Kasem’s audience. It was more than a little weird to hear Kasem, 77, and once the voice behind “Shaggy” in Scooby-do, introducing

heavy metal headbangers and gangsta rappers to his original audience’s grandchildren.

Ironically for somebody who did so much to pry open rock ‘n’ roll culture, Kasem may be best known in today’s Internet culture for an act of self-censor-ship. One of his much-loved Long Distance Dedica-tions – which usually reunited long-lost friends or lovers – went disastrously awry in 1985, when his scriptwriters had him read a forlorn letter about a late beloved dog named Snuggles coming out of a sizzling Pointer Sisters dance record.

Instead of a song to Snuggles, Kasem dedicated a volcanic stream of four-letter words to the writers,

while the tape was still rolling. The outtake, which has circulated endlessly on the Web, is so astonishing that when I met Kasem a few years ago, I asked if it was really him.

“Oh, that’s me for sure,” he acknowledged with a pained smile. “No fake. I just blew up. It was a bad day.”

No matter. As someone once said – every week for 39 years – keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.

America’s� Top 10,” May 1988 

Barry McGuire “Eve of Des�truction”   

tHe sHoW, WHiCH onCe AireD on more tHAn 500 stAtions, An AstonisHinG number

in tHe pre-sAtellite AGe, HAD DWinDleD As teCHnoloGy AnD miCrotArGeteD rADio formAts Ate AWAy At kAsem’s AuDienCe

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17 July  2009 1�SCIENCE & TECH

WASHINGTON –� Forty years ago, millions gathered around grainy black and white television images as the first man set foot on the moon, in what remains for many the pinnacle of manned spaceflight.

That moon landing on July 20, 1969, was the first of just six times that any human beings have visited Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour, and it has been more than 30 years since any person has been there.

In the decades since Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Arm-strong and Buzz Aldrin first touched the surface of the moon in the Eagle lander, the moment has become one of the iconic images of the 20th century.

At the National Air and Space Museum in Wash-ington, many of the visitors old enough to remem-ber that day tell their children and grandchildren about where they were when man first set foot on the moon as they point at the Columbia spacecraft that carried the astronauts there.

But even as the memories remain clear to many and thousands view the artefacts, an entire gen-eration has grown up without seeing humans on the moon.

Curator Allan Needell notes that visitors respond differently to the collection depending on how old they are.

“It’s always interesting to watch the older grand-fathers and the fathers walking around with their kids, and basically telling their experiences,” he said in an interview. “For the younger kids this is not much different really than than the Spirit of St Louis (the plane flown non-stop from New York to Paris by Charles Lindbergh) or the Wright flier. It’s this historical object that they studied in seventh grade or ninth grade.”

The Apollo 11 landing was the culmination of a decades-long space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, which launched the first sat-ellite and put the first man in space. Both nations pitted their Cold War drive for superiority in the battle for technological prominence. US president

The step seen around the world

John F Kennedy in 1961 responded by proclaim-ing the US desire to put a man on the moon within the decade.

But the accomplishment was far from certain – a fire during a test of Apollo 1 killed three astronauts and set back the programme. Then, even as Arm-strong steered his craft in for landing on the moon, things could have gone horribly wrong.

In fact, president Richard Nixon had prepared a speech to deliver in case the astronauts did not return.

As Armstrong steered the Eagle in for landing, he noticed the craft drifting and had to correct its landing site to avoid a rough patch of ground. A com-

puter glitch also caused concern on the ground.But the world breathed a sigh of relief as Arm-

strong radioed back: “Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed.”“Fortunately, there were no really harrowing parts

of the flight,” Armstrong said in a 2001 interview with historians. “The most difficult part from my perspective, and the one that gave me the most pause, was the final descent to landing.”

“Walking around on the surface, you know, on a 10 scale, was one, and I thought that the lunar descent on a 10 scale was probably a 13.”

Just hours later Armstrong stepped out of the craft onto the lunar surface, reciting the famous

words, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”

He was followed by Aldrin, and together they focussed on testing gravity, photographing the surface and collecting rock samples. They also left behind a US flag, messages from world leaders and other artefacts.

Meanwhile, fellow crew member Michael Collins orbited the moon in the Columbia module that served as a command centre and would bring them all back to Earth.

After spending the night on the surface in the Eagle, the astronauts lifted off for a rendezvous with the Columbia and their return trip.

The Eagle itself remained on the lunar surface. A similar lunar lander that was never used in space is on display in Washington and was recently restored with the replacement of degraded foil coverings.

There is a small, but vocal, group of skeptics and conspiracy theorists who have continued to insist that the moon landing never happened and was simply filmed on Earth – a point debunked by histo-

rians, astronauts and curators who hold lectures on the myths.

