ISSN 1172-4153 |  Volume 1  |  Issue 7  |  |  19 September 2008 

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Embattled Solicitor-General David Collins QC, now under police investigation. NZPA/Tim Hales

WARRIORS WIN!� Roosters plucked� 

Page 11

MILK SCANDAL Special investigation 

Page 2

PETERS BOMBSHELL Ad�mits testimony wrong 

Page 4

ANALYSIS

Bandit capitalistspage 7

WORLD

Israel’s PM in waiting page 9

FILM

Wall-E a hit

page 13

AucklandSat: 16°/6°    Sun: 16°/11°

HamiltonSat: 17°/4°    Sun: 17°/7°

WellingtonSat: 15°/5°    Sun: 15°/9°

QueenstownSat:15°/6°    Sun: 16°/4°

ChristchurchSat: 15°/5°  Sun: 20°/5°

DunedinSat: 17°/10°    Sun: 16°/6°

SCIENCE

GM food approvedpage 17

on the INSIDE

Continue reading

By Ian Wishart Editor, TGIF Edition

New Zealand’s Labour-appointed Solicitor-General David Collins QC is being allowed to remain on the job despite being the subject of a high level police investi-gation, in defiance of a constitutional convention that would require him to be stood down in the interim.

Collins is being investigated because he gave evidence on oath to a Court of Appeal hearing last year that he had provided no legal advice or vetting on a book manuscript by author Anne Hunt, back when he was in private legal practice. However, a manuscript tabled in court showed extensive script notations in the Solicitor-General’s handwriting, raising questions about whether his sworn testimony was an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

In other words, a very serious allegation to make against the Solicitor-General of New Zealand, par-ticularly as the allegations go to the honesty of the top Crown lawyer.

Attorney-General Michael Cullen was already aware of the police investigation, and Prime Minis-ter Helen Clark was personally told of the case by Anne Hunt on September 4 during a visit to the Kapiti Coast:

“It was then Helen Clark was personally informed by Horowhenua District Councillor Anne Hunt that the New Zealand Police are investigating the diminutive Mr Collins in relation to a matter which occurred since he took office as Solicitor-General,” reports Vince Siemer’s website, kiwisfirst.co.nz. “More pre-cisely, the alleged crime relates to section 111 of the Crimes Act 1961, and a sworn affidavit filed in the Court of Appeal last May by Collins on a book he had sought Ms Hunt to author despite the subject mat-ter being the object of a Court suppression order.

“The Court of Appeal has already acknowledged that Mr Collins had undoubtedly made quite exten-sive notations on Anne Hunt’s manuscript before it was published. Collins swore to the Court that he did not provide any legal advice or vetting of the manuscript. The significance is David Collins was counsel in the proceedings and had intimate knowl-edge that the book dealt with issues which had been permanently suppressed by order of Christchurch Judge Lester Chisholm. Now the police are inves-

NZ Solicitor- General  under Police investigationLaw expert: he must stand down

Parents have been left reeling after a series of food and medicine safety scares this week that’s caused many to wonder about the routine assurances dosed out by regulatory agencies.

It began with the Chinese poisonous baby milk scandal which, although New Zealand consumers were not directly affected, has nonetheless shown up glaring safety weaknesses in the testing procedures of food companies around the globe.

The nightmare came closer to home yesterday when

the Ministry of Health was forced to admit serious concerns about the safety of two common children’s antibiotics – amoxicillin syrup and cefaclor syrup.

The MoH announcement only came after the US Food and Drug Administration slapped an import ban on the antibiotics and a range of other medicines made by Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy. The FDA surveyed Ranbaxy’s factories and discovered contami-nation of medicines and poor hygiene and manufactur-ing practices which made the drugs unsafe.

New Zealand’s state-funded pharmaceutical agency Pharmac has been sourcing an increasing number of generic medicines from Indian compa-nies, some of which have themselves been at the centre of recent health scares in this country after numerous adverse side-effects were reported.

The latest news to scare parents is the NZ-led research published in The Lancet medical journal in Britain today, which links paracetamol use in children to a massive increase in the risk of asthma,

eczema and other nasties.Paracetamol is traditionally used to reduce fevers,

which are a common side-effect of infant vaccina-tions as well as routine infections. But with the latest study showing double or triple the risk of developing asthma, parents are facing the dilemma of whether to use paracetamol as often, or at all.

RELATED STORIES: Chinese milk scandal – Fonterra negligent, Sanlu knew, page 2

Paracetamol fingered in child health scare, page 4

Paracetamol, antibiotics, milk formula: Is anything still safe?

19 September  2008 �NEW ZEALAND

StuDentS expelleD for CupCAke prAnk  LOUISIANA., (UPI) – Authorities say two high school stud�ents in Jefferson, La., have been expelled� for placing a pan of laxative-laced� cupcakes in the teach-ers’ lounge. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said� the stud�ents, seniors at Patrick F. Taylor Science and� Technology Acad�emy, not only have been booted� from school for the year, they have been charged� with mingling harmful substances, WDSU-TV in New Orleans reported� Wed�nesd�ay. The sheriff’s office said� the prank was uncovered� after several other stud�ents warned� a teacher not to eat the cupcakes. 

perSonAlly, I’D move HouSe  FLORIDA, (UPI) – A St. Petersburg, Fla., woman said� a school bus that struck her house was at least the seventh vehicle to collid�e with her d�omicile. Virginia Zinn, 40, said� the school bus struck the overhanging roof of her home at about 6 a.m. Wed�nesd�ay while attempting to turn from an unpaved� 10-foot alley onto 12th Street S, the St. Petersburg Times reported� tod�ay. Police esti-mated� the cost of the d�amage, which the school d�istrict has promised� to pay, at about $800. Zinn said� garbage trucks, commercial vehicles and� semi-trailers have repeated�ly crashed� into the sid�e of her home d�uring the 11-years that she has been living there. 

tHe reAl ‘Hotel BABylon’  TURKEY, (UPI) – A Marmaris, Turkey, hotel manager said� she has switched� to an all-female staff after male workers repeated�ly neglected� their d�uties for trysts with guests. Pelin Yucel, 32, who has managed� the 27-room Image Hotel for seven years, said� she d�ecid�ed� to d�o away with all of the facility’s male employees after years of problems with on-the-job flirtations, the Turkish Daily News reported� this morning. For seven years, d�uring the night until morning shift, when I mad�e surprise checks many of the male personnel had� left their work, she said�. When I looked� I found� them with female tourists. We had� to fire the ones who d�id� this, but we could�n’t prevent the situation beforehand�. Yucel told� Britain’s The Daily Telegraph that the male workers had� focused� their attentions on British tourists. The waiters would� prey on old�er English women staying at the hotel. They would� wait for them to come back from nights out -- often d�runk – then sed�uce them, she said�. (They) would� have one guest one week, wave good�bye to her, and� eye up the new guests as they arrived�. It was hell. 

Couple reunIteD By DAugHter After 40 yeArS  TAUNTON, ENGLAND, (UPI) – A British man and� woman say they are finally getting married� 40 years after their relationship was interrupted� when her family d�iscovered� she was pregnant. Christine Orchard�, 57, and� Chester Locke, 64, said� they began a 2-year relationship in 1965, when Locke was 21 and� Orchard� just 14. Orchard�’s mother put an end� to the relationship two years later when her d�aughter became pregnant, The Sun reported� this week. “There was always quite a lot of hoo-ha about Chester because of the age d�iffer-ence,” Orchard� said�. “When my parents found� out I was pregnant my mum and� her sisters went into a room and� basically d�ecid�ed� my future.” The couple said� it was their d�aughter, Tracey, now 40, who tracked� d�own her father and� reunited� them. “I was always told� my d�ad� was a waste of space but I need�ed� to find� out for myself,” Tracy said�. “After all, everyone changes in 40 years.” Orchard� and� Locke said� that since the reunion, their relation-ship has re-ignited� and� they are now planning to marry. “We’ve mad�e our mistakes but she’s the love of my life and� I could�n’t be happier,” Locke said�. 

mAn pHoneS polICe from muSeum vent SHAft  KNOXVILLE, TENN., SEPT. 17 (UPI) – Police in Knoxville, Tenn., say a man has been arrested� for burglary after he phoned� authorities and� told� them he was stuck in a museum ventilation shaft. Knoxville police said� Anthony Smith, 25, called� 911 shortly before 4:30 a.m. Wed�nesd�ay and� told� the d�ispatcher he was wed�ged� in the ventilation system at the Knoxville Museum of Art, WBIR-TV in Knoxville reported�. Police and� firefighters arrived� at the museum to find� Smith wed�ged� 40 feet d�own a ventilator shaft but investigators said� they are unsure of how he could� have gotten onto the build�ing’s roof. Authorities said� nothing was d�isturbed� insid�e the museum. However, Smith was arrested� on the burglary charge after being extracted� from the tight space. 

  FROM FRONT PAGE 

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  SPECIAL INVESTIGATION 

off BEAT

tigating the credibility of the sworn affidavit Mr Collins provided the Court of Appeal.

“Anne Hunt’s book was banned for four years, and narrowly escaped a court order for its destruction after Justice John Wild set aside all evidence relat-ing to Mr Collins. Less than two weeks ago, Police Superintendent Rod Drew confirmed to kiwisfirst that the investigation was proceeding in the public interest.”

But despite both Prime Minister Clark and Attor-ney-General Cullen being formally notified of the criminal investigation into Collins, they are refusing to make Collins stand aside.

To throw the case into even starker relief, the Government’s refusal to stand down Collins until the criminal investigation is completed comes just months after a Canadian Solicitor-General, Brit-ish Columbia’s John Les, voluntarily stepped aside during a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into his activities.

Les told a press conference he didn’t even need to know the substance of the police investigation, before deciding to step down.

“When I found out [about] that investigation on Friday,” the British Columbia Solicitor-General told journalists, “the most important thing for me to do at the time was to do what I did – that is step aside from my responsibilities as solicitor-general.”

British Columbia’s Premier, Gordon Campbell, agreed that it was untenable for a solicitor-general to remain in the official role while a police investiga-tion swirled around him.

“It’s in the public interest to make sure those investigations and those decisions are totally free of any kind of political interference,” Campbell told 

journalists.“I don’t know who’s being investigated or when

it’s being investigated or when a special prosecutor’s appointed and that’s the way it should be.”

So contrast the Canadian example with the New Zealand Labour-led Government’s approach. Not

only have the Prime Minister and Attorney-General Michael Cullen made no move to sideline him, but Collins is now actively trying to prosecute Fairfax newspapers for publicising police evidence in the politically-charged Urewera terror case.

TGIF Edition phoned Michael Cullen’s office for an explanation, but his press secretary repeatedly answered, “We are making no comment on this at all.”

But one who is outraged at yet another breach of the “rule of law” is Auckland University’s constitu-tional law expert, Professor Bill Hodge. Regardless of the merits of the allegations against Collins, says Hodge, there are important constitutional provi-sions that apply.

“The trouble is, the poor guy [Solicitor-General] is having to do the job of Attorney-General [as well] because Dr Cullen is completely inadequate and constitutionally inappropriate to be the nation’s highest law officer. This government would be a lot better off if it had an appropriate Attorney-General. The statute provides that the AG can lean on the SG. The SG had a medical practice defending doctors, or acting for people in respect of medical malpractice, but he’s been – I think rather unfairly – thrown into

the place of the Attorney General because Michael Cullen is a politician and the deputy prime minister, and when he speaks he’s speaking as deputy PM and not as the nation’s highest law officer.

“That’s been one of the curses of this Labour government,” Hodge added, “that they don’t have somebody with legal concerns for the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, the impartiality of tribunals and disputes resolution people, and it’s Michael Cullen who’s really been at the heart of rule of law issues for this government because he’s unable to do his job.”

Professor Hodge says the appropriate course of action is for Collins to immediately stand down, but he’s not holding his breath.

“He has to function because there’s nobody to do the job, given that the Attorney-General can’t do it! But I think the parliamentary norm of offering one’s suspension or in more severe circumstances, resigna-tion, that convention has almost been abandoned. That convention is pretty remote in this jurisdic-tion, unfortunately. But I take your point, I think it’s an excellent point, it’s just another reminder that certain Westminster conventions seem to have been put aside or are no longer followed in New Zealand in many, many, many cases.

“My constitutional view is that this isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last where an appropriate West-minster stance would be to stand down, and it hasn’t happened. Ultimately this sheets home to Michael Cullen, again.”

Professor Hodge also argues that the Labour-led government’s ongoing contempt for the rule of law is a dangerous development in a democracy.

“Of course it is! Of course it is. Some of the excuses are that there aren’t that many people around to do the job, New Zealand’s a small place, people shouldn’t be handing in their warrants because there’s only a few people to do the job – I think that’s particularly poignant in this situation given that the Labour Gov-ernment hasn’t provided an Attorney-General to do the Attorney-General’s job.”

By Ian Wishart

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra could be in the gun for negligence over the Chinese milk scandal, its affiliate company allegedly bribed a whistleblower to stay quiet, and now there’s hard evidence that the Beijing Olympics played a major role in delaying the public recall of poisoned infant formula.

Shortly before the Olympics began, China’s rul-ing Communist Party issued a 21 point directive to Chinese news media on what they should, and

shouldn’t, publicise during the Olympics.One point in the directive specifically said: “All food

safety issues, such as cancer-causing mineral water, are off-limits.”

There’s been growing suspicion that Chinese offi-cials dragged their heels on issuing a public recall of the poisoned milk so as not to cloud the Olympic games, and the Propaganda Ministry’s edict to the media appears to confirm that.

Fonterra boss Andrew Ferrier laid out the full timeline at his news conference this week, in response

to a question from TGIF Edition. He confirmed that although Fonterra’s affiliate Sanlu had known of a possible health risk with its infant formula since March, the issue had not reached board level – and thus Fonterra’s ears – until August 2, only a week before the Olympics were due to begin and thrust China into the international spotlight.

Ferrier told TGIF, “On August 2, at a Sanlu board meeting, our representatives were told that Sanlu’s helpline had received calls about sick babies as early as March this year. In response to those complaints Sanlu put in place a project team to investigate the issues and was working with parents and infants to carry out a detailed testing of the product. This is what we were informed on the 2nd of August.”

According to Ferrier, Fonterra urged Sanlu immediately to issue a public recall, but the Chi-nese company and local officials refused that course of action.

Asked at the news conference whether the Com-munist Party and the Beijing Olympics may have been factors, Ferrier refused to speculate.

Under heavy questioning from TGIF Edition, [ ] the Fonterra boss tried desperately to defend his man-agement team’s failure to go over the heads of the Chinese by issuing its own public product recall notice to the international media, which would have forced the issue.

TGIF: “I wonder if Fonterra’s management have not fallen victim to ‘Nuremberg syndrome’ – you’re working in a different country and you felt com-pelled to work within local rules and regulations that may or may not exist, instead of saying at a human level, ‘For heaven’s sake, I’ve got a product out there potentially killing babies or certainly mak-ing them sick, I need to go public regardless of the impact on my investment’. At what point, humanly,

MILk SCANDAL: Dramatic new evidenceFonterra negligent, China complicit, Sanlu bribed whistleblower

Continue reading

Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier answering questions at this week’s news conference / TV1

Attorney-General Cullen: ‘No comment’/NZPA

19 September  2008  �

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By Ian Wishart

There are growing calls for New Zealand to adopt an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), amid claims that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxpayer funded contracts are being let each year with no checks on whether offi-cials are collecting kick-backs.

Civil rights activist Penny Bright, whose Water Pressure Group – despite being left wing – has taken more of a principled stand on public issues than an ideological one, is trying to drum up support for an ICAC because of growing questions about possible corruption in the awarding of public tenders.

“Who is checking these contracts? Who is award-ing these contracts? There’s no examination of potential links between the people tendering for contracts and the officials who award them,” Bright told TGIF Edition ahead of a meeting with Feder-ated Farmers to garner support.

“These contracts are costing taxpayers and ratepay-ers huge amounts of money, but there’s no oversight.”

As an example, Bright cites the problem she’s having getting information about nearly $900 mil-lion worth of contracts awarded by the Auckland City Council.

“The Auckland City Council CEO will not tell us where exactly over $855,000,000 ($855 million) of public ratepayers monies are being spent on contracts to the private sector for goods, services and people.

“$855,000,000 is 8550 times more than the $100,000 Owen Glenn donation, which has received such huge publicity. How about a sense of proportion being applied here? Or is the public just regarded as a giant cash cow, blindfolded and hog-tied – to be financially milked to death?” challenged Bright.

For Bright, who’s no stranger to locking horns with the Auckland City Council and being thrown out of council meetings, it’s about basic public accountability.

“I believe that ratepayers are entitled to know where our public rates monies are going.”

But her call for an Independent Commission Against Corruption may fall on deaf ears given

the government’s refusal to investigate extremely serious allegations of police corruption, or set up an inquiry into them.

