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Search giant's staff criticised by committee for not doing enough to take down images taken from Max Mosley orgy video It was the latest stage in a long-running inquiry into privacy but the appearance of two senior Google executives before a joint parliamentary committee turned into an...

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Alison Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service talks about the Lawrence case and why a debate on rape is needed Alison Saunders is probably the UK's most experienced criminal prosecutor. She has overseen the convictions of serial rapists and serial murderers – and, in one particularly...

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Alison Saunders says jurors arrive at court with preconceptions about women which affects how they consider evidence The demonisation of young women is contributing to the failure to secure more convictions of suspected rapists, one of the country's leading prosecutors warns on Monday. Some...

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Protest march in support of human rights advocate Baltasar Garzón, who is also on trial over Franco-era prosecutions He has put dictators, torturers, terrorists and drug barons in the dock. Now, he himself faces an extraordinary battery of criminal charges. The already astonishing drama...

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The financial performance of handset, tablet and set-top box maker Motorola suggests that it won't add $12bn (including $3bn of cash) in value to Google's business. But how can Google possibly earn its money back from patents? Google intends to buy Motorola Mobility (MMI) for $12.5bn. Is it a...

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When the UN convenes a discussion on the rule of law, they would should restate some common sense principles This September the United Nations secretary general will convene what is called, in UN parlance, a "high level segment" of the general assembly to discuss "the rule of...

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A council planner was dumped from a hotly debated heritage case after refusing to sign his name to approve demolition of a 130-year-old cottage in Freemans Bay, new evidence shows. The latest twist in the heritage controversy follows the revelation that the resource consent application to...

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Judge suggests there is a distinction between social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and news organisations Lord Justice Leveson has indicated that he believes social networks such as Twitter and Facebook should be treated differently from newspapers in any new regulatory regime for the...

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New front in legal battles would require written permission from search giant, as patent battles continue to ramp up over Android Google specifically gave permission for Motorola Mobility (MMI) to file a new lawsuit against Apple over its iPhone 4S and iCloud products, according to an analysis...

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Ex-Guatemalan dictator Ríos Montt faces genocide charges as presidents in El Salvador and Colombia apologise for massacres Latin America is confronting past civil wars and dictatorships this week with a series of prosecutions and apologies that are shining a light on decades-old atrocities....

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The European sovereign debt crisis and Canterbury earthquakes were two bad jolts to the New Zealand economy in 2011, but the economy and financial system have the capacity to weather such shocks, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said today. In a speech to the Canterbury Employers’...

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The Environmental Protection Authority is reminding a number of new sectors that they need to register as participants of the Emissions Trading Scheme by the end of this month. Under the Climate Change Response Act, sectors joining the scheme this year must register by 31 January 2012. These...

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An Oklahoma lawmaker has proposed legislation to ban any use of foetuses in food in one of the more bizarre twists in the emotive US battle over abortion. The bill comes after wild rumors began circulating online and among anti-abortion groups that soft drink giant, Pepsi, was using aborted...

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The Financial Markets Authority is giving all issuers of investments to the public until January 1 next year to get all their prospectuses and investment statements comply with the new financial markets conduct law. The financial markets watchdog has also issued guidelines for issuers to help...

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A Crown witness in the trial of three Bridgecorp bosses is sticking to her guns and maintains she talked to former director Rod Petricevic about the failed finance company missing payments to investors. Petricevic and fellow directors Rob Roest and Peter Steigrad are accused of making untrue...

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Sir Michael Fay has long-played by the Golden Rule ("He who owns the Gold rules!"). But Fay's move to file High Court proceedings before two Cabinet Ministers have even given their decision on the Pengxin bid for the Crafar dairy farms is quite extraordinary. Neither Maurice...

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Prime Minister John Key says the Government did not have any valid reasons to refuse approval for the Chinese bid from Shanghai Pengxin to buy the 16 Crafar farms - and blocking it may have broken the law. The ministers responsible for overseeing Overseas Investment Office decisions - Maurice...

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The liquidator for failed lender Five Star Finance has lost its bid to void a series of transactions worth some $929,000. In the High Court at Auckland, Associate Judge Roger Bell turned down an application by liquidators Gerald Rea and Paul Sargison of Gerry Rea Partners to void payments by...

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The Serious Fraud Office has laid a total of 92 criminal charges against the three directors of failed Gisborne finance company Rockforte Finance, which collapsed with deposits guaranteed by the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme and whose receivership is likely to cost the taxpayer the thick...

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The Financial Markets Authority today published draft guidance for securities issuers, directors and their advisers on how to prepare and present effective prospectuses and investment statements. CEO Sean Hughes said FMA welcomed comments and suggestions from interested parties before the...

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Bold plans to extend Auckland's port 250m into the Waitemata Harbour are going through the Auckland Council for formal approval without a full public debate. Ports of Auckland is asking councillors to "lock in place" a coastal zone allowing it to expand its waterfront operations from...

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Former National Finance boss Trevor Allan Ludlow has had nine months added to his prison sentence for misleading investors and making false financial statements. Ludlow's prison sentence was extended in the High Court at Auckland this morning after he pleaded guilty in December to eight...

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A new approach to describing how amendments are made in legislation New ways to describe amendments have been approved for use in legislation that sets out amendments to be made to other legislation. The changes will make amendments easier to follow, and more efficient to draft and to apply....

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Auckland Council will seek a new court order to remove the remaining few Occupy Auckland protesters camping out in Aotea Square. The occupiers have been in the square for more than 100 days and the council went to court last month to win the legal right to evict the remaining protesters and...

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A law amendment will make it easier for police to lock up online sexual predators. From March, police can pretend to be a person under the age of 16 in order to arrest older people grooming them. Previously, if a police officer was impersonating an underage child it might not have been an...

