It will be frightening and disheartening for the people of Christchurch and Canterbury to be experiencing even more earthquakes of such a magnitude, particularly this close to the holiday season, says Prime Minister John Key.
His comments follow two new aftershocks this afternoon, one a magnitude 5.8 at 1.58pm, and a second strong earthquake at 3.19pm.
“My heart goes out to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury at this time,” says Mr Key.
“However, residents can be confident that the authorities are onto the situation and government resources stand ready to assist wherever they are needed.
“My officials are keeping me informed as information comes in.
“The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister, Gerry Brownlee, is intending to travel back to Christchurch later this afternoon to assess the situation.
“The Government’s resolve to work with the people of Christchurch and Canterbury to rebuild remains unchanged following today’s two aftershocks,” says Mr Key.

TV presenter Ben Boyce, The Rock host Bryce Casey, TV producer Andrew Robinson, Daniel Watkins, Craig O’Reilly and Gregory Clarke appeared in Manukau District Court this morning facing a single charge under the Civil Aviation Act of providing false information in an attempt to gain access to a secure area.

If convicted the men face up to 12 months in jail or a fine of up to $10,000.

Lawyer Paul Gruar, who represents four of the men, told Judge Charles Blackie he was seeking to remand the matter for consideration of diversion.

Judge Blackie said as the group had indicted they would plead not guilty, the case would have to come back for another hearing. He remanded the matter until November 15.

To get diversion, the men would need to admit to the charge.

The men were part of a stunt which allegedly involved a man in a fake pilot uniform trying to board an Air New Zealand plane on September 17.

The skit was to be shown on TV3 show WannaBen.

Police issued a picture of the fake pilot before arresting the men.

The stunt was widely condemned by the aviation industry which said, if convicted, the men could find it difficult to travel internationally.

Prime Minister John Key said the stunt, in the middle of the Rugby World Cup and close to the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, was “irresponsible from a bunch of clowns that should know better”.

“We are in the middle of hosting a Rugby World Cup and if these are people who are just playing games, they need to grow up.”

In a statement issued by TV3′s owner MediaWorks on September 19, Boyce said he was “very sorry for all the trouble [the stunt] has caused”.

“This was an attempt at humour which we fully accept was misplaced.

“I cannot say how sorry we all are.”

- Stuff

The Renwick rumour mill has been working overtime on lifelong resident Graham Brooks, and come up with the crazy notion that the 61-year-old suffered a massive stroke and died three weeks ago.

The former newspaper photographer laughed it off at first as well-wishers visited the family home to offer condolences to his wife, Cynthia.

However, after hearing he was losing photography jobs, he knew it was time to set the record straight.

“I definitely didn’t have a stroke and I’m definitely not dead,” Mr Brooks said.

“I’ve had my gutsful of this. It has gone beyond a joke. A local businessman drove up my driveway, parked, looked me in the eye and said, `You’re not dead’. He didn’t even get out of the car, just turned around and left. I thought, `What the hell is going on here?’ Maybe I’m a reincarnation.”

Even when people see Mr Brooks is alive and well, they still assume he suffered the stroke and is on the mend.

But it’s the patronising looks of sympathy that irritate the most, Mr Brooks said.

“People put their arms around my shoulders, look me in the eye and say, `How are you feeling? I heard what happened’. I tell them it is a load of b…….”

The rumour has taken on a life of its own, he said.

“People hearing it for the first time think it only happened a few days ago and that it must be true because someone told them. Even when people talk to your face they think you must be hiding it.”

There are two plausible reasons for the mix-up, Mr Brooks explained.

“A close friend of mine died a few weeks ago.

“He developed a virus in his heart and was taken to Wellington Hospital where he suffered a stroke. His name was Graham Valk.

“His sister-in-law knows about the rumour and jokes with me, saying `How are you feeling’?”

However, Mr Brooks has been walking about town looking slightly worse for wear lately.

He stepped into a hole – for a tree, not a grave – and twisted ligaments in his knee while saving his wife from a dog attack.

“Maybe people have seen me hobbling around town with a crook knee. But I’m not on death’s door, not yet anyway.”
- Marlborough

Salvors are to wait out bad weather hitting the Tauranga coast before returning to the stricken ship Rena.

The Liberia-registered container ship grounded on the Astrolabe Reef on October 5 and has so far spewed about 350 tonnes of oil into the sea.

The sea in the area was experiencing a swell of between 2 – 4 metres, making pumping impossible.

Crews had been sealing the fuel tank they were pumping oil from at around 10.30am in preparation to leave the ship by helicopter.

Once the swell dropped the salvors hoped to return to the ship and keep pumping.

FRESH OIL LEAK

A small amount of oil had leaked overnight and could be seen as a sheen drifting north of the ship, salvage head Andrew Berry said.

He said while everyone would like the operation to go faster, he was happy that the salvors were “working as quickly as safely possible.”

The ship was sitting hard on the reef, he said, although it was moving around slightly.

While conditions were expected to calm down today, winds would pick back up again tonight.

Another low would roll across the north of the country, lifting winds around to around 30 knots and increasing swells off the Tauranga coast, the MetService’s Bob McDavitt told Radio New Zealand.

However this would make way for a period of settled weather from tomorrow leading into the long weekend.

The changing weather conditions meant the salvors had to assess the situation “moment by moment”, Berry said.

PUMPING HALTED

Heavy swells of between 2.5 – 4m had forced crews to stop pumping last night at 11.25pm, Svitzer spokesman Matthew Watson told Radio New Zealand this morning.

Watson was hopeful pumping would resume today and said there would also be an effort to connect a booster pump to increase the amount of oil pumped.

Around 90 tonnes of oil was removed from the ship’s No. 5 port tank before pumping was stopped last night.

BEACH CLEAN-UP ON HOLD

Bad weather which was hampering the pumping effort on the Rena had also caused the cancellation of beach clean-ups in Tauranga today.

MNZ had earlier hoped to open some beaches if they were assessed to be safe.

Meanwhile, there had been no fresh reports of oil on beaches overnight, National On Scene Commander Ian Niblock said.

There were now 207 live birds in care as well as 3 seals, he said, while 1290 dead birds had been recovered.

