A MAN WHO USED A PUBLIC TOILET IN AUSTRALIA TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER SICK JOKE BACKFIRED...

A man who used a public toilet in a shopping mall In Cairns, Australia, was taken to a hospital to have the toilet seat removed from his backside after someone smeared it with glue in what an official condemned Monday as a sick joke.

Police urged possible witnesses to come forward after the 58-year-old man was humiliated in the northeastern city of Cairns by the prank.

An ambulance was called to help the man after he was found stuck by fast-acting adhesive glue to a toilet seat on Saturday in the busy shopping mall.

Paramedics removed the seat from the toilet and took him to a hospital, where medical staff used industrial solvents to get it off.

Cairns local government official Di Forsyth said the man, who was not identified, was not injured but was "extremely embarrassed" by his experience.

"I'm disgusted that a gentlemen has had to go through that because someone thinks it's funny," Forsyth said. "It's a sick joke."

AP

BULLIED AND FRUSTRATED KIWI TAXMAN DRIVES CAR THROUGH WORKPLACE WINDOWS...


A Christchurch, NZ, tax department employee smashed his car through his own Inland Revenue office because he was fed up with "incompetent management and workplace bullying".

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, drove through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third at the Christchurch Inland Revenue building before coming to a stop.

Mr Theobald, a well-known musician in Christchurch who has worked for the IRD for 25 years, said he had been careful not to put lives in danger.

"I checked with the cleaners the night before to make sure no-one would be in the building," he told The Dominion Post.

"I drove right up to the doors, looked both ways, then slowly pushed forward till the doors broke."

Mr Theobald posted pictures of the damage on his blog , along with copies of legal documents he received from police and his employer following the incident.

One of the documents was a letter from Inland Revenue human resources head Patrick Crawford.

"Information has come to my attention which indicates that you may have intentionally driven a car through Inland Revenue's Christchurch building," Mr Crawford wrote.

"I am concerned that your conduct may be inconsistent with the Code of Conduct."

Mr Theobald said he was upset with what he saw as workplace bullying and incompetent management at Inland Revenue.

"This has been going on for three years and now I've got four official information requests in with them and they're making that as onerous as possible," he said.

"This was just a way to make a gesture."

He also said he wanted to highlight the potential for a terrorist attack if someone were to drive a car full of explosives into the building.

"It's just another 9/11 waiting to happen," he said.

Mr Theobald appeared in court yesterday. He has been charged with intentional damage and reckless driving and could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty of criminal damage.

Acknowledgements: MSN NZ

NZ SAS special forces troops will be sent back to Afghanistan on a further three year rotation...



The New Zealand National Government decided yesterday to continue
New Zealand's military involvement in Afghanistan, and will send the SAS back to Afghanistan for another three year rotation. This is in spite of previous criticisms of their alleged involvement with torture claims of prisoners they had left with US forces. It has to be remembered that NATO is now in control of combined military forces in Afghanistan, not the US Government. This announcement came as the top US general there warned that the Taleban are gaining the upper hand. Please read further:

General Stanley McChrystal told the Wall Street Journal the insurgents were moving beyond their strongholds in the south to threaten formerly stable areas in the north and west.

Prime Minister John Key said the SAS would go back for 18 months - the first such deployment since 2005.

He said it had been a difficult decision but New Zealand had to play its part in combating the breeding grounds for terrorism.

The recent bombings in Jakarta showed this country was not immune.

However, Mr Key said, New Zealand's armed forces would be pulled out within five years under a new "orderly exit" strategy.

He said the government wanted to gradually withdraw its 140 military personnel working in the Bamiyan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) over the next three to five years.

In their place, it would gradually introduce more civilian experts and aid workers to focus on health, education, agriculture and strengthening the Afghan police.

While Mr Key said he had hoped to withdraw the troops sooner, he was cautious, saying that leaving before Afghan administrations and police were ready to take over would waste the efforts of the PRT.

General McChrystal is preparing an interim assessment that is expected to be a sober accounting of the difficulties of fighting an entrenched and technically capable insurgency eight years into the war.