But even those who accept the historical record wonder why no one has returned to the moon since the 1970s. That could soon change, as NASA is work-ing to develop the next-generation moon craft with a goal of returning astronauts to the surface by 2020.

Scientists cite the desire for continued exploration and inspiration that could come from such efforts, including using the moon as a base for eventually heading to Mars. As they move forward, they also look back for lessons from Apollo, both technologi-cal and symbolic.

For as Armstrong said decades later: “The impor-tant achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited.”

– DPA

WASHINGTON –� Even after his trip to the moon, Buzz Aldrin has led a pretty exciting life.

A scientist, engineer, space exploration historian and science- fiction writer, Aldrin guest-starred as himself on The Simpsons in 1994, and recorded a rap song with Snoop Dogg and Quincy Jones earlier this year.

Aldrin became the second man to walk on the moon’s surface on July 20, 1969, just after his mis-sion commander, Neil Armstrong, had made the historic first step.

Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr was born in New Jersey in 1930, and earned his famous nickname as a child when his younger sister mispronounced “brother” as “buzzer.” He made “Buzz” his legal first name in 1988.

Aldrin graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1951 and joined the US Air Force, flying 66 combat missions during the Korean War.

Aldrin got his doctorate in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and was selected to be a NASA astronaut later that year.

He helped develop docking techniques for orbiting spacecraft that are still used today, and in 1966 he performed the world’s first successful spacewalk.

Some credit Aldrin with the very first words spo-ken on the lunar surface. His statement, “Contact light ... okay, engine stop” was beamed into homes all over the world moments before Armstrong’s famous declaration, “The Eagle has landed.”

Aldrin, along with fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Arm-strong and Michael Collins, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Richard Nixon in 1969.

In his recent autobiography, Aldrin writes that after he retired from active duty in 1972 he strug-gled with alcoholism and depression for several years, finally checking himself into rehab in 1975.

Aldrin continues to advocate human space explo-ration and devised a plan for missions to Mars in 1985. Aldrin said in a recent interview that NASA explorers could learn more from going to Mars than

The second man on the moon

from going back to the moon. He also owns three patents for rocket and spacecraft designs.

Perhaps more than any other astronaut, Aldrin has become a fixture in popular culture. The popu-

lar Disney character Buzz Lightyear was named for Aldrin, and he served as the model for MTV’s Moonman mascot and award.

– DPA

Aldrin, along with fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong and Michael Collins, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Richard Nixon in 1969

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WHERE TO STAy   Hotel Haven is� a new boutique hotel, conveniently a half-block from Es�planade Park and Market S�quare, and Finland’s� firs�t S�mall Luxury Hotels� of the World property. Its� 77 rooms� boas�t cool Finnis�h interior des�ign, the day s�pa is� great for unwinding and the s�taff is� as� attentive as� you will find anywhere. 17 Unioninkatu. www.hotelhaven.fi.WHERE TO EAT   Kappeli, 1 Es�planade. This�  lovely cafe in Es�planade Park was� the gathering place for many of Finland’s� mos�t res�pected artis�ts�, including compos�er Jean S�ibelius�. Today, it is� frequented by patrons� looking for traditional Finnis�h fare, from s�almon to reindeer. Its� s�auces� are frequently made from beer brewed in its� own brewery, and its� des�s�erts� are delicious� (but pricey). There is� als�o a cellar res�taurant, a s�tylis�h bar and a terrace that’s� packed in the s�ummer. www.kappeli.fi.Olo, 44 Kas�armikatu. I had one of the bes�t meals� of my life in this� charming bras�s�erie, recently voted Finland’s� bes�t res�taurant. It has� an a la carte menu, but you might want to choos�e one of the chef’s� tas�ting menus�, which feature “the clean flavors� of land and s�ea.” The s�addle of lamb with fores�t mus�hrooms� and Madeira s�auce was� particularly delicious�. www.olo-restaurant.com.LEARN MORE   www.gofinland.org.

DISCOVERY

IF YOU GO

By Patti Nickell McClatchy Newspapers

HELSINkI, FINLAND –� During my life, I’ve had mad love affairs with cities – London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Hong Kong. The symptoms are the usual ones associated with a romance – palpitations at the thought of seeing it again, perfect bliss in its company and pangs of sorrow at having to leave it.

Then there are the places that might not inspire instant passion, but the longer you are around them, you begin to see qualities that might not have been immediately obvious. Almost without being aware of it, you begin to develop deep feelings. Helsinki is such a city for me.

It might not have the sophistication of Paris, the glamour and vitality of London or the time-less splendor of Rome (Helsinki, in fact, is one of Europe’s youngest cities, having been founded in 1550 by Swedish King Gustav Vasa), but the more time you spend here (this was my fourth visit), the more this city and its quiet charm work their way into your heart.

