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After surviviving the living hell of the holocaust over sixty years ago, an 80 year old survivor, Katherine Schweitzer, was found strangled to death in a wheelie bin near her Bellevue Hill unit for senior citizens in Sydney late last year.

What a shocking and inauspicious end to a concentration camp survivor who outlasted every conceivable inhumanity the SS guards dished out to her. As they would say in Sydney, what a great little Aussie battler! This poor old widow with no known living relatives in Australia deserved a better end than that! Nobody to fend for her, nobody to protect her from such brutal human trash in her latter years.

She survived the terrors of a Nazi concentration camp to end up 10,000 miles away like some discarded piece of trash - it just wasn't fair; but life is not always fair, is it?

Police described the killing as "callous and bizarre", with no obvious motive.

The Police sought a man in his 20's near the unit block where Mrs Schweitzer met her extremely sad end to her long life on this planet.

Depraved is a good word. I just can't understand such acts; robbery, yes! But such a lack of basic human empathy! I'm getting on a little myself, and it makes me wonder a little. Our elderly folk, in whatever country, city or town, need somebody to keep an eye on them. Somebody just to call around a couple of times a week to say hello, and to be a contact for those elderly people if they need one. She may have seen somebody hanging around but had nobody to confide in!

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Well lightning struck again recently. The undoubted form and class rugby team of recent years failed at the World Rugby Cup. And brought down in a French ambush once again. What happened?

The All Blacks can beat any team in the world in a series, but in one off sudden death games it gets unstuck.It wins Southern Hemisphere Tri Nations Tournaments nearly every year. The same with The Bledisloe Cup matches against Australia. It thrashed the Lions at home a couple of years ago. It won a grand slam against the Home Nations last year.This year?

Let me tell you that Graham Henry got his own way as coach of the All Blacks and the NZRFU spent 50 million NZ dollars trying to win the RWC.

The All Blacks played wonderful rugby for three years and developed some wonderful players. Henry almost had two players in every position, except he never replaced Tana Umaga at outside centre, and used the world's potentially best fullback,Mils Muliaina, at centre when the other players failed for one reason or other, mostly through injuries.

Graham Henry's reconditioning programme, which saw 22 of the best All Blacks taken out of Super 14 for eight weeks, resulted in the AB's being underdone and injury prone at the business end of the world cup.The South Africans had the right programme, won the Super 14 without the AB's, beat England and won the world cup.Good on them!

Daniel Carter and Richie McCaw, the two best rugby players in world rugby during the last two years, went into the quarter finals against France with injuries that prevented them from lasting the game out. There were other AB's with injuries. Henry wanted and maintained he had two players in every position. There was no back up open side flanker to McCaw,only utility flanker Masoe; and Nick Evans followed Dan Carter to the stands with an injury too!

There are people who want Henry retained as coach. He is a very good coach, but maintained everything he had done was to win the RWC. He was a failure and should fall on his sword.The All Blacks have to have a new coach for the next world cup at home in New Zealand in 2011.The last time they won was at home at the inaugural world cup, where they were light years ahead of the opposition, including beaten finalists, France.

Four more years. congratulations to South Africa and England, special mention to Argentina, and Le Bleus!

http://orble.com/huttriver "The Writers Lounge"

Armed New Zealand police raid addresses throughout the country - terrorism suspicions...

Little New Zealand down in the South Pacific, 2000 miles and three hours east of Walzing Matilda country, Australia, is hardly considered potential terrorist country. But post 9/11 anything is possible I guess.

Consider our surprise yesterday, NZ time, when our daily newspapers and television news programs indicated that terorism is not only possible here, but may actually be in the process of beginning. Hells teeth!

Armed police have swooped across the country after a 12 month investigation, arresting many people, and seizing weapons,military style eqipment,body armour, army issue knives, and terrorist training manuals during the raids which were carried out under the Firearms Act and the Terrorist Suppression Act.

They discovered what they claim were terrorist training camps.This has been denied by Maori groups who claim other reasons for the camps. A variety of groups have been caught up in the raids.

At training camps in the isolated Urewera ranges in the north east of the North Island a loose alliance of activists are accused of plotting armed attacks. But who against, is the question here?

There have been claims of political reasons for the raids - an anti-terrorism Bill is being debated by members of parliament here.

The NZ Cabinet was briefed yesterday on the police operation. The alleged military operation was taken seriously. Claims that napalm bombs were being developed and one had already been detonated,was considered deeply serious.

There were reports that a specific threat was made recently against the prime minister, Helen Clark. She wouldn't comment on threats against her or other politicians. The Diplomatic Protection Squad was connected to the security operation.

Some people claim the operation was heavy handed and over the top. Whatever the real or perceived reasons for the raids, a number of accused people will be having their day in court in the next few days in attempts to obtain bail. But what do these people want with such weapons? Guns are designed to kill. Is it a real terrorist plot, or the scene of another Peter Jackson masterpiece?

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Farewell to little "Pumpkin" - we wish her well in her new life with her Grandmother in China.

She beamed into our lives through world TV news programs a few weeks ago; that poor little abandoned three year old at a Melbourne, Australia, train station. She was nick-named "Pumpkin" by Australian authorities, because of the Pumpkin Patch clothing she wore on that fateful night.

Soon the horrible truth that preceded her abandonment was revealed by New Zealand police. Her father had allegedly murdered her mother in Auckland and fled to Australia with his little daughter, callously and cold heartedly abandoning her at the train station, and catching a flight to Los Angeles.

Soon the little girl was identified as Qian Xun Xuecan. Her mother, Anan Liu, was found murdered in the boot of a car outside the family home in Auckland.

Later news revealed she had an elder half sister in Auckland,Grace,the estranged daughter of Nai Yin Xue,who is still being pursued by US marshals in California to this day, and due to appear on "America's Most Wanted" program in a few days or so.

In the meantime little Pumpkin was brought to New Zealand by Australian social services authorities to await a decision on her future.

After her maternal grandmother arrived in New Zealand and expressed her desire to look after her little grand-daughter,a family group conference was held in Auckland.

The Principal Family Court Judge, Peter Boshier, has made his decision in the case.The child's grandmother, Liu Xiao Ping, has been given custody of Qian Xun Xuecan, the youngster the New Zealand public knew as little "Pumpkin".

Apparently Judge Boshier had a difficult decision to make because of many conflicting Acts of Parliament which had to be balanced, creating tensions, and because of this significant parts of his decision were suppressed to the public.

Mrs Liu, the grandmother, accompanied by an interpreter and her lawyer,was spoken to directly by Judge Boshier.

I quote the Judge:" It is important to acknowledge at the outset to those members of the family present today the utterly tragic circumstances." And further." Above all else, I acknowledge the sadness of the circumstances that bring us here today."

He appointed Mrs Liu as an "additional guardian" under New Zealand's Care of Children Act.

Under the same Act the grandmother was given leave to apply for a parenting order so that the child "is placed into the day to day care of her grandmother".

He also ordered that Qian Xun Xuecan's elder half sister be given contact with the child through email, telephone, exchange of photos and visits when Grace is in China, or when the child is in New Zealand.

The parenting order allows Qian to live in China with her grandmother. Even though she is a New Zealand citizen, she is Chinese and has cultural links to China, and attachment to her grandmother is demonstratable.

Surprisingly, the child's father still has guardianship rights over the girl, something that will be reviewed at a later date.It was a very good and just decision by Judge Boshier, reflecting the famiy's wishes to support and protect the little girl.

Goodbye, little "Pumpkin" and best wishes from us all for the future!

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