And TGIF Edition’s  revelation  last  month – that the ‘investigation’ into allegations that Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope lied on oath in the Scott

$900 million worth of contracts: all secret

Watson case may have been compromised because the police officer conducting the ‘investigation’ was himself being adversely referred to in an Independ-ent Police Conduct Authority report – is a further sign that New Zealand’s public service is in no fit state to face ICAC inquiries.

WELLINgtON –� All under-18-year-olds will have to be in some form of education or training from 2014, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced today.

Miss Clark used a campaign trail visit to Wait-akere’s Massey High School to give further details of the Government’s Schools Plus programme, which she first outlined in January.

She also announced a four-year $40 million fund-ing package for the initial phases of the policy.

Under the programme, expected to cost $150m a year once fully implemented, all youths under 18 would eventually have to be in some form of training.

Students leaving school would have to either go into other training, or if they took up a job would have to do that in conjunction with an apprentice-ship or qualification.

Miss Clark said under the policy the school leav-ing age would remain at 16, but in 2011 an “educa-tion and training age” of 17 would be introduced. It would move to 18 in 2014.

By 2011 all students would have an “education plan” developed with the help of career advisers and teachers.

She said the aim of Schools Plus was to tackle the 34 percent of students who left school without level two NCEA.

“Senior secondary schooling will be transformed so that staying at school, gaining relevant quali-fications, and building on qualifications beyond school, will become the accepted norm over time,” Miss Clark said.

The Government has already introduced legislation axing school leaving exemptions for those under 16.

The current school leaving age is 16, but large numbers of 15-year-olds have been granted exemp-tions in recent years so they could move into jobs or other training.

Miss Clark said the policy would mean extra sup-port would be needed for teachers, schools, and other training providers.

The package announced today includes: $11.7m towards developing a careers guidance

package to be available in all secondary schools over the next two years;

$21m to enable more students to study for terti-ary qualifications at school;

$6m to explore innovative programmes aimed at meeting Schools Plus goals;

providing more pre-employment education and training for those under 18 years with no or few qualifications while they are still at school;

$1 million for a pilot secondary-tertiary pro-gramme at the Manukau Institute of Technology.

– NZPA

Clark outlines Schools Plus details

gREYMOuth, SEpt 19 –� Veteran West Coast white-bait buyer Colin McKinney today scoffed at an aca-demic’s claims that the resource is under threat from over fishing.

Massey University researcher Dr Mike Joy this week called for a ban on the sale of whitebait because he believed the catch was preventing bait getting to the spawning grounds.

But Mr McKinney said nothing had changed in the 50 years since he caught his first feed of white-bait on the Clutha River 50 years ago.

“I’d love to know where these guys get their facts and figures from.

“You have good seasons and bad seasons -- things come in cycles.”

Mr McKinney said there was historic evidence that in the pre-European days Maori sometimes had to look for another food source because of a poor whitebait season.

“I have been buying bait for 30 years, and have fished for it commercially, and little has changed over this time except that the number of people catching the fish has increased all out of proportion.”

Once, when there would be one or two stands on a South Westland river they would be getting a tonne a day. That tonne of bait is still coming but it’s being shared by about 80 people now.”

But Mr McKinney agreed with Dr Joy that polluted waterways from dairy farming could be threatening east coast breeding grounds.

– NZPA

Whitebait threat rubbished

19 September  2008 �NEW ZEALAND

WELLINgtON, SEpt 19 –� The New Zealand dol-lar’s test of higher levels was today interrupted by a resurgent US dollar and a reminder of how indebted New Zealand is in current account data.

From around US67.60c shortly before news of a record annual current account deficit of $14.97 billion in the June quarter the currency fell to end at US67.35 by 5pm.

Economists estimated the annual deficit to be 8.3 percent of gross domestic product and they don’t expect it to shrink any time soon. The deficit height-ened the issue of the need for funding offshore.

The kiwi reached around US67.90c late last night but today the US dollar was firmer after US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he and con-gressional leaders were working on a broad plan to “address systemic risk” in US capital markets.

In New Zealand the Reserve Bank tweaked the tools it has to provide liquidity to make the system more flexible and said it stands ready to support liquidity in the banking system.

The bank did not cut interest rates early as some economists had speculated was possible.

Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi reached A83.26c at the local close from A83.88c at 5pm yesterday.

The NZ dollar was at 0.4751 from 0.4631 at yes-terday’s local close.

Against the volatile yen, the kiwi rose to 72.06 from 69.40. The trade weighted index was 64.15 at 5pm from 63.07 at 5pm.

– NZPA

NZ dollar rally  interupted by data and US dollar recovery

WELLINgtON, SEpt 19 –� New Zealand First leader Winston Peters dropped a bombshell late today, admitting the Spencer Trust had indeed reimbursed $40,000 of his legal fees.

The admission contradicts testimony Peters gave to the Privileges Committee, but he told Newstalk ZB’s Larry Williams tonight that he’d been working from memory when he testified and was wrong.

It’s understood this issue may have been at the centre of the SFO evidence to the Privileges Com-mittee this week.

Peters was out and about on the campaign trail today. His light-hearted manner addressing stu-dents Otago University gave no hint of the pressure he must be under as Parliament’s privileges commit-tee prepares to release its findings next week.

The committee is considering whether Mr Peters breached disclosure rules when he got a $100,000 donation from billionaire Owen Glenn in 2005. Mr Peters has maintained he did not know about the donation until mid this year but Mr Glenn says he asked for and thanked him for it.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is holding a separate investigation into what other undisclosed donations to NZ First were spent on.

However, it has given some evidence to the privi-

leges committee which Mr Peters said was motivated by malice and was in excess of their powers.

Both Prime Minister Helen Clark and her deputy and Attorney-General Michael Cullen have subse-quently refused to say they have confidence in SFO director Grant Liddell.

Mr Peters pointed to Section 39 of the Act govern-ing the SFO which requires it to “observe the strict-est secrecy in relation to any information which is protected under any Act other than the Inland Revenue Department Act”.

But Mr Liddell said he rejected any suggestion there had been a misuse of statutory powers.

“I reject any suggestion that there has been a misuse of the statutory powers I have as a direc-tor,” he said.

NZPA understands the SFO sought advice from the Clerk of Parliament and the Auditor-General before it submitted evidence to the committee.

The evidence, which was considered by the com-mittee during a closed session yesterday, is under-stood to relate to $40,000 in court costs Mr Peters was ordered to pay National MP Bob Clarkson after a failed electoral petition after the 2005 election.

Mr Henry has told the committee he paid the $40,000 and then Mr Peters paid him back.

Peters drops bombshell as Committee report looms

The long-overdue Independent Police Conduct Authority report into corruption within Dunedin Police is due for release this Sunday, nearly 10 months after it was originally scheduled.

The report was sparked after Investigate maga-zine discovered documentary proof of corruption involving former Dunedin police officer Peter Gib-bons, who also had a lucrative taxpayer-funded pri-vate investigation contract doing inquiries for the Accident Compensation Corporation.

Gibbons was Police Minister Annette King’s prime source in her attempt to discredit Investigate magazine stories on police corruption, and King used parliamentary privilege to smear Investigate based on Gibbons false evidence to her.

However, the Government came unstuck when the magazine published a major report on the activities of the Minister’s star witness, forcing the IPCA to commence a formal investigation.

As TGIF Edition reported exclusively on August 22, the IPCA report is understood to contain adverse references to a number of senior police officers, including several inspectors.

The report was delayed further amid concerns that police and the Government may have been pressuring to have its criticisms watered down.

Whether or not it has, won’t be known until Sun-day afternoon, when the decision is expected to be released on the IPCA website.

Police corruption  report out this  weekend

WELLINgtON, SEpt 19 –� A New Zealand-led global study of more than 200,000 children has identified a link between the increasing use of paracetamol in children and the prevalence of asthma.

The study found that there was a 50 percent increased risk of asthma in six and seven-year-old children who had been given paracetamol for fever in their first year of life.

A dose-dependent association was also found in those who had used paracetamol in the previous 12 months.

Report author Richard Beasley, of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, said the link

Study finds link between childhood paracetamol use and asthmawas apparent in both scenarios in children tested in 31 countries.

An increased risk of rhinitis and eczema was also identified with the use of paracetamol.

Prof Beasley said there were a number of biases which could influence the survey, but that the find-ings were concerning enough to warrant further urgent research into the long-term effects of the frequent use of paracetamol.

Researchers said paracetamol remained the pre-ferred drug to relieve pain and fever in children and had a better safety profile than aspirin and ibuprofen.

Suspicions of a possible link between paracetamol and asthma emerged in recent years when experts observed an increased use of the drug to a simulta-neous rise in asthma prevalence worldwide.

One theory is that paracetamol reduces antioxi-dants in the body. Some experts think antioxidants, which stop unstable molecules known as free radi-cals from doing too much damage, can lower the risk of cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

“Paracetamol can reduce antioxidant levels and ... that can give oxidative stress in the lungs and cause asthma,” Prof Beasley told Reuters.

–NZPA

That raised speculation the bill may have been paid by the secretive Spencer Trust, which is at the centre of the SFO investigation. The trust was set up to channel money to NZ First so donors’ individual identities would not have to be revealed.

Trustee Grant Currie had earlier today refused to reveal if the trust had paid Mr Peters’ legal bills, but he said on Radio New Zealand it was often directed to pay bills by people who were not the party’s offi-cial office holders. He would not reveal who.

He blamed the failure to follow normal proce-dures on NZ First’s “amateur” organisation.

Mr Currie reiterated his view that the SFO inves-tigation into the trust and NZ First was unwar-ranted.

Mr Peters, an old foe of the SFO, yesterday pro-duced a letter written to one of his MPs, Ron Mark, by an anonymous SFO staff member attacking NZ First because it voted for a bill that would abolish the office and merge it with the police.

“The SFO will not find a thing in relation to NZ First’s accounts,” Mr Peters said.

“That’s why they’ve sneaked along here.” The committee has to report to Parliament by

next Tuesday.– NZPA

NZPA

19 September  2008  �

-The China crisisHow many horrific Chinese health scand�als d�o we need� before we stop importing food� from China? Can Chinese prod�ucts can be  trusted�?  I  recall only a string of cheap d�isappointments.

What has happened� with baby milk formula is waiting to happen again because there cannot be quality control-lers on every corner. With China’s found�ations of a god�-less, atheistic state with no belief in a Higher Authority to ultimately hold� them to account, where ind�ivid�ual human life is cheap, what will change? With no moral base ind�i-vid�uals will ultimately d�o “what is good� for me, too bad� if you get hurt, as long as I d�on’t get caught?” It‘s not just China’s controls that have been shown to be hugely lack-ing, it is their ind�ivid�ual moral found�ation, trustworthiness and� respect for human life. 

By comparison are NZ’s Jud�eo Christian  found�ations where a human  life  is not cheap, where d�oing  the  right thing  by  others  is  expected�  and�  where  trust,  truth  and� justice are important. Trust  is vital  in all partnerships and� Chinese ind�ivid�uals have broken that trust. The money is not worth it. Fonterra and� NZ get out of China.

J. McKeown, Auckland

-A nihilist’s guideRight to Life is d�isappointed� that the Classification Review Board� has upheld�  the  classification of The Peaceful Pill Handbook [Revised New Zealand Edition].On  the 8 May  the Office of Film and� Literature  [OFLC], classified�  the book  as R18. Right  to  Life  appealed�  this d�ecision to the Classification Review Board�.

It  is  the opinion of Right to Life that  the book should� have  been  classified�  as  objectionable  and� banned�. The book  violates  the  Films  and� Classification Act  1993 by promoting extreme violence against one self and� encour-aging a criminal act namely smuggling Nembutal a Class C prohibited� d�rug into New Zealand� from Mexico. 

Both  the Chief  Censor  and�  the Review Board�  have  by these d�eplorable d�ecisions failed� to protect the vulnerable in our community, those suffering d�epression, mental illness and� the aged� and�  ill. The book promotes suicid�e as an option for the seriously ill and� eld�erly. The book promotes a culture of d�eath und�ermines our  right  to  life, attacks  the common good� and� promotes suicid�e, self murd�er as a human right. The community should� be d�eeply concerned� at the appalling failure of  these  two  important government organisations  to exercise  their  consid�erable  statutory  powers  to protect  the vulnerable in society. The government has a d�uty to the com-munity to appoint to these important statutory bod�ies persons of integrity and� courage who will faithfully protect the commu-nity from a culture of d�eath which is a threat to every citizen.

The Board� in its d�ecision stated�; “The authors note that the book is not intend�ed� for…or irrational or people suf-fering psychiatric illness or d�epression. That in the Board�’s view, however, d�oes not stop that sector of the community from having access to the book.” Why would� anyone want to give this book to a d�epressed� or mentally ill person?

‘The d�ominant effect of the publication is a lay person’s guid�e to end� of life options. It is also to ad�vocate law reform in the area.”

The Chief Censor in his initial d�ecision stated� that the publication is a well intentioned� book that enables the seri-ously ill and� eld�erly “to make carefully and� fully informed� d�ecisions about their own life and� d�eath.”

Right to Life calls for the government to follow the exam-ple of the Australian government and�  restrict the activities of Dr Philip Nitschke who is an evangelist for a culture of d�eath and� a threat to the weak and� vulnerable in society. 

Ken Orr, Right to Life New Zealand Inc

-Mercury testing now availableRegard�ing your articles on broken CFL energy saver bulbs, and� whether mercury testing facilities exist in New Zealand� for concerned� household�ers. Our company has brought  in  the sample med�ia so that we can d�o testing for mercury, if some-one was interested�. We have arranged� with a lab that can d�o the analysis and� I have upd�ated� our website with the following message so people can contact us if they are worried�. 

“K2 Environmental  is now set up  to d�o workplace or testing  in  the  home  for  mercury.  Mercury  was  recently raised� as an issue with long life light bulbs.”

Stuart Keer-Keer, http://www.k2.co.nz

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editorial

The milk scandal: a failure of ethics

By Stefan Nicola

BERLIN –� Russia would have invaded Georgia even if Georgia had been a NATO member, Russian Presi-dent Dmitry Medvedev recently told a group of experts in Moscow.

The crisis between Russia and the West is still simmering. First, there is the unresolved security situation in Georgia, with two breakaway provinces recognized by Russia only; second, the North Atlan-tic Treaty Organization is pushing eastward, a strat-egy that carries the potential for fierce conflict.

The Kremlin is particularly set against NATO’s Membership Action Plan for Ukraine, according to Michael Stuermer, editor in chief of German daily Die Welt, who was one of about 40 experts who vis-ited Russia Sept. 8-13 to talk to officials there.

“The Russian leadership has made clear: If NATO continues on this path, then we would have a serious crisis or even a war,” Stuermer said Tuesday at an event of the German Council on Foreign Relations, according to a news release by the Berlin-based think tank.

Stuermer had spoken to Medvedev, the new Russian president, who in August gave the order to march into Georgia after Tbilisi sent its troops into the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Medvedev made very clear that he would have given the same order if Georgia had been a NATO member, Stuermer said.

The Kremlin nevertheless is not interested in another Cold War, said Alexander Rahr, a Russia expert at the council.

Rahr summarized Medvedev’s post-Georgia strat-egy: “Moscow’s concept is: We’ll draw a line under this story and continue with business as usual.”

But that may not be so easy.Russia not only has recognized the two breaka-

way provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it also intends to permanently station some 7,600 troops there.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said the NATO-Russia Council will be revived only after Russia pulls its troops out of the two provinces.

“If the Russians are staying in South Ossetia with so many forces, I do not consider this as a return to the status quo,” he said. The option of keeping Russian forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia is not acceptable.

Some NATO powers, including the United States and Britain, continue to push a tough course against Russia and unconditionally back Georgian Presi-dent Mikheil Saakashvili. Several EU countries,

including Germany, are not so sure that the Georgian president can be trusted unconditionally. Europe is pushing for a clarification over who really launched the war in Georgia.

Meanwhile, the EU on Tuesday decided to dis-patch some 200 police and security experts to Geor-gia to replace Russian troops stationed outside the breakaway provinces and to appease the conflict potential there.

The mission will feature observers from 19 EU countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Britain, and is led by Pierre Morel, a French diplo-mat who EU officials appointed as the special envoy to the Caucasus crisis. Brussels also decided to grant Georgia more than $700 million in economic aid.

The EU is now even more intimately involved in a diplomatic crisis that Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in a commentary called the EU’s

West vs. Russia, no end in sight

Politics, police reports, propaganda. These may all be relevant issues this week but it is food and medicine safety that’s dominated local and world headlines (well, food safety and blood and feathers all over Wall Street).

From New Zealand’s point of view, the Fonterra crisis runs the risk of impacting on everyone. The company contributes more than $10 billion to the New Zealand economy, so any damage to its brand or prospects will affect all of us, whether we like it or not.

At this week’s news conference, Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier denied that investment or reputa-tional issues within China played any part in the six week delay between discovering a deadly poison in the milk, and issuing a public health alert.

I asked Ferrier this directly: six weeks of thumb twiddling while babies were being fed lethal milk. Every hour. For six weeks.