He is expected to identify shortfalls that should be filled by more forces - perhaps a mix of Afghan, Nato and US.

US National Security Adviser James Jones said yesterday that the United States would know "by the end of next year" whether the revamped war plan President Barack Obama announced in March was taking hold.

He did not rule out adding more US forces to help to turn around the war.

In a break from the traditionally bipartisan positions on defence and foreign affairs, Labour leader Phil Goff said he did not support sending the SAS back and believed Mr Key had caved in to "overt" US pressure.

The decision risked jeopardising the goodwill the PRT had built up.

New Zealand was small and "the number of people we put in in terms of the SAS is not going to make the difference one way or the other".

Mr Goff said there was a high risk of civilian casualties in fighting the insurgents and New Zealand's efforts were better used in reconstruction. That is not a general view held by the NZ public, who would be supportive of a limited time frame for military involvement in Afghanistan, subject to a future review before the rotation period was over..

The decision to send the SAS back follows a government review of New Zealand's role and requests for Wellington to send the troops to work again alongside American special forces against the Taleban and Al Qaeda.

Acknowledgements: NZ Herald, TV ONE NEWS

A New Zealander was flying the helicopter involved in a mid-air collision over the Hudson River in New York yesterday in which nine people died.

Liberty Helicopters said the pilot was Jeremy Clark, 33, who had been living in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey, the New York Times reported.

Mr Clark's aunt told One News that his parents were to fly to New York from Auckland Airport last night.

It was believed Mr Clark's sightseeing helicopter, carrying five Italian tourists, was hit from behind by 60-year-old Steven M. Altman's single-engine Piper aircraft which had two other people on board: his brother Daniel Altman, who is also his partner in the family's real estate business, and a teenage boy.

The helicopter passengers were part of a larger group of about a dozen Italians - a collection of family and friends who lived in the Bologna area - visiting New York City as part of a holiday that was to wrap up on the beaches of Mexico, according to an Italian official and a person familiar with their plans.

Acknowledgements: TV One News

Fiji becoming the basket case of the Pacific, and the clock is ticking...

Despite last minute attempts by Fijian military dictator, Commodore Bainimarama to meet the leaders of Australia and New Zealand and negotiate a change of mind over sanctions against Fiji, Fiji will be kicked out, officially suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum, and possibly from the Commonwealth later in the year.

Bainimarama claims elections can't be restored for another five years, but this a load of codswallop! He claims to be the hero of multiracialism in Fiji, but is just another dirty little dictator like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe who dictated his country from being the bread-basket of Africa to becoming the basket-case of all time!

There are absolutely no civil rights in Fiji, no democracy, and the local media has been dictated to and controlled by the army, with foreign media and diplomats detained and kicked out of Fiji. Some Fijians have lost there lives, and others are missing.

Much foreign aid has already been suspended by Australia, NZ, Britain and the European Union. Fijian army peacekeepers may also be suspended from new contracts by the United Nations, and as a consequence much of Fiji's economy will be affected with the loss of the soldiers income. With unemployed troops drifting around unemployed in the capital of Suva, Bainimarama's regime could well have some substantial opposition. Fijians are pretty effective soldiers - good peacekeepers!

The Bainimarama regime's future is already in doubt - the clock is ticking!

The latest forum meeting this week has reconfirmed the earlier decision of that body. A delegate from Nuie called for the Fijian people to rise up and topple the Bainimarama regime. That would require resources that only Australia and New Zealand possess
.
It is also believed that Fiji will also be ousted from the Commonwealth as well, in time.

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION, BAD NEWS FOR NEW ZEALAND...

Guilt by its association with the Bush regime could spell bad news for New Zealand. While NZ kept their combat forces out of Iraq, they have been involved in Afghanistan for a number of years and have cost the New Zealand taxpayer millions of dollars..

Their highly proficient special forces, the SAS, apparently handed over 50-70 Afghan prisoners to the Americans from 2002, and now may be guilty by association with those responsible for torturing these prisoners. New Zealand could be guilty of "war crimes" because of that association with President George W Bush's campaign against terror.

