Top Scoop Stories – 22 December 2008 News Summary
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TO CHANGE MY SCOOP OPTIONS OR UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST
IF YOU HAVE LOST YOUR PASSWORD
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LEAD STORY------------
Over the next fortnight or so, the mainstream media will be providing Year in Review space fillers aplenty, so enough
already for the Barack Obama/John Key recaps, and lets all try to forget that Sarah Palin and Owen Glenn ever existed…
Personally, I’d like to thank anyone/everyone who has dropped by this column over the last seven months. More »[1]
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NZ POLITICS------------
ALSO:
Lindsay Shelton writes: The Wellington City Council wants me to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I discovered the council’s message
when I was waiting for a bus – not exactly the place where you expect to receive seasonal greetings. More »[1]
Scoop co-editor Selwyn Manning writes that investigations into the Police special investigations groups reveal that it
had used a complaint of tagging to dig into the private life of a peace advocate, political groups, and a US owned
defence company. Was this a waste of Police resources? More »[1]
ALSO:
[10] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0812/S00261.htm [10]
[11] - http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2008/12/police-spied-on-case-against-them.html" target="_blank [11]
Details of the make-up of the new National-led Government’s Cabinet committees were announced today by Prime Minister
John Key. “A new development is the inclusion of support party Ministers as members of Cabinet committees,” says Mr Key. More »[1]
Transport Minister Steven Joyce is urging motorists to take care on the roads this festive season. “Summer holidays
should be a time for kicking back and relaxing with family and friends but too many Kiwis end up grieving for their
loved ones after avoidable tragedies on our roads.” More »[1]
ALSO:
Council of Trade Unions Economist Peter Conway says that the removal of full employment and equitable distribution of
income as objectives in the Policy Targets Agreement is a worrying sign, and has called on Finance Minister to explain
the move. More »[1]
KCDC Councillor Lyndy McIntyre has slated Mayor Jenny Rowan for acting alone in ejecting a group of Father Christmases
from the Council Chamber. Cr McIntyre told Kapiti Independent News the Santas were led by “ a guy who wanted to come
along to public speaking.” More »[1]
ALSO:
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BUSINESS SCIENCE & TECH------------
For the year ended September 2008, the current account deficit was $15.5 billion (8.6 percent of GDP), Statistics New
Zealand said today. More »[1]
There’ll be extra reason for celebration at Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in the northern Wairarapa on New
Years Day, with a special someone turning 21. More »[1]
"This man needs a funny bone transplant," was the response of Kiwibank founder Jim Anderton to the recent description by
former BNZ chairman Kerry McDonald of the Kiwibank 'join the resistance' advertising campaign as 'reprehensible' and
'outrageous'. More »[1]
Qantas Airways Limited (Qantas) and British Airways Plc (BA) are announcing that after detailed discussions about a
potential merger of the companies, talks have ended. Despite the potential longer term benefits for Qantas and BA... More »[1]
ALSO:
Dec. 18 - New Zealand’s government finances are heading for wider budget deficits over the next few years on a weaker
track for economic growth that will give the central bank more room to cut rates, according to the Treasury’s latest
forecasts. More »[1]
ALSO:
Duncan Graham writes: Is NZ the land of opportunity where all who want work can work? The old adage of Buyer Beware applies in the job market
as much as used car yards. Fed up with your job and want something new? Like planning an overseas trip it’s best to
learn the language before take-off. More »[1]
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COMMENT------------
Ramzy Baroud writes: It’s incomprehensible that a region such as the Gaza Strip, so rich with history, so saturated with defiance, can be
reduced to a few blurbs, sound bites and reductionist assumptions, convenient but deceptive, vacant of any relevant
meaning, or even true... More »[1]
Paul Buchanan writes: A Word From Afar: Paul Buchanan writes that some argue that infiltration of legitimate anti-status quo organizations is
anti-democratic and intimidatory. They may well be correct in that assessment. But he says there is a backdrop to this
issue. More »[1]
In every crisis there is an opportunity, and Commodore Bainimarama has given the new National-led government the chance
to rescue New Zealand from the dead end policy stance of the Clark government... More »[1]
Mumbai's terrorist outrage of November 26 has found a response truly matching it in madness. A call for a nuclear war -
and nothing less - has come as the culmination of warped and warlike reactions to the traumatizing tragedy, which has
claimed a ... More »[1]
In this tale, an American politician gets up and declares: The United States was founded by British Protestants who were
persecuted in Europe for their Puritan beliefs. Therefore, the United States is an Anglo-Saxon Protestant state. More »[1]
Remi Kanazi writes: I can't lie. I've watched Iraqi journalist Montather Al-Zaidi whip those two shoes past George Bush's head more times
than I can count. I loved it; I even got into the corny jokes about the Red Sox drafting Al-Zaidi in the spring
(cementing my belief that Iraqis... More »[1]
ALSO:
Given the fates of the other two members of Bush's axis of evil, some would argue that the best defense Iran could have
would be a nuclear bomb. They would, however, be wildly wrong. The best defense... More »[1]
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LIFESTYLE------------
DHL announces the winners of the “can we handle your jandal story” competition Auckland, 19 December 2008 – It is
official: New Zealand is a country of crazy jandal stories. More »[1]
The installation of ‘angel rings’ at high risk rock fishing spots on Auckland’s west coast beaches could help save lives
this summer, but wearing a lifejacket should still be the number one priority for rock fishers. More »[1]
In what will be the last home game this year for the Wellington Phoenix, players turned out in force to promote tomorrow
night’s match against the Central Coast Mariners at Westpac Stadium. More »[1]
Chugg Entertainment today confirmed that Coldplay will visit New Zealand following their eleven arena shows in Australia
next March. The show will be part of their “Viva La Vida” world tour, in support of their new album of the same name. More »[1]
ALSO:
Car wrecks, discarded furniture and other urban detritus barricaded Stout Street at the corner of Lambton Quay in
central Wellington for 24 hours on Sunday. This large-scale art intervention, created by British artists Heather and
Ivan Morison, was part of the year-long One Day Sculpture series. More »[1]
ALSO:
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WORLD------------
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today appealed for $92 million to ease the plight of some
250,000 Somalis living in one of the world’s oldest and most congested camps in Kenya and to meet the needs of new
arrivals from ... More »[1]
Israeli forces have again demolished the protest tent established in Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem, built on
Palestinian private property in support of the evicted al-Kurd family and the 18 Palestinian families who currently face
eviction ... More »[1]
ALSO:
The United Nations refugee agency has welcomed Japan’s decision to introduce a pilot resettlement programme to accept
Myanmar refugees in Thailand starting in 2010, making it the first country in the region to launch such an initiative. More »[1]
I'm writing to invite you to watch my film, Voices Of Dissent: Activism & American Democracy, on KTEH, Public Television of San Jose, Channel 54 (Comcast 10) this coming Monday 12/22, at 11 pm.
There will also be an encore showing very early morning on ... More »[1]
A United Nations court today sentenced the alleged mastermind behind the 1994 massacre of hundreds of thousands of
people in Rwanda and two co-defendants to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. More »[1]
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Canadian who allegedly arranged for Americans to sexually abuse "prepubescent" boys in his home
for payment, while he taught at a prestigious school in Bangkok, was arrested in London by the U.S. Justice Department
... More »[1]
Achieving the goal of quality education for all by 2015 will require countries to devote greater funds to this critical
sector and to address the growing shortage of qualified teachers, according to a United Nations meeting that concluded
today ... More »[1]
ENDS