Ferrier kept on repeating that Fonterra’s main aim was to get the milk off shop shelves so no one else could buy it. But what about those who’d already

purchased it? They were hung out to dry.Despite Fonterra’s denials, one can only assume

the company was weighing up the survival of its brand in China, worried that if it offended the Chi-nese government the world’s biggest market would be lost to it and probably end up in the hands of old rival Nestle.

If, as Ferrier suggests, its Chinese investments were never an issue in this, then I find it hard to see an alter-native rational reason why the Fonterra bosses, many of them fathers and mothers, could stay silent for six long weeks as children became fatally ill drinking their milk. How could they sleep at night?

That’s why I asked Ferrier if Fonterra was suffer-ing from Nuremberg syndrome – hiding behind the old “following orders” argument used by the Nazis. In Fonterra’s case, it was a plea to having to abide by China’s different culture and political system.

To my disappointment, a Massey University academic tried to defend Fonterra’s actions in this regard, saying that bucking the Chinese system would have threatened the company’s prospects in

China. Isn’t that exactly the problem? Where are the basic human ethics here? Who cares what the Chinese government think?

Instead, to use a popular political cliché, Fonterra opted to ‘swallow a dead rat’, or in Ptolemaic terms it clasped the Chinese asp to its breast, offering to endure the poison itself rather than go public.

Because ‘poisoned’ is what Fonterra definitely is now. In the eyes of the rest of the world, whilst Fonterra is no longer sharing the dais of disgrace on its own, it nonetheless holds the gold medal spot thanks to the actions of its affiliate Sanlu.

The revelations that Sanlu knew, as early as 2005, about the widespread practice of using melamine, suggests Fonterra were played for suckers by the Chinese.

And after all that, then we’re all hit directly with the news that paracetamol appears to be the main cause of childhood asthma, eczema and even possi-bly a cause of cancer. Don’t reach for the antibiotics, because they’re contaminated as well.

The world’s gone mad.

biggest foreign policy challenge to date.The big question that remains: Is the EU ready

to shoulder that crisis? France holds the current presidency, and President Nicolas Sarkozy, despite his well-known tendency to hyperactivity, has man-aged to calm down Moscow and Washington while quickly brokering peace agreements. The problem is that the next presidency holders, the Czech Repub-lic and Sweden, are much more critical of Russia, and the Kremlin has the irritating tendency to slam its door shut as soon as criticism flares up.

Stuermer, the Welt editor, said Europe does not have too much leverage over Moscow.

“We won’t get around silently accepting the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” he said. “There will only be peace in Europe when we include Russia.”

– UPI

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19 September  2008  �ANALYSIS

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Six years ago the US$40 billion Enron debacle was seen as the tsunami of modern corruption scandals. But that was just a ripple in a sordid line of sleights of hand, insider trading, disinformation, financial losses disguised as profits and predatory lending, all leading to a steady decline into bandit capitalism.

On the heels of Enron came Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom, which cost investors billions when their share prices col-lapsed and shook public confidence in securities markets. Hardly a day goes by without front-page stories about business and financial misfeasance. The avalanche of corporate scandals – more in five years than during the entire 20th century – has inflicted more harm to the world’s greatest free-enterprise system since 2001 than al-Qa’ida did on Sept. 11. And that includes the S&L disaster of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. More than 1,000 small lending institutions known as savings and loans, also called thrifts, had failed. Half of the federally insured thrift institutions in the United States had gone under in less than a decade, and the associated slowdown in new home construction and the finan-cial fallout contributed to the 1990-91 recession.

High, volatile interest rates, reckless lending prac-tices, lax oversight and rapid deregulation paved the way for the greatest banking disaster since the Great Depression. Now 2008 picks up the sleaze baton and is in the lead.

Earlier this year Kevin Phillips’ book Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis in American Capitalism was on the money. Democratic capitalism has been on a glide path to bandit capital-ism, rocking from one scandal to the next, oblivious to the harm being done to the superstructure.

The broker is on the phone to a client with his lat-est recommendations. Rather than buying individ-ual stocks in corrupt and mismanaged companies, we suggest buying corrupt and mismanaged mutual funds, he says in this classic Peter Steiner cartoon. After the Enron massacre of thousands of employ-ees’ savings, pensions and children’s education funds, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission determined that at least half of the 88 mutual fund companies controlling 90 percent of the industry’s US$9 trillion in assets authorized large investors to play the fixed roulette wheel of market timing. The privileged few could buy funds at outdated prices and then unload them the next day.

Primus inter pares, venture capitalist Wilbur Ross sees several hundred banks – out of 8,500 – tanking in the next year. Wall Street itself seems up for grabs. Bear Stearns’ meltdown pushed it into the junior ranks of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were saved by a government takeover, which insiders knew was coming. The 158-year-old Lehman Brothers, the country’s fourth-largest invest-ment bank, crumpled under the weight of noxious real estate assets spawned by electronic circus barkers and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It had lost 95 percent of its market value this year alone and listed more than US$600 billion in liabilities.

Merrill Lynch, No. 3 in the investment bank pecking order with losses and write-downs from subprime mortgages of US$52.2 billion, was only too happy to be swept up in the embrace of Bank of America, the biggest retail bank in the United States, for US$29 a share, a miraculous $12 higher than where it was at the closing bell last Friday. That was still less than half its 52-week high.

Too clever by half, complex debt instruments clogged the engines that produced gargantuan paper profits. The gravy train was running out of gravy. CEOs of Fannie and Freddie, deposed by the government, said they were due by contract $24 million in sever-ance pay. The government put its foot down. The courts will have to settle it. But the decision reflected growing revulsion around the country at the manners and mores topsides of Fortune 500 corporations.

Golden parachutes, whether CEOs fail or succeed, are a national scandal, but they continue unabated. Stan O’Neal, former chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch, made a couple of wrong calls and was asked to leave. His parachute was worth US$165 million – on top of the $165 million he had earned over the previous four years. James Kilts, former Gillette CEO, also received $165 million after orchestrating the sale of Gillette to Procter & Gamble. Galling to his critics was the loss of 6,000 jobs in the combined company. In January 2007 Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli resigned and landed a severance package

Bandit capitalism?

By Marc S. Ellenbogen

I met New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2005 on an official visit to Germany. We had a sidebar at a reception hosted in the Grand Marriott Hotel on Potsdamer Platz. With her was Ambassa-dor Peter Hamilton, who is now a deputy secretary in the New Zealand Foreign Ministry.

Clark was robust, tough, salt-of-the-earth and smart. I promised I would not repeat the comments we shared about U.S. politics. Someday, when she is no longer prime minister – then, and only then with her permission – will I reveal her comments about the United States and international affairs. Suffice it to say that she was dead-on the mark.

After nearly 10 years as prime minister, Clark will disband Parliament on Oct. 3. She has called elections for Nov. 8 – just four days after the U.S. elections. She hopes there will be a strong wind across the Pacific to help her in her uphill quest for re-election.

Clark was an academic when she came to poli-tics. Her second campaign as the Labour candidate against Prime Minister Jenny Shipley – New Zea-land’s first female prime minister – was an upset. Clark made trust the cornerstone of her latest campaign. People generally like Clark, though her poll numbers have begun to fall. She is especially

trying to shore up votes among seniors, a key swing vote. Her competitor, John Key, is the chair of the National Party, a centrist right-of-centre party.

Clark is presiding over an economy showing signs of a slowdown after years of robust growth. She benefits from interest rates having begun to fall. The New Zealand dollar is strong against the U.S. dollar. Some do not like this as it hurts exports.

The cornerstone of the New Zealand economy is sheep – of which there are 40 million. Yes, yes, yes, New Zealanders are used to all the sheep jokes – which they mostly hear from their brethren in Australia – still some 2,100 km away across the Tasman Sea. New Zealanders have likely created some of the best sheep jokes themselves. The entire population is 4 mil-lion. The capital is Wellington and the largest city is Auckland, with a population of some 1.3 million. New Zealand is roughly the size of the United Kingdom.

My relationship with New Zealand goes back some 10 years. Prague-based Honorary Consul Vera Eger-mayer is one of the founders of the Prague Society, a partner of the Global Panel Foundation. Recently retired Commonwealth Secretary-General and former Deputy Prime Minister Don McKinnon has taken the mantle as chair of Global Panel Australasia. Defense Minister Phil Goff is on the advisory board; as is Peter Wall, the chief executive of the New Zea-land Symphony Orchestra; respected academic Pro-

fessor Margaret Clark; industrialist Alex van Heeren; and Ambassador Winston Cochrane, a close friend who has held senior ambassadorial postings including Germany, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland.

I met with Goff in Wellington this week. Phil is also concurrently trade minister. Previously Phil had been foreign minister for some nine years. We hosted him in Berlin and Prague. We also have hosted former Min-ister of Trade Negotiations Jim Sutton and Minister of Education Trevor Mallard. New Zealand is a firm believer in streamlined government. That notwith-standing, her ministers stand up extremely well to any ministers I have interacted with.

The New Zealand military’s personnel and equip-ment preparedness was criticized in a recent govern-ment report. It is certainly true that the New Zea-land government must increase its defence budget to meet future needs. But, let it be said from my years of working with the New Zealand military, they have been A-calibre, top-of-the-mark.

The enlisted ranks are well educated, the officers at the height of their game – and with superb esprit de corps to boot. I can only warn not to throw out the baby with the bath water. Certainly, Goff is up to the task to give the right leadership, along with Secretary of Defence John McKinnon, a superb manager and administrator.

New Zealand sees its role in the Pacific Rim,

though successive governments – Labour and National – have not shied away from committing the country’s troops to international deployments. New Zealand mostly deploys troops disproportion-ate to its size; European governments might learn from New Zealand’s example. Where there is con-flict, New Zealand is present, either with humanitar-ian aid or with its military.

Whoever is prime minister, there are serious ques-tions to address. Energy security and water resource management are key issues. How will New Zealand compete in harsh Asian markets? How will it bal-ance human rights with free trade? What will New Zealand’s role be in an expanded Europe? Where will it open new embassies? His recent fall over a donation scandal notwithstanding, Foreign Minister Winston Peters had managed to get the foreign ministry budget increased by some $430 million.

Helen Clark is down in the polls, but hardly down for the count.

She has pulled the genie out of the bottle before, and she might just succeed again.

This time, however, her path to victory is infinitely more complicated.

UPI  International Columnist Marc S. Ellenbogen  is chairman of 

the Berlin, Copenhagen and� Syd�ney-based� Global Panel Found�ation 

and� presid�ent of the Prague Society. He is a found�ing trustee of the 

Democratic Expat Lead�ership Council

Atlantic Eye: Helen Clark plays her hand

worth $210 million, even though the company’s stock had dropped slightly.

Average annual compensation for Fortune 500 CEOs is $11.5 million, or 364 times the pay of an average employee. Sixty years ago, when this reporter immigrated to the United States, CEOs made 10 to 30 times what average workers earned.

Today, men and women solicited to take over large corporations argue they should not be treated any differently from Hollywood or sports stars. Apple’s Steve Jobs is still the highest-paid CEO in the United States: US$650 million a year. Occidental Petroleum’s Ray Irani is a distant second at $322 million, followed by Barry Diller of IAC, a shade less at $300 million.

Both Democrats and Republicans are tiptoeing around the issue. They both need the fat cats to help fund their campaigns. But whether McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden win in November, reform is in the air.

Arnaud� d�e Borchgrave is a senior ad�visor at the Centre for Strategic 

and� International Stud�ies, Washington DC.            

Brokers on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York. Sept 17, 2008. Robert Caplin/ RAPPORT

19 September  2008 �WORLD

By Kevin g. hall McClatchy Newspapers

WAShINgtON –� Leaders of both parties of Congress agreed this afternoon to work with the Bush adminis-tration on an expedited plan to help end the crisis on Wall Street and get bad assets off the balance sheets of the nation’s troubled financial institutions.

Coming on the heels of the unprecedented gov-ernment rescue of giant insurer American Interna-tional Group and the seizure of mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the planned bipartisan legislation could produce the most sig-nificant changes in financial regulation since the Great Depression.

“Time is of the essence,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying the bipartisan effort will try to “insulate Main Street from Wall Street.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox went to the Capitol to discuss a range of meas-ures, some of which require legislation, to end what’s being called the most threatening financial crisis since the 1930s.

Although the details haven’t been disclosed, the

The Great ‘Recession’administration, Congress vow action to end wall Street turmoil

idea is to do what was done during the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s and create a way for the government to buy bad assets such as mortgage bonds that no one in the private sector wants to buy. This would get them off the balance sheets of banks, which have been forced to take a financial hit on the declining value of mortgage bonds.

“The root cause of the stress in capital markets is the real-estate correction, and what is going on with price declines in real estate,” Paulson told reporters after the meeting. “We are coming together to work for an expeditious solution that is aimed right at the heart of this problem.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said it would be a “matter of hours, not days” before Congress gets a plan from the Bush administration and can begin work on it. Lawmakers expect to work through the weekend and pass the legislation next week.

“This of course is an unusual meeting; we’ve had a few lately,” Reid said to laughs. “We have all com-mitted to work with them on their proposal.”

After a day of partisan sniping, everyone involved Thursday evening seemed intent on trying to calm markets by suggesting that there’d be bipartisan coop-eration, although in the meeting Democrats pressed for a second economic stimulus to help the middle

class, an idea the Bush administration has resisted.“I think we saw the best of the United States of

America in the Speaker’s office tonight,” Paulson said. “This country is able to come together and do things quickly when it needs to be done for the good of the American people.”

That cooperative spirit was absent earlier in the day when Pelosi and other top Democrats blasted the Fed chairman for using taxpayers’ money in Tuesday’s bailout of AIG and presidential candidate John McCain called for the firing of SEC Chairman Cox, a fellow Republican.

In a statement late Thursday, Cox dismissed the

attack as political.“The best response to political jabs like this is

simply to put your head down and not lose a step doing the best job you can possibly do on behalf of those you serve,” Cox said. “For my part, I plan to do just that. I leave the political campaigns to pursue their own course.”

McCain thinks that the SEC failed to do enough to stop short selling, a practice in which investors sell borrowed stock with the expectation that it will lose value and they can buy it later for a profit. The two remaining standalone investment banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, allege that short sellers seeking to capitalize on problems in the financial sec-tor hammered their share prices down on Wednesday. Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy protec-tion on Monday, made similar claims.

Short selling isn’t illegal unless the parties are spreading rumours to influence downward trading that would allow them to take greater profits later. On Thursday night, Cox was considering at least a temporary ban on short selling. It wasn’t clear whether the SEC’s board had approved the move.

The United Kingdom’s regulator, the Financial Services Authority, Thursday banned the short sell-ing of financial stocks until January.

5888

Money Pumpedinto the MarketsAmounts supplied by central bankssince Monday (Sept 15)

ECB

US FederalReserve

US FederalReserve

Bank ofEngland

Bank ofJapan

142 bln dollars

119

52

44.8

By tim Johnson, Shashank Bengali and tom Lasseter McClatchy Newspapers

BEIJINg –� Signs of ongoing crisis rippled around the globe today as fears that the ailing U.S. financial system would drag down the rest of the world rico-cheted from trading floors in Singapore to the streets of Hong Kong and energy markets in Europe.

While markets gyrated down and up, Russia’s president made an unusual appeal for the United States to calm the global financial turmoil it had unleashed and oil-producing countries scrambled to cope with lower prices, indications that the crisis has the potential to reshape politics, as well as finance.

Around the globe, fear pervaded trading floors, leaving many traders dazed.

“People are shell-shocked,” said Tim Condon, the Singapore-based chief Asia economist for ING Bank. “No one is doing very much. They’re just sit-ting on the sidelines trying to preserve their cash.

“The only question on people’s lips is which insti-tution will be next to fail.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve and five other major central banks took unprecedented joint action to prop up world markets, injecting $180 billion in credit that stopped a wild fall in stocks in East

Asia and stabilized markets in Europe.Hong Kong’s main Hang Seng Index fell 7.7 percent in the morn-ing before closing virtually flat. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 Index ended down 2.2 percent, a three-year low. South Korea’s Kospi lost 2.3 percent, and China’s Shanghai index dipped 1.7 percent.

In Russia, the two major stock exchanges, Micex and RTS, were closed or kept at limited operation for three days starting Wednesday, when trading was suspended after shares had their biggest single-day loss in a decade. Since May, the RTS has dropped by more than 50 percent. The markets will reopen overnight, according to state news wires.

Polina Lazich, an analyst at a leading Russian invest-ment firm, AK Bars Finance, was succinct in describing the situation: “Right now, Russia does not have a stock market to speak of. It simply doesn’t exist.”

For a third straight day, lines of panicked people formed outside the offices of global insurance giant American International Group or its subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Taipei and Singapore. Nervous policy-holders weren’t swayed by Washington’s decision to lend $85 billion to AIG to forestall a global financial calamity and demanded to terminate their policies.

