Today's Top Scoops - 12 May 2008
Burma: First U.S. Aid Flight To Burma + Junta Stages A Vote + Burma Blocks Aid + Aid Team Stuck + Burma Not Thankful
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LEAD STORY------------
Gordon Campbell: Terry Hicks - A Father's Story - The saga of David Hicks, Australia's most controversial figure in the war on terrorism, keeps on getting stranger. A few days ago, US Colonel Mo Davis, the former chief prosecutor at the US military commissions that handed down Hicks' sentence, stated that the commission's entire procedure had been tainted by political influence and prisoner abuse. More >> [1]
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NZ POLITICS------------
Elections: John Key Outlines National's Five Point Economic Plan - National Leader John Key: "...I'm going to spend some time outlining our five-point economic plan and how it will
differ from Labour's approach. More >> [1]
ALSO:National - Gang crackdown promised as National targets 'P' [2] National - Key: Canterbury-Westland Regional Conference [3]
Defence: Navy Veterans Get Plug From Shane Jones - Building and Construction Minister Shane Jones paid tribute to attending Navy veterans at the naming and
commissioning of the third Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV), the Pukaki. More >> [1]
Lyndon Hood: Emitting Sector Excluded From ETS - Scoop's resident satirist, graphics mogul and arts editor Lyndon Hood casts a satirical eye (for that is the ocular
slant a satirist has) over the recent ETS kerfuffle. Why do we have an Emissions Trading Scheme? If New Zealand wants to
maintain its edge as a clean, green nation, we urgently need to pretend as hard as we can to take decisive action on
climate change. More >> [1]
ALSO:ShapeNZ - NZ: heavy emitters influence climate policy most [2] National - Secret talks on ETS complete nonsense [3] Greens - ETS crumbles as 'grand coalition' forms [4] Business Roundtable - Climate Change Policy is Becoming a Shambles [5] Greenpeace NZ - National shows its climate colours [6] Contact Energy - ETS will boost renewable generation, cut emissions [7] Fonterra - Global emissions to increase from New Zealand ETS [8] Wood Processors Association - ETS will cut Environmental Lifeline [9] Out-Link - No Right Turn - Climate change: how will the ETS work? [10]
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BUSINESS SCIENCE & TECH------------
Chickengate: Qantas Award Winner Apologises Over Fowl Error - The New Zealand poultry industry today welcomed an apology from a Sunday newspaper following a series of false
allegations from food writer Peta Mathias. More >> [1]
Environment: Greenpeace Warns Kiwis Of Carbon Capture "Scam" - Big business and policy-makers must not succumb to the elusive promise of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to solve
the climate crisis, says Greenpeace in a major new report. More >> [1]
Finance: Bank Workers Against Unethical lending - The bank workers union Finsec, is calling for a major overhaul of finance industry lending practices and regulations
in response to a report in today's Sunday Star Times. More >> [1]
Oil: Price Rises Will Trigger Reduction Of Fuel Use - If petrol and diesel prices break the $2 per litre barrier, it will trigger nearly a quarter of New Zealanders to
significantly reduce their fuel use. Already 21% say a price of between$1.40 and $1.90 triggers change, and by $2.20 51%
are affected enough to make change behaviour. More >> [1]
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COMMENT------------
Burma: First U.S. Aid Flight To Burma - BANGKOK, Thailand -- The U.S. prepared its first airlift of relief supplies to Burma's cyclone victims, but the
flight scheduled for Monday will not include America's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) because they were denied
visas, U.S. officials said. More >> [1]
ALSO FROM RICHARD EHRLICH IN BANGKOK Junta Stages A Vote While Cyclone Victims Suffer [2] Burma Blocks Aid, Fearing Subversive Foreigners [3] U.S. Aid Team Stuck Waiting For Burma Visas [4] Burma Not Thankful For US Warships Offering Aid [5]
Uri Avnery: 1948 - ONE DAY, I hope, a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", on the South African model, will be set up here. It should
be composed of Israeli, Palestinian and international historians, whose job will be to establish what really happened in
this country in ... More >> [1]
Suzanne Baroud:Hilary Clinton - Anything for the White House - Nothing seems to work right for Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton in her attempts to once more dwell in the White House.