Four dead seal pups had also been found, but a spokesman for the Wildlife Response Centre said autopsies hadn’t yet been conducted, which meant it was too early to attribute the deaths to the oil spill.

Yesterday it was announced that new “tar patties” from the oil spill had begun washing up on the shores of White Island, 49km off Whakatane.

Testing had discovered oil buried as deep as 20cm below the sand in areas such as Papamoa, MNZ’s Nick Quinn said.

Any new oil released last night or today as a result of rough seas was expected to strike Papamoa Beach first because of the forecast northerlies.

UNIQUE PROBLEMS

Svitzer salvage master project leader Drew Shannon, who has worked on many salvage operations around the world, said the Rena presented unique problems.

Nine salvors had been working around the clock on the stricken ship, each man doing an eight to 10-hour shift.

“It will be a difficult and challenging operation, there is no two ways about that.”

The ship was on a 21-degree angle which made the salvage team’s job onboard complicated.

“It is in a serious condition, everyone can see that. We have to take this carefully,” Shannon said.

The salvors’ current priority was to safely remove the oil from the Rena without causing further damage, he said.

When that task was done, they would turn to the problem of removing the wreck.

Peter Dawson, a maritime lawyer and secretary of the Maritime Law Association of New Zealand and Australia, said most salvage operations were conducted under a contract called the Lloyd’s Open Form.

The most widely used “no-cure, no pay” contract states that in return for salvage services, the salvor will receive a proportion of the “salved value” (the value of the ship, its bunkers and cargo).

According to the International Salvors Union, it means that, traditionally, reward depended upon the success and the recovery of the vessel.

More recently, an additional special compensation clause, known as Scopic, has been added that also allows salvors to be compensated for their work in the removal or prevention of pollution.

“If they can’t pull the vessel off then they wouldn’t receive a salvage award but they would still be paid in regards to the Scopic arrangement,” Dawson said.

“Depending on how dramatic and how difficult the salvage is the more money they can make. The amounts will be decided later or can be agreed upon through an arbitration process.”

The ship’s insurers would ultimately pick up the cost of any salvage efforts, Dawson said.

He said salvors themselves came from a range of backgrounds but many had previously been marine engineers.

“It’s a very, big business with highly capable people. What’s always struck me over the years is that salvors are a unique breed of people – they never see anything as too big a challenge,” Dawson said.

SUPPORT FOR BUSINESS

Prime Minister John Key continued to be open to a possible support package for those businesses badly affected by the wreck and oil spill of the Rena.

Key met with members of Tauranga’s Chamber of Commerce in private this morning.

“It was useful to get an understanding of their issues. It’s quite a small, compact number of businesses at the moment. But those ones that are affected are quite heavily affected.”

The Chamber thought there may be as many as 100 business in total who had suffered from the oil spill, Key said.

“They’re quite realistic, they are not overly looking for compensation but they are looking for us to try and resolve issues as quickly as we can. There is a number of things we are going to follow up on.”

He did not rule out there the possibility of support package – similar to the one provided for those affected by the Christchurch earthquake – being put together.

“It’s possible. It’s a much, much smaller, defined group at the moment. It depends what happens next with the ship and how successful we are at getting the oil off. But look, we’ve got some things we can work our way through.”

The group he met with were not angry, but were concerned, Key said.

Fishing operators who usually work in the marine exclusion zone – which stretches from Mt Maunganui to Maketu – were currently not able to sell seafood to local or export markets.

“Their main issue really is looking to the future – just to make sure they preserve their image … of high quality seafood.”

CLIO FRANCIS, KIRSTY JOHNSTON, TRACY WATKINS and MICHELLE COOKE

Wheldon was 33. Drivers were told of Wheldon’s death in a meeting about two hours after the fiery, smoky crash that many drivers said was the worst they had ever seen.

The British driver won the Indianapolis 500 twice, including this year.

“IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries,” IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race. In honor of Dan Wheldon, the drivers have decided to do a five-lap salute to in his honor.”

Three other drivers, including championship contender Will Power, were hurt in the pileup.

The wreck left Townsend Bell upside down and smoldering cars and debris littered the track nearly halfway up the straightaway of the 1.5-mile oval.

The track was red-flagged following the accidents while crews worked on fences and removed smashed cars.

Wheldon started in the back of the pack but quickly worked his way through the 34-car field before the wreck.

“It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible,” said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start. “It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered.

Drivers had been concerned about the high speeds at the track, where they were hitting nearly 225 mph during practice.

Their concerns became reality when contact on Turn 2 sent cars flying through the air, crashing into each other and into the outside wall and catch fence.

“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ryan Briscoe said. “The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there’s just stuff everywhere. Crazy.”

- AP

LATEST: The company that leased the Rena will look into providing money towards the clean-up.

Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) Phil Abraham said his company was not liable, but could have a moral obligation.

“We’re working with the authorities.”

MSC representatives met with Transport Minister Steven Joyce this morning.

Abraham said it was a good meeting and constructive.

“We seem to have a good position with the Minister.”

MSC director Kevin Clarke said the company was very concerned about the disaster and would do what ever it could to help.

Prime Minister John Key said the Government was doing everything it could to pursue other parties for the cost of cleaning up the disaster.

About $4 million has been spent so far on cleaning up some of the 350 tonnes of oil that has leaked from the container ship which grounded on the Astrolabe Reef off the coast of Tauranga almost two weeks ago.

Before this morning’s meeting, Key said MSC believed it was not legally liable for the Rena but said ”reputational issues” may convince it to pay for some of the clean up.

The Government hoped to get money through other avenues.

”There’s also a fund and then there’s also the act of going through the court if gross negligence is found against the master of the ship or against those who were controlling the ship,” he told TVNZ’s Breakfast programme.

There was between $3.5 and $4 million a year available in the Government’s oil levy fund.

If the 47,000-tonne Rena sunk its owner Costamare would be liable for getting the oil out of the ship, as well as for $12.1 million towards the clean up onshore, Key said.

Labour said the cost to the taxpayer would have been reduced if the Government had signed up to the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage.

Leader Phil Goff said the convention came into force in 2008 and later that year Parliament’s transport and industrial select committee recommended it be passed into legislation.

”Why didn’t this happen? Three years after National first was told it needed to update legislation nothing has been done.