In China, the steady slide of the Shanghai stock market brought forecasts of political risk and fears that global demand for the country’s manufactured

Financial shock ripples around globe

BRuSSELS –� Mohamed was the most popular name for new-born boys in Brussels in 2007, the Belgian statistics office announced Thursday.

The boys’ names Amin (sixth most pop-ular), Ayub and Mehdi (joint seventh), and the girls’ names Aya (third), Yasmine (fourth) and Salma (seventh) also

made the top ten in a further confirmation of the European Union capital’s multi-culturalism.

Mohamed was also the seventh most popular name nationwide, beating traditional Belgian names such as Mathis (ninth) and Hugo (tenth) - although it lagged well behind the most popular names: Nathan, Lucas and Noah.

Belgian society is deeply divided between the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking Wallonia in the south, with Brussels an officially bilingual island in Flanders.

Since World War II the country has seen large-scale immigration, especially from North Africa, with Brussels and the port town of Antwerp attract-ing the bulk of the arrivals.

That division was reflected in children’s names, with Milan and Wout (boys) and Lotte and Emma (girls) pre-eminent in Flanders, and Nathan, Lucas, Lea and Clara most popular in Wallonia.

Lina and Sarah were the most popular girls’ names in Brussels, with Adam second only to Mohamed among boys’ names.

But perhaps most striking were the one-off names given to children by parents apparently wearying of the traditional approach.

Belgium is now home to boys called Arafat, Euro, Jazz and Okay, and girls called Alaska, Cozmo, Mar-velous and Elf.

They look set to start school alongside the boys Harley-Davidson and Mel-Gibson and the girls India-Summer, Bambi and Winter.

And spare a thought for one young lady who might face considerable confusion in later life. She is a little girl called Man.

– DPA

Islamic names top newborn list in Belgium

goods may ebb, slowing China’s growth.“The crisis in the U.S. is a big red flag for China,”

said Guo Min, a finance expert at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

A slowdown of consumer spending in the United States and other major markets already is affect-ing China’s manufacturers, putting a crimp on the world’s third-biggest economy and giving senior policymakers some jitters.

“The possibility of world exports coming down and hurting China a lot is keeping them awake at night,” said Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking Uni-versity’s Guanghua School of Management.

Also unsettled are tens of millions of ordinary Chinese who’ve watched their stock portfolios wither. A steady slide this week capped by Thurs-day’s decline to 1,802.33 left Shanghai’s composite index an astounding 70.5 percent off its record high of 6,124 last Oct. 16.

“Chinese people blame the government for inac-tion on the stock market,” Guo said.

The financial crisis already has taken a toll on global energy markets. Anticipating less demand for crude oil in the United States and China, oil prices have fallen back below $100 a barrel, which could increase domestic tensions in oil-producing nations such as Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela, analysts said.

A slowdown of consumer spend-ing in the United States and other major markets already is affecting China’s manufacturers, putting a crimp on the world’s third-biggest economy and giving senior policymakers some jitters

19 September  2008  �WORLD

By Craig gilbert Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are in a dead heat across almost the entirety of the battleground Midwest, according to a new eight-state “Big Ten” poll released today.

The state-by-state surveys are the latest evidence of the region’s uncanny competitiveness, and help explain its consuming claim on the candidates’ attention.

The political world is awash in opinion data these days, but this set of polls features a striking result: seven “Big Ten” states - some red, some blue - all “statistically tied,” with neither candidate ahead by more than the polls’ margin of error.

The seven: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The new Wisconsin numbers (45 percent for Obama to 44 percent for McCain), combined with other fresh surveys here, suggest the struggle for the state has continued to tighten since midsummer, when Obama’s lead was in low double-digits.

The “Big Ten” poll, conducted by the University of Wisconsin political science department, covered the eight states of the Big Ten conference. It so happens that seven of them - Illinois is the exception - are in play. Those seven make up almost half the nation’s contested battlegrounds. They accounted for more than half the money spent last week on presiden-

Polls show Obama, McCain in virtual tie in Midwest

DemsGOP

Candidates on agriculture issuesHow the presidential candidates voted on farm-related bills in the Senate:

Opposed**

Supported**

Supported***

Supported

100

Opposed

Opposes

Supported

Supports

0

McCain Obama2008 Farm Bill The $296 billion bill provides subsidies, direct payments and other support for farmers; two-thirds of funding goes to nutrition programs

Tighter limits on crop subsidies Amendment rejected by Senate in 2007 would have limited subsidies to individuals to $250,000

National Farmers Union rating, 2005-06 Organization of 250,000 farmers grades Congress members on how they vote on ag. issues; 100 is top score

Central American Free Trade Agreement Approved by Senate in 2005 lowers tariffs, other trade barriers separating U.S. and Central American nations*

South Korean Free Trade Agreement Yet to be approved by Congress; tariff-free access for two-thirds of U.S. ag. exports to S. Korea; gradual liftingof tariff on U.S. beef

© 2008 MCTSource: McClatchy Washington Bureau, Project Vote SmartGraphic: Lee Hulteng, Judy Treible

*Includes Dominican Republic

**Stated position, but missed Senate vote

***Voted in support on first version; voiced support, but did not vote on final version

JERuSALEM –� A day after winning the lead-ership of Israel’s ruling party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was set to begin consolidating her power in the faction this weekend by meeting her defeated rivals.

However, her main rival Shaul Mofaz, who she defeated by only 1.1 per cent, or 431 votes, can-celed his meeting with the new Kadima leader, after dramatically announcing Thursday night he was taking a timeout from politics.

“The time has come for me to take a break,” Mofaz told his campaign headquarters in Givatayim, a suburb east of Tel Aviv, earlier today.

“I want to consider my future and different ways that I can contribute to Israeli society, to the state and to my family. I am not requesting a posi-tion or rank in the government or the Knesset. I will remain a Kadima member and do everything

in my power for the party.”The announcement stunned both his support-

ers and Livni, whose aides said they tried to reach Mofaz and persuade him to reconsider. Mofaz how-ever declined to meet with Livni.

“I was surprised to say the least. All the activists were surprised. All the friends were surprised. All the closest people were surprised,” Kadima legisla-tor Ronit Tirosh, a close supporter of Mofaz, told Israel Radio Friday.

“He just closed himself inside with his family, wrote what he wrote, and in the evening he dropped the bomb,” she said.

Mofaz, 60, a former army chief of staff and defence minister and a comparative hawk within the centrist party of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, currently serves as transport minister. He is also in charge of “strategic dialogue with the US,” meaning he is Isra-

el’s representative in talks coordinating responses to Iran’s nuclear programme.

Government sources told Israel Radio Friday a replacement would have to appointed to that crucial post. Because of his narrow loss, speculation had also been rife that Livni would give him a senior post such as the foreign ministry.

Livni was announced the winner of the Kadima primary Thursday, after official results showed her obtaining 41.3 per cent of the vote, against 40 per cent for Mofaz. The other two candidates, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter won 8.5 and 6.5 per cent of the vote respectively.

Olmert intends to resign by early October over accusations of corruption, allowing Livni to try and form a new government. If she fails, early elections are likely to be held by March 2009.

– DPA

Israel’s female PM in waiting, waits

tial ads, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project. And they include six of the nine closest states in 2004.

In Wisconsin, what this summer had looked to some in both parties like a reach for McCain now looks like something closer to a toss-up, helped in part by the bounce that McCain and running mate Sarah Palin got out of their national convention.

But in an eventful campaign, that bounce has already dissipated in the national polls. Circum-stances may have changed dramatically - Palin’s riveting arrival on the national scene, the onset of a harrowing financial crisis - but the “horse race” now looks more like it did before the two conventions.

“John McCain tried to reorient his campaign to one that plays on change and reform over experi-ence,” said Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison polling expert who helped conduct the Big Ten surveys. “The initial reviews of that, judging from the polls, were pretty positive. But (in) the last five or six days of polling . . . the short-term evidence is that it’s played itself out.”

The latest national surveys by Gallup, CBS/New York Times, Quinnipiac, Diageo/Hotline and Pew all show Obama back with a very narrow lead over McCain.

Pew found evidence of real “achievement” by McCain in recent weeks, energizing the GOP base, narrowing Obama’s edge on domestic issues, increas-

ing his own edge on national security.“Yet the race remains close largely because

Obama continues to be seen as the candidate of change, and voters remain divided over whether McCain would govern differently than President Bush,” the Pew analysis concluded, with just over four in 10 voters thinking McCain will take the country in a different direction after Bush.

In the Big Ten poll, the contest in each of these seven states was a statistical dead heat (within the margin of error of four percentage points). Obama held narrow leads in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota. They were tied in Pennsylvania and Iowa, while McCain led in Indiana. In the eighth Big Ten state, Obama’s home state of Illinois, the Democrat led 53 percent to 37 percent.

Here are the state-by-state results:wisconsin: Obama 45 percent, McCain 44 per-cent.Michigan: Obama 48 percent, McCain 44 per-cent.iowa: Obama 45 percent, McCain 45 percent.ohio: Obama 46 percent, McCain 45 percent.Pennsylvania: Obama 45 percent, McCain 45 percent.Minnesota: Obama 47 percent, McCain 45 per-cent.indiana: McCain 47 percent, Obama 43 percent.The eight surveys of 600 likely voters, done by

telephone from Sunday through Wednesday, were conducted by UW political scientists Franklin and Ken Goldstein. The two conducted a simultaneous national poll in which Obama led McCain 46 percent to 45 percent.

“It’s a phenomenally close election,” said Gold-stein. “Things are lining up the way you would expect in a competitive race.”

Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister and candidate for Kadima party leadership, speaks before casting her vote during the Kadima elections in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 17, 2008./UPI PHOTO/Bernat Armangue/Pool)

ROME –� Rising food prices has increased by 75 million the number of people facing famine in the world bringing the total to 923 million in 2007, a UN agency reported overnight.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organiza-tion (FAO) said the increase in the number of hungry people – 907 million of whom live in developing coun-tries – was the steepest recorded over a three-year period since it began its estimates in 1990.

“High food prices have reversed the previously positive trend towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing half the proportion of people suffering hunger worldwide by 2015,” FAO said in a statement.

Soaring food, fuel and fertilizer prices have exacerbated the problem, FAO said, pointing out that food prices rose 52 per cent between 2007 and 2008 and that fertilizer nearly doubled over the past year.

“The devastating effects of high food prices on the number of hungry people compound already worrisome long-term trends,” FAO Assistant Direc-tor-General for Economic and Social Development, Hafez Ghanem said.

“Hunger increased as the world grew richer and produced more food than ever over the last decade,” he added.

Hunger also has a detrimental impact on labour productivity, health and education, causing lower levels of overall economic growth, FAO warned.

“Hunger is a cause of poverty, not just a consequence of it,” FAO economist Kostas Stamoulis said.

“The economic cost of hunger, in terms of both resources needed to deal with its effects and the value of productivity and income losses is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars a year,” he added.

According to FAO, the countries hardest hit by the current crisis – most of them in Africa – will need at least 30 billion dollars a year to ensure food security and revive “long-neglected agricultural systems.”

FAO said it proposes a twin track approach to target world hunger: making food accessible to the most vulnerable, and helping small producers raise their output and earn more.

– DPA

Biofuel push causing famine, high food prices

19 September  2008 10WORLD

By Warren p. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers

WAShINgtON –� Using her toughest rhetoric so far to criticize Russia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this afternoon that its invasion of Georgia had put Moscow “on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation” and warned that the West would resist further Russian attempts to impinge on its neigh-bours’ sovereignty.

“The United States and Europe must not allow Russia’s aggression to achieve any benefit. Not in

Rice warns Russia of ‘self-imposed isolation’Georgia, not anywhere,” Rice said in a speech in Washington. “We will resist any Russian attempt to consign sovereign nations and free peoples to some archaic ‘sphere of influence.’ “

Rice’s address to the German Marshall Fund, more than a month after Russia sent tanks and soldiers into Georgia, was long on criticism but didn’t indicate any new specific U.S. steps in dealing with Russia.

Rice spoke vaguely on the issue of Georgia’s even-tual membership in the NATO alliance, saying only, “the door to a Euro-Atlantic future remains wide open to Georgia.” By contrast, Vice President Dick

Cheney declared during a visit to Tbilisi two weeks ago that the United States is committed to Georgia joining the Atlantic alliance.

In a question-and-answer session after the speech, Rice was similarly cautious about reducing Rus-sia’s role in the G-8 group of industrialized nations. Republican presidential candidate John McCain advocates Russia’s ouster from the G-8.

“We will have to see. The jury is still out on a cou-ple of elements about Russia. And I hope that Rus-sia will, frankly, stop digging the hole that it has dug by recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” she

said, referring to separatist regions of Georgia that Moscow has recognized as independent states.

On Thursday, however, Russia took another step, signing friendship treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pledging to defend them from attack by Georgia’s central government.

The speech by Rice, a Russia scholar, culminates an about-face for President Bush and her, who for most of their tenure courted Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s now the powerful prime minister.

“It’s frustrating that they now, in the eleventh and a half hour of the administration, that they suddenly got concerned,” said Sarah Mendelson, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national-security research center, who attended the speech today as well as a private meeting with Rice yesterday.

Minus the references to Russia’s actions in Geor-gia, Rice “could have delivered that speech in 2002, 2003,” Mendelson said. She was referring to Rice’s criticism of limits on freedom in Russia.

Rice dwelt at length on Russia’s evolution since the Cold War ended.

While acknowledging the country’s humiliation after the Soviet Union collapsed, she said: “What has become clear is that the legitimate goal of rebuild-ing Russia has taken a dark turn, with the rollback of personal freedoms, the arbitrary enforcement of the law, the pervasive corruption at various levels of Russian society.”

She chided Georgia’s leaders for their handling of the crisis but laid the blame squarely on Moscow and argued that its actions have backfired. “Russia’s international standing is worse now than at any time since 1991,” she said.

“A pat on the back from Daniel Ortega and Hamas is not a diplomatic triumph,” she said, referring to the Nicaraguan leader and the militant Palestin-ian group, the only two entities to approve Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

She mocked Russia’s recent efforts to re-establish its influence in Latin America, including sending two bomber aircraft to Venezuela.

“We are confident that our ties with our neigh-bours ... will in no way be diminished by a few, aging Blackjack bombers visiting one of Latin America’s few autocracies,” she said.

tOuLOuSE, FRANCE –� Australian carrier Qan-tas has taken delivery of the first of the 20 Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft it has ordered, Airbus said Friday.

The aircraft was handed over to Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon at a ceremony at Airbus headquarters in the southern French city of Toulouse.

The world’s largest commercial airliner, the A380 typically seats 525 passengers but can seat up to 850, depending on cabin configuration.

The Qantas A380 will have a more spacious cabin, with only 450 seats, 332 of them in Economy class, Airbus said in its statement.

Airbus head Tom Enders on Friday refuted recent

Qantas gets its new Airbus 380spress reports that delivery of the A380 would have to be delayed for a fifth time.

“Speculation about delays have become a game for the media,” Enders told journalists in Toulouse. “I’m prepared to bet a Magnum bottle that we will deliver more than 11 planes this year.”

A report on Sunday in the French weekly Journal du Dimanche cited an Airbus source as saying that only 10 A380 aircraft would be delivered this year instead of the 12 announced previously.

According to the report, the discrepancy could be even greater in 2009, with only 15 aircraft delivered instead of the planned 21.

– DPA

File photo

UPI/Debbie Hill

19 September  2008  11

AuStrAlIA’S CoACH normA plummer rounDeD on tHe mAtCH offICIAlS toDAy, ClAImIng tHey turneD

A BlInD eye to tHe pHySICAl treAtment meteD out to Her DeButAnt mIDCourter kImBerlee green

SPORT

By Chris Barclay of NZpA

AuCKLAND, SEpt 19 –� The scoreline may have been close but opinion on umpiring standards fol-lowing the trans-Tasman netball opener is poles apart as New Zealand and Australia prepare for tomorrow’s second showdown in Auckland.

Australia’s coach Norma Plummer rounded on the match officials today, claiming they turned a blind eye to the physical treatment meted out to her debutant midcourter Kimberlee Green.

New Zealand sought to muscle up on Green dur-ing the final quarter of Wednesday’s 51-53 defeat in Christchurch, switching captain Julie Seymour to wing defence, a ploy that was partially successful.

Green’s influence was curbed but Australia still prevailed.

“Seymour rode all over her and she wasn’t quite sure how to get off that,” Plummer said, while plead-ing for more consistency from Jamaica’s Chris Campbell and Maggie du Plessis of South Africa.

“I thought the umpiring was atrocious on it, we were basically fighting through that.

“It was out and out contact, as far as I’m concerned, that should have been pulled and it wasn’t.

“You can’t use your hip or thigh to (shunt) a player out all the time, that was going on and it was constantly overlooked.”

Despite her gripe, Plummer felt Green, 22, would be better for the experience.

“She would have learned a hell of a lot from it. I think she’ll reassess and work on how to move off the position and create space for herself.”

Green agreed: “I just think I need to step off the body a little bit better. It was a little bit different having that player change in the last quarter and I needed to adjust a little bit quicker.