Senator Barack Obama, despite inflated controversies continued his glide to the Democratic nomination with a landslide
victory and a marginal... More [1]
Rethinking Evolution: Piattelli-Palmarini: Ostracism W/out Natural Selection - "[I]nsects had evolved at least ten elaborate forms of mouthpieces, uniquely adapted (one would say) to their feeding
upon flowers, one hundred million years before there were any flowers on Earth." - Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini More >> [1]
Ramzy Baroud: US Terrorism Report: Selective Data, Wrong Lessons - The data provided in the US State Department's annual terrorism report for 2007 points to some interesting if
puzzling conclusions. The much publicised document, made available 30 April via the State Department's website, makes no
secret of the fact that Al-Qaeda ... More >> [1]
Jason Leopold: Lost E-Mails Obscure 'Plame-gate' - Earlier this week, the White House disclosed that it could not recover lost e-mails from emergency backup tapes for
the period covering the invasion of Iraq and the U.S. failure to find Iraq's alleged WMD... More >> [1]
ALSO Matt Renner - Bush Iraq Emails Not Recoverable [2]
Franklin Lamb: Lebanon on the Brink - "The question is no longer why, for the answer has become clear. However, what is the secret behind the timing of
this? What is being prepared for the future stage and which coincides with US President George Bush's tour of the
region? Has internal ... More >> [1]
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LIFESTYLE------------
Magic: Contemplate Life With A Faerie King - For five nights only HAPPY becomes the venue for a magical, musical extravaganza Join an exiled Faerie King and his
faithful jabbering servant contemplating their fate. More >> [1]
Endurance: Free Divers Smash Records - Local freedivers smashed another three national records at this weekend's Apneists' Challenge Freediving Competition
at Trust Porirua Aquatic Centre, hosted by the Lazy Seal Freediving Club.
More >> [1]
Celebrity n Sport: Miss World Arrives In NZ After Carrying Olympic Torch - Melissa Chandler writes: Just days after carrying the Olympic torch on its journey to Beijing, Miss World Zi Lin
Zhang has touched down in New Zealand. The 24-year-old Chinese woman arrived in Auckland yesterday for a six-day visit,
during which time ... More >> [1]
Arts n Theatre: Play: The Orderly Highlights Hospice Appeal Week - Natasha Burling writes: Last year Radiohead asked fans to pay what they wanted for their new album, this year a theatre director is asking
audience members to do the same with his play. Director Anders Falstie-Jenson says he is interested to see how much
people will ... More >> [1]
ALSO:Scoop Fringe 07 Review - Fringe Review: The Orderly [2]
Arts n Theatre: No Laughing Matter For Director - Natasha Burling writes: Polynesian theatre directors deserve more authority and respect, says one Auckland director. Samoan director Justine
Simei-Barton says that Polynesian directors are often brought in as co-directors, rather than being given full control
of plays. More >> [1]
Vocal Gymnastics: Classic Opera On Now - Puccini's La Bohème, arguably the most popular of all operas, gets a face lift in 2008. The NBR New Zealand Opera's new production sees a
vibrant cast and creative team bring this timeless classic back to life in a fresh and stylish way. More >> [1]
Stadia: Watch The Game Under Your Umbrella - A six-month trial allowing umbrellas to be used at AMI Stadium in Christchurch is underway. The issue was raised
after last weekend's bad weather. Umbrellas haven't been allowed because of safety issues and the risk of views being
blocked by raised umbrellas. More >> [1]
Nostalgia: Go Back In Time At Moviepostersdownunder - Moviepostersdownunder has just started up and is run from a South Canterbury farm house. The owner has spent a
lifetime devoted to projecting movies More >> [1]
And those were the Top Scoops on this day, 12 May 2008
:)
ENDS