”Adoption of the legislation would have ensured liability around insurance was clear and made it easier to claim for economic loss and clean up costs incurred through the Rena disaster.”

However, Joyce said Labour had done nothing towards signing the convention while it was in power.

Salvors were able to work through the night taking oil off the ship because of assistance and night vision equipment supplied by the Defence Force’s sea sprite helicopter, Key said.

”The bad news is they got 20 tonnes; 20 tonnes is not very much.”

Key conceded some believed the Government’s initial response to the grounding had been too slow.

However, he denied that and there would always be some people who believed that, just as there were following the Christchurch earthquakes and the Pike River mine disaster.

”But we are now at day 13 and not one person has stood up and said ‘if you’d just done that, it would have fixed it’.”

Key said he was also frustrated by the Rena grounding.

”The last thing I need is a ship on a reef.”

The Government was considering support for local fishermen and businesses. Discussions were being held between the local chamber of commerce and Social Development Ministry.

- Stuff

It would also seek to expand and accelerate the rollout of the ultrafast broadband network, and investigate whether it could be unbundled from the beginning – a move described as a “radical” change by one commentator.

The party has released its information and communications technology policy ahead of the election next month.

Key points include combining the regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting – with potential ramifications for SkyTV – a greater emphasis on open source software in government and more resources for developing IT skills and for schemes to take technology to lower socio-economic areas.

Technology and communications spokeswoman Clare Curran said it would consider expanding the online film and TV archive NZ On Screen to become a platform for accessing New Zealand-made content such as movies, TV shows and music. Consumers could pay a small copyright levy on internet access, which would provide funds for the digital platform and for content creators.

“The idea needs more work, but in the absence of a mechanism to aggregate New Zealand content that seems like a good place to start,” she said.

Labour would encourage new business models for distributing content, which would protect digital copyright, review the controversial Copyright Act and scrap a provision that allows the introduction of internet account suspension as a penalty. It would propose a “single powerful regulator for telecommunications and broadcasting” that would be located within the Commerce Commission, and which would investigate the impact of monopolies in both the telecommunications and broadcasting marketplaces.

Curran said that could have significant implications for SkyTV, which dominates the pay-TV market and has rights to buy exclusive sports broadcasting rights, but said it had thought hard about the policy.

Labour said it would investigate whether the UFB network could be unbundled as it was rolled out – allowing other operators to provide their own fibre services in competition with local fibre companies – rather than from 2020.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen said that could remove “any incentive to invest in the network at all”. “It’s quite a radical change. You’d really need to study that to see whether it undermined the business case for investment from the local fibre companies.”

Curran said it would take a “sensible approach” to any changes, recognising the local fibre companies had invested in good faith. Labour would – within the limit of the $1.35 billion budget – expand the urban fibre rollout to other areas where it could be deployed “at similar costs to the existing planned rollout”, and prioritise the rollout to areas currently without fibre.

It would institute a “whole of government approach to open software”, including making software created for government available using open source licences, and set an aspirational target for two-thirds of agencies to be using some form of open source software for a reasonable proportion of their software needs by 2015.

Industry group NZICT said it believed all types of solutions and business models, whether they are proprietary, open-source or a hybrid, had merit, and should be evaluated on a project by project basis. National has yet to release its IT policy. Steven Joyce, Curran and ICT spokespeople from the minor parties will face off at Wellington City Gallery tomorrow evening in a pre-election debate hosted by InternetNZ.

- The Dominion Post

In his latest move to tryto defuse discontent, part of a wave of popular unrest against repressive autocrats across the Arab world, Assad formed a committee to draft a new constitution within four months, the official news agency SANA said.

The move raised the possibility that a clause designating his Baath Party, which seized power in a 1963 coup, as “leader of the state and society” could be scrapped.

In a sign of growing regional pressure on Assad to undertake genuine reform after seven months of street protests, al Jazeera television said Arab foreign ministers would hold an emergency meeting on Sunday in Cairo to discuss the crisis in Syria.

Gulf Arab states had earlier called for an immediate meeting of the Arab League to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria and study ways to stop the bloodshed.

Assad has sent troops and tanks into restive cities and towns to try put down the unrest but protests have persisted, spreading to suburbs and rural regions around cities as troops have occupied main squares in urban centres.

The president blames the violence on foreign-backed “armed terrorist groups” who authorities say have killed 1,100 soldiers and police. The United Nations said the military crackdown on unrest has killed 3,000 people, including at least 187 children.

With the deployment of thousands of police and militiamen loyal to Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for 41 years, central neighbourhoods of Damascus have remained largely free of pro-democracy demonstrations.

But at Saturday’s funeral for a 10-year-old boy, Ibrahim Sheiban, killed in a protest rally the day before, “passions were running high,” said one of the witnesses, a private sector employee who asked not to be identified for his own protection.

“The body was wrapped in white and thousands behind it were chanting ‘the people want the execution of the president’ and ‘we will be free despite you Bashar’,” he said.

Some mourners began throwing stones at the security forces, who fired back with live ammunition, the witness told Reuters by phone from the scene in the Damascus district of Maidan.

INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE

The killings in Maidan brought to at least nine the number of people killed while protesting against Assad in the last 48 hours, according to rights activists.

A human rights organisation said Assad’s forces on Saturday also shot dead a prominent activist in eastern Syria who helped organise peaceful demonstrations in the region after a military crackdown on unrest two months ago.

Ziad al-Obeidi, 42, was killed as he fled from security police who stormed his home in the provincial capital of Deir al-Zor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, who do issue statements on individual killings but deny assassinating their opponents.

“Ziad was adamant that non-violence was the only way to counter the regime’s bloodletting. He had three kids and barely enough money to put bread on the table, yet the authorities keep saying that this uprising is being led by foreign-backed armed terrorists,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Reuters by telephone from Britain.

The United Nations called on Friday for international protection for civilians from a crackdown it said could kindle civil war between Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims and members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Sunnis also comprise most of the army’s rank and file while the officer corps is comprised primarily of Alawites effectively under the command of Assad’s younger brother, Maher.

The authorities have expelled most independent media from Syria, make it difficult to verify accounts of events.

“The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective manner, before the continual ruthless repression and killings drive the country into a full-blown civil war,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in a statement.