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University lecturer Theodora Dallas jailed for six months for researching criminal defendant while serving on jury A former university lecturer who carried out online research about a criminal defendant while serving as a juror has been jailed for six months. Theodora Dallas, 34, who taught...

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Guidance from the director of public prosecutions on thorny issue of 'joint enterprise' is long overdue Two weeks after the conviction of the killers of Stephen Lawrence, today's report on joint enterprise by the commons justice select committee could not be more timely. Central to the...

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The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to an application from IAG seeking clearance to acquire AMI Insurance. Both IAG and AMI supply general insurance including house, contents, and motor vehicles. The statement of preliminary issues outlines the key...

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The Commerce Commission will look at whether banks will act as a competitive constraint on insurers when it weighs up whether Insurance Australia Group is allowed to acquire the good businesses of AMI Insurance. The antitrust regulator has to test whether the takeover will substantially...

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A significant player in New Zealand’s industrial history celebrates 40 years in operation today. What is now known as the Mediation Service of the Department of Labour was set up under the leadership of J D Gibb on 25 January 1972 to address the growing number of stoppages and the...

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A major department of the failed finance firm Bridgecorp showed a "substantial turnaround in business practice" just months before the company collapsed, a court heard this morning. The trial of three former Bridgecorp directors accused of misleading investors - Rod Petricevic, Rob...

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The defence lawyers of three former Bridgecorp directors dug deep into detail in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, laboriously cross-examining Crown witnesses over documents, statements and reports. Directors Rod Petricevic, Rob Roest and Peter Steigrad are accused of misleading investors...

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Three of the South Canterbury five changed with committing New Zealand's biggest white-collar fraud are now known. Lachie McLeod, former chief executive, this week sought a release from name suppression following moves by Terry Hutton and Graeme Brown. All three deny 21 charges brought...

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A group of Rotorua residents say they are being forced to sue their council after the Department of Building and Housing took the rare step of revoking building consents and code compliance certificates for the cracked and subsiding homes they poured their savings into. John and Eileen Grundy,...

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Protestors are preparing to march on Mayor Len Brown's office after labelling moves to evict Occupy Auckland campsites "piggish" and "bulls**t". Two protesters were dragged away and arrested as Auckland Council warranted officers and police evicted the Occupy Auckland...

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Freedom campers about to light a fire at their illegal campsite on the Coromandel Peninsula had to be stopped by council staff last week. The bylaw enforcement officers came across the campers as they were preparing to set fire to vegetation they had gathered, despite the peninsula being in a...

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The owner of a Christchurch building that collapsed in the February 22 earthquake, killing four people including a mother and her newborn baby, faced criticism at a Royal Commission hearing this morning for taking no action after the September 2010 shake. Eelco Wiersma, owner of the Ruben...

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Auckland's tree contractors say fewer landowners than expected are able to take advantage of a law change that promised to let them remove trees without a council consent. They blame confusion over tree-chopping rights caused by Auckland Council's last-minute bid to stop open-slather removal...

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If world-class liveable Auckland is to have a shiny new 15-storey brothel, then where better to put it than in the Sodom and Gomorrah Precinct, cheek by jowl to the casino. The Catholic bishop says it will destroy our chances of being a "family-friendly place," but let's face it, he's...

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The process of making tobacco-smoking socially unacceptable grinds on with a remorseless inevitability. It's a safe bet that, by the end of this century, tobacco-smokers will be confined to darkened rooms, like the opium dens and speakeasies of the past. It has been a swift shift in public...

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Outspent but hardly outgunned, online and high-tech companies triggered an avalanche of internet clicks last week to force Congress to shelve legislation that would curb online piracy. They outmanoeuvred the entertainment industry and other old guard business interests, leaving them bitter and...

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Governments must strike a balance between policing the internet to protect copyright and upholding freedom of expression, EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said. Reding was reacting to a US crackdown on hundreds of websites accused of offering pirated music or movies or counterfeit goods,...

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Greater Wellington Regional Council chair, former MP and Wellington mayor, Fran Wilde, says a Herald on Sunday columnist needs to rethink her view of local government amalgamation. Deborah Coddington's normally rational approach was abandoned in last week's column on possible local government...

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Thousands of Turks from across Europe marched through the French capital Saturday denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide. Turks young and old, waving their country's red flag, or wrapped in it,...

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In what appears to be a reaction against the arrest of a New Zealand resident and several others over internet piracy, dozens of major internet websites have been brought down this afternoon, including the United States Department of Justice site. Gizmodo.com is reporting that the shutdown of...

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Businesses, homeowners, marae and other users of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) across New Zealand are being urged to make sure they meet legal requirements, as the deadline to comply nears. The reminder comes from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), following the reassessment of LPG...

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Indigenous Australians should be recognised in the body of the constitution and racist sections should be scrapped, an expert panel has recommended. Labor has promised to hold a national referendum on the constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians on or before the next federal...

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All parties involved in the battle over Project Hayes agree on one thing - it's been an expensive exercise. The six-year campaign has taken a toll personally and financially on participants, say opponents and supporters of the wind farm planned for the Lammermoor Range, which has been shelved...

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Seafaring tradition holds that the captain should be last to leave a sinking ship. But is it realistic to expect skippers only human after all to suppress their survival instinct amid the horror of a maritime disaster? To ask them to stare down death from the bridge, as the lights go out and...

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A judge has given a young man who saw a murder and fled to New Zealand on a false passport a second chance to stay in the country. Judge Roy Wade has offered to discharge the 30-year-old without conviction if he completes 200 hours of community work, so he can argue his case to stay and not be...

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