“You take it as a compliment (special treatment) but you don’t necessarily think about that out on court.”

Seymour, meanwhile, was pleased to have gotten under Green’s skin.

“I think you go hard, you want the ball, you want to mark your player and that’s how we train and that’s how we play,” the 37-year-old said.

“We certainly don’t do it maliciously against the rules .... we want to shut down our players and we want to get the ball.

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken, who had both umpires overseeing training today, put Plummer’s outburst down to gamesmanship.

“I think it’s Norma true to form in terms of want-ing to do some intimidation of her own,” she said.

“I thought we had some solid defensive pressure and Australia were quite the equal.”

– NZPA

Plummer takes aim at umpiring

WELLINgtON, SEpt 19 –� The New Zealand War-riors’ National Rugby League fairytale continued tonight when they came from behind for the second week in a row to down the Sydney Roosters 30 – 13 in their knockout semi-final in Auckland.

Dominated in the opening spell, the Warriors lifted in the second half to turn the contest on its head.

In the second 40 minutes they kept the Roosters scoreless, scored four tries of their own and were held up over the line on three other occasions.

Victory for the side which qualified for the play-offs in the eighth and bottom spot means they have made it into the last four in the competition. They next face Manly in Sydney on Saturday week for a place in the grand final.

The result also extended Ruben Wiki’s NRL career for at least another week.

Wiki, in his 311th match, produced one of the moments of the contest when he flattened compa-triot Sia Soliola in a second half hit-up.

He also just failed to get on the scoresheet when he was held up over the line later in the game.

The huge crowd of 25,585 created a noisy atmos-phere and fans on the northern embankment even gave skipper Steve Price a standing ovation as he walked past for the pre-match coin toss. The packed house at Mt Smart Stadium included All Blacks Mils Muliaina and Ma’a Nonu, with Nonu wearing an old Illawarra Steelers jersey.

The Warriors had a dream start, scoring off their first possession. With the help of a penalty they worked their way downfield before Michael Witt shaped to kick to Manu Vatuvei’s wing. Instead Witt went the other way, the ball bounced off an upright and Lance Hohaia was on hand to force it down. Witt’s conversion made it 6 – 0.

From then however, the Roosters began to con-trol proceedings with the tactical kicking of Braith Anasta and Mitchell Pearce proving a threat.

The Warriors were forced back into their own half

and called on to do plenty of defence.In the 27th minute, after a sustained period of

pressure, their line finally broke .Pearce went through two defenders to cross over

with Craig Fitzgibbon converting to tie the game up.It was worse for the Warriors 3 minutes later

when the Roosters broke down the right and Kiwi Setaimata Sa kicked ahead. Hohaia got a wicked bounce as he tried to clean up and as the ball rolled into the ingoal he was involved in a race with Anthony Minichiello. However, video referees Steve Clark and Phil Cooley ruled that Hohaia had held Minichiello back illegally with his arm and awarded a rare penalty try.

Fitzgibbon added the easy conversion before Anasta closed out the half with a field goal for 13 – 6 lead.

Hohaia make quick amends in the second half when a Brent Tate kick forced the Roosters first line drop-out of the match. Hohaia finished off the

Warriors continue dream run in finals

ensuing attack by jinking his way through to dot down under the posts. The conversion made it a 1-point ball game.

The momentum began to shift towards the War-riors who twice crossed over in the next 10 minutes through winger Aiden Kirk and second-rower Simon Mannering, only for both to be held up.

But they weren’t denied a minute later when Ian Henderson darted from dummy-half and forced his way over in traffic.

The video refs took what seemed like an eternity before giving Henderson the benefit of the doubt and awarding the try.

The Warriors went further in front when a superb kick-chase forced another line drop-out and from the ensuing possession they worked the ball out to Vatuvei who scampered over in the corner. It was Vatuvei’s seventh try in four matches and his 16th in 16 appearances this season. The Warriors remained camped in opposition territory and with 10 minutes to go it was the turn of Wiki to be held up.

But four minutes later Kirk brought the house down, grabbing an intercept and racing 75 metres to dot down by the posts.

Price said it had been a big week for the team.“We have been treating every game as a special

moment and today was no different.“(For the second half) we just wanted to complete

our sets – the Roosters had all the ball and field position in the first half and it was important we turned that around.

“It was a really big effort in second half. It was all about self belief,” added Price who said the team would immediately turned their attentions to the club’s next game, against Manly.

Hohaia said the team had felt the buzz of the crowd “and that got us home”.

“We sort of have been playing consistently for last six weeks or so. The last game (the win over minor pre-miers Melbourne Storm) gave us a lot of confidence.

“This was our home ground and we wanted to play really well in the second half and we did that.”

Anasta said the Roosters would have no excuses.

“They were just too good for us.“They got on a roll in the first 20 minutes but we

held them out.“We wanted to do that (again) in the second half

but we let them score after five minutes and as soon as they did that we were in trouble.

“We have struggled all year to play the full 80 minutes, we wanted to prove everyone wrong tonight but we didn’t so we’ll learn from it. We’ll be better next year.”

– NZPA

NZPA / Ross Setford

NZPA / Wayne Drought

19 September  2008 1�

Youngest F1 winners Sebastian Vettel thrilled at the Italian Grand Prix and takes over from Fernando Alonso as Formula One’s youngest-ever winner.

Sebastian Vettel

© 2008 MCTSource: Stats F1, Redbull, MCT Photo Services Graphic: Scott Bell

World rank14th in 2007

NationalityGerman

Name Age Track Year

1 Sebastian Vettel 21 yrs. 2 mths. 11 days Italy 2008

2 Fernando Alonso 22 yrs. 26 days Hungary 2003

3 Troy Ruttman 22 yrs. 2 mths. 19 days Indianapolis 1952

4 Bruce McLaren 22 yrs. 3 mths. 12 days U.S. 1959

5 Lewis Hamilton 22 yrs. 5 mths. 3 days Canada 2007

6 Kimi Raikkonen 23 yrs. 5 mths. 6 days Malaysia 2003

7 Robert Kubica 23 yrs. 6 mths. 1 day Canada 2008

8 Jacky Ickx 23 yrs. 6 mths. 6 days France 1968

9 Michael Schumacher 23 yrs. 7 mths. 27 days Belgium 1992

10 Emerson Fittipaldi 23 yrs. 9 mths. 22 days U.S. 1970

Current teamTorro Rosso

NationalitySpainCurrent teamRenault

Fernando Alonso

World rank3rd in 2007

SPORT

By Chris Barclay of NZpA

AuCKLAND, SEpt 19 –� A southern rugby sab-batical was just that for Ali Williams, with the All Blacks lock today predictably confirming his return to Auckland and the Blues.

In what always appeared a short-term arrange-ment, Williams has returned to his home province after a coaching fall out with former Blues coach David Nucifora instigated his season-long move to Christchurch and the Super 14 champion Cru-saders.

When Nucifora announced his intention to return to Australia it was always likely Williams would opt to return home, once the franchise’s new coaching structure was settled.

The appointment of Pat Lam as Nucifora’s suc-cessor and Robbie Deans’ defection to the Wallabies smoothed the way for the 55-test veteran to return

Williams heads home to Auckland

to Auckland, where he may combine in the Blues second row with younger brother Jay.

Williams confirmed he had signed a two-year deal with the Auckland Rugby Union, though consider-ing his senior All Black status it was unlikely he would turn out frequently for them.

However, he will be a key acquisition for the under-performing Blues.

“Ali’s a quality player as shown by his perform-ance for the All Blacks this year,” Lam said.

“We’ve worked together for many years and I’m thrilled he’ll be with Auckland rugby and the Blues next season.”

Williams opted for the Crusaders after a highly-publicised fall out with Nucifora, which saw him sent home from South Africa last year due to off-field indiscretions.

His desire to be coached by Deans – who took the Wallabies job after losing out to All Blacks

LONDON –� Chelsea, riding high at the top of the league and playing their most attractive football in years, welcome Manchester United to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, looking to put more distance between themselves and the champions.

Joint top with Liverpool on 10 points from four games, Chelsea sit six points ahead of United, who were beaten at Liverpool last weekend.

And though the champions have a game in hand, their stuttering start to the season has given Chelsea the belief that they can regain the title next May.

“It’s never easy if you’re always behind and you have to close gaps,” Chelsea’s Michael Ballack said. “Maybe we could do the same to them. We can make a big step.”

Beaten by United to the title and in the Cham-pions League final last season, the London club are out for a small measure of revenge.

Captain John Terry is available after his red card against Manchester City was rescinded, something that saw United manager Sir Alex Ferguson suggest a bias against his side.

But the United manager’s words were probably more mind games as he looks to right the ship after defeat at Liverpool was followed by a disappoint-ing draw at home with Villarreal in the Champions League in midweek.United should have Cristiano Ronaldo fit to start for the first time this season after he played as a substitute in midweek, but Chelsea mid-fielder Frank Lampard, who has been in outstanding form of late, said his side would not be frightened.

“He’s probably the best player in the world, hav-ing done what he did last season, you can’t take that away from him. If they put him back for our game then we’ll have to deal with that,” he said.

“We’re good enough to deal with Manchester United at their strongest, we shouldn’t want them weakened. If they are strong they are strong and we still want to beat them.”

Ferguson said he expected his side to improve soon.“It was the same last season. It wasn’t until we

got a victory over Sunderland that we really got on the road,” he said.

“We have a little bit to go yet. But once the sharpness of play comes I am sure the goals will come as well.”

Liverpool will expect to top the table for 24 hours at least by winning at home to newly promoted Stoke City, while Arsenal, just a point behind in third, are away to Bolton Wanderers in Saturday’s late game.

English football: Chelsea hopeful

WELLINgtON, SEpt 19 –� Wellington will get an early chance to avenge last season’s grand final loss to Waitakere United when they meet in the open-ing round of the 2008-09 national soccer league on November 9.

The rematch in Wellington repeats last season’s opener which Wellington won 2-1 in Auckland.

Canterbury United and Manawatu are the first New Zealand Football Championship clubs in action on November 8.

Elsewhere on November 9, Hawke’s Bay United will be the first team to see what sort of impact former national coach Kevin Fallon can make on Waikato, while Auckland City are at home to Otago United as the three-time former champions look to reclaim the crown they surrendered this year.

Meanwhile, the 2008 national women’s league has been deferred to 2009 with much of the game’s playing and support infrastructure invested in host-ing the under-17 women’s World Cup next month and in November.

– NZPA

Grand final rematch in opening round of 2008-09 season 

Managerless Newcastle United, who this week were put up for sale, travel to West Ham United, where Gianfranco Zola begins his much-anticipated reign as coach.

Blackburn Rovers take on Fulham and Sunder-land face Middlesbrough in a north-east derby in Saturday’s other games.

Big-spending Manchester City play Portsmouth on Sunday, while Hull City, who stand fifth after a great start to their first season in the top flight, welcome Everton.

Aston Villa make the short trip to city rivals West Bromwich Albion, while bottom side Tottenham Hotspur will be hoping for a first win of the season

incumbent Graham Henry – influenced his shift to Christchurch, though he also has a strong relation-ship with All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.

Williams signed for Tasman, a transfer that eased his availability for the Crusaders, but was unlikely to play for the struggling province before it drops out of the Air NZ Cup.

He has been instructed to rest after an arduous season that culminated with the All Blacks retain-ing the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup.

The 27-year-old formed an imposing second row combination alongside Brad Thorn, who Deans also cajoled into a second stint at rugby, with the pair now rated as the first choice locking combination in New Zealand.

Canterbury Rugby Football Union chief execu-tive Hamish Riach was sad to see Williams depart and had tried to convince him to stay.

“Ali wanted to have a change last year for his own

reasons, we were happy to provide that opportu-nity and he made a big contribution to a successful team,” he said.

“We were delighted to have him and would have been delighted to have him a bit longer but we respect his decision and wish him well.”

Williams said he was looking forward to playing for Auckland and the Blues again.

“Auckland’s my home town and I’m looking forward to returning. I enjoy playing for Pat and (assistant) Shane Howarth and it will be good to line up alongside some of my old teammates again next year.”

Williams said he would always value his time in Christchurch.

“I would like to thank the Crusaders staff and players for making my time with the team an enjoy-able experience. I will look back on my time there with fond memories.”

New Zealand’s Ali Williams takes the ball in the air after a kick off against Australia in a Tri Nations Rugby test, Eden Park, Auckland. NZPA / Wayne Drought

when they host Wigan Athletic.After the departures of Dimitar Berbatov and

Robbie Keane, Spurs manager Juande Ramos has appealed for time to get it right.

“I am worried because we need points at the moment,” the Spaniard said.

“To have only one point is a difficult situation to be in. I’d say to the supporters that they need to have confidence in the team.

“I think, this season, we are better in some positions and worse in others. But the squad is the squad. I’m sure it is a good squad and, in the future, we’ll be better and will go up the table. But we need time to adapt.”

– DPA

19 September  2008  1�

ColemAn CHArgeD WItH DISorDerly ConDuCt  LOS ANGELES, (UPI) – Former child� actor Gary Cole-man has been formally charged� with reckless d�riving and� d�isord�erly cond�uct stemming from an alleged� incid�ent in Utah, police said�. Coleman, 40, was the star of the 1980s sit-com Diff’rent Strokes, but his career stalled� after the show end�ed�. Mr. Coleman was notified� tod�ay of the charges through his attorney, Lt. Bill Wright of the Payson, Utah, Police Department told� People magazine. (Coleman) never spoke to us about what happened�, but we gathered� evid�ence after speaking to witnesses and� the other party involved�. The misd�emeanour charges relate to a Sept. 6 incid�ent, in which Coleman alleged�ly argued� with Colt Rushton, a fan taking photos of him with a cell phone, then alleged�ly hit him and� another car with his truck as he was backing out of a bowling alley. Dustin Lance, Rushton’s attorney, said� in a statement released� to People, This wasn’t a situation of paparazzi or stalker-razzi, this was a fan snapping two photographs with a cell phone. Rushton was treated� for minor injuries at a hospital. 

ABC StAr HItCHeS rIDe After gAS runS out  NEWPORT, MICH (UPI) – A pair of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition fans from Michigan say they gave Ty Pen-nington, a star of the ABC show, a rid�e after his vehicle ran out of gas. Diane Grassley of Newport said� she and� her d�aughter, Colleen, were d�riving on Saturd�ay evening when Pennington flagged� them d�own from the sid�e of the road�, WTVG-TV in Toled�o, Ohio, reported�. It was kind� of d�ark but our head�lights lit up his face, Grassley said�. We both looked� at each other and� started� laughing. It was like, oh my gosh! That’s Ty Pennington! Grassley said� Pennington told� them his Suburban had� run out of fuel so they gave him a lift to a nearby gas station where he purchased� a gas can and� some gas. The women took a cell phone picture of Pennington at the station as proof of their celebrity encounter. They said� he also sampled� one of the brownies they were keeping in their car for a school party. He d�id� tell us that he was hypoglycemic and� that he probably should�n’t eat one. But he said� they smelled� so good�, Grassley said�. In exchange, the star of the reality series left Colleen a note read�ing: Hey, you’re awesome! Thanks for the rid�e. 

WEEKEND

tv & film

entertainmentNEWS

WALL-E0director: Andrew Stanton0voices: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver0length: 98 minutes0rated g

Pixar Studios’ mascot is a bouncy, swing-arm Luxo lamp that hops across the screen with the happy-go-lucky energy you’d expect from Bugs Bunny, not a minimalist piece of spring-balanced steel. If Pixar can imbue a simple desk light with that much person-ality, what do you think the animation house could do with a few dozen fully functioning robots?

If you guessed “miracles,” move to the head of the class. WALL-E, Pixar’s latest triumph, is a sweet-spirited comedy, a touching love story and a stir-ring adventure, even though humans are seldom seen and hardly a word is spoken for the first hour. Instead, we’re irresistibly drawn to invest our emo-tions in a rusty, ugly little trash compactor with a heart of gold.

WALL-E is a waste-removal robot with googly binocular eyes, a squat cubist body and tank-tread legs. When we meet him, some 800 years in the future, he’s the last vestige of intelligent life on Earth. The depopulated planet is a dead zone of rubbish that our hero works every day to clean. He’s developed curiosity about humans from daily viewings of “Hello, Dolly” and collects mementos of the departed race. He can’t figure out the function of a brassiere (eyeshades?), and would rather keep a jewellery case than the diamond ring inside. But he

senses that something special occurs when singers hold hands in his favourite musical, wistfully tilting his head and no doubt dreaming of another being to clasp his metal pincers with. Somewhere in his circuits is a spark of humanity. And with the arrival of sleek, pretty EVE, a vegetation-detecting droid, a delightful romance begins to blossom. WALL-E follows his newfound love across the galaxy and in the process saves the human race from its own worst inclinations.