“As more members of the military refuse to attack civilians and change sides, the crisis is already showing worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle,” she added.

Assad was quoted by state media this week as saying Syria had “passed the most difficult stage” of the uprising. But opposition leaders say the mounting death toll will only turn more Syrians against the 46-year old president.

In the Zabani Plain, around 35km west of Damascus on the fringes of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, army defectors fought loyalist troops for several hours on Saturday, according to local residents.

“I saw army jeeps towing two (vehicles) belonging to State Security that were riddled with bullets. Blood was practically seeping from them,” said a resident of the resort town, who gave his name as Mohammad. “They ransacked houses in Zabadani overnight looking for deserters and activists.”

TINKERING WITH LAWS

Sticking to a strategy of dismissing the protests as a foreign plot to divide Syria while touting “reforms that safeguard Syria’s sovereignty,” Assad formed a committee on Saturday to draft a new constitution within four months.

“President Assad issued today decree number 33 which stipulates forming a committee to prepare for a draft constitution,” the official news agency SANA said.

The constitution, which was changed by Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad, in the 1970s, discourages any political pluralism by stipulating that the ruling Baath Party is “leader of the state and society.”

The Syrian opposition has called for the clause to be scrapped, along with another that says the president can only be nominated by his Baath Party as well as numerous laws passed in the last 50 years which they say allow Assad and his security apparatus to practice repression and corruption with impunity.

New laws issued by Assad in the past three months permit “parties committed to democratic principles” and established an election commission. But they also preserved quotas that retain the majority of seats for farmers and workers, whose representatives are drawn from state-controlled unions.

Syria’s current parliament, a rubber stamp body, does not have a single opposition figure.

- Reuters

ll Blacks fans are dancing in the streets outside Eden Park, while downhearted Australian fans made a quick escape.

Cheering could be heard from the Auckland fan trail after the All Blacks victory over the Wallabies in the do-or-die semi-final match.

All Blacks fan Amber Armitage, who watched the game at a house across the road from Eden Park, said there was a party atmosphere in the streets.

“Everyone is high-fiving and congratulating each other as if they were in the game.”

Those walking home were breaking into impromptu dances outside houses.

Though not all were joining in the jovial atmosphere. Armitage said Australian fans could be seen scampering quickly away from Mt Eden.

About 19,500 people turned out to watch the semi-final match in Auckland central – the biggest crowd since the Rugby World Cup opening match.

Queens Wharf had to be closed an hour before kick-off and fans were directed to Captain Cook Wharf and Wynyard Quarter.

A further 10,000 headed to the three fanzones in the outer suburbs.

The fan trail also proved popular on the fine Auckland evening as a record 12,000 people walked from the central city to Eden Park.

It was mainly a flow of black shirted, with sprinkles of yellow.

Many of those Australian fans will have a long journey home after earlier predicting Australia would crush the All Blacks.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has conceded she lost her bet to her New Zealand counterpart.

Gillard tweeted: “To the Wallabies – thanks for your courage, the spectacle & for never giving up! To John Key – a bet is a bet. I’ll be eating a NZ apple.”

Hollywood stars and European royalty descend on Auckland for the last week of the Rugby World Cup, but Gillard snubbed tonight’s game which was instead attended by Australian Leader of the House Anthony Albanese.

Prince Albert II of Monaco and his new wife Princess Charlene are also in the country and were expected to attend the game.

Despite the huge numbers, there were no problems reported on the trains and buses heading to Eden Park.

Police also confirmed there had been few problems from the crowd.

This will come as a relief to organisers after the opening match was marred by train delays and chaos in fanzones as fan numbers were grossly underestimated.

In Wellington, 3000 people flocked to the city’s waterfront fanzone.

The fanzone reached capacity shortly after the 9pm kick off between arch rivals All Blacks and Australia.

People who can’t get in were hanging over the fence trying to catch a glimpse of the big screen.

- Stuff.co.nz

We’re among the happiest and have high levels of satisfaction, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says.

In its just published “How’s Life?” study, the OECD says it has used data from 2010 Gallup world polls to calculate the happiness and well-being of people in 40 different countries, and investigated which factors have the strongest influence on people’s happiness.

On a scale of 0 to 10 in the overall “life satisfaction”, New Zealand came in at 7.2 – 14th best.

Denmark rated 7.8, on average. Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, Israel and Finland followed.

China was at the bottom, edging down from India, Portugal and Hungary.

New Zealand scored strongest in areas of social network support, with nearly 97 per cent saying they have relatives or friends they can count on for help in times of need. Only Israel and Ireland did better.

Australia rated at 95 per cent and bottom went to India at 58 per cent.

“People in New Zealand and Portugal are among the most social of all nationalities surveyed, with more than 75 per cent reporting at least one social contact with friends or family per week, while people in Poland, France and Hungary report the lowest levels of social interaction,” the OECD report says.

New Zealanders had higher levels of trust in the media than most countries.

Twelve per cent of Britons put in more than 50 hours of work a week, the highest rate in Europe and only behind Turkey, Mexico, Israel, Australia and New Zealand – only eight per cent of Germans work more than 50 hours a week.

The report finds that well-being has increased on average over the past 15 years: people are richer and more likely to be employed; they enjoy better housing conditions and are exposed to lower air pollution; they live longer and are more educated; they are also exposed to fewer crimes.

But it says differences between countries are large.

The “Your Better Life Index” allows citizens to compare lives based on 11 dimensions – housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, work-life balance – giving their own weight to each of the dimensions. It attempts to give a picture of people’s lives beyond pure economic data such as gross domestic product.

The report shows that income is a prime contributing factor to well-being, yet so are less obvious factors such as a clean environment, health and safe neighbourhoods.

- Stuff

Salvage crews have started pumping oil from stricken container ship Rena and will stay onboard overnight to get as much oil off as possible before poor weather returns, possibly by late tomorrow.

The 47,230-tonne cargo ship grounded on the Astrolabe Reef on October 5, spilling oil and containers into the sea.

Salvage crews have spent the past few days preparing to remove oil from the ship with Maritime New Zealand salvage manager Bruce Anderson confirming this evening that pumping had begun.