A good place to start your exploration is at Mar-ket Square, which, along with Esplanade Park, is the heart of Helsinki. Sandwiched between the sea and a row of historic buildings housing the Presidential Palace, City Hall and the Swedish embassy, Market Square is at its bustling best in the early morning, when vendors set up food stalls, attracting throngs of hungry humans and seagulls. The heady mix of aromas – brewing coffee, frying food, the sweetness of flowers and the salt of the sea air – is tantalizing; this is local color at its best.

Fellow Scandinavian city Copenhagen has The Little Mermaid statue, but Helsinki has its own guardian sea nymph. The lovely Havis Amanda statue separates Market Square from Esplanade Park, a leafy enclave lined on both sides by chic restaurants and high-end stores (think Marimekko).

You definitely should plan to grab a table on the out-side terrace of Kappeli Restaurant; order a coffee, beer or a glass of the wonderful cloudberry liqueur; and watch a passing parade of Finns walking their dogs. If you’re lucky, an orchestra, in full formal dress, will be tuning up in the bandstand across from the Kappeli for one of the concerts that con-tinue throughout the day. I was so entranced by the music (and cloudberry liqueur) that I sat through two concerts – a fiery tango performance that would have made Carlos Gardel proud (the Finns are pas-sionate devotees of tango) and a tribute to a native son, composer Jean Sibelius, that included his epic Finlandia and The Swan of Tuonela.

If you are a fan of Sibelius, you might be able to catch a concert of his music at Finlandia Hall, but even if he is not on the hall’s concert schedule during your visit, you can pay your respects at one of the city’s most unusual monuments. The Sibelius Monument, in Sibelius Park, is a sculpture resem-bling organ pipes. It is 600 hollow, steel pipes welded together in a wavelike pattern.

Helsinki is composed of a number of bays, penin-sulas and islands on the Gulf of Finland and near the Baltic Sea. A pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon is to take a cruise through its winding canals – like Stockholm, Helsinki is often referred to as “the Venice of the North.” On the islands that dot the canals and waterways are summer cottages, nearly all of them with a separate building given over to the Finnish national obsession, the sauna.

Another popular cruise will take you to Suomen-linna, once the greatest sea fortress in the Baltic and often referred to as northern Europe’s Rock of Gibraltar. It was built by the Swedes in the mid-18th century to protect the city from raid-ing corsairs and invading Russians (for centuries Finland had been a pawn in the war games of its two powerful neighbors, Sweden and Russia). It proved successful in withstanding the corsairs but

After four visits to Helsinki, this must be lovewas no match for the Russians, who seized it in 1808. Today, Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a living-history museum, with the remains of fortifications and catacombs from its more tem-pestuous days. It also has parks, six museums and the homes of about 1,000 people. The island also is a popular place to enjoy a summer picnic while watching the ferries making their way to Talinn, Estonia, or St. Petersburg, Russia.

If the gulf islands are the lungs of Helsinki, and Market Square and Esplanade Park its heart, Helsinki Cathedral is its most visible symbol. The Lutheran cathedral, neo-classical in design, sits atop a hill overlooking Senate Square and resem-bles Paris’ Sacre Coeur. Helsinki Cathedral’s large green onion dome and four smaller domes and the 12 apostles on the roof can be seen from many van-tage points throughout the city. The square itself is worth a look, especially for the statue that domi-nates it. With the always testy and often turbulent relationship between Finland and Russia, one would not expect to see a statue of a Russian czar given such prominence. Czar Alexander II, however, as grand duke of Finland in the 19th century, encour-aged Finnish self-rule, and the Finns acknowledged him with this monument.

The Finns might view Helsinki Cathedral as their spiritual beacon, but tourists flock to another church: Temppeliaukio Kirkko, or the Rock Church. Blasted out of solid granite, this underground church, which doubles as a venue for classical music concerts, is a marvel of modern architecture, with its circu-lar dome of copper sheeting and an interior lit by natural light from 180 window panes fanning out from the dome.

Finally, you can’t come to Finland without try-ing a sauna. In contrast to the country’s Lapland region, where men and women (and children) take their saunas together sans clothing – they view it as a communal activity and bonding experience

– Helsinki’s saunas are more conservative. You can find clothing-optional coed saunas, but there are a number reserved exclusively for men or women. Your hotel concierge can direct you to whichever type you prefer.

In retrospect, how can you not love a city that erects monuments to its oppressors, has concerts in its churches, holds happy hours in saunas as often as in bars or pubs, and whose residents are so quiet that it is joked that they invented text messaging just so