2013年7月26日星期五

NZ rowers win two titles at Henley


Michael Arms and Robbie Manson have produced a record-breaking performance to win the men's double sculls at the Henley Royal Regatta in England Men clothing styles.

The pair clocked 6min 48sec over the 2112m course to eclipse the previous best time for their event by two seconds.

The regatta operates under a head-to-head knock-out format, and Arms and Manson beat British opponents Bill Lucas and Matt Langridge by two lengths in the final.

There was a second title for New Zealand after Olympic men's pairs champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond came from behind to score a comfortable victory over South Africans David Hunt and Vincent Breet.

Murray and Bond finished in a record-equalling time of 6:56 and their margin of victory was listed as "easily".

However, two other New Zealand crews had to settle for second place Shopping in Hong Kong.

Women's single sculler Emma Twigg was beaten "easily" by Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova, the Czech's time of 8:06 matching the regatta record.

The men's quadruple sculls combination of Hayden Cohen, Nathan Flannery, Fergus Fauvel and Nathan Cohen finished 4-1/2 lengths behind British opponents representing the Leander Club and Reading University jp morgan asset management.

2013年7月3日星期三

Dotcom and Key spar over spy bill


Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has jousted with Prime Minister John Key over proposed new spying powers and again accused Mr Key of lying about what he knew about him before last year's raid on his mansion hong kong apartments.

Dotcom addressed parliament's intelligence and security committee on Wednesday, as the government considers allowing the normally foreign-focused Government Communications Security Bureau to spy on New Zealanders.

In a sometimes testy submission, Dotcom told the five-member committee that expanding the government's spying powers was "morally indefensible".

Dotcom said he had the misfortune of being spied upon by the GCSB before his arrest last year. That was later revealed to be illegal as he is a New Zealand citizen.

The United States is trying to extradite him to face charges over his Megaupload website, saying he made millions of dollars from pirated copies of films and television productions.

Mr Key, the committee chairman, last year apologised to Dotcom, but on Wednesday Dotcom asked whether that could be considered a real apology if the prime minister now wanted to legalise an illegality.

He said the GCSB was a subsidiary of the US National Security Agency with the US calling the shots.

Dotcom urged New Zealand not to follow the US into the "dark ages of spying abuse", where the US had recently been exposed over the extent of its snooping on allies.

His US piracy charges against him were now "deeply ironic", he said PCoIP Protocol.

"Privacy needs heroes just like the anti-nuclear movement needs heroes."

He said surveillance could be manipulated by special interests, such as Hollywood had on his mansion raid.

"The proposed GCSB bill is not a clarification. It's a huge overreach by an agency that has shown it cannot operate legally...

"[It] is morally indefensible."

Dotcom also accused Mr Key of being aware of what he was doing when he moved to Mr Key's Helensville electorate, despite Mr Key previously denying he knew of Dotcom until he was briefed the day before the raid.

"He knew about me before the raid, I knew about that."

"I didn't, no," Mr Key replied.

"You know I know.

""I know you don't know, actually and that's fine," Mr Key said.

"Why are you turning red, Mr Prime Minister?

"I'm not, why are you sweating?"

"It's hot."

Mr Key ended the session, despite efforts by Green Party leader Russel Norman to extend the submission.

"See you later, it's been fun," Mr Key said DSE Mock.

Outside the hearing Dotcom said he had proof that Mr Key knew about him well before last year's raid. He would not elaborate on what the proof was, but said it would emerge at his extradition hearing next year.