The New Zealand Herald

Overstayers’ Story- Boat Builders Demanded- Crime Solving Crisis- Misleading Letter- Safer Roading- Pot Selling Grandad- Nobel Prize- Barrister Bashed- Stalled Road Project- Man Cleared- Police In Trouble

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OVERSTAYERS’ STORY: Rosanna Mila was up before dawn to cook her family breakfast when there was a knock on the door. She tiptoed through the house so she would not wake her 9-year-old daughter Jira, her mother Maria Guzman and her husband Oscar. Waiting on the dark doorstep of her Glenfield home were four men - two policemen and two Immigration officers.

- BOAT BUILDERS DEMANDED: Auckland's booming boat building industry is having to look overseas for skilled workers. Sensation Yachts managing director Ivan Erceg says orders for superyachts are creating the demand.

- CRIME SOLVING CRISIS: Crime-solving in Auckland is in crisis, with overworked detectives forced to ignore a backlog of almost 400 cases, says a confidential report. The internal report, written by a senior Auckland detective and obtained by the Herald, says Criminal Investigation Branch staff are working under an "intolerable workload," too afraid to speak out for fear of jeopardising careers.

- MISLEADING LETTER: Northland gynaecologist Dr Graham Parry acknowledges writing a grossly misleading letter to Colleen Poutsma's GP after he saw a sinister lump on her cervix. He made the concession under cross-examination yesterday on the third and final day of a Medical Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal hearing.

- SAFER ROADING: The price of safer New Zealand roads is tougher rules or costly engineering measures. Road safety managers say such reforms could halve road fatalities by 2010 and reduce serious injuries by a quarter.

- POT SELLING GRANDAD: Only days before Te Puke great-grandfather George Edwards was convicted in the Tauranga District Court on charges of growing and selling cannabis, he was thanked by a Housing New Zealand tenancy manager for the improvements he had done on his rented property. Another official letter followed swiftly after disclosure at the court appearance that the 74-year-old had admitted dope dealing so he could concrete the driveway and plant trees because the state landlord refused to upgrade the place.

- NOBEL PRIZE: The work which earned New Zealand-born scientist Alan MacDiarmid the Nobel Prize for chemistry has paved the way for a revolution in the way we live. Professor MacDiarmid, aged 73, was awarded the $NZ2.3 million prize jointly with two other researchers, one an American and the other Japanese, for discovering that plastics can conduct electricity.

- BARRISTER BASHED: The late-night bashing of Auckland barrister John Timmins occurred on the eve of a planned month-long holiday in France, his family have revealed. Mr Timmins, one of the Labour Party's key fundraisers in the lead-up to last year's election and a close friend of Prime Minister Helen Clark, was beaten and left for dead in an Onehunga industrial estate a week ago.

- STALLED ROAD PROJECT: A stalled motorway project yesterday caused chaos on the Northern Motorway. Traffic was backed up 11km north of the Harbour Bridge, delaying and frustrating morning commuters on their way into the city.

- BALLET BULLY BACKLASH: Auckland dance teachers will gather at an emergency meeting today to try to prevent the ballet business from losing its footing. Tears and anger followed publicity yesterday about the alleged oppressive nature of the New Zealand ballet world.

- MAN CLEARED: A jury in the High Court at Auckland took 40 minutes yesterday to clear a Mt Eden Prison inmate of inciting his cellmate to kill himself and then helping him to do it. Buddy John Grey was accused of being involved in the suicide of 18-year-old Eruera Maaka.

- POLICE IN TROUBLE: Forty police officers have been charged with crimes including rape, assault and drink-driving or have faced formal disciplinary action on other matters this year. Of those, 14 have appeared in court and 27 have faced internal charges of breaching police regulations such as neglecting duty, or misconduct.