Top Scoop Stories - 14 July 2008 News Summary

Monday, 14 July 2008, 2:02 pm
Article: The Scoop Editor

Today's Top Scoops - 14 July 2008

LEAD STORY:

Goodbye Kiwi Ingenuity: Brownlee Doubts Kiwis Capable Of Building Trains

NZ POLITICS:

Policy: Turner Wants Telemarketers Left Hanging On The Phone
Election 08: Gordon Campbell on big, bad government spending
Transport: Digruntled No2 Hataitai Bus Commuter Sends Govt Message
Jobs Under Fire: National And ANZ Bank Attack State Employees

BUSINESS SCIENCE & TECH:

Retail Sales: 'Nice Little Goers' Not Going From Sale Yards
Technology: Save The Planet While Hitting The Brakes

WORLD:

World Youth Day: His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Has Arrived In Australia
Defending Rights: UN Refutes Claims That Ban Is Biased On Zimbabwe
Afghanistan: Nine U.S. ISAF Soldiers Die In Fighting In Northern Kunar
Stabbing Epidemic: UK Takes Further Measures To Tackle Knife Crime
Going Home: Nearly 400 More Hmong Return To Laos From Thailand

COMMENT:

Norman Solomon: Obama And The Progressive Base
Bill Berkowitz: George W. Bush Is A President Desperately Seeking A Legacy
F William Engdahl: Georgia, Washington And Moscow - Nuclear Geopolitical Poker
J. Sri Raman: A Raw Deal For Energy-Starved India
Scoop Review Of Books: All Aboard the Literary Express

LIFESTYLE:

Opera: Absolutely Tip Top Quality Production On Way
Scoop IV: Trouble Is My Business' Juliette Veber
The Flicks: Vincent Ward's Ward's Rain Of The Children Premieres
Photography: Spark Speaker Features In Art Debate
Celluloid Celebrations: Film Fest Celebrates Female Filmmakers.
Computers: NZ World Cyber Games a success
Arts: NZ Dance Royalty Leaps Into The Spotlight

Goodbye Kiwi Ingenuity: Brownlee Doubts Kiwis Capable Of Building Trains - A plan by the Government to build its own locomotives for the railways is daft, says National's SOE spokesman, Gerry Brownlee. "Even if this idea should be considered for a moment, we don't have the expertise. Where is the evidence that we would be capable of doing it, and what would be the cost?," said Mr Brownlee. More >> [1]

ALSO:

• Agenda Transcript - Trevor Mallard Interview [2]
• Green Party - Kiwi trains good news for kiwi economy [3]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00244.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00107.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00248.htm

Policy: Turner Wants Telemarketers Left Hanging On The Phone - UnitedFuture deputy leader Judy Turner has announced her party's policy to create a national "Do Not Call" register to deal with the growing intrusion by telemarketers into New Zealand homes. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00250.htm

Election 08: Gordon Campbell on big, bad government spending - On Wednesday, the ANZ economist Cameron Bagrie provided some economic data that - co-incidentally, I'm sure - sought to back up the centre right argument that government spending is chronically mis-directed. More >> [1]

[1] - http://election08.scoop.co.nz/gordon-campbell-on-big-bad-government-spending/

Transport: Digruntled No2 Hataitai Bus Commuter Sends Govt Message - Reports from around New Zealand of overcrowding on buses and trains is evidence of a creaking and groaning public transport system, Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman says. Dr Norman - a regular bus commuter - has personal experience of the frustrations endured by fellow passengers. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00241.htm

Jobs Under Fire: National And ANZ Bank Attack State Employees - An attempt by Labour to fudge figures around their out-of-control bureaucracy has fallen over at the first analysis, says National's Education spokeswoman, Anne Tolley. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00242.htm

Retail Sales: 'Nice Little Goers' Not Going From Sale Yards - Seasonally adjusted total retail sales fell 1.2 percent ($69 million) in May 2008, following a 1.2 percent rise in April 2008, Statistics New Zealand said today. The decrease was led by the motor vehicle retailing industry. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0807/S00232.htm

Technology: Save The Planet While Hitting The Brakes - OctaFuel - manufacturers, suppliers and installers of retrofitted Hybrid Fuel Cells - announced it has developed a retrofitted regenerative braking system for vehicles. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0807/S00227.htm

World Youth Day: His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Has Arrived In Australia - Pope Benedict XVI touched down in Sydney following on Alitalia flight AZ4000 from Rome, travelling for 19 hours 45 minutes and 16,418 kilometres. This historic visit to Australia is his ninth apostolic visit outside of Italy. Descending from the aircraft, the Pope was greeted on the tarmac by the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, and the Premier of NSW, Morris Iemma amongst other dignitaries. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00371.htm

Defending Rights: UN Refutes Claims That Ban Is Biased On Zimbabwe - Comments by the Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe questioning Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's impartiality toward events in Zimbabwe are "highly inappropriate and unacceptable," a UN spokesman stated. "There is nothing one-sided about defending the right of the people of Zimbabwe to choose a legitimate government in a free and fair election." More >> [1]

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR

• Security Council Fails To Adopt Sanctions [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00368.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00367.htm