He said MNZ had received a plan from the salvage crew that will allow them to stay on the vessel overnight and all of tomorrow.

“The safety of the salvage team is paramount and I had to be satisfied that there is a workable plan to rescue the people from the vessel if something goes wrong.

“I have now seen the plan which states the steps they will take to ensure the safety on board overnight to complete preparations and then start pumping fuel to the tanker Awanuia that is lying off the Rena’s stern.”

“The team has encountered a number of technical difficulties, but the calm conditions and the forecast for the next 24 hours give them a good opportunity to get this work underway.”

While the weather has been good for the past few days, it is expected to deteriorate late tomorrow which may impact on the operation.

“This is a hugely challenging and risky operation even in full daylight – these are incredibly brave and dedicated people working very hard to protect the beaches and coastline of the Bay of Plenty.”

MORE OIL LEAKAGE LIKLEY

He wanted to stress however that more oil would be released at some point due to the nature of its position in the stricken ship.

“There will be more oil released. How much we don’t know yet. When we don’t know.”

Around 90m of the ship was firmly positioned on the reef but another 60m of the vessel was hanging off into deep water.

“The only thing holding that vessel….is the buoyancy of all the air in the engine room.”

Bad weather could destabilise the ship.”There is every chance the vessel could slip off the reef.”

While the weather forecast was good for today, higher waves were expected on Monday evening, Anderson said.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said the boat remained in a “very precarious position”.

“There is every likelihood that further oil may be lost. We are nowhere near out of the woods by any means.”

Meanwhile, there has been a report of a container off the Whakatane coast.

On the beaches, more than 500 volunteers had been expected to assist the clean up effort at Papamoa and Maketu today, combined with around 140 NZ Army personnel.

There had been 618 tonnes of oiled sandy waste recovered, MNZ said.

CLEAN-UP COST

Joyce today revealed the cost of the on-going Rena oil spill clean-up.

So far around $3.5 million had been spent on oil clean up operations, but that did not include the cost of the salvage of the ship, Joyce told TVNZ this morning.

“The cost of the oil response so far is around $3.5 million; the cost of the salvage I don’t know but that’s entirely at the ship’s owner’s account – the cost of the salvage and the containers,” he said.

However Joyce said the total cost for the salvage and oil clean-up could run into the tens of millions of dollars.

Joyce would be meeting with representatives from the company which chartered the Rena, the Mediterranean Shipping Company.

BEACH RE-OPENS

Officials have re-opened a section of beach previously closed by the Rena oil spill this morning.

A small section of beach between Mt Maunganui, from the Base Track, along to Moturiki Island was now open to public access, Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said.

Assessments of the beach and water quality had cleared the section of beach being opened, said MNZ National On Scene Commander Nick Quinn.

“We’ve had beach clean-up teams there getting rid of the oil, and this morning we had environmental assessment teams digging down into the sand to check for any buried oil.

“They’ve dug a number of trenches down into the sand and established that it’s clear.

“We have also conducted water sampling, which has confirmed the water in that area has returned to pre-spill conditions.”

Changing tides and weather conditions could bring oil back to the beach, however.

Other areas had been closed so work to clean up oil could be carried out.

The area from Moturiki Island to Maketu Point, including the Maketu Estuary, was now closed off.

Additionally, clean-up teams were at the Mount as some oil had been found in rock pools there, he said.

FRIGHTENING JOB

A salvor who descended deep into the twisting bowels of the wreck of the Rena has described it as one of the most frightening tasks of his career.

Anderson said his team had attached four “platforms” around the ship, from which they would lower pumps to get the oil off. They were unable to start the process yesterday but today may see the first oil removed.

If it works, up to 50 tonnes of oil can be removed every hour. The Rena’s current oil load would take around 14 hours to remove.

Crews were pushing everything they could to get pumping oil off the stricken ship, Anderson said.

“But they are systematic people, they have to make sure all the processes will work. The last thing they want is to make things worse,” he said.

“It’s far too dangerous for them to stay on the vessel overnight. If she moves or comes off the reef, they have got a nano-second to get off. The only way to do that is to get in the water and there are strong currents there – we don’t need someone injured or killed.”

Anderson said salvaging the Rena was particularly challenging. “I was talking with one of the salvage officers, and this guy has been doing this for a long time. He led the initial inspection party and he said this was one of the worst wrecks he’d ever got on. This thing is grinding and groaning away as it is twisting and mashing parts of it up.

“He said going on board that vessel was one of the scariest things he’d done. We shouldn’t underestimate the complexity of what they’re doing. They don’t want to be inside the vessel, they are trying to work on the outside because that is the safest place.”

One of the most terrifying areas was the engine room. Several times the salvors had climbed down a five-storey ladder to reach the base of the room, with the ladder tilted badly by the ship’s listing position, Anderson said. There was also 60cm of water on the floor.

“Imagine that while you’re doing that, you’ve still got this whole thing creaking and groaning around you.”

Meanwhile, hopes the ship was resting completely on the reef were dashed by divers, who reported the ship’s bow had settled on the reef but the stern was hanging dangerously in space, Anderson said.

“She is not as stable as we hoped and that concerns me.”

He said a change in the weather and bigger swells could cause the ship to break up or move. “You just don’t know what is going to take it off.”

Anderson also warned that people should be braced for more oil. “We can’t control a lot of this stuff and if we have another storm and the vessel starts rocking, we are likely to see more releases.”

Environment Minister Nick Smith said while the volunteer effort had seen 70 per cent of the beaches cleared, it was not all good news.

Some of the Rena’s oil appeared to now be trapped in the ship’s duct keel. “There may be as much as 100 tonnes, and it could be released if weather conditions turn to a larger swell.”

FEEDING THE VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers labouring to clean up oil-coated Bay of Plenty beaches have been bolstered by deliveries of baking and cut lunches from locals.

“A local bakery delivered trays of hot sausage rolls and pies as well as cut lunches. Cartons of apples, bananas and oranges were also donated. A number of locals also baked muffins and dropped them in for the volunteers,” said MNZ on-scene commander Nick Quinn.

A local radio station had run a barbecue for volunteers at Papamoa Surf Club and one of the banks ran a refreshment station.

“Its very hard physical work cleaning up oil, and this has really given a boost to those people out on the beaches and around the shoreline,” Quinn said.