The robots are wonderfully realized creations, capable of subtle pantomime yet never operating outside their design parameters. They don’t bend or squash unrealistically, though they pulse with something a lot like organic life. EVE is an espe-cially fetching droid with a vaguely familiar design. She has a graceful milk-white plastic body, stylish ventilation slits and a Macintosh “power on” musical chord – in jokes that should bring a smile to Pixar CEO Steve Jobs’ lips.

The photorealistic visuals render the machines and their surroundings with astounding precision. Award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men) consulted on the film’s visual style, which has a palpable feel of reality. Looking at the dust-swept desert Earth you feel you could draw a finger across the movie screen and smudge it. And the film crosses another technical hurdle seamlessly, inserting live-action scenes into a background of computer animation. Fred Willard (Best in Show) has several deliciously daffy appear-ances as the onetime boss of the Buy-N-Large Corp., a colossal conglomerate that turned the planet into a junkyard. Without sledgehammering the point,

The little robot that could…

the film offers a tart critique of our overreliance on technology to amuse, connect and provide for us. After nearly a millennium of lazy self-indulgence, humans have devolved into dim, walrus-like laya-bouts whose saviour is a little mechanized garbage collector.

The film bristles with hidden jokes for science fiction fans, references to 2001,Short Circuit and Star Wars that enrich the experience without hijacking the story. Ben Burtt, the sound-effects genius responsible for the audio design of George

Lucas’s masterpiece, provides WALL-E’s evoca-tive squeaks, sighs and mechanical vocalizations. Sigourney Weaver voices a computer very like the one that threatened her with destruction in Alien.And WALL-E himself is R2-D2 with more heart and soul.

Continuing a string of successes that pit Pixar films against only other Pixar films in terms of qual-ity animation, WALL-E makes the count nine mas-terpieces in a row.

– By Colin Covert

19 September  2008 1�REVIEWS

music

Don Henley and the Eagles perform at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 14, 2008. John Costello/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)

By preston Jones McClatchy Newspapers

If most bands were to go nearly 30 years between albums, they might agonize over the direction and tenor their new music should take, how time has changed them individually and collectively, and whether they will still be considered relevant.

For “Long Road Out of Eden,” the Eagles’ first stu-dio effort since “The Long Run” in 1979, the reverse held true. All it took was a chance encounter on YouTube to inspire the group and guide it in the right direction.

“There was some brief discussion about return-ing to our early style, but not for the entire album,” writes co-founder Don Henley via e-mail. “’How Long,’ the first single from the album, was definitely a nod to our beginnings, but even that came about somewhat by accident.

“Glenn (Frey)’s kids were surfing around on YouTube and found an old clip of us doing ‘How Long’ on a Dutch TV show in 1973. ... We’d forgot-ten that we used to sometimes include it in our set. Glenn thought it would be a good idea to record it for the ‘Long Road Out of Eden’ album, so we did.”

This was a surprisingly spontaneous decision on which to begin a new body of work, especially given that Henley told interviewer Charlie Rose

in 2001 that “rock bands work best as a benevolent dictatorship,” and that most, if not all, of the Eagles’ catalogue stands as a testament to carefully and precisely blending ramshackle country colours with edgy rock flash.

Perhaps the Eagles are softening in their advanc-ing years and letting some aspects of their music fall to chance. But then again, given the spiky nature of “Long Road Out of Eden,” perhaps the inspiration is not as random as it seems.

“Eden,” a double-disc that neatly splits the differ-ence between the Eagles’ country and rock impulses, manages to update the quartet’s signature sound (Henley and Frey, guitarist Joe Walsh and bassist Timothy B. Schmit remain on board) while subtly pushing it into the 21st century.

The second disc, in particular, where you’ll find the blistering title track alongside pointed tunes like “I Dreamed There Was No War” and “Frail Grasp on the Big Picture,” unveils a more spirited side of the famously laconic group, although long-time fans will recognize Henley’s fingerprints. The native of Linden, Texas, long known for championing a vari-ety of causes, including music artists’ rights and the environment, is in exceptionally acidic form throughout these nine tracks.

Henley’s songwriting, particularly later in the ‘70s and during his very successful solo career in the

‘80s and ‘90s – “Dirty Laundry” remains a presci-ent swipe at tabloid TV – does not shy away from uncomfortable narratives but embraces them with a passion typically reserved for artists far removed from the glare of the mainstream spotlight.

Nor is this politically charged brand of songwrit-ing anything new: On 1976’s landmark “Hotel Cali-fornia,” Henley penned “The Last Resort,” a scathing, seven-minute condemnation of westward expansion, Manifest Destiny and urban sprawl that still has tremendous emotional resonance more than three decades later.

Yet Henley’s reputation as a plain-spoken and politically inclined provocateur does not mean that the potentially divisive subject matter, be it social or political, is entirely antagonistic or that his band-mates plead with him to tamp down his opinions.

“I think the other guys expect me to make occa-sional forays into territory that might be controver-sial,” Henley writes. “They’re fine with it as long as it doesn’t get too polemical. It adds another color to the work.”

Indeed, the 61-year-old singer/songwriter speaks of a “longing for community,” another impulse fuel-ling his creative drive.

“That may sound sentimental or mawkishly ide-alistic, but I believe that a great many artists come from that same place, whether consciously or sub-

consciously,” Henley writes. “Cre-ating, for me, is therapeutic. It’s a way of trying to make sense of a world that often doesn’t make any sense at all. ... It keeps me off the shrink’s couch, keeps me from climbing a tower with a rifle. Creating is a spiritual act, as well a kind of meditation.”

Aside from indulging in more political songwriting, the Eagles charted an uncon-ventional (although increasingly familiar) course in releasing “Eden.” Having fulfilled their major label contract with 1980’s “Eagles Live,” the group and its longtime manager Irving Azoff bypassed the big-name labels and released “Eden” themselves, through an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart, which, improbably, anticipated the paradigm-shifting, Internet-embracing likes of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails.

“The music industry as we have known it is almost extinct,” Henley writes. “The digital revolution changed everything and not all for the better. Of course, some parts of the business needed to change. I don’t think too many of us mourn the collapse of the major record labels. They did help to build the careers of many artists, including us, but they also took advantage of us in the process. ...

“The music business is complex, and it takes a number of years to figure it out,” Henley continued. “... You can’t really call the shots until you’ve had a significant degree of success, and to obtain that success, you usually have to give away the store to a major label.”

Other things have changed in the industry as well. Music videos, gossip-driven entertainment TV shows and Web sites, and YouTube have made this an era of overexposure.

“We came up in an era when bands actually tried to avoid publicity except for what was absolutely necessary,” Henley writes. “Our generation of musi-cians also considered the visual media as something to be avoided in most instances. We tried to maintain an air of mystery, a little aloofness. ... Back in the day, there was no MTV or VH1. That was the begin-ning of the end, I think – MTV. It forcibly turned an aural medium into a visual medium and in doing so, killed the opportunity for the listener to use his imagination.”

With the new album on store shelves and the tour to support it under way, what’s next? It’s hardly hyperbole to suggest that many, if not all, of the Eagles’ die-hard fans eagerly anticipate more music from this foursome, but while many classic rockers tour ‘til the wheels fall off, Henley doesn’t seem so inclined. In fact, there’s the matter of his solo career, which has more or less been on hiatus since 2000 to focus on the group.

“I have several diverse album projects that have been simmering in my head for a few years now,” writes Henley of his solo career. “The trick is find-ing the time to do them without shortchanging my family. Soon, I’ll be setting up a recording studio in or near my home in Texas, so I’ll be able to go home after work.”

But toss out the big kahuna – will the Eagles ever make another album? – and the response is simultaneously blunt and sentimental.

“I really don’t know what will happen after this touring cycle ends. I think it will probably take us another year or more to cover the remainder of the globe, and there is nothing planned after that,” Henley writes. “There has been no discussion about making another album. I’m not ruling that out, but it’s not something that I contemplate with any degree of enthusiasm, at least at this point. I would, in fact, be perfectly happy to stay home, take care of my wife and kids, and work on solo projects in my spare time.

“These past 37 years have been amazing and wonderful beyond my wildest dreams, and I am as thankful as I can be,” he writes. “But I’m tired of packing and unpacking. I’m tired of airplanes and hotel rooms. ... I’m ready for a quieter, simpler life.

“Of course, I’ve been saying that for 30 years.”relaTed video: Dirty Laund�ry   

A Long road out of Eden

19 September  2008  1�REVIEWS

Books NEW CD RELEASES

Fine Just the Way It Is: New collection of short stories from The Shipping News authorFine Just the Way It Is0by annie Proulx0Fourth Estate ($29.99)

Fine Just the Way It Is is the title Annie Proulx gives her new collection of Wyoming-set short stories. But “A Dozen Ways to Meet Your Doom” might be just as appropriate.

Proulx’s antic, mordant vision of human life as fodder for a wildly inventive Mortality Machine is in full play here. Some tales have the stoical lilt of old ballads of love and loss. Others are macabre flights of fancy. As she moves from Wyoming’s prehistoric past through its pioneer era to its coal-gas-boom present, Proulx (The Shipping News) puts her keen sense of people and place to work.

Macabre flight of fancy first: “The Sagebrush Kid” is a gallows-humor gem that belongs in all the best horror anthologies. It opens during Wyoming’s stagecoach days with a childless wife who devotes her maternal attentions to a baby pig and then a chicken, both with bad results. Finally, she settles on “an inanimate clump of sagebrush that at twilight took on the appearance of a child reaching upward as if piteously begging to be lifted from the ground.” She spoils the thing rotten, feeding it water mixed first with milk, then with “meat juice.”

What plant wouldn’t develop a man-size appetite after that?

Two other historical tales strike more sobering notes. “Them Old Cowboy Songs” depicts teenage newlyweds trying to make a go of homesteading in the mountains of Wyoming in the 1880s. Both have escaped from rough or troubled family backgrounds. But their blissful back-to-Eden idyll soon becomes a hard-pressed battle for survival.

In “The Great Divide,” spanning two decades from 1920 to 1940, the struggle to get by is paramount

as well. The choices of livelihood are farming, horse-wrangling or coal mining. And it’s even odds which option will prove more lethal or soul-killing.

Proulx dips back into the Wyoming of 2,500 years ago in “Deep-Blood-Greasy-Bowl,” the collection’s most atypical offering, about a tribe scheming to drive a buffalo herd over a cliff for the windfall of meat and hides it will provide. Her detail is sharp (“One of the young men dashed too close and was sucked into the hoofed landslide”), and her vision of what tribal life might have been like is vivid.

But it’s in her three contemporary-set tales that Proulx really shines. “Family Man” portrays an octo-genarian ranch hand stuck in a retirement home (an unusual place: its director believes “the last feeble years should be enjoyed” and promotes “smoking, drinking, lascivious television programs and plenty of cheap food”). There the old man is visited by a favourite granddaughter to whom he decides to dis-close “the ugly family secret.” The revelations don’t go as planned, however.

“Testimony of the Donkey” follows the progress of a foolish solo hiker in the wild, a trip she makes for stubborn, yet perfectly intelligible reasons: breakup

with the boyfriend she was planning to go with. The natural descriptions of brutal sun, icy nights and hazardous mountain terrain are extraordinary.

As for the book’s closer, “Tits-Up in a Ditch,” it rivals Proulx’s famous Brokeback Mountain in the tender-tough emotional trajectory it explores. An abandoned daughter, raised by her reluctant grand-parents, is starved for any kind of care or attention in her girlhood, but soldiers on – literally, when she sees the military as her only means of escaping the small Wyoming town that has treated her so indifferently.

Nearly all the tales above have peripheral story-strands – stagecoach-stop sexual squabbles, ranch rivalries, sibling estrangements – that enrich their fabric and add a juggler’s playfulness to the pro-ceedings that lightens the severity of Proulx’s out-look. It’s as if she were saying, “Sure, life will kill you, but look what goes on in the meantime.”

The oddballs-out here are two stories about the Devil and his “demon secretary” that allow Proulx to vent about human folly and venality in a slapdash

way, but they feel more as though they’re script treat-ments for “South Park.” They look a little foolish here, considering the fine company they’re keeping.

– By Michael Upchurch

Authors offer tips  on avoiding business disastersBillion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcus-able Business Failures of the Last Twenty-Five Years0by Paul b. Carroll and Chunka Mui0Portfolio, 320 pages ($25.95)

It always cracks me up when I’m reminded that hindsight is not only 20/20 but is often magnified like the Hubble Telescope, especially in business books. Whenever a spectacularly disastrous deal is recounted, the warning signs are never subtle and always appear in big, red, bold, capital letters, usu-ally in flashing neon, accompanied by ear-splitting sirens, wailing horns and thunderous timpani.

It’s amazing! How did anyone make such stupid moves? That they were doomed to failure was just so obvious! There was no way they could possibly succeed. The executives who came up with the ideas, proposed, funded, supported, managed and perpetu-ated them were colossal dunderheads who should have known better. Big duh!

If only that were the case, but it’s pretty much the same deal with this new book by Carroll and Mui. The proprietary document fax service Zapmail by FedEx, Motorola’s Iridium project, the funeral-home consolidation strategy of the Loewen Group, Ames Department Stores’ acquisition of Zayre’s, Kodak’s stubborn refusal to get into digital pho-tography, Sears’ patchwork-quilt assemblage of disparate business – on and on, all of these hugely ill-conceived and poorly executed ventures and more are recounted, deconstructed and criticized. And all seemed pretty obviously doomed to failure, at least in retrospect.

To be fair, in some cases, business success is like comedy; timing is everything. It’s also very simi-lar to real estate; location, location, location. The monumental failures are accompanied with an extra-large helping of hubris, regardless of these factors. Additionally, these projects were almost always funded with OPM (churlishly pronounced “opium”), which stands for Other People’s Money, according to Carroll and Mui. So there’s that, too.

The authors present their information well enough, though the text rambles a bit as they leap back and forth and back again (and forth again and again) from company to company and meltdown to disaster. Had they stuck with a single firm to illus-trate one or two points or organized their material a bit differently, I think it might have made for a better experience or at least a more coherent and comprehensible one.

Fortunately, after the multiple horror stories, there’s a meaty and multifaceted analysis of the decision-making process, which is well worth the price of admission.

In fact, given the benefit of hindsight, the authors might want to take another shot at constructing this book. They might begin with this section, then break off into specific studies of each preventive strategy relative to a single firm’s drastic mistakes and how companies could have avoided, neutralized or fixed each disaster. It’s a pity that the best part of their work is buried in the back, but maybe this judgment is just another benefit of hindsight.

Regardless, Billion Dollar Lessons is a good col-lection of cautionary tales and a worthwhile reposi-tory of wisdom that might help companies avoid the fate of those chronicled within.

Of course, they’ll need to read it before the fact!– By Richard Pachter

It’S AmAzIng! HoW DID Anyone mAke SuCH StupID moveS? tHAt tHey Were DoomeD to fAIlure

WAS juSt So oBvIouS! tHere WAS no WAy tHey CoulD poSSIBly SuCCeeD. tHe exeCutIveS WHo CAme up WItH tHe IDeAS, propoSeD, funDeD, SupporteD, mAnAgeD AnD perpetuAteD tHem Were ColoSSAl DunDerHeADS WHo SHoulD HAve knoWn Better. BIg DuH!

Lindsey Buckingham0gift of screws0Reprise

Technically, “Gift of Screws” has some of Buckingham’s best-written, catchiest solo songs. That’s what makes this album’s failings so frustrating.

The hook-filled “Love Runs Deeper” and “The

Right Place to Fade” could be Fleetwood Mac hits from the “Go Your Own Way” period. But Bucking-ham overproduces everything. Where his earliest music had room to breathe, now he stifles it with avalanches of vocal, guitar and percussion overdubs. He sings in a breathy, exaggerated manner. As a result, simple rock songs turn arty and insufferable.

Worse, for an artist for whom repetition is anath-ema, he seems locked into that finger-picking fla-menco style on guitar he employed to such rousing effect on 1997’s live renditions of “Big Love” and “Go Insane.” Now, on tracks like the spiralling irritant “Time Precious Time,” the sound has degenerated into pinpricks on the brain. There’s a great album here buried under all this fussiness.

Pod Picks: “Love Runs Deeper,” “The Right Place to Fade,” “Did You Miss Me.”

– Howard Cohen

Jessica Simpson0do you know0Epic

This is a pretty solid coun-try album, an assessment that has little to do with Simpson.

Producers John Shanks (he also produced Jess’ lit-tle sister, Ashlee) and Brett James have fashioned a

brisk and bold studio sound for the singer (if at times overly lofty). They also chipped in the album’s best song, “Still Beautiful.”

To give her her due, Simpson fares well on “Do You Know,” the duet with Dolly Parton that closes the album. But it’s arrogant to hear her sing, “I could’ve been your June Carter Cash” on “Sipping on History.” That line would be hubristic coming from Reba, much less a carpet-bagging crossover making her first trip out of the barn.

–David Hiltbrand

Milton Nascimento/Jobim Trio0novas bossas0EMI

Brazilian pop superstar Milton Nascimento fronts the Jobim trio, composed of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s son Paulo on guitar and grandson Daniel on piano. Both also add vocals.