After a two year investigation, awkward questions may now be asked of New Zealand's involvement with alleged torture of prisoners at the Kandahar detention centre in southern Afghanistan - known as 'Camp Slappy'. This could account for the apparent delay by the new conservative National Government in NZ to make a decision concerning the future of the New Zealand SAS's involvement in Afghanistan.

New Zealand has had a proud record with its highly trained and well disciplined combat troops. It doesn't have a large number of special forces troops, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up in quality. The NZ Government will not be happy campers with these allegations of torture, and may well decide against sending the troops to Afghanistan in future. However, that will not be the only criteria for consideration of the SAS's future involvement - potential terrorism within NZ will also have to be considered as well.

"Its a war crime to keep a ghost detainee; its a war crime to let them be abused. I've come to expect bad of the United States since post 9/11. But I would have hoped New Zealand which is a signatory to the (Geneva) Convention, would have obeyed the Convention".

Human Rights lawyer, Michael Ratner.

Read here

NOW YOU KNOW WHY THE PRESIDENCY IS LIMITED TO TWO TERMS...

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects in what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power, The New York Times reported.

Vice President Dick Cheney and several other Bush advisers at the time strongly urged that the military be used to apprehend men who were suspected of plotting with al Qaida, who later became known as the Lackawanna Six, the Times reported on its Web site Friday night. It cited former administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The proposal advanced to at least one-high level administration meeting, before President George W. Bush decided against it.

Dispatching troops into the streets is virtually unheard of. The Constitution and various laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property.

According to the Times, Cheney and other Bush aides said an Oct. 23, 2001, Justice Department memo gave broad presidential authority that allowed Bush to use the domestic use of the military against al-Qaida if it was justified on the grounds of national security, rather than law enforcement.

Among those arguing for the military use besides Cheney were his legal adviser David S. Addington and some senior Defense Department officials, the Times reported.

Opposing the idea were Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser; John B. Bellinger III, the top lawyer at the National Security Council; FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III; and Michael Chertoff, then the head of the Justice Department's criminal division.

Bush ultimately nixed the proposal and ordered the FBI to make the arrests in Lackawanna. The men were subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges.

Scott L. Silliman, a Duke University law professor specializing in national security law, told the Times that a U.S. president had not deployed the active-duty military on domestic soil in a law enforcement capacity, without specific statutory authority, since the Civil War.

VON TEMPSKY - NEW ZEALAND COLONIAL WARS HERO - AS FIERCE AND BRAVE AS ANY MAORI WARRIOR HE FOUGHT AGAINST...

The following story is about one of New Zealand's colonial wars heroes and a warrior in his own right as fierce as any of the New Zealand native Maori warriors he met in combat. A sort of New Zealand version of how the west was won; but Gustavus Von Tempsky, a German born soldier of fortune, has been totally ignored by history in this country. In America there would have been dozens of movies, television plays and documentaries made about this larger than life character, but not in New Zealand. Political correctness has cloaked this part of our history, both Maori and non-Maori, in silence because it was part of that 'awful' colonial history of New Zealand that some would rather ignore, because it has painful memories for Maori today. Be that as it may our history was our history and let us of the present be the judge of what was right or wrong. Not all actions of colonial Maori would be acceptable either. Cannibalism and slavery were a despicable fact as much as any indefensible European actions against Maori - and it was against other Maori tribes too that history recalls. So on with this historical account of New Zealand's version of Daniel Boone.


TEMPSKY, Gustavus Ferdinand von
(1828–68).

Adventurer, gold miner, farmer, and soldier.

Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky was born in Leignitz, Silesia, in 1828, the son of a lieutenant-colonel in the Prussian Army. Destined for the army from earliest childhood, he entered the Berlin Military School at a tender age and in 1844, at the extraordinary age of 16, he received his commission in the 3rd Fusiliers of Prussia. The political and economic instability of early nineteenth-century Europe, and stories of a brave new world in another hemisphere, were at once a temptation and a challenge to the young officer whose adventurous spirit rebelled against the peacetime manoeuvrings of an army into which he was hustled by an uncompromising jack-booted parent. Unrest and insurrection were paving the way for the consolidation of the new Germany, but politics and intrigue had no appeal for young von Tempsky, and it was only natural that, at the conclusion of his military service in 1848, he should turn his attention to more exciting fields. Armed with an introduction from Lord Westmorland to the British authorities in the tiny Mosquito Kingdom in Central America, he set out with some sturdy companions with the intention of establishing a small settlement there. The colony failed due to rigours of climate and a hostile native population, and von Tempsky drifted into the filibustering that was then almost endemic in the Mexican Confederation. Commissioned as a captain, he led a guerrilla force into Nicaragua late in 1848, and then joined up with British naval units, acting as a guide in forays against up-river Nicaraguan cities.