- CLIO FRANCIS, with KATE NEWTON

These latter characteristics help make up the portrait of Jobs painted by his first serious girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, in a Rolling Stone story shared with The Associated Press before hitting newsstands Friday, local time.

Brennan and Jobs met in 1972, when he was a senior and she was a junior at Cupertino’s Homestead High School. In the piece, she recounts her adventures with a 17-year-old Jobs that summer, from moving into a cabin together to getting paid to portray “Alice” characters at a local mall.

Jobs died October 5, at 56, after struggling for years with pancreatic cancer. After taking his third medical leave from Apple in January, he resigned as CEO in August, but stayed with the company as chairman. His death came a day after Apple unveiled the latest iPhone, the 4S, which goes on sale today.

Brennan’s on-and-off relationship with Jobs lasted until the birth of the couple’s daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, in 1978.

She says the duo decided to live together that first summer. She tried to snag a room in a Cupertino cabin for them but was turned down by the man renting the place at the time — he said there wasn’t room for a couple. Somehow, Steve was able to persuade him to change his mind.

“This alerted me to something remarkable in him,” she writes in the “Rolling Stone” essay. “This guy could make things work. And from the way he’d taken charge of the situation, I knew he knew it too.”

At the time, Brennan says, Jobs “was almost 100 per cent romantic.”

“He would tell me we were part of an affiliation of poets and visionaries he called `the wheat field group’ and say we were looking out a window together, with the others, watching the whole world,” she writes. “I did not know what he was talking about, but with all my heart I wanted to see such views.”

Brennan also recounts how Jobs — who hung a Bob Dylan poster over their bed — would stay up late writing poems on his electric typewriter, often re-writing Dylan tunes.

At the time, Brennan wasn’t impressed, seeing the results as “a lot of Bob Dylan songs with a few changes”.

“Only now do I see what he was trying to do. He was a loner and he didn’t talk much, and I think he used Dylan’s songs to make sense of the world,” she writes.

On the sillier side, Brennan details how she, Jobs, a roommate named Al and Steve Wozniak (who later co-founded Apple with Jobs) played “Alice” characters at a mall in nearby Santa Clara. Brennan got the part of Alice, while Al, Jobs and Wozniak took turns playing the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit — complete with knee-length giant heads that were incredibly hot because of the summer heat and the mall’s broken air conditioner.

Brennan writes that Al, Wozniak and Jobs “could barely handle 10 minutes in costume, and so they would run into the dressing rooms to trade off heads and to drink water every 10 minutes. It was painful and hilarious to watch”.

Not all of Brennan’s recollections were friendly. In the Rolling Stone essay, Brennan refers to “the all-too-often despotic jerk Steve turned into as he rose to meet the world”. For two years, Jobs denied that he was the father of Lisa, the child born to Brennan in 1978.

Brennan’s piece will run in “Rolling Stone” alongside a cover story by Jeff Goodell, an early Apple employee who has written about the company for the past 17 years. In his article, Goodell describes Jobs’ business savvy, as well as the “abrasive personality” and “unapologetic brutality” that those who worked intensely with him experienced.

- AP

The radar system was added by Ports of Tauranga Limited following recommendations from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) after a ship collision in the area in 2008.

On Wednesday, Rena – a 47,000-tonne bulk carrier – struck the reef at high speed as it approached the port in the early hours.

Ports of Tauranga Limited chief executive Mark Cairns said Rena’s resting point, 22km from the port, lay within radar range “under certain weather conditions”.

He was unsure if those conditions existed at the time of the grounding.

The port’s legal responsibilities ended three nautical miles (5.5km) out from its “pilotage zone”.

Traffic was not monitored beyond that, Mr Cairns said.

TAIC has taken custody of the port’s radar data logs as part of its investigation.

It has also seized data logs from the Rena that recorded its movements.

In contrast to Tauranga, Port of Auckland Limited said it monitored ships when they rounded Cape Reinga and contacted them from 100km out.

From that point they can be seen on the port’s radar and directed as necessary.

Ships are quizzed on their draught and are in regular communication with port administration to co-ordinate their arrival. This occurs from about three hours before vessels enter Auckland’s pilotage area.

Tauranga upgraded its radar system after a collision at the edge of its pilotage zone in 2008.

In that incident the 20,000 gross tonne bulk carrier Lodestar Forest collided with a small coastal steamer in heavy fog.

Both ships suffered minor damage after last minute evasive action.

The TAIC report criticised both crews and the port, citing the lack of “shore-based radar observation and radar advice to masters of vessels in the area” as a contributing factor.

It recommended Environment Bay of Plenty and the port review their Tauranga Harbour safety plan with a view to introducing a better traffic management system.

Following the TAIC inquiry, Bay of Plenty Regional Council engaged with the Port of Tauranga Limited in their installation of a new radar system.

The new radar system included automatic identification system (AIS) tracking and also increased the area of tracking coverage.

The AIS is an automated tracking system used on ships and by vessel traffic services for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with nearby ships and monitoring stations.

A council spokeswoman said the 2008 incident had happened in the pilot boundary zone – an area closer to shore and in a very different location from the Rena.

- Fairfax NZ

Spokeswoman Michelle Baguley said “a significant number” of customers had received the texts, which were a scam.

“It’s important to get the word out that no-one should respond to them.”

The texts, which claim to be from phone manufacturers such as Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, tell people they have won millions of pounds and ask them to reply via email or phone to claim their prize.

Ms Baguley said it was blocking the numbers the texts came from but had little power to stop the scam, which was being carried out by computers that randomly generated numbers to send texts to and constantly changed the numbers they sent texts from.

- Stuff

A Hong Kong design student’s tribute to Steve Jobs that generated a buzz in cyberspace following the death of the co-founder of Apple last week is not original, the teen-ager said Monday.

Jonathan Mak, 19, said he was not the first to come up with the design that fits Jobs’ silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo. He was speaking after comments surfaced on Twitter that a U.K.-based designer, known as Raid71 on the web, created the original design in May.

The design posted by Mak on the Internet spread like wildfire in cyberspace Thursday, just after the passing of Jobs.

