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AAPQuote:
A Sydney pensioner whose winning lottery ticket was cancelled by mistake has been awarded $A2 million ($NZ2.3 million) in damages by the NSW Supreme Court.
Werner Reinhold successfully sued NSW Lotteries and the newsagency which sold him the ticket and then cancelled it.
The 73-year-old bought an Oz Lotto autopick at the Macarthur Newsagency at Campbelltown, in Sydney's south-west, on September 19, 2005.
The ticket did not print correctly and he was issued another, which won the $A2 million jackpot.
But when Mr Reinhold went back to the newsagency, he discovered the replacement ticket was the one that had been cancelled.
Justice Reginald Barrett today awarded Mr Reinhold $A2 million in damages, despite finding he had no claim on the $A2 million prize.
"Mr Reinhold has failed in his claim to enforce the contract to which he, lotteries and the newsagents were parties by means of an order that lotteries pay him the prize of $A2 million that would have been payable in respect of the entry reflected by ticket B had ticket B not been cancelled," Justice Barrett said in his judgment.
"Mr Reinhold has also failed in the claim, pressed also by the newsagents, to have the electronic records of lotteries rectified in a way that would lead to such an order.
"But Mr Reinhold has succeeded in establishing liability of lotteries and the newsagents for both breach of contract and negligence such as to entitle him to judgment for damages in the sum of $A2 million."
Justice Barrett said he would now hear argument on the question of whether interest should be awarded on the damages, and on the question of costs
ReutersQuote:
The CIA's current techniques for interrogation of terrorism suspects are lawful and do not include the widely condemned simulated drowning method known as waterboarding, US Attorney Michael Mukasey has told Congress.
Mukasey declined, however, in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy on the eve of testimony before the panel, to say whether he considered waterboarding to be illegal. A US official confirmed last week that waterboarding had been used in the past but was not in current use
ReutersQuote:
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WINNER: US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain greets his supporters at his Florida primary election night rally in Miami. McCain has scored a hard-fought win in Florida's presidential primary.
John McCain has scored a hard-fought win in Florida's presidential primary, seizing the front-runner's role in a heated Republican race and possibly ending one-time favorite Rudy Giuliani's White House bid.
McCain, an Arizona senator, defeated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in a tight Florida battle that gives him critical momentum heading into critical February 5 "Super Tuesday" voting in 21 states with Republican contests.
The result could mean the end for Giuliani, a former New York mayor who staked his campaign on a strong showing in Florida but was battling former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for a distant third-place finish after leading national polls for much of the year.
Giuliani reportedly was pondering dropping out and endorsing McCain as early as Wednesday, and talked about his campaign in the past tense during a speech to supporters in Orlando, Florida.
"We ran a campaign that was uplifting," Giuliani said. "You don't always win, but you can always try to do it right."
McCain's win put him at the front of the pack in a seesawing Republican race to pick the party's candidate in November's presidential election. He picks up all of Florida's 57 delegates to the national nominating convention.
New York Senator Hillary Clinton easily won a Florida Democratic race that featured no active campaigning because of a dispute between the national and state parties. The national party stripped the state of its delegates to the national convention and Democratic candidates pledged to stay away.
Clinton, who lost to rival Barack Obama in a landslide in South Carolina on Saturday, visited the state after polls closed in a bid to claim at least a symbolic victory.
"Thank you Florida. I could not come here to ask in person for your votes but I am here to thank you for your votes," she told supporters in Davie, Florida.
McCain and Romney had dominated the headlines in Florida with a heated battle over who was best prepared to rescue a struggling economy and lead a country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I think it's time for the politicians to leave Washington and for the citizens to take over," Romney told supporters in St. Petersburg, Florida. "At a time like this, America needs a president in the White House who has actually had a job in the real economy."
McCain had gained in polls in recent days since his endorsements by Florida Governor Charlie Crist and US Senator Mel Martinez of Florida.
McCain and Romney had split the last four of the state-by-state nominating contests. McCain won in South Carolina and New Hampshire and Romney carried Michigan and Nevada, the latter a state scarcely contested by other Republicans. Huckabee won the kick-off contest in Iowa.
Huckabee also said he planned to go on to compete in the February 5 contests, which include several Southern states like his home state of Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia.
"We're a long way from quittin'," he said on Fox News Channel.
- NZPAQuote:
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NOT GUILTY: Tea Ropati and wife Vanessa Ropati leave the courthouse after he was found not guilty on six sex charges.
Former Kiwis rugby league test player Tea Ropati was today found not guilty of six sex charges, including rape.
The seven men and five women on the jury, who retired at 1pm yesterday, delivered their verdicts on the eighth day of the Auckland District Court trial, after almost 12 hours of deliberations.
Ropati, 42, had denied three charges of sexual violation, including one count of rape, and three charges of attempted sexual violation.
The charges arose from incidents at a Ponsonby bar and at Victoria Park in the early hours of June 15, 2006, involving a female complainant who was 36 at the time.
The crown argued that Ropati took advantage of the woman, who was so intoxicated that she could not have consented to sexual activity with him.
The defence denied that a rape occurred because Ropati stopped short of having full sex with the woman as he felt guilty on account of his wife, and said the sexual activity that did take place was consensual.
It was standing room only in the packed court room when the jury returned to give its verdicts.
Ropati's wife, Vanessa, who had given testimony on behalf of her husband during the trial, sat at the back with a supporter on each side holding her hands.
The verdicts, given one after the other, were greeted intially with silence, although Mrs Ropati broke out in a smile of relief after the first few of the not guilty announcements.