Nascimento, 66, shows a lithe voice on this lush session, which is full of languid flow and sensual Portuguese lyrics. Sometimes his tone wanders, creating a distraction. The arrangements can be clunky. Still, the session proves to be warm, full of bonbons like Dori Caymmi’s mystical “O Vento.”

The set features eight A.C. Jobim tunes, including a pleasant “Chega de Saudade,” famed as the title track of Joao Gilberto’s breakthrough bossa nova recording circa 1959. “Esperanca Perdida” is notable for its simple beginning, a break from the session’s often crowded arrangements, and for Nascimento’s gentle singing.

Daniel Jobim’s “Dias Azuis” shows some of the family’s formidable songwriting chops.

– Karl Stark

19 September  2008 16HEALTH

WELLINgtON, SEpt 19 –� A clinical trial in Ireland has shown its Medihoney wound dressings using biologically-active New Zealand manuka honey improve the healing of leg ulcers.

Before the 108-patient study, no other advanced wound care dressing had been shown to improve healing rates of venous leg ulcers under the standard treatment known as compression therapy, honey maker Comvita said.

A control group of half the patients had a common advanced wound care gel added to the standard treat-ment, and half had the manuka dressing added.

After four weeks, the wounds treated with honey reduced an average 34 percent, and in the control

Honey wound dressings improve healing rates: manuka producer

group the reduction was only 13 percent, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

After 12 weeks, there was a 44 percent complete healing rate in the honey group compared with 33 percent in the control group.

Comvita chief executive Brett Hewlett said wound care was a major healthcare market with an estimated value of $10 billion in 2007, which was expected to grow to $12.5b by 2012.

The global growth was being driven by aging populations, rising incidence of diabetes and chronic vascular disorders, and a steady advancement in wound care technologies.

– NZPA

By Judith graham Chicago Tribune

Virtual colonoscopies are excellent at detecting large and medium-sized polyps that can lead to colon cancer, according to the most definitive study yet published on this controversial technology.

In fact, these non-invasive tests are as effective as old-fashioned colonoscopies and ready to be widely used for cancer screening, said Dr. C. Daniel John-son, lead author of the report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

If more people get screened because they find the virtual alternative more acceptable, that could end up saving lives, he noted. More than half of people who should get colon cancer screenings don’t.

Insurance companies haven’t been willing to pay for virtual colonoscopies, citing insufficient evidence that they work. But that could change. Medicare is reviewing data from the new study, with an eye toward re-evaluating reimbursement.

Colon Cancer: This cancer is the second lead-ing cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and the third most common type of cancer. Screening for polyps is recommended at age 50, but traditional colonoscop-ies are so unpleasant that many people avoid them. They involve inserting a long tube topped with a miniature camera into the large intestine while the patient is under general anaesthesia.

The Study: It was the largest of its kind to date, involving 2,600 men and women tested at 15 medi-cal centres. All participants received both a virtual and a standard colonoscopy, with 99 percent of the duplicate procedures done on the same day. The virtual tests identified 90 percent of large polyps or cancers (1 centimetre or over) detected through the traditional colonoscopies. The study confirms earlier results on a larger scale, said Dr. Abraham Dachman, professor of radiology at the University of Chicago Medical Centre and a co-author of the report.

The Procedure: Virtual colonoscopies involve a CT scan of the lower body. They don’t require anaes-thesia and are less invasive than the traditional procedures, which result in bowel perforations in 1 out of 1,000 patients.

Virtual colonoscopies are also less expensive because they’re done on an outpatient basis without an anaesthesiologist and pathologist present. It’s common for standard colonoscopies to cost two to three times more than virtual procedures.

Patients still must take much-dreaded prepara-tions that clean out their bowels, just as they do for

Virtual colonoscopies valuable  cancer-detecting tests, study shows

traditional colonoscopies. If worrisome polyps show up, a patient will need a traditional colonoscopy so a physician can go in and remove them. About 4 per-cent of all patients who are screened will have polyps 1 centimetre or larger, and these clearly need to be excised, Johnson said. About 12 percent of patients will have polyps 6 centimetres or larger.

At the University of Chicago, most patients stay at the hospital until they get test results. Then, if they need a traditional colonoscopy, they go in for the procedure the same day, without additional bowel-cleansing preparations.

-Caveats: Smaller polyps are missed more often in virtual colonoscopies, said Dr. John Affronti, a professor at Loyola University Medical Centre. Flat polyps also appear harder to detect.

In addition, even though radiation doses are half those of normal CT scans, “we still have to be con-cerned about the potential cumulative effects of radiation exposure,” said Dr. David Lichtenstein, director of endoscopy at Boston Medical Centre. And often, the scans reveal abnormalities in other parts of the abdomen, which could lead to addi-tional, unnecessary tests.

For Lichtenstein, the bottom line is “traditional colonoscopies remain the gold standard, but virtual colonoscopies are a good alternative” for people at average risk who can’t tolerate the prospect of hav-ing a tube inserted. People at high risk because of a family history or cancer, genetic mutations, or previ-ous polyps should opt for the traditional approach, he and other experts say.

By Jeremy Manier Chicago Tribune

ChICAgO –� As Tabitha Keller drove her two young children to attend a chickenpox party earlier this year, she felt a moment of doubt about the wisdom of intentionally infecting her kids with the bug.

Keller did not trust the chickenpox vaccine, so she was arranging for her children to get immunity the old-fashioned way, by catching the disease from an infected child and muddling through weeks of itchiness. Such chickenpox parties were also held in the pre-vaccine era because some experts argued it was safest for kids to get the disease early in life, when the effects tend to be relatively mild.

Although most paediatricians today advise against chickenpox parties, some parents who avoid the vaccination for medical or religious reasons seek out such get-togethers on Internet message boards. Those who have tried it say the strategy takes com-mitment, persistence and a dose of good luck.

Keller, a stay-at-home mum, said going to the party also required resisting some of her instincts as a parent.

“It was so ironic and strange to be driving out to this house, hoping that my kids would get sick,” Keller said. “That’s pretty much what you spend

your entire life avoiding.”More important, the party did not work – a prob-

lem several parents said they have encountered. In fact, Keller’s 5-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son attended two parties in quick succession and failed to get sick from either one.

Getting kids infected can be harder than par-ents assume, experts said. Chickenpox is most con-tagious during a period of slightly more than one week, beginning a few days before lesions appear and lasting until scabs form on the chick-enpox sores.

Some parents said they drove to an infected child’s house only to find that scabs had begun to form, mak-ing infection less likely. In addition, some children may get infected but never show symptoms.

Most paediatricians say the chickenpox vaccine is preferable to getting the disease because parents never know if their child will be unlucky enough to develop one of the disease’s rare but serious complications.

Doctors say some people should never be exposed

to chickenpox, including infants, people with weak-ened immune systems and pregnant women.

Some parents said they believed their children were healthy and therefore unlikely to develop complications, but the evidence for that is mixed. One recent study found that 70 percent of people

hospitalized for chicken-pox complications were otherwise healthy.

“It’s hard to under-stand why people would choose to get sick with this,” said Dr. Lisa Asta, an associate clinical profes-sor of paediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco.

Several parents said their own mild experi-

ences with chickenpox helped convince them that the vaccine was unnecessary.

“I just take into consideration the seriousness of the disease versus the risk of the vaccine,” said Allison Neally, a high school teacher. Most pox parties resemble an ordinary playdate, with extra measures to aid infection. Many parents encourage the children to share whistles, lollipops or Popsicles.

One mum said her kids shared T-shirts with the infected kids.

“It definitely goes against that old momma bear, papa bear, protect-my-child mentality,” said Neally, whose daughter attended a party but failed to catch chickenpox.

Megan Cummins, a shiatsu therapist, said that at one party her children hesitated to share a drink box with the infected toddler, who had a runny nose and was covered in spots.

“My kids were sort of repulsed,” Cummins said. She said her two older children attended three par-ties but never got infected. She still hopes to get them infected, but said that at times the parties felt awkward.

“Once I realized I was driving to be at a complete stranger’s house and share their germs – that’s a little weird,” she said.

Some mums said their paediatricians frowned on chickenpox parties, but Edna Navarro-Vidaurre of Chicago said her children’s doctor saw nothing wrong with the idea. She was relieved when her 2-year-old son got the disease after his first party, and then her 5-year-old daughter got infected after three tries.

“I felt I was kind of lucky because I got it done within a few months,” Navarro-Vidaurre said.

Pox parties continue despite vaccine

19 September  2008  1�SCIENCE & TECH

Source: Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, U.S. National Safety Council, KRT Illustration Bank Graphic: Judy Treible, Pat Carr, Angela Smith

What’s in computer waste?

Waste from discarded computers contains many toxic substances that cause air and water pollution and damage people’s health.

© 2006 KRT

Location of toxic elements and health hazards

Computer waste How much waste?By 2007, the estimated number of discarded U.S. computers will total 500 million; waste components, in pounds (kilograms):

Plastics 6.3 billion (2.8 billion)

Lead 1.6 billion (0.7 billion)

Cadmium 3.0 million (1.4 million)

Chromium 1.9 million (0.9 million)

Mercury 623,000 (280,350)

Protects steel plates, housing; can damage

DNA, cause asthmatic bronchitis

CRTs, circuit board solder; inhibits children’s development, damages

kidneys, nervous and reproductive systems

On motherboards, connectors; carcinogen

Applied to inside of CRT face plate; very toxic

Protects users from CRT radiation; can damage heart, liver, spleen, brain, muscles

Light bulbs; damages brain, kidneys, developing

fetusesReduce level of hormone essential for normal growth

Used throughout; PVC plastics form toxic dioxin when burned

Used in some chips, CRTs; damages kidneys, bones

hAMBuRg –� Two international research teams have compiled a genetic map of Europe, revealing little genetic diversity between the various nationalities and closely resembling geographic boundaries.

The data, published by Classic Biology, reveal a genetic barrier between the Finns and the rest of Europe. This is not surprising because the rela-tively small Finnish population for generations lived nomadic lives almost isolated from the rest of Europe.

The researchers found that the genetic map closely resembled the pattern of three major human migrations mainly from the south.

Southern Europeans revealed more genetic diver-sity than Scandinavians, British and Irish, mir-roring the migration waves of early humans from Africa about 35,000 years ago, post-ice age expan-sion 20,000 years ago and the population move-

Science unleashes new genealogy toolments driven by farming methods emanating from the Middle East about 10,000 years ago.

According to John Novembre, a US scientist, who led one of the studies, the data “tells us that geography matters.”

Genetic differences can be traced to the birth-places of Europeans. The map depicts a Spanish-Portuguese cluster to the southwest below those of France, the Italians are further southeast with the Danish, Dutch, French and German cluster centrally positioned.

The researchers are confident that they can soon pinpoint to a few hundred kilometres the ancestry of individual Europeans.

Such data can be useful for forensic medicine but also for anyone in the US, New Zealand, Australia or Canada wishing to trace their European ancestry.

– DPA

By Will Oremus

pALO ALtO, CALIF. –� Brow clenched in focus, expert radio-control pilot Garett Oku, of Mountain View, Calif., guided a 1.2-metre-long model helicopter through a dizzying sequence of aerobatic tricks, punctuated by an upside-down tailspin called an “inverted hurricane.’’

Then he dropped the controls.Try that with an ordinary model, and you’re likely

to find yourself in the market for a new one very shortly. But a team of Stanford University computer scientists had imbued this craft with a special gift: the ability to learn from experience.

As Oku let go of the remote, the helicopter pulled itself into a stable hover above a field on the Stanford campus. After a moment’s pause, it launched into its own version of the routine he had just put it through, executing each pirouette with confident precision.

When the airshow was complete, it landed itself as gently as any human could have done.

The autonomous helicopter is a demonstration of the power of “apprenticeship learning,’’ said its creators, a team of four doctoral students overseen by professor Andrew Ng. Rather than following a set of exact instructions, it uses telemetry to “watch’’ itself being flown by an expert, then attempts to pilot itself in the same way.

The researchers – Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley – said they believe it’s a model that could someday be applied

to dangerous tasks like wilderness firefighting and land-mine detection.

The learning method is well-suited to helicopters, Coates said, because their flight dynamics are too complex for programmers to simply write out a list of instructions. It’s affected by everything, from the slightest cross breeze to the amount of gas in the tank, which changes the craft’s weight.

That means every flight is different – so the robot can’t simply replicate Oku’s controls and expect the same result. Instead, it must watch repeatedly to gain an ideal concept of each manoeuvre.

“In essence, it tries to figure out what the goal or what the intent of the human is,’’ Ng said. Then it hones its own technique in a series of practice flights.

That’s a new level of sophistication for an appren-tice learning system, Ng added. It’s a step toward building robots that can be trusted to perform important tasks as reliably as humans.

Oku said the autonomous helicopter has gotten so good that it now flies more smoothly and consist-ently than he can.

That’s not to say it has eclipsed human capacities in every way. With no way to sense wind, it can still be thrown off by a sudden gust. And on a recent Monday, shifting clouds caused its tracking camera to lose sight of the helicopter, rendering it effectively blind.

The computer beeped in alarm, and the research-ers retook control of the small chopper. Back under human control, it landed safely, and the team waited for the sky to clear to try again.

Self-flying robocopter learns tricks though observation

MONtREAL –� The St. Lawrence River near Montreal has alarm-ingly high levels of estrogen, lead-ing to the mutation of male fish, University of Montreal research-ers said.

Sebastien Sauve, a professor of environmental chemistry, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. sam-ples are routinely taken just downstream from the island of Montreal, and estrogen levels are high.

What we measured is about 100 times more than the level known to have significant endocrine-dis-rupting effects, Sauve said.

He said the chemical estradiol, a naturally occurring hormone that all women release, was found, along with synthetic female hormones.

They’re really pharmaceuticals, which are used either as contracep-tives or in hormone replacement therapy, he told the broadcaster.

Meanwhile, scientists at Quebec’s National Institute for Science Research studying a species of minnow in the same part of the river report finding ovaries in the testes of one-third of the males, the report said.

– UPI

Montreal river awash in estrogen

The US Food and Drug Administration today helped pave the way for genetically engineered meat and fish to end up on US dinner tables, a move that will ricochet around the world.

The agency said genetically engineered animals, created for human use or consumption, will be regu-lated in the same way as veterinary drugs, meaning they will go through a safety review process.

But consumer groups said today that the review process might not be stringent enough and expressed concern about environmental consequences.

The agency underscored that it will not require package labelling that explicitly explains to consum-ers that an animal has been genetically altered, also drawing sharp criticism from food safety groups.

The agency has been reviewing genetically engineered animals and animal products since the early 1990s but had never formally or publicly clarified the approval process for bringing them to the marketplace. Today, it issued guidelines for the first time.

“The guidance lays out how the industry should demonstrate safety,” an agency spokeswoman said. “This public declaration doesn’t change anything, it just makes it official.”

The agency has yet to approve a genetically engi-neered animal for human consumption, but it is currently reviewing between 40 and 50 applications, the agency said.

Earlier this year, the agency declared meat and milk from cloned animals safe to eat.

A cloned animal is, in effect, an exact replication of another animal. A genetically engineered animal is one whose genetic material has been altered with

GM meat, fish move closergenetic material of another animal to give the new animal desirable characteristics or traits.

Proponents say genetically engineered animals have uses that could dramatically improve human health, pointing to “biopharm” animals that are cre-ated to generate ingredients for medicines, or those raised for organ transplantation into humans.

Officials say it likely will be years before geneti-cally engineered meat ends up on store shelves, though one company is likely closer than most.

Aqua Bounty of Massachusetts is hoping to mar-ket its genetically engineered salmon, which grows to maturity in less time than wild or farmed salmon, but it awaits approval.

Researchers at the University of Missouri-Colum-bia have cloned and genetically engineered pigs that manufacture heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, though it’s not clear when or if the pork will reach stores.

Consumer groups said the public issuance of the guidelines was a positive step because it makes clear that the agency will regulate genetically engineered meat, unlike genetically engineered plants, which are not reviewed by the agency.

“On the plus side, there’s a mandatory safety assessment,” said Michael Hansen, of Consumers Union. “It’s better than what they’ve done with plants.”

Food safety groups say they’re also concerned about the unknowns, particularly if genetically engi-neered animals mate with native populations.

Several states, including Oregon and Washington, have prohibited transgenic fish because of concerns that they could mingle with their native fish.

Officials say it likely will be years before genetically engineered meat ends up on store shelves, though one company is likely closer than most

19 September  2008 1�NEWSFOCUS

did you guys come to that realisation?”FERRIER: “This was never, for an iota, an issue

of our investment in China, this was an issue from the very beginning of the most effective way to get the product off the shelf. That was the judgement that we made as we were going through this, that that was the most effective way.”

TGIF: “OK, I understand that you’ve identified taking the product off the shelves as the key issue, but I and others would say, ‘You’ve got a whole lot of product out there in the market, being consumed by babies every hour, is it not even more important to have gone for the public recall straight away?’ You could have just stood up and said, ‘Right, we’re a major dairy producer in the world, we’re making a statement, we have a product problem, we’re tell-ing the people now ourselves, regardless of what China says’.”

