Posts Tagged ‘Wellington’
Written by admin on 28 December 2009
Wellington, Dec 28 (DPA) More than 120 pilot whales died in mass strandings at two New Zealand beaches, it was reported Monday.
A pod of 105 died after beaching themselves at the eastern tip of remote Farewell Spit, at the top of the South Island, Saturday, the Southland Times newspaper reported, quoting a Department of Conservation (DOC) official.
Twenty-one other pilot whales died and 42 were successfully refloated after stranding at Colville Bay, on the North Island’s Coromandel Peninsula, Sunday.
A department spokesman said the survivors, who were kept wet by hundreds of tourists and volunteers until they could be refloated on the afternoon’s high tide, were later reported to be swimming strongly and appeared to be in no danger of beaching again.
The pod of adults and calves beached on Farewell Spit were spotted by the pilot of a sightseeing plane on Boxing Day, DOC Golden Bay biodiversity programme manager Hans Stoffregen told the Southland Times.
He said that when DOC staff reached them only 30 were alive. ‘They were in bad shape. We had to euthanise the rest,’ he said.
Stoffregen said they had been out of the water for a long time. ‘It has been quite hot and they were very distressed. You could see the pain and suffering in their eyes.’
He said that shooting the survivors was ‘horrible but nothing could have been done to save them. It was the most humane thing to do.’
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Written by admin on 27 December 2009
Wellington, Dec 27 (DPA) Twenty-one whales died and 42 were successfully refloated after a mass stranding on a New Zealand beach Sunday, a Department of Conservation spokesman said, according to news reports.
Hundreds of holiday-makers helped keep survivors wet at Colville Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula, until they could be refloated on the afternoon’s high tide.
Spokesman Steve Bolton said department workers would keep watch during the night in case the pod, which had moved out to sea, tried to return to the beach.
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Written by admin on 23 December 2009
Wellington, Dec 23 – Unable to cope with injuries, New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond Wednesday announced his retirement from Test cricket.
Bond returned to international cricket in the Test series against Pakistan after ending his stint with Indian Cricket League (ICL), but could only play the first Test in which he took eight wickets. An abdominal muscle tear ruled him out of the remaining two Tests.
Bond, who has been plagued with injuries throughout his career, said his body could no longer take the rigours of the five-day game.
‘It’s been a tough call, because Test cricket remains the ultimate form of the game, but I’m comfortable because I have made the right choice,’ Bond said.
‘I have worked really hard to get back to Test match fitness — it’s what I’ve been working towards for the past two years — and I feel I gave as much as I could.
‘But looking back, so many of my injuries have come during Test cricket. Unfortunately my body just won’t let me continue to play at that level, given the workload and demands of Test cricket,’ said the 34-year-old.
Bond played only 18 Tests since his debut in 2001 because of injuries, but took 87 wickets at an impressive average of 22.09
Bond said he will continue to play One-day cricket.
‘I hope I’ll be able to continue to contribute to the team and to New Zealand cricket fans for a while yet.’
He is expected to rejoin New Zealand for the ODI series against Australia starting in February.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan supported his decision.
‘We’re disappointed that he won’t be part of the Test line-up, but New Zealand Cricket supports his decision to focus on limited-overs cricket and hopes that this decision will prolong his international career,’ he said.
‘He remains one of the best fast bowlers in the international game and we’re delighted that he’s doing all he can to keep playing.’
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Written by admin on 18 December 2009
Wellington, Dec 18 (DPA) An Anglican church billboard depicting Joseph and the Virgin Mary in bed with the words ‘Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow’ was back on display Friday in New Zealand after being defaced and stolen overnight.
Clergy at Auckland’s St Matthew-in-the-City – delighted with what the Reverend Clay Nelson called ‘the mind-blowing dialogue around the world’ the billboard had created – printed another copy and re-erected it.
‘It’s important,’ he said. ‘We can’t let the vandalism be the last word on the subject.’
He said the church had been inundated with e-mails from home and overseas since the billboard, which was designed to get people thinking about the Christmas story, was put up Thursday.
‘There were dinner tables all over the world discussing this last night, and there will be sermons on Sunday all over the world about it,’ he said.
Nelson said two-thirds of correspondents had supported the church’s action while others had been abusive.
Of the man filmed painting out the image and caption Thursday, Nelson told Television New Zealand that he was ‘full of the religious righteousness, which has been a destructive force throughout the world’.
Archdeacon Glynn Cardy told reporters that the billboard was not the most radical one an advertising agency that had been asked to produce a challenging message had come up with.
‘One of the options we turned down had a sperm coming down with the words ‘Joy To The World’,’ he said.
Lyndsay Freer, spokeswoman for New Zealand Catholics, condemned the picture as ‘offensive and inappropriate’, saying, ‘Our Christian tradition of 2,000 years is that Mary remains a virgin and that Jesus is the son of God, not Joseph.’
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Written by admin on 17 December 2009
Wellington, Dec 17 (DPA) A former New Zealand police officer was sent to prison for two years Thursday for coercing a prostitute into having sex with him instead of issuing her 1,000 New Zealand dollars ($720) worth of traffic fines.
Nathan Connolly, 31, was sentenced in the Christchurch High Court after being found guilty at a trial last month on a charge of obtaining sex with consent induced by a threat.
He continued to have sex with her without paying for nine months.
The judge told him his sentence must be severe enough to act as a deterrent as it was imperative the public had faith in the police.
Connolly was a serving officer on traffic patrol at the time of the offences and the court heard that they often had sex in his police car.
He subsequently left the force.
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Written by admin on 17 December 2009
Wellington, Dec 17 (DPA) Stealing a roll of salami led to the arrest of a New Zealand man eight years after he raped and killed a 23-year-old woman, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Joseph Martin Reekers, 52, pleaded guilty in the Auckland High Court Wednesday to murdering hairdresser Marie Jamieson, whose naked body was found nine days after she disappeared in February 2001.
Reekers was arrested in April last year after being caught stealing salami worth 8.20 New Zealand dollars ($6) from a suburban supermarket.
His conviction for shoplifting enabled police to use the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Act to order a sample of his DNA to be taken, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Routine tests on unsolved serious crimes found that it matched samples of DNA found on the murdered woman’s body and clothing.
Reekers will be sentenced next year. He faces a mandatory life sentence for murder, which in most cases means a minimum 10 years in prison. But judges can impose a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for the most serious cases.
Tags: Wellington
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