But immediately after the final verdict, there was pandemonium as Ropati's supporters erupted with a loud shout of "yes" and some in the gallery sobbed.
One of his brothers, broadcaster Peter Ropati, called out that the case had been "absolute rubbish".
"Right from the start, it should not have been," he said.
Judge Phil Gittos warned that he would clear the court room unless there was silence.
Outside the court room, tensions boiled over with one of Ropati's supporters slapping the face of a photographer.
Ropati showed little emotion while the verdicts were read out, but at the end clasped his hands in an offer of thanks to the jurors.
Outside the court room, he hugged his wife and their baby.
Ropati later made a brief statement to media.
"I want to thank my family and all my friends," he said.
"Without them I would not have been able to cope throughout all of this. I'm just pretty relieved that it's all over."
Ropati is due back in court tomorrow to face a separate charge of driving under the influence of alcohol on New Year's Day.
In a written statement read out by defence counsel Gary Gotlieb, Ropati said he knew he had to address ongoing issues with alcohol.
The complainant in the case issued a written statement.
"While I am devastated by the verdict, I have no regrets about coming forward and would still encourage any woman who endures this type of experience to do so," she said.
"This is the only way we can make sure that our society remains safe for women."
reutersQuote:
A suicide bomber has struck an Afghan army bus in the centre of Kabul, causing numerous casualties, officials said.
One civilian was killed and four people were wounded, including an army officer, they said.
The suicide bomber was in a car, a police official said, adding he blew himself up prematurely, before reaching the target.
"The army bus was passing from here when the explosion occurred. It looked like the whole place caught fire. Pieces of metal were flying. I saw one man on bicycle got hurt and policemen put him on an ambulance," said witness Sayed Tahir.
Ambulances were seen leaving the scene with sirens screaming, and several civilian vehicles were also damaged by the blast, witnesses said.
Buses carrying army and police personnel are a favoured Taliban target with at least 65 killed in four such previous attacks in the capital since June last year.
Taliban guerrillas launched more than 140 suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan last year, the highest since the US-led military toppled the Islamic group's government in 2001.
The movement is leading an insurgency against the government and foreign troops under the command of Nato and the US military. Any one supporting them is also a target.
In the latest violence, Taliban fighters beheaded four Afghan civilians who worked for a local road project in the eastern province of Nuristan on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.
The Taliban could not be reached for comment about the reported beheadings and the suicide blast.
ReutersQuote:
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, reinforcing an ultimatum over Afghanistan, has told US President George W Bush that Ottawa would withdraw its military mission next year unless Nato sent in more troops, officials said.
Canada, which has 2500 soldiers in the southern city of Kandahar, is fed up with the refusal of other Nato nations to send more forces to the violent southern part of Afghanistan. The Canadian mission there is due to end in February 2009.
Harper said on Monday he accepted the recommendations of an independent panel which urged Canada to end the mission unless Nato provided 1000 extra troops and Ottawa obtained helicopters and aerial reconnaissance vehicles.
A spokeswoman said Harper had talked to Bush on Wednesday about the report.
"He underscored that, unless Canada was able to meet the conditions specified by the panel of additional combat troops and equipment from Nato allies, Canada's mission in Afghanistan will not be extended," she said.
Washington says it will press Nato allies to send more troops to southern Afghanistan. But the Pentagon said on Tuesday it would not commit any more of its own forces there.
Nato says it agrees with Canada about the need to bolster its peace operation, but the alliance dismisses the idea that members are dragging their feet.
"Canada has played and continues to play a very important role in a strategically important part of Afghanistan and we would like to see that role continue," Nato spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels.
"Certainly Nato will, to the extent that we can, support any efforts to garner more forces including for the south. We have a long standing request to nations to provide additional resources."
So far, 78 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have died since Ottawa deployed troops to Afghanistan in 2002. An Ipsos-Reid poll released on Saturday said 50 per cent of Canadians backed he mission and 46 per cent opposed it.
Nice read, thanks.
SkyQuote:
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Abu Laith al Libi
US forces say an al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan who was one of Osama bin Laden's top six lieutenants has been killed.Abu Laith al Libi was the first spokesman to announce bin Laden had survived the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
He was "martyred along with a group of his brothers on the territory of Islamic Pakistan", a statement from the al Qaeda-linked Al Fajr Media Centre said.
The reference to Pakistan suggested Libi, said by the intelligence officials to be a field commander, may have died in a suspected US missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week.
A Western intelligence official, who declined to be named, said: "This individual is in the top half dozen figures in al Qaeda... who has a long record of military activity on behalf of al Qaeda.
"At this point, there is no reason to doubt that he is dead. There are indications that he is in fact dead."
A Pakistani daily, The News, reported the suspected US strike on Monday had targeted Libi and another senior figure, Obaidah al Masri, though residents in the tribal area had said the attack had targeted second or third-tier al Qaeda leaders.
Tribesmen in the area had said a deputy of the Libyan-born Libi had been staying in the area, which borders Afghanistan, and was among the dead, according to an intelligence official.
Libi appeared in a video issued in November with al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al Zawahri, to announce that a Libyan Islamist group had joined the organisation.
Islamist websites have carried messages from Libi, including one in May in which he said al Qaeda in Afghanistan was willing to exchange prisoners with Britain and other Western countries.
In October, the U.S. military in Afghanistan named Libi among several "mid-level" al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and offered a £100,000 bounty for him, US media reported.
Nice read, thanks.