From Central America the young soldier of fortune turned his eyes towards the Californian gold diggings, where he found plenty of action and excitement but little money. He spent the year 1850 in the maelstrom that was San Francisco, and then turned his back on the Pacific seaboard and returned to Mexico, where he attached himself to an expedition into the interior which extended over 3,000 miles of wild hostile country, including large expanses of Guatemala and Salvador. At the end of two years he returned to the coast and married Emilia, the daughter of the British Resident, James Stanislaus Bell, with whom he and his wife returned to Scotland when his tour of duty was completed. For some months he was content to concentrate on a fascinating book, Milta, which recounted his adventures in the Americas; and it was at this time that he also began to develop a talent for water-colour sketching, later used with effect to illustrate some of his engagements in the Maori Wars in New Zealand. In 1856 he and his wife emigrated to Victoria where he took up farming with some success but little enthusiasm. When the Government planned an expedition into Central Australia, he strove urgently for its command, but the authorities preferred a British national, and since he was not prepared to accept a subordinate position, he sold up his holding and crossed the Tasman to New Zealand where he engaged in gold mining at Coromandel in 1859. He found this venture not unremunerative but, when the Waikato Maori War broke out, he sought a commission in the Colonial Defence Force. His unrivalled qualifications ensured him an immediate appointment as an ensign in August 1863, and he entered upon his task with such avid impatience that he dipped deeply into his own pocket for the equipping of the company of Rangers which he soon had fighting fiercely in the Hunua Forest. From the outset his energy and daring impressed the British officers under whom he served. Within a few months, combining academy tactics with the catch-as-catch-can strategy of his Central American filibustering days, he had achieved such notable results that he was promoted to the rank of captain.

In February 1864 his dare-devil operations and personal intrepidity at the Mangapiko River and the Rangiaowhia Redoubt earned him the warm congratulations of Sir Henry Havelock and other British leaders. Then in April came the celebrated Battle of Orakau, near Te Awamutu, where the Kingites were soundly defeated, largely on account of the performances of von Tempsky's Rangers. He refused to accept reverses and in the face of Rewi's famous words, “Peace shall never be made – never, never!” he led assault after assault on the Maori positions. His losses were considerable, but his success earned him his majority and a proud position in the Colonial Defence Force.

Von Tempsky's appetite for action was insatiable, and he managed to communicate a similar urgency to his men. Within a few weeks of the investment of Orakau, he was in the thick of the fighting on the West Coast of the North Island. He and his Rangers were generally the spearhead of attacks, and at Kakaramea, Nukumaru, and Weraroa they gained fresh laurels. After desultory operations in the Wanganui area in July 1865, the scene of action switched to the East Coast, and von Tempsky at once volunteered for service there, in the firm belief that he would be followed by his Rangers as soon as their transport could be arranged. Owing to a misunderstanding, involving pay rates in various theatres of war, his company was held in Wanganui, and von Tempsky, in high dudgeon, hastened to Wellington to protest to the military authorities and, if necessary, the Government. The Rangers were at once ordered to Wellington and returned to von Tempsky's command. But there was one serious hitch. Von Tempsky was instructed to place himself under the orders of a Major Fraser, a man of proven resource and courage, but junior in precedence to von Tempsky. With typical Prussian impatience, von Tempsky felt he had been superseded. He refused to accept Fraser's orders and tendered his resignation. When the Defence Minister (Atkinson) called him to account, he stamped out of the Minister's room in a rage, and after three further refusals to obey orders that had been given with Cabinet authority, he was placed under arrest. On 16 October the Weld Ministry resigned and Haultain replaced Atkinson as Defence Minister. An inquiry was held, without any real result, but the Governor, Sir George Grey, gave von Tempsky the chance to withdraw his resignation which the irate commander did on the understanding that he was not to be superseded by Fraser.

