Scoop: Top Scoops + Just Politics

Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 6:54 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

TODAY’S TOP SCOOPS
Richard Ehrlich's Tsunami Report
Police Await Post Mortem Results After Tauranga Woman's Death
UN Asks Hizbollah To Show Restraint After Israel/Lebanon Border Clash
Palestinians Vote In Abbas As New President
A Rose IS A Rose And Torture Is A Crime

OTHER NEWS (Just Politics)
Unkindest Cut Advocated By United Future For Sex Offenders
Bill English Attacks Community Education And Golf
Disabled Cantabrian Cannabis Users Release Welcomed By Greens
National's Conservation Spokesperson Wants Heritage Sites Decided By Foreigners
Outdoor Enthusiasts Welcome New Fishing Regulations
Penny Pinching parents Leave Kids In Lurch
Sackings Demanded Over Inmates Home Brew Shenanigans
Five Years Of Labour Government Blamed For 30 Years Of Welfare Benefits

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...TODAY'S PHOTO STORY...

Huge Iceberg On Collision Course For McMurdo, Antarctica.
http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0501/5b6515d5b3e740c8a49f.jpeg

LEAD STORY
Richard Ehrlich's Tsunami Report

- Forensic teams buried the cadavers of foreign tourists and Thais in shallow graves "to slow the decomposition" while conducting DNA tests, because refrigeration was not available for thousands of bodies recovered from the tsunamis, according to a UN disaster assessment official. See... Tsunami Forensics Bury Bodies To Preserve For DNA [1] Scoop's Tsunami Feature. [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00058.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=world

NEW ZEALAND LEAD STORY
Police Await Post Mortem Results After Tauranga Woman's Death

- Tauranga Police are continuing enquires to establish the cause of death of a 24 year Tauranga woman in McLarens Falls Park Monday. A post mortem examination is to be completed at Auckland Wednesday. Meanwhile two ESR scientists from Auckland are at McLarens Falls Park and it is expected the scene examination will take at least 2 days. See... Investigation continues into woman's death in BOP [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0501/S00083.htm

INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
UN Asks Hizbollah To Show Restraint After Israel/Lebanon Border Clash

- UN Security Council members today called on the parties in southern Lebanon to live up to their commitments and to exercise restraint, after an exchange of fire over the weekend between the Israeli military and Hizbollah forces across the line of withdrawal led to the killing and wounding of United Nations peacekeepers. See... Southern Lebanon: Hizbollah & Israel Exchange Fire [1] The Election Labyrinth of East Jerusalem [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0501/S00105.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0501/S00102.htm

STORY OF THE WEEK
Palestinians Vote In Abbas As New President

- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the election of new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as "a significant step in what is a historic democratic transition" in the occupied territories, and said he was looking forward to working for the establishment .. See... Hailing New Palestinian President [1] Abbas Dedicates Fatah Electoral Victory to Arafat [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0501/S00085.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0501/S00088.htm

A Rose IS A Rose And Torture Is A Crime

- Angie Pratt writes: For all of their piousness, the Right just doesn't get it. Their new tactic for making the prisoner torture scandal go away is to say that it wasn't really torture. See... Torture Is Torture: Why The Right Is Wrong Again [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00059.htm

Should Edwards Have Continued Run For Vice President?

- On November 3, just hours after Democratic vice-presidential hopeful John Edwards made a national announcement that he and John Kerry were not going to concede until all the votes were counted, Kerry grabbed the spotlight and conceded… See... The Last Man To Concede... [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00056.htm

The Good And Very Bad About U.S. Media

- On December 18, I attended Gary Webb’s memorial service in Sacramento, along with about 250 other people. In 1996, Webb wrote a series of articles (“Dark Alliance”) for the San Jose Mercury News reporting that, in the 1980s, “a San Francisco Bay ... See... We Have Met The Enemy, And It Is US (corp media) [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00053.htm

Rosalea Wonders Why Tsunami Do Not Have Names

- Even two weeks' silence is not enough to honour the dead. There will never be enough time to do that. So I give in to my own need to make sense of the event of (almost) 1 am UTC, 26 December, 2004 and write. See... Stateside With Rosalea: I am [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00039.htm

