New Zealand police to charge sitting MP

Friday, October 5, 2007

A New Zealand High Court judge has granted leave today to the New Zealand Police to prosecute current Member of Parliament (MP), Taito Phillip Field. When Field is charged, he will face 15 charges relating to bribery and corruption.

Judge Justice Tony Randerson said in his ruling that it was within the public interest to see the “extremely serious” charges laid against the independent MP. Justice Randerson said that the allegations made, “strike at the heart of the administration of government and the integrity of members of Parliament.”

Work, worth around NZ$10,000, was undertaken on seven houses the MP owns in Auckland, Wellington, Tonga and Samoa by Thais. In return, Field helped them with immigration applications into New Zealand. Justice Randerson said, “There is no question that the respondent undertook immigration work for the named individuals and that they carried out painting, plastering and tiling work for the respondent on the various properties.”

The trial will focus around two aspects. Firstly, whether the work carried out was undervalued and secondly, if work was being done in return for immigration assistance via a corrupt arrangement and was treated as such.

If convicted, Field will face a maximum sentence of seven years in jail under Section 103 of the Crimes Act 1961.

This ruling sets a precedent in New Zealand as Field is the first MP to face these types of charges. In June, there was a court hearing to argue if charges were to be laid against the former Labour MP by the Crown. In June, Crown Prosecutor Simon Moore said, “The rational for a High Court judge being involved in the exercise appears to be based on the need to avoid the appearance of a ministerial or political interference in making a prosecutorial decision.”

At the same June court hearing, Field said he was innocent of all allegations. “I have nothing to hide. I am innocent and it is best that I front up.”

When the allegations first surfaced, Phillip Field was a sitting Labour MP. He resigned from the party in February and returned to Parliament as an independent.

The ruling will be appealed by Field’s lawyers.

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Seo Challenges Facing Ecommerce Websites

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Most clients claim that online marketing is a tough world to navigate. In fact, they rely on local SEO agencies in Charleston SC to provide them with clarity and guidance that will help them make the best decisions for their businesses. The speed of technological growth and adoption is one of the main challenges affecting most of the businesses in the online world. Here are five challenges and some suggestions on how to handle them.

1. Unintentional Duplicate Content

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOFAKQzR7Q[/youtube]

There is no place where the issue of unintentional duplicate content is more prevalent than on eCommerce websites containing a lot of products and categories. One common issue is when large eCommerce websites enable users to sort category pages by bestselling, price or other features. However, most of the large website content duplicate issues can be corrected by correct use of canonical tags and a well thought of URL structure.

2. Product Page Duplicate Content

In case you are selling products being sold by other sites, you will most definitely face a content dilemma. Producing original content for hundreds or thousands of products is a huge task. Content is considered to be the most important page factor and in any case, you are running the same content all your competitors will be running on product pages.

3. Crawlability

Another common issue you might face, especially when you have thousands of pages is organizing the content in a way that both the search engines and human users will be able to access everything that is important to them. It is important to have a good site navigation bar, though an XML sitemap will help ensure that you are able to give Google easy access to your account.

SEO Slayers is ready to help you slay the search engines and dominate Google Rankings using methodical and battle tested approaches.

With US mid-term elections fast approaching, three prominent Democrats announce retirement

Thursday, January 7, 2010

With this year’s November midterm elections fast approaching, three prominent United States Democrats announced their plans for retirement from public service on Wednesday.

Powerful and influential—yet controversial for his alleged close ties to the financial sector and his handling of last year’s bailout—Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut announced that he would not be seeking a sixth term this year.

In a speech to his supporters in East Haddam, Connecticut, the sixty-five-year-old senior senator—with his family at his side—said, “I have been a Connecticut senator for thirty years. I’m very proud of the job I’ve done and the results delivered. But none of us is irreplaceable. None of us is indispensable.”

He then went on to say, “Over the past twelve months, I’ve managed four major pieces of legislation through the United States Congress, served as chair and acting chair of two major Senate committees, placing me at the center of the two most important issues of our time—health care and reform of financial services.”

In addition to highlighting some personal travails, Dodd alluded to his precarious political situation, “I lost a beloved sister in July, and in August, Ted Kennedy. I battled cancer over the summer, and in the midst of all of this, found myself in the toughest political shape of my career.”

Despite this, Dodd adamantly maintained that none of the above reasons were the causes for his retirement. He said that his reasons were more “personal,” and that his retirement would hopefully give him a much-wanted opportunity to spend more time with his family.

Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota announced that he would not run for re-election this year either.

“Although I still have a passion for public service and enjoy my work in the Senate, I have other interests and I have other things I would like to pursue outside of public life,” said the sixty-seven-year-old, three-term senator who said he came to this decision after discussing his future with his immediate family over Christmas.

Governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter announced that he too would not seek a second term. The fifty-three-year-old freshman governor said that although he felt his race was “absolutely winnable,” after some deep “soul searching,” he realized that he truly wanted to retire from politics nonetheless. This due to the fact that he felt his main priority should be to be a better husband to his wife as well as a better father to their four children.

When asked to comment on Senator Dodd’s retirement on behalf of the Administration, Vice President Joseph Biden said Dodd would “be long recognized as one of the most significant senators of my generation.”

He furthermore stated, “I believe the nation will miss his wisdom, wit and compassion. I count myself lucky because I know he’s not going too far and will always be a source of advice and counsel.”

Biden gave similar comments and expressed like sentiments about the retirement of his other two Democratic colleagues as well.

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43 dead in Iraqi bomb blast

Monday, July 19, 2010

A suicide bomber killed 43 people in Iraq Sunday, injuring an estimated 40 more.

The attack occurred southwest of Baghdad and targeted members of a government-backed militia, Sons of Iraq, also known as the Sahwa, who were waiting to collect their pay. Early reports say the attacks killed at least three soldiers and injured an additional thirteen, while three accountants died and four more were wounded. It’s not yet clear who the remaining casualties are.

A survivor of the bombing said that “[t]here were more than 85 people lined up in three lines at the main gate of the military base to receive salaries when a person approached us. When one of the soldiers tried to stop him, he blew himself up.”

An Iraqi military official said that “[t]he suicide bomber blew himself up in the biggest group of Sahwa members. We generally let them enter the base in groups of 10 for them to get their salaries.”

A second suicide bombing took place in Western Iraq, when an attacker fired upon Sahwa militants in Al-Qa’im before blowing himself up, killing three people, with six more injured.

Credit for the attacks has not yet been claimed, but al-Qaeda is considered the probable culprit.

The Sahwa movement is a Sunni militia group that split from al-Qaeda in 2006, and with US support have been one of the groups fighting al-Qaeda. In recent months, members of the militia have said that they have come under attack from other militant groups, and support from the Iraqi government has been reduced.

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Australian state of Victoria to enter five-day lockdown following more than a dozen active COVID-19 cases

Thursday, July 15, 2021

With at least 18 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria, Australia state Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a five-day lockdown to commence at 11:59 PM tonight.

The lockdown regulations list only five reasons to leave home: for food and supplies, excercise, care or caregiving, work or education if not possible from home, and to recieve a COVID-19 vaccination. When excercising, people cannot go more than five km away from their home, and for no more than two hours, according to regulations. The vaccination also needs to be administered at the nearest possible location. This is the fifth COVID-19 lockdown in the state of Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic, and the rules applied are the same as the state’s fourth lockdown in June.

ABC News attributed the connection to most cases in the state to a “group of removalists” from New South Wales, who crossed through Victoria while they were reportedly infected with the virus. New South Wales is currently facing an outbreak of COVID-19, driven by the virus’ Delta variant, and yesterday lockdown in Sydney was extended by at least two weeks.

In a press release, Premier Andrews wrote that “if we act now – while we’re right on the heels of this outbreak – we can give ourselves every chance of getting ahead of it. If we wait – we lose that option.” Under the new Victorian restrictions, face masks are also be made mandatory outdoors. This follows an announcement made yesterday “face masks must be worn indoors at all times (except at home) and outdoors when it’s not possible to physically distance.”

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Affordable Houses For Sale

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Looking to move to a new place in Missouri? Why not consider some of the fine houses for sale in Lake of the Ozarks?

Lakeside Life

Having your home by a lakeside can be quite an enjoyable experience. First, there is the beautiful view of the lakeside and the activities revolving around it. Housing areas by lakesides are often quite tranquil compared to housing areas near cities. It is sure to do your mind some good. Also, if you are up for it, having lakeside property also allows for an easily accessible boating experience. Those reasons and more spurred on the development of housing areas around the Lake of the Ozarks, where many houses are currently up for sale.