Once again the von Tempsky Rangers were in the thick of things in the West Coast region, and again they covered themselves with distinction under General Chute at New Plymouth, Whenuakura, and Otapawa. Von Tempsky was accorded special mention in the New Zealand Gazette of 26 January 1866. After this interlude the Rangers were disbanded and von Tempsky returned to his family at Coromandel for a well earned rest. By 1868 he was back in the field again, this time as an Inspector in the Armed Constabulary which, with Rangers and Volunteers, as well as Maori followers, was locked in a grim struggle with the Hauhaus under Te Kooti and some of his fiercest chiefs. In August the Hauhaus, led by Titokowaru, were brought to battle and von Tempsky was prominent in several bitter and costly engagements. Caught out of position with a force of Constabulary, Rangers, and Volunteers, he sought permission to attack, but his commanding officer, McDonnell, hesitated for a fatal moment, and then ordered a retreat. Von Tempsky was holding an exposed position and his force suffered heavily. He himself was shot and mortally wounded by a concealed Hauhau marksman. His body, with those of other Pakehas killed in the action, was burned on a funeral pyre with Hauhau rites.

Von Tempsky died at the zenith of his career. His defects as a soldier, such as they were, stemmed from his Prussian origins. The discipline he imposed upon himself he expected to be exercised by the authorities in the matter of his relations with others, but he could not always rely on it. Rank and precedence were obsessions with him, and his dream throughout the whole of his active service, not only in New Zealand but elsewhere, was of an independent command. If death had not cut his career so tragically short, at the age of 40 years, he must certainly have achieved his ambition, but he made such outstanding use of his opportunities that he left a notable mark in the history of the country of his adoption. His courage and daring were without question and he introduced into all his activities a self-reliance and independence of planning that were recognised as having a vital influence on the development of the colonial soldier. It was said of him after his Taranaki exploits of 1865 by the then Premier, Stafford, that he was a bulwark of the self-reliant policy of the Army and had done more than any other officer of his time to develop and direct the quality and effectiveness of the Colonial Defence Force. Von Tempsky's water colours, which may be seen in the Alexander Turnbull and Hocken Libraries, are of more than passing interest. They depict most realistically a number of incidents in the Maori Wars, and their details of uniforms and equipment are of historical value. In style and colour they have something of the quality of a “primitive”, with attractive decorative treatment.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

The New Zealand Wars, Cowan, J. (2 vols., 1955); New Zealand Examiner, 2 Nov 1869.

WE SUPPORT THE ACTION AGAINST HUNGER CAMPAIGN HERE AT THE KIWI RIVERMAN POST...

The world's hungry has exceeded one billion for the first time in history, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation. This represents a figure of one in six people going to bed desperately hungry every night. To say that is a lot of hungry people, would be the understatement of the century. Malnutrition kills 5 million children every year. Is that acceptable? Not in my book friends! That is why we support the Action Against Hunger campaign.

The combination of the global economic downturn and high food prices has meant there have been dramatic increases in the number of people worldwide who suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition - this has had a particularly devastating effect on the world's poor - and their chikdren! Declining wages and reduced opportunities has made the purchase of even basic food even moor difficult, especially in the developing countries where the cost remains desperately high, a United Nations study revealed at the end of 2008. The average price was an incredible 24% more than two years previously.

These figures underscore the urgency of the global hunger crisis. Action Against Hunger is working every day to save the lives of malnourished children and provide families with access to safe drinking water and sustainable solutions to hunger.
Some simple facts to consider:

1/ There is enough food in the world to feed 12 billion people, twice the present world population. The problems lie with the distribution of the available food, not the amount itself.

2/ If the vast amounts of money spent by both the developed and developing world countries were transfered to feeding those who lack sufficient food and water, there would not be a hunger crisis and starving millions around the world in the first place.


Action against Hunger