It drew hundreds of thousands of posts, and commemorative caps and T-shirts peddled on eBay featured his design. The logo was even used by Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher as his Twitter profile picture.

Mak, a student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University School of Design, acknowledged he was not the original creator of the design but said he did not “rip off” the UK designer.

“I still arrived at the solution on my own, and my conscience is still clear, but I’m more than happy to acknowledge the fact that somebody did it before me,” Mak told Reuters.

Like Mak’s design, the UK-based designer fits Jobs’ silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo. But the dimensions and proportions of that design differ from Mak’s logo.

Jobs, who created revolutionary products and reshaped the way the world approaches computing and personal communications, died Wednesday at the age of 56.

- Reuters

That’s the grade the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has given Communications Minister Steven Joyce’s Ultrafast Broadband Plan.

A report released by the international research body last week ranked 16 country plans to boost broadband speed and coverage. New Zealand ranked ninth equal with the US, just ahead of Italy and one spot behind Australia.

That lacklustre mark is a result of the EIU’s methodology, which includes measures such as speeds, coverage, costs and targets.

A further factor is the level of government intervention – the less the better, according to the EIU’s formula. New Zealand’s scheme is in the form of a public private partnership and 50% of investment comes directly from the taxpayer.

The EIU found countries that had mature broadband strategies, mainly in South-East Asia and northern Europe, are now setting higher speed and coverage targets. New Zealand, which long supported industry self-regulation, was middle of the road on these measures.

Australia’s was easily the most expensive and interventionist plan. Its $31 billion National Broadband Network will cost $4200 per household covered and 6.34% of government revenue.

By comparison ours looks cheap at $1470 per household and 2.12% of government revenue. However, many others cost less than 1% of government revenue.

Joyce did not respond by deadline to a request for comment.

- Sunday Star Times

The extraordinary “gift” was passed to a Customs officer at Christchurch Airport last year after a boozy New Year’s Eve jaunt by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and his entourage.

Saif was living large at the time of the incident, but is now in a fight for survival as his father’s regime collapses under a rebel assault backed by the United States, the United Kingdom and endorsed by our government.

Saif has been accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court and would be arrested if he tried to come back to New Zealand.

In December 2009, however, he was snapped by photographers on the tarmac at Christchurch Airport with his entourage, including Australian businessmen Tony and Charif Kazal. They went on to a big-spending week of partying in Queenstown, where they reportedly splashed cash around for specially chosen blonde beauties.

Doorman Regan Pearce told a local newspaper at the time that a member of Saif’s entourage “peeled a wad of banknotes from a gold money clip” and asked for a specific spot at the bar.

Saif, the most powerful of Gaddafi’s sons, was described in leaked US diplomatic cables as a “playboy” who “persisted in his hard-partying, womanising ways”.

The group carried on to a hunting trip and flew out on January 2 last year.

No one at Customs would be interviewed about the incident at the border, but in a written statement, the department confirmed the details.

A member of Saif’s entourage had handed over a sealed envelope to a Customs officer and the Libyans went on their way.

The officer accepted the envelope according to a protocol developed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“That protocol recommends against immediately rejecting gifts, including cash gifts, in order to avoid causing offence in sensitive cultural situations,” Customs said in a statement.

The envelope remained closed and the amount unknown until the delegation had departed. Officials then discussed what to do with the cash and it was eventually banked in the Crown accounts at the next working day, January 5, 2010.

“The money was clearly a gratuity, there were no irregularities in the processing of the passports for the delegation,” the statement said.

“No additional facilitation or exemptions to requirements had been, or were, provided.”

Such gifts were customary in some countries so the protocol was to not immediately reject them. The cash had been unexpected because the visit was private and even on official state visits, cash gifts were unusual.

New Zealand-Middle East Business Council chairman Michael Vukcevic said he doubted there was anything underhand about the cash gift.

It was not “a custom” as far as he knew and may have been an offer of gratuities or simply a matter of disposing of surplus local currency before travelling home.

New Zealand has severed all links with the former Gaddafi regime. Diplomatic contact has been established with the new interim government in Libya.

- Sunday Star Times

The police would not give any details aside from confirming a body was found this afternoon.

More information would be released tomorrow, police said.

A witness on the beach at the time said police officers removed the body. He believed the person was a young male, aged in his 20s.

- Waikato Times

John Lia, 23, died on the roadside in Nash Rd after a fight about 1.30am on Friday.

The New Lynn man suffered stab wounds and other injuries during the assault.

A 39-year-old Mt Roskill woman will appear in the Auckland District Court tomorrow charged with murder.

Three Samoan-born men also appeared in at the District Court charged with assault yesterday.

Unalotu Kipulotu Tongia, 19, Esau Vailagilala, 19, and Faamanu Fesuluai, 43, were all remanded in custody until tomorrow when more serious charges were expected to be laid.

Tongia acknowledged his father, who sat sobbing in the public gallery during the brief appearance.

A lawyer for Vailagilala said an interpreter would be required as the accused spoke little English.

A post-mortem had been done, but police declined to comment on the cause of death.

Lia had earlier been at a small party nearby in Revel Ave. Police were interviewing everyone from the party.

St John was called to attend to an injured man, but he died at the scene.

Resident Baptista Abreo said he woke up to police activity shortly before 2am.

“There were four or five police cars and then some ambulances,” he said.

“The helicopter was here and at one point a police car with dogs arrived and they searched.”

“It is very nice street, quiet usually,” Abreo said.

A member of Lia’s extended family said he was a “really good person” who was “very quiet”.

She said Lia often stayed with her family in Weymouth. Lia was born in Samoa and had lived in New Zealand for about 10 years.

- Auckland Now

Counties Manukau Police have made three further arrests as a result of their continuing investigations into the attempted security breach at Auckland’s International Airport Domestic Terminal last Saturday.

The arrest follows Benjamin Boyce, 33, Bryce Casey, 32, and Andrew Robinson, 26 who appeared in Manukau District Court yesterday charged with breaching the Civil Aviation Act.

Those arrested include a 27 year old cameraman, a 40 year old sound recordist, and 24 year old production coordinator. All are from Auckland.

The three men were arrested this morning. They will appear in the Counties Manukau District Court this afternoon on charges under Section 56A of the Civil Aviation Act 1990.