Afghanistan: Nine U.S. ISAF Soldiers Die In Fighting In Northern Kunar - Nine ISAF soldiers have been killed in fighting in northeastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. In addition, 15 ISAF and four Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were wounded. The fighting began in early morning hours. Insurgents suffered heavy casualties during the fighting. More >> [1]

EARLIER

• Heavy Fighting Erupts, Kunar, Afghanistan [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00374.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00369.htm

Stabbing Epidemic: UK Takes Further Measures To Tackle Knife Crime - The British Government is set to announce further measures to tackle knife crime on Monday following several knife-related deaths this week. "We will continue to make absolutely clear that carrying a knife is unacceptable in our society." -- UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. More >> [1]

RELATED

• NEW! UK Combats Knife Crime Epidemic [2]
• Hard-Hitting Knife Crime Ads In UK [3]
• UK Crackdown On Knife Crime [4]
• UK: Tough Sanctions On Knife Crime [5]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00331.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00370.htm
[3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0805/S00441.htm
[4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0806/S00105.htm
[5] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0806/S00089.htm

Going Home: Nearly 400 More Hmong Return To Laos From Thailand - The 391 ethnic Hmong people were repatriated from Ban Huay Nam Khao camp by the Thai army in Petchabun province, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which said today that it had no information that the move was not voluntary.More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00330.htm

Norman Solomon: Obama And The Progressive Base - These days, an appreciable number of Obama supporters are starting to use words like "disillusionment." But that's a consequence of projecting their political outlooks onto the candidate in the first place. The best way to avoid becoming disillusioned is to not have illusions in the first place. The more that spotlights move from Obama's uplifting eloquence to his specific policy positions, complete with loopholes and wiggle room. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00101.htm

Bill Berkowitz: George W. Bush Is A President Desperately Seeking A Legacy - George W. Bush goes back to touting 'compassionate conservatism' and the 'successes' of his faith-based initiative as he desperately seeks a legacy; anything that he can latch onto that might trump the fact that a majority of Americans believe that he will go down as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. More >> [1]

JASON LEOPOLD

• Bush Looks to His (Secret) Legacy [2]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00117.htm
[2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00120.htm

F William Engdahl: Georgia, Washington And Moscow - Nuclear Geopolitical Poker - The Western media has either ignored the growing tensions in the strategic Caucasus region or has intimated, as suggested by Condoleeza Rice, that the entire conflict is being caused by Moscow's silly support of "breakaway" republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In reality, a quite different chess game is being played in the region, one which has the potential to detonate a major escalation of tensions. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00102.htm

J. Sri Raman: A Raw Deal For Energy-Starved India - On July 18, 2005 George W. Bush received India's PM Manmohan Singh in Washington and the two leaders struck the now infamous US-India nuclear deal. Not many saw the deal leading to a major political crisis in New Delhi, which it is overcoming by sheer manipulation. But the connection between the deal and the US nuclear industry's "quiet rehabilitation" could not have been lost on close observers. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00100.htm

Scoop Review Of Books: All Aboard the Literary Express - My childhood bedroom was about 10 metres from the Johnsonville Railway line halfway between Simla Crescent and Boxhill Stations - and the passing trains rattled the Victorian sash-windows next to my bed. The English Electric DM/D Class Units that plied the line had a powerful Cyclops-like headlight and the shadows it cast raced around my bedroom walls. So why the nostalgia? More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00095.htm

Opera: Absolutely Tip Top Quality Production On Way - For the first time, New Zealand audiences can experience a Glyndebourne production in this country when The NBR New Zealand Opera brings the widely acclaimed production of Jenůfa to Auckland More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0807/S00135.htm

Scoop IV: Trouble Is My Business' Juliette Veber - Natasha Burling interviews Trouble is My Business's director Juliette Veber. The observational documentary is set in a south Auckland high school and screens at the 40th Auckland International Film Festival. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00108.htm

The Flicks: Vincent Ward's Ward's Rain Of The Children Premieres - It was a Kiwi film event impossible to miss. When was the last time that close to 400 Tūhoe descended upon Auckland to witness the premiere of a New Zealand film? The answer is simple; it's only happened once and that was last night Ward's Rain Of The Children premieres [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0807/S00128.htm

Photography: Spark Speaker Features In Art Debate - One of the presenters at Wintec's (Waikato Institute of Technology) upcoming Spark arts festival is currently at the centre of media controversy in Australia. Photographer Polixeni Papapetrou has been the subject of debate after a photograph featuring her six year old daughter naked appeared on the cover of an Australian arts magazine. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0807/S00131.htm

Celluloid Celebrations: Film Fest Celebrates Female Filmmakers. - Auckland's exquisite Civic Theatre had a steady buzz of excitement as the 40th Auckland International Film Festival opened last night. Festival Director Bill Gosden said the evening was about New Zealand filmmakers and in particular, female New Zealand filmmakers. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00093.htm

Computers: NZ World Cyber Games a success - Nearly 800 competitors battled around the clock this weekend for a place on the New Zealand team for the 2008 World Cyber Games. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0807/S00123.htm

Arts: NZ Dance Royalty Leaps Into The Spotlight - Two of New Zealand's most acclaimed contemporary dancers launch their new company Okareka Dance Company with a premiere performance of Tama Ma at Tempo - New Zealand Festival of Dance. More >> [1]

[1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0807/S00116.htm

ENDS

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