A Potential Investment

Buying property on good locations can also turn out to be quite an investment later on, especially if you add to the value through good remodeling work because the value of property typically rides on an upward trend since everyone needs a place to live. While getting a house on prime real estate can oftentimes turn out to be very costly, there are houses for sale in Lake of the Ozarks region that won’t break the bank, should you know where to look. Houses for sale in Lake of the Ozarks range from modest dwellings to decently-sized ones that can comfortably house a growing family.

For the full listing of the many lakeside houses for sale, one can drop by their website at www.janekelly.com. If you are in need of further assistance, you can chat live with a member of the team.

Bus driver convicted of killing eleven after falling asleep in California crash

Friday, October 9, 2009

A bus driver thought to have caused a 2008 crash after falling asleep behind the wheel in California has been convicted of killing eleven on board. Quintin Watts was found guilty of eleven counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and 21 counts of causing great bodily injury.

Watts was driving a coach carrying 41 Hmong and Mien people from Sacramento to the Colusa Casino Resort. The vehicle left the country road it was traveling on and rolled over in Colusa County. Most of those on board were elderly.

Watts’ stepfather Daniel Cobb, who owned the bus company, was amongst those killed. A jury took three hours to return guilty verdicts against the 53-year-old driver, who now faces a maximum of 76 years in jail at his November 4 sentencing.

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Category:June 9, 2010

? June 8, 2010
June 10, 2010 ?
June 9

Pages in category “June 9, 2010”

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Three hostages return home to Florida

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Three American hostages – Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell – that were being held in Colombia by FARC are now free. They are safely in Florida after their rescue by Colombian forces; 12 other hostages were rescued at the same time. They received care from the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio before being sent home to their families. The men were taken captive when their drug surveillance plane went down in the jungles of Colombia in 2003 – more than 5 years ago. All three of the men were working for a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation at the time.

Keith Stansell emphasized that while he was grateful to be home, no one should “forget the people that are still there”. “Because of our rescue, there are fellow hostages that are still there,” Stansell said. He reminded those listening that some of the remaining hostages have already been in captivity for 10 years, in squalid conditions. “You wait for a day like yesterday and today, you know, for the end, you… you want it to end,” added Marc Gonsalves.

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Cerebral Palsy And Orthopedic Surgery

Sometimes before, during, and after birth a child has some form of brain damage, which is coined under the broad term cerebral palsy. The damage usually occurs while the brain is developing, but occasionally during birth up to age 3. Cerebral palsy is actually a group of disorders that limit the movements, posture, and activity that the child will be able to do as he grows. These are usually related to the child’s motor skills. Often some minor damage can be corrected with orthopedic surgery. A child is usually diagnosed after he fails to reach certain milestones or fails certain reflex tests. At this point, the child will be screened for mental retardation, vision and hearing difficulties, speech disorders, and motor skill dysfunction. To be diagnosed there needs to be a history of some form of skill developmental delay for the first 6 months of life. Then the doctors will check for spasticity, muscle tone, and slower growth. This most common form of disability related to cerebral palsy in children usually includes various forms of mental retardation, loss of fine motor skills, epilepsy, and minimal communication skills. Sometimes when a child is diagnosed very early in life the symptoms later disappear on their own. However, if it is diagnosed early and therapy begins immediately, the disabilities can be minimized and the child can be integrated into regular classrooms and normal environments.There are several different orthopedic surgery procedures that can be done to correct some of the symptoms and make the person with cerebral palsy more comfortable. These are:- Inserting an Intrathecal baclofen pump — this pump, usually inserted into the abdomen, helps reduce the spasticity in the legs, and the lower and upper body in a patient who suffers from spastic cerebral palsy. It also helps them to speak better. The physician can adjust the medication dosage as needed. They will need to get the pump re-filled each month. – Selective dorsal rhizotomy — this procedure works for both short and long term and helps increase the motion of the legs and hips in most patients. This should lessen the spasticity associated with their disability. This surgical procedure to the nerves is best for spasticity that depends on velocity. – Stereotactic basal ganglia — this procedure is used to make the rigidity, tremor, and choreoathetosis that is associated with cerebral palsy better. – Intervention by orthopedic surgery — this surgical procedure helps correct the scoliosis and dislocated hips that often comes with cerebral palsy. This surgery lengthens the tendons and realigns the limbs to help reduce the spastic muscle imbalances. This can also help with the person’s fine motor skills. If you suspect that your child has some form of cerebral palsy take him to a physician for a diagnosis right away because the sooner he is diagnosed the sooner you will be able to get him the help, medication, or orthopedic surgery that he needs to be integrated into society.