Police are not looking for any further persons linked to this investigation.

Retailer Dick Smith‘s online store hit an apparent glitch this morning that allowed customers to ‘purchase’ any product on the store for $0.

The glitch allowed Project7 Reporter Luke Chandler to purchase a 40-inch Sony Bravia, 11-inch MacBook Air and a Canon twin lens 500D Camera worth more than $3000, charging a mere $4.95 delivery fee.

The website has now been taken offline while Dick Smith update their site with the correct prices.

Dick Smith released a statement via their official Twitter account: ‘As some of you would has seen there was a technical issue with pricing on our website. We are working to have correct pricing restored.’ ‘For orders placed we will be in contact with you to confirm cancellation or whether you would like the items at their correct pricing.’

- Project7.co.nz

The Earthquake Commission is threatening police action against contractors who file fraudulent invoices.

Chief Executive Ian Simpson said his staff have had sufficient cause for concern about some invoices and that initial discussions had been held with police detectives about the potential for laying fraud charges.

EQC has recently been criticised for failing to pay contractors.

Calvin Fisher, secretary of the Amalgamated Workers Union, said the union was currently filing legal action against the EQC for failing to pay contractors.

Simpson says the Commission is paying the majority of contractors by the 20th of the month following receipt of an invoice, which is normal business practice.

However he says EQC will not be forced by a campaign in the media to pay invoices that appear suspect without further investigation.

“The majority of contractors are doing a great job helping to rebuild Christchurch and the Canterbury region. They are providing a professional service to the homeowner and providing detailed and accurate invoices to EQC. These contractors are being paid in a timely fashion.

“We are dealing with thousands of invoices. In some cases the information provided by contractors is insufficient, but the charging is genuine,” he said.

“However we are concerned to find some companies are submitting invoices for work that, on investigation wasn’t done, or wasn’t done to a high enough standard. We are also getting invoices with hourly rates that are greatly inflated.”

There are 3500 contractors working under the Fletchers structure and around $8 million is being paid to the contractors weekly.

- TVNZ

The Supreme Court has thrown out a bid by the man who murdered “Good Samaritan” Austin Hemmings to have his minimum jail term of 16 years reduced.

Mr Hemmings, 44, died in September 2008 after going to help a woman Pauesi Leofa Brown was attacking. Brown stabbed Mr Hemmings in the chest.

Brown admitted murder just before his trial was due to start and last year was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The sentencing judge reduced his starting point of 16-1/2 years minimum non-parole by six months but Brown went to the Supreme Court arguing the reduction was not enough.

However, in a decision released today, the court rejected his argument, saying it had no merit.

The starting point could have been higher, the justices said.

“The sentence was, if anything, lenient and the guilty plea was not deserving of any greater reduction.”

- NZPA

Muslim women can be forced to remove their face veils during routine car stops under new powers granted to NSW police.

Premier Barry O’Farrell said cabinet had approved the move on Monday so police could properly identify motorists or any other people suspected of committing a crime.

“I don’t care whether a person is wearing a motor cycle helmet, a burqa, niqab, face veil or anything else, the police should be allowed to require those people to make their identification clear,” he said in a statement.

Last week, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said police needed stronger powers to identify women who wear full facial veils.

It follows the case of Sydney woman Carnita Matthews, who in November 2010 was sentenced to six months in jail for falsely accusing a police officer of forcibly trying to remove her burqa.

The case arose after Ms Matthews was pulled over while driving in Woodbine in June 2010.

However, the sentence was quashed on appeal last week after NSW District Court judge Clive Jeffreys ruled there was no evidence to confirm Ms Matthews filed a criminal complaint against the officer, because the person who did so was also wearing a veil and wasn’t positively identified.

An appeal has been launched against the decision but Mr O’Farrell said Attorney-General Greg Smith had been advised by the Director of Public Prosecutions it was unlikely to succeed.

However, Mr O’Farrell said the new police powers – which are expected to be in place within a couple of months – should help prevent a recurrence of such a case in the future.

“I have every respect for various religions and beliefs but when it comes to enforcing the law the police should be given adequate powers to make a clear identification,” he said.

Police have had the power to ask women to remove face veils during the investigation of serious offences but did not have such powers during routine car stops.

Mr O’Farrell later defended the move, saying the state’s Islamic Council has said the wearing of face veils is not compulsory.

“The good news is that the Islamic Council of NSW has made the point that it’s not compulsory in relation to their religion,” Mr O’Farrell told reporters in Sydney on Monday night.

“It’s also an issue with other religions, it’s also an issue with other cultures, but whether it’s the drivers’ licence or passage through customs, identity checks are required in this day and age and we’re determined to ensure police have the powers (to implement them).”

Mr O’Farrell said the law in its current form is “vague”.

“So we’re going to ensure if police have any concerns about anybody who is wearing any form of face mask, they can seek to establish that person’s identity and those people will be required to obey.”

-AAP

Kate Moss buried her head in her hands in embarrassment at the best man’s speech at her wedding on Friday.

The honours were done by her new husband Jamie Hince’s Kills bandmate Alison Mosshart, and onlookers claim the 37-year-old model was not impressed by the “rambling” speech, which included a list of ways for Kate to “treat her man”.

A source told The Sun newspaper: “It was tumbleweed stuff. Alison got it all wrong. It was a rambling, boring and patronising speech.

“Kate had her head in her hands by the end and people were telling Kate’s brother to pull the plug on the microphone.”

Following the lavish reception – which was attended by a galaxy of stars, including Sir Paul McCartney, Sadie Frost and her ex-husband Jude Law and went on until 7am on Saturday morning – Kate sent out personalised notes to villagers in the town of Little Faringdon, Oxfordshire, England, to thank them for their “patience” in dealing with all the disruption they incurred due to the nuptials.

Handwritten notes on headed paper said: “Thank you for your patience and understanding, lots of love Kate and Jamie.”

They were also treated to bottles of Moet champagne and chocolates.
Local resident Mick Hackett told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “It was a really nice thing for them to do.”

The newlyweds are now heading away on their honeymoon, having been lifted out of the Cotswolds estate by a helicopter to a nearby airport.

It is believed they are heading for either a tour of Africa or Thailand for the holiday.

- BANG! Showbiz