Cora Fraser Reports On The Palestinian Presidential Election

- NABLUS – Three days before the general election in Palestine - the first since January 1996 when Yassir Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian National Authority - Abbu Mazen a.k.a. Abbas was to visit Nablus . See... An Historic Day in Nablus, Palestine [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00043.htm

UN EC Focus On Fragile States

- This week--13-14 January--in London, European Commission personnel along with UNDP and World Bank officials host a conference focusing on helping Fragile States to function once again. Fragile states are nations that find it hard to service their ... See... Save our Fragile State, invest in village life! [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00050.htm

Look out Double-Diamonds U.S. Taxman Is On Amway's Tail

- Apparently, the IRS has decided that Amway distributors are having too much fun listening to tapes, reading books, and attending the same training seminars year after year after year. In July, 2004, the United States Tax Court issued a ruling ... See... IRS To Amway - The Party's Over [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00044.htm

Russell Brown's Public Address Is There…

- Forcible medication and coercive treatment | Jan 09, 2005 12:08 Russell Brown's Hard News United Future MP Marc Alexander appears to have outed his draft law and order policy to the Herald as a way of applying leverage to his United Future party ... See... Forcible medication and coercive treatment [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00047.htm

Mary Pitt Examines Irregularities In U.S. Social Policy

- There is at least one little "chink" in the plan of the Bush administration to "privatize" Social Security that does not appear immediately and may not sound terribly important to those who are young, able-bodied, and absolutely ... See... The Big Gap in U.S. Social Security Privatization [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00042.htm

Unkindest Cut Advocated By United Future For Sex Offenders

- New Zealand should be looking at chemical castration for the likes of sex offender Lloyd McIntosh rather than getting into lather about cost-cutting on round-the-clock supervision, United Future's Marc Alexander said today. See... Chemical castration kindest cut of all for society [1] McIntosh remains under 24-7 supervision [2] McIntosh supervision cut irresponsible [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00058.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00075.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00077.htm

Bill English Attacks Community Education And Golf

- The Government spent more on community education courses like twilight golf last year than it is prepared to put into trade training, according to official figures released today by National Party Education spokesman Bill English.

Disabled Cantabrian Cannabis Users Release Welcomed By Greens

- Green MP Nandor Tanczos is celebrating the release from prison today of Neville Yates, the wheelchair-bound Christchurch man imprisoned in November for growing marijuana to ease chronic pain. See…Nandor celebrates release of Neville Yates [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00070.htm

National's Conservation Spokesperson Wants Heritage Sites Decided By Foreigners

- National's Conservation spokesman Simon Power says the Department of Conservation should focus on protecting our endangered flora and fauna and leave world heritage sites up to the experts. See… Is DoC up to it? [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00067.htm

Outdoor Enthusiasts Welcome New Fishing Regulations

- United Future and its affiliated party, Outdoor Recreation New Zealand, today welcomed new Government initiatives that will see recreational fishers have greater input into fisheries decision-making. Fisheries moves welcomed [1] Recreational fishers to get new voice in fisheries [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00064.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00060.htm

Penny Pinching parents Leave Kids In Lurch

- Child support debt has more than doubled under the Labour Government, according to figures released today by National Party Welfare spokeswoman Katherine Rich. See…Child support debt 'out of control' [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00063.htm

Sackings Demanded Over Inmates Home Brew Shenanigans

- New Zealand First has called on the Corrections Minister to explain how inmates at a Hawkes Bay prison held a party and got drunk on home brew. See... Heads Should Roll At Prison Booze Barn [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00061.htm

Five Years Of Labour Government Blamed For 30 Years Of Welfare Benefits

- Labour's `soft on welfare' policies are nowhere more evident than the huge increase in the number of people on the DPB who have been on that or other benefits for over 30 years, ACT New Zealand Social Services spokesman Dr Muriel Newman said today. See…DPB lifestyle for some lasts decades [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0501/S00059.htm

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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