FERRIER: “The judgement was made that if we tried to do that it wouldn’t have been effective at that time, otherwise we would have done it.”

TGIF: “But what made you think that? If the world’s major dairy milk producer makes such a statement, the world’s media pick up on it, that news would have been carried in China and the Chinese government would have taken cognizance of it, surely?”

FERRIER: “Yeah, well, there’s been a lot of soul searching as to the most effective way of getting product off the shelves, and we made the call that we had to work within the Chinese system.”

TGIF: For six weeks you, as CEO, knew that your product was still in people’s homes and being fed to children, that must have been gut wrenching, and at what point do you say ‘OK, we made a bad call in how we handled this, we should have gone public earlier’?”

FERRIER: “Look, we don’t know, we’ll never know, if we had gone public at the beginning whether it would have made a difference at that time. You know, yes, it was absolutely gut-wrenching! This is as bad as it gets in food companies! But we’ll never know. We made a call, it was the call at the time in the environment we were in.

“We were enormously relieved when the Chinese government decided to make it public because we had been urging that from Day One! So the relief was just massive, when we heard that this was going pub-lic. But the Chinese government made it public.”

Also under questioning  from  TGIF Edition, [ ] the Fonterra CEO admitted there was no quality con-trol procedure in place to detect foreign toxins in milk supplied by farmers:

“You can’t test for every poison out there,” responded Andrew Ferrier. “You test for things that are known issues with respect to milk, and to our knowledge there isn’t a dairy company in the world that tests for melamine because it isn’t a naturally occurring substance in milk. So you do the best you can and sometimes, something like this – whether you like it or not – if somebody breaks the law and puts a poison chemical in the product, we’re all vul-nerable to that.”

But “vulnerable” might not be the right word. “Negligence” might be a better description of the situation. Here’s why.

TGIF Edition had asked Ferrier why it took so long to test for melamine, given the enormous publicity about pet food contamination in China recently.

“We learned about the explanation about mela-mine when it hit,” replied Ferrier, “because we dis-covered there was a pet food scandal a few years ago, so there was lots of information at that time about melamine.”

In fact the pet food scandal was only a year ago, and it raises massive – and so far unanswered – questions about whether Fonterra should have insisted on melamine tests as a matter of course from 2007.

Wikipedia, for example, helpfully lays out the symptoms  involved in the pet food poisoning epi-demic:

“A company test showed sickness and death in some of the test animals. Soon after, there were numerous media reports of animal deaths as a result of kidney failure.”

Kidney failure. Just as hundreds of Chinese

infants were experiencing, yet no one in Sanlu, Fonterra or the various official agencies joined the glaring dots back to the pet food scandal. Despite a barrage of tests for six months, no one apparently thought, ‘melamine’.

Fonterra, of course, wasn’t aware of the baby milk health problem until after melamine had already been confirmed. But had Fonterra known earlier about babies being hospitalised with kidney fail-ure and dying, it might have remembered the same symptoms from the 2007 pet food scandal.

As it stands, however, Ferrier’s claim that no food company is testing for melamine is wrong. European food agencies have required testing foods and bever-ages for melamine since last year.

Even so, there’s circumstantial evidence that Fonterra’s quality control procedures inside Sanlu weren’t good enough at a food quality level, let alone poison detection. Following up on TGIF’s quality control questions, the Wall Street Journal asked Ferrier why the company wasn’t checking milkfat levels.

“Most dairy companies would ultimately check for both protein and fat as a matter of course,” said Ferrier.

But the point of the Wall Street Journal’s question was more subtle. Chinese farmers had been watering down the milk as a means of making more money, thus diluting it. Because of the dilution, they had to add melamine to the milk to artificially boost its apparent protein levels back to normal.

Fonterra and Sanlu failed to detect anything abnormal with the protein levels. But if their quality control procedures were good – and Ferrier has just confirmed they were testing milkfat levels – they should certainly have detected lower milkfat levels caused by the dilution, and that should have rung alarm bells.

Instead, nothing went off.“Test results at that time [March this year] showed

no quality issues with Sanlu’s product,” Ferrier told TGIF. “In addition they engaged three separate provincial testing labs to undertake further testing. They engaged the National Dairy Product Quality Monitoring and Testing Centre, they engaged the National Environmental Product Quality Monitor-ing Testing Centre and the Ministry of Agriculture Dairy Quality Monitoring Testing Centre, and none of these tests showed any quality issues with the product. It was not until the beginning of August that melamine was found in those test samples.”

But as you’ll shortly see, there are doubts about the integrity of the testing, and it is also concerning to industry commentators that Fonterra seemed utterly naïve about the likelihood of milk contami-nation, despite China’s long history of corrupt food manufacturing practices.

An Associated Press report on Thursday suggests the melamine contamination was far from being an isolated, amateur incident involving just one or two farmers:

“One suspect, surnamed Su, told police that from February 2007 to July 2008 he bought 200 20-kilo-gram sacks of melamine at 200 yuan (NZ$44) each, and sold them all to milk suppliers.”

Twelve milk suppliers are implicated so far, and 20% of the total Chinese dairy industry has been found producing melamine contaminated milk.

But India’s Calcutta Telegraph has even more damning evidence that Sanlu knew much more, much earlier, than Fonterra has so far disclosed:

“After the glory, the disgrace,” reports journal-ist Neha Sahay. “The melamine-contaminated baby milk powder scandal is so painfully close to the Olympics that many Chinese are blaming the ‘damned Olympics’ for the cover-up. Of course food-safety officials were involved, but so was the Chinese search engine, Baidu. Last month, it offered the pro-ducer of the contaminated powder, San Lu, a com-plete black-out of negative references to it in return for a payment of three million yuan (NZ$665,000). It also suggested that to prevent punitive action, San Lu should threaten to reveal the ‘secret’ that all milk powder manufacturers in China use melamine and that they buy out victims to silence them.

“Not that San Lu needed such advice. It had bought the silence of one victim as far back as May this year. He had requested San Lu to test the sam-ple that had made his baby ill. The company offered

a refund or an exchange but refused to divulge the test results, saying they were a ‘commercial secret’. He approached the authorities but they discour-aged him from getting the milk tested on his own, saying it would cost a fortune. He then posted his problem on the internet. Ten days later, he asked that the post be closed. It is learnt that San Lu offered him more than 2,000 yuan (NZ$444) worth of milk products on condition that he delete all posts on this topic. There was actually a written agreement that was traced by netizens (bloggers), who also managed to find Baidu’s offer to San Lu.

“Netizens have traced another complaint made to the authorities in July, from an insider – an employee of a San Lu milk collection point. Naming his boss, he described how after getting fake milk from farm-ers, the boss added some fake milk on his own so as to meet his milk target. The complainant hoped the authorities were keeping a check on San Lu’s milk, “specially in this Olympic year”. The authorities gave their usual ‘we have forwarded your complaint’ reply,” concluded the Telegraph report yesterday.

Again, if Fonterra, as one of the world’s most savvy dairy companies, failed to consider the pos-sibility of tampering with its product as a result of institutionalised corruption in the Chinese milk industry, then it was arguably naïve.

Then there’s the extremely thorny issue of whether New Zealanders and Australians can trust the Australia New Zealand Food Safety Authority to properly monitor the safety of incoming foods.

In the wake of last year’s Chinese pet food scan-dal, and contaminated toothpaste and other prod-ucts, the New Zealand Herald reported in late 2007 on a Green Party initiative to require mandatory

country of origin labelling on food, so that consum-ers would know whether the food was produced in a safe or unsafe country. The Labour-led government rejected the call:

“In Parliament last month Food Safety Minister Annette King said the New Zealand Food Safety Authority’s (NZFSA) tested foods that came into New Zealand,” reported the Herald. “It had not found problems with Chinese imports.”

The Labour-led Government’s safety assurances rest on claims that incoming foods were tested, but as you’ve just read a moment ago, the CEO of the world’s biggest milk company, Fonterra, confirmed to TGIF Edition:

“You can’t test for every poison out there… to our knowledge there isn’t a dairy company in the world that tests for melamine.”

Ferrier elaborated on this to Newstalk ZB’s Larry Williams, saying, “There’s 50,000 toxins,” and adding it was impossible to test for all of them.

Based on that, do Labour’s assurances that con-sumers are safe because imports are “tested” really stack up? What, precisely, does the Food Safety Authority test for, and can any Chinese-manufac-tured food be trusted by New Zealand or Australian consumers?

As the poisoned milk scandal grows, amid evi-dence that Sanlu and arguably even Fonterra were negligent, and amid evidence that the Chinese Gov-ernment edict that food safety issues were forbid-den for discussion during the Olympics – when the poisoned product should have been publicly recalled – it’s not only consumers in China wondering how often their government lies to them.

A father stands in front of the shelves of con-taminated milk formula products in a supermarket in Shanghai, China Eastern province. China’s quality-control regulator ordered the recall of 69 infant-milk prod-ucts made by 22 dairy companies after samples were found to be tainted by melamine. EYEPRESS

China baby milk scandalThe world’s second-biggest market for baby milk powder is once again under scrutiny, this time for tainted formula. Some key dates in 2008:

Sept. 11 U.S. consumers urged to avoid all infant formula from China

Sept. 12 Nationwideprobe launched; milk was diluted with water, then melamine, a toxic chemical that makes protein levels appear high

Sept. 15 Two traders arrested in Hebei for producing and sellingcontaminatedmilk

Sept. 16 Third baby dies; number of affected infants rises to 6,244

Sept. 18 Fourth baby dies

Sanlu recalls 700 tons of baby milk food which it says has been contaminatedwith melamine

A second baby dies; 1,253 others affected

Sept. 10 Chinese media reports that babies have fallen ill after drinking Sanlu milk formula

Aug. 8-24 Beijinghosts 29th SummerOlympics

Aug. 2Sanlu starts recall from suppliers

First baby dies in northwestern Gansu province in what is later said to be first fatality linked to the chemical-laced milk

Sanlu, one of China’s biggest dairy producers, receives customer complaints that babies’ urine is discolored; government not informed

March

MayJuneJuly

August

© 2008 MCTSource: Reuters Graphic: Scott Bell

April

September

  FROM PAGE 2 

Back to the page 2

fonterrA AnD SAnlu fAIleD to DeteCt AnytHIng ABnormAl WItH tHe proteIn levelS. But If tHeIr

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By Jules Verne

Still this wearisome voyage dragged on. On the 2d of February, six days from starting, the Macquarie had not yet made a nearer acquaintance with the shores of Auckland. The wind was fair, nevertheless, and blew steadily from the southwest; but the currents were against the ship’s course, and she scarcely made any way. The heavy, lumpy sea strained her cordage, her timbers creaked, and she laboured painfully in the trough of the sea. Her standing rigging was so out of order that it allowed play to the masts, which were violently shaken at every roll of the sea.

Fortunately, Will Halley was not a man in a hurry, and did not use a press of canvas, or his masts would inevitably have come down. John Mangles therefore hoped that the wretched hull would reach port without accident; but it grieved him that his companions should have to suffer so much discomfort from the defective arrangements of the brig.

But neither Lady Helena nor Mary Grant uttered a word of com-plaint, though the continuous rain obliged them to stay below, where the want of air and the violence of the motion were painfully felt. They often braved the weather, and went on the poop till driven down again by the force of a sudden squall. Then they returned to the nar-row space, fitter for stowing cargo than accommodating passengers, especially ladies.

Their friends did their best to amuse them. Paganel tried to beguile the time with his stories, but it was a hopeless case. Their minds were so distracted at this change of route as to be quite unhinged. Much as they had been interested in his dissertation on the Pampas, or Aus-tralia, his lectures on New Zealand fell on cold and indifferent ears. Besides, they were going to this new and ill-reputed country without enthusiasm, without conviction, not even of their own free will, but solely at the bidding of destiny.

Of all the passengers on board the Macquarie, the most to be pitied was Lord Glenarvan. He was rarely to be seen below. He could not stay in one place. His nervous organization, highly excited, could not submit to confinement between four narrow bulkheads. All day long, even all night, regardless of the torrents of rain and the dashing waves, he stayed on the poop, sometimes leaning on the rail, sometimes walking to and fro in feverish agitation. His eyes wandered ceaselessly over the blank horizon. He scanned it eagerly during every short interval of clear weather. It seemed as if he sought to question the voiceless waters; he longed to tear away the veil of fog and vapour that obscured his view. He could not be resigned, and his features expressed the bitter-ness of his grief. He was a man of energy, till now happy and powerful, and deprived in a moment of power and happiness. John Mangles bore him company, and endured with him the inclemency of the weather. On this day Glenarvan looked more anxiously than ever at each point where a break in the mist enabled him to do so. John came up to him and said, “Your Lordship is looking out for land?”

Glenarvan shook his head in dissent.“And yet,” said the young captain, “you must be longing to quit

this vessel. We ought to have seen the lights of Auckland thirty-six hours ago.”

Glenarvan made no reply. He still looked, and for a moment his glass was pointed toward the horizon to windward.

“The land is not on that side, my Lord,” said John Mangles. “Look more to starboard.”

“Why, John?” replied Glenarvan. “I am not looking for the land.”“What then, my Lord?”“My yacht! the Duncan,” said Glenarvan, hotly. “It must be here

on these coasts, skimming these very waves, playing the vile part of a pirate! It is here, John; I am certain of it, on the track of vessels between Australia and New Zealand; and I have a presentiment that we shall fall in with her.”

“God keep us from such a meeting!”“Why, John?”“Your Lordship forgets our position. What could we do in this ship

if the Duncan gave chase. We could not even fly!”“Fly, John?”“Yes, my Lord; we should try in vain! We should be taken, delivered

up to the mercy of those wretches, and Ben Joyce has shown us that he does not stop at a crime! Our lives would be worth little. We would fight to the death, of course, but after that! Think of Lady Glenarvan; think of Mary Grant!”

“Poor girls!” murmured Glenarvan. “John, my heart is broken; and sometimes despair nearly masters me. I feel as if fresh misfortunes awaited us, and that Heaven itself is against us. It terrifies me!”

“You, my Lord?”“Not for myself, John, but for those I love – whom you love, also.”“Keep up your heart, my Lord,” said the young captain. “We must

not look out for troubles. The Macquarie sails badly, but she makes some way nevertheless. Will Halley is a brute, but I am keeping my eyes open, and if the coast looks dangerous, I will put the ship’s head to sea again. So that, on that score, there is little or no danger. But as to getting alongside the Duncan! God forbid! And if your Lordship is bent on looking out for her, let it be in order to give her a wide berth.”

John Mangles was right. An encounter with the Duncan would have been fatal to the Macquarie. There was every reason to fear such an engagement in these narrow seas, in which pirates could ply their trade without risk. However, for that day at least, the yacht did not appear, and the sixth night from their departure from Twofold Bay came, without the fears of John Mangles being realized.

But that night was to be a night of terrors. Darkness came on almost suddenly at seven o’clock in the evening; the sky was very threatening. The sailor instinct rose above the stupefaction of the drunkard and roused Will Halley. He left his cabin, rubbed his eyes, and shook his great red head. Then he drew a great deep breath of air, as other people swallow a draught of water to revive themselves. He examined the masts. The wind freshened, and veering a point more to the westward, blew right for the New Zealand coast.

Will Halley, with many an oath, called his men, tightened his top-mast cordage, and made all snug for the night. John Mangles approved in silence. He had ceased to hold any conversation with the coarse seaman; but neither Glenarvan nor he left the poop. Two hours after a stiff breeze came on. Will Halley took in the lower reef of his top-sails. The manoeuvre would have been a difficult job for five men if the Macquarie had not carried a double yard, on the American plan. In fact, they had only to lower the upper yard to bring the sail to its smallest size.

Two hours passed; the sea was rising. The Macquarie was struck so violently that it seemed as if her keel had touched the rocks. There was no real danger, but the heavy vessel did not rise easily to the waves. By and by the returning waves would break over the deck in great masses. The boat was washed out of the davits by the force of the water.

John Mangles never released his watch. Any other ship would have made no account of a sea like this; but with this heavy craft there was

The wreck of the Macquarieacclaimed science fiction writer Jules Verne didn’t just write Around the World in 80 Days, he also wrote an epic about New Zealand and australia called In Search of the Castaways, pub-lished in 1867. If you missed the previous instalment of this serial, you can download it here.

a danger of sinking by the bow, for the deck was filled at every lurch, and the sheet of water not being able to escape quickly by the scuppers, might submerge the ship. It would have been the wisest plan to prepare for emergency by knocking out the bulwarks with an axe to facilitate their escape, but Halley refused to take this precaution.

But a greater danger was at hand, and one that it was too late to prevent. About half-past eleven, John Mangles and Wilson, who stayed on deck throughout the gale, were suddenly struck by an unusual noise. Their nautical instincts awoke. John seized the sailor’s hand. “The reef!” said he.

(continued next week)

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