Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO - Air New Zealand is delving into the gay and lesbian market with a special themed flight featuring drag queens, pink cocktails and a cabaret performed by flight crew. The destination for the airline's one-time "Pink Flight," on Feb. 26, ex San Francisco, is the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, one of the world's most well-attended gay events, said Jodi Williams, an Air New Zealand marketing director. "We're tailoring inseat entertainment with gay-friendly movies, contests, different music and things like that," Williams said. The airline also plans to throw a going away party for passengers,...

Secondary [high] school students will be able to use text speak in written examinations this year, legitimising a language loved by teenagers. The move has divided students and educators amid concerns the move could damage the English language. The second language of thousands of teenagers, text language usually incorporates abbreviated words and phrases such as txt for "text", lol for "laugh out loud" or "lots of love" and CU for "see you". The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is still strongly discouraging students from using anything other than full English, but says credit will be given if the answer "clearly...

Two former senior United States officials have urged the US to re-start military exercises and start negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with New Zealand. Richard Armitage, a former US deputy secretary of state, and Randy Schriver, a former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, have made their view clear in an opinion piece published in the Asian Wall Street Journal on April 24. In the article, the former officials say decades-old US policy might be stopping the relationship between the two countries from reaching its full potential. The relationship was burdened with...

Plans for descendants of Australian and New Zealand diggers to mark Anzac Day with a playful game of nude beach cricket in Australia will not be followed in New Zealand. More than 400 bare bods are expected to attend the annual nudist day at North Belongil Beach, hosted by naturalist group Free Beaches Australia, on Tuesday. New Zealand Returned Services Association spokesman Bill Hopper said there were no plans for a similar event in New Zealand. "Only the Aussies would organise it." Mr Hopper said the event could not be taken too seriously and for it to be regarded in...

What I remember most about working in advertising was the pelvic power tilt. It was everywhere you looked. Men in advertising who were into power did it; women didn't, because they weren't in power and knew they had no show of getting it. Men sat with their legs wide apart and their crotch tilted to display their lunch. It was, in a word, advertising; an assertion of dominance like a tom cat's spraying. And yes, it was kind of gross. I thought of the pelvic power tilt this week as a big international advertising jock bit the dust – and...

New Zealand's voting booths closed one and three quarter hours ago and with 25% of the votes counted it looks like Helen Clark won't have a third term as Prime Minister.New Zealand looks like it will be lead by Don Brash's National Party, in coalition with United Future and possibly ACT.

The United States has allowed New Zealand to join a combined military exercise off Singapore, signalling an apparent thaw in the Anzus defence standoff. New Zealand and American forces are participating in a multi-national exercise this week, which is practising interception of ships carrying weapons of mass destruction. Since the mid-1980s the US has barred New Zealand participation in joint exercises in retaliation for New Zealand's anti-nuclear law. The only exceptions have been when the two countries are required to work together in preparation for operational military deployments, such as when frigates, Orions and army units have been deployed to...

A borrowed Tibetan flag forced the second most powerful man in the world's biggest country to scuttle through a side door at the start of a state visit to New Zealand. Foreign Affairs officials diverted China's Wu Bangguo from a red carpet Maori welcome at the top of Parliament's steps to the much less salubrious Beehive entrance – at present a construction zone – because of a one-man protest by Green MP Rod Donald. Mr Donald was waiting at the foot of the steps with a Tibetan flag borrowed from colleague Sue Kedgley. Four Chinese security officers shouted, "Police, police"...

New Zealand's top trade negotiator, Tim Groser, has been dumped as ambassador to the World Trade Organisation. Mr Groser is standing as a National Party candidate in the general election - a decision Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton today described as betrayal. Mr Groser told Mr Sutton on Friday he was retiring from the public service, but did not say when. Today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said he had been "placed on leave" and his duties taken over by deputy ambassador Tony Lynch. "The electoral Act allows for Mr Groser to continue as an MFAT employee after...

Some of New Zealand's richest families are fuming over planned new rules that would throw open their business accounts to public scrutiny. The new rules – following Inland Revenue's move to target the 100 top "high-wealth" New Zealanders – would force the wealthy family-owned companies to open the books for closer inspection. The legislation could hit some of the country's richest families – including the Todd family, worth $2.2 billion. The war drums have been beating up and down the country. Many objections to the proposed reforms of the Financial Reporting Act appear likely to be lodged before submissions close...

