New Zealand Herald

Friday, 22 September 2000, 9:06 am
Article: Alastair Thompson

Maths Whizzes - Maori Business - Upton Leaves - Bottrill Problem - Lyprinol Prosecution - Helicopter Axed - Abuse Scheme - Rwanda Book - ACC & Earthquakes

MATHS WHIZZES: Four maths whiz-kids have achieved what New Zealand athletes are struggling to do - win medals in Australia. The number-crunchers have topped a field of nearly half a million in the "maths Olympics," the Australian Mathematics Competition.
Aucklanders Richard Yu, aged

- MAORI BUSINESS: Maori men are struggling to keep afloat small businesses they have set up through a scheme which has rarely failed Maori women. The Maori Women's Development Incorporation decided last year to allow men to apply for loans from its development fund for the first time.

- UPTON LEAVES: National's young veteran, Simon Upton, will quit politics at the end of the year after 19 years in Parliament. He will take up a three-year position in Paris as chairman of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's roundtable on sustainable development.

- BOTTRILL PROBLEM: The medical profession has an attitude problem which caused lengthy delays in concerns about former pathologist Michael Bottrill coming to light, says a women's health expert. Sandra Coney, representing the Women's Health Action Trust at the cervical screening inquiry, said Dr Bottrill had failed the women of Gisborne but many others had to share the responsibility.

- LYPRINOL PROSECUTION: The two companies that launched Lyprinol in New Zealand last year, amid claims that it was a possible cure for cancer, have been successfully prosecuted. Drug manufacturer Pacific Pharmaceuticals and Lyprinol New Zealand have both pleaded guilty to charges of selling the green-lipped-mussel extract as a medicine without official consent.

- HELICOPTER AXED: ACC has defended its decision to axe a Northland helicopter trust's contract to transport accident victims, saying its rescue service was not up to scratch. The Northland Emergency Services Trust, which has flown more than 4000 patients in the nearly 12 years it has been operating, was told last week that it had lost the two-year contract with the Accident Compensation Corporation to carry accident victims.

- ABUSE SCHEME: A scheme encouraging doctors to ask female patients if they are being abused, rather than wait for them to ask for help, has proven successful in one Auckland hospital. This week, the Ministry of Health released briefing papers compiled in response to the Commissioner for Children's report on the brutal death of James Whakaruru, the Hawkes Bay 4-year-old fatally beaten by his stepfather.

- RWANDA BOOK: A UN mission was kept small and cheap while up to a million Rwandans died. GEOFF CUMMING reports on a horrific new book. It is April 1994, and the world remains impassive as thousands of Rwandan Tutsis are massacred every day.

- ACC & EARTHQUAKES: The Auckland City Council has defended its record on making sure the city's buildings are earthquake safe. The council was forced to reveal that its list of more than 600 buildings that may not meet current earthquake standards is out of date.

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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