Posties are being used by New Zealand Post to "snoop" on residents as they deliver mail. Mail deliverers wired with lapel microphones are recording details of houses on their routes as a new way of collecting data for New Zealand Post's business customers. A postie told a resident that the information gathered in the pilot scheme – on the state of the houses' paintwork – was to be passed to Resene Paints for use in a follow-up "your house needs painting – have we got a deal for you?" advertising campaign. The Lower Hutt resident, who contacted The Dominion Post...

The make of jet plane that for years linked Christchurch to Antarctica has taken its last Ice flight. C-141s were the first jets to land in Antarctica and have transported people and supplies to the United States' McMurdo Station in Antarctic for the past 40 years. Although destined to become scrap metal on its return to the States, the last great old grey StarLifter to make the Ice flight was farewelled with much sentiment by Antarctic personnel yesterday in Christchurch before it flew back to the United States. "It's like men and their cars – you get kind of attached...

As tipped by Korea's Yonhap News two weeks ago, the top group representing US manufacturers, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), has called for a free trade agreement with New Zealand. In discussions with the Press Association, NAM's international director of trade policy, Christopher Wenk, said the nuclear issue was a real sticking point but that resistance from US dairy interests might be an even more difficult obstacle. He noted that New Zealand's programme of subsidies for medicines might also cause problems, as it did in Australia. But NAM said in a report it presented to the US Congress --...

Parliament resumes today, with Prime Minister Helen Clark set to fire her opening shots of this year's election campaign. Miss Clark told journalists yesterday her opening statement to Parliament would be a broad-brush affair setting out Labour's long-term programme on improving economic performance, health, education and infrastructure. "It is a big picture speech and it's looking well out at the issues that we need to tackle in government and clearly these are not things you are going to complete by September this year," Miss Clark said. The speech would cover productivity, work participation, training, savings and other "big issues that...

New Zealand's nuclear free policy should be reviewed if the country wanted to forge stronger links with the United States, according to American ambassador to New Zealand, Charles Swindells, who was the guest speaker at the Electra Business Forum at Southwards Car Museum, Otaihanga, last Wednesday.Information disclosed at the forum was supposed to be kept in house but the ambassador gave the all clear for people to comment afterwards on his address.He said there was a close relationship between both countries but it could be better.From his travels, there were many people passionate about New Zealand's nuclear-free policy but he...

This Week, Newman On-line looks at the campaign against political correctness Last month in Britain, a poll was conducted by polling company ICM on whether the Blair-led Labour Government is introducing too much legislation that infringes personal liberty. The poll of 1,000 people aged 18 years and over asked whether the Government is proposing too many infringements on matters that should be for individuals to decide for themselves. The poll stated: “Recently the Government has introduced legislation on things like hunting, smoking and parents ability to smack their children. Thinking about such issues generally, which of the following comes close...

[New Zealand] Prime Minister Helen Clark says an early morning attack on her Auckland electorate office was violent criminal behaviour. Police briefed Miss Clark this morning after an axe was thrown through the window of the office in Mt Albert. It was believed to be a protest against the Government's foreshore and seabed legislation which is being debated in Parliament. "This is violent criminal behaviour and there is no place for it in a democracy," Miss Clark said through a spokesman. "It shows how extreme the views of some people are on this subject." Police were called to the office...

New Zealand's first Muslim MP says two women fighting to keep their faces covered while they give evidence in court should remove their veils at all times and integrate into New Zealand society. Labour MP Ashraf Choudhary said he did not believe wearing veils was required by the women's religion. "Clearly I don't believe they should be covering their faces anywhere in public," he said. "It is not what the Koran says. I don't support this view that women should be covered." In a case before an Auckland court which is attracting world attention, Fouzya Salim has said she would...

It doesn't matter whether John Howard or Mark Latham wins Australia's federal election, a newcomer on the political scene here says. For within a fortnight, the Enslave New Zealand Party or enslavenz for short, says it will take over Australian politics. As its name suggests, this will be bad for New Zealanders. In one of the weirder forays on to the political scene, enslavenz's leader, who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid "vicious New Zealand death squads", said on his Party's website enslavenz.org - that he wanted to conquer and enslave New Zealand, giving every Australian household a Kiwi slave....

A transsexual burglar with more than 85 convictions is free on bail, amid revelations she underwent a sex change operation three weeks ago – while in prison custody. Career criminal Joanne Martin is facing the prospect of another prison sentence for her latest burglaries, but prison officials must first decide whether she would go to a men's or women's prison. They are understood to require proof that she is a woman. It is thought that three weeks ago, while in a Wellington men's prison, Martin had a sex change operation to become a woman. She was arrested on September 18....