New Zealand Herald

Charlie Dempsey x 2 – Harry Potter – Olympics Jobs – Cancer Patient – Bank Robbery – Accident Tragedy – Doctor Guilty – Mark Todd – Cancer Inquiry – Robert Mahuta

CHARLIE DEMPSEY: A Tongan soccer executive has backed Charlie Dempsey's claim that he was given a free hand in voting to decide the host nation for the 2006 World Cup. 'Ahongalu Fusimalohi, who represents Tonga on the Oceania Football Confederation, says he understands six of the eleven OFC nations agreed to release Dempsey from his instructions to support South Africa's bid for the Cup once England was eliminated.

CHARLIE DEMPSEY: Charlie Dempsey insisted to a sceptical soccer world yesterday that he had been given a free hand to act in the best interests of Oceania before his World Cup no-vote.

HARRY POTTER: Auckland sisters Victoria and Michelle Whimp consider themselves the luckiest in the land since Harry Potter's latest adventure made an early arrival at their house. Michelle, aged 10, burst into tears of excitement when her father pulled a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from his suitcase early yesterday on his arrival home from the United States, where the book went on sale at 12.01 am on July 8.

OLYMPICS JOBS: Thousands of New Zealanders are heading across the Tasman to cash in on the Olympic boom. Recruitment companies and official Olympic bodies are hunting staff for the September Games for everything from cleaning toilets to chauffeuring athletes.

CANCER PATIENT: South Auckland Health has been slammed as "lax and insensitive" by the Health and Disability Commissioner in its handling of the death of a young cancer patient. The family of 21-year-old Amanda Garden, who died at Middlemore Hospital in 1998, complained about her care and the way they were dealt with.

BANK ROBBERY: When Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor he became a hero. But when an alleged bank robber tried the same ploy in Palmerston North yesterday he was sent for psychiatric assessment.

ACCIDENT TRAGEDY: Hafeez Abu Saad Hakim had seen more tragedy than anyone deserved to. The 19-year-old Auckland man, who witnessed the slaying of most of his family 10 years ago, died on Friday - still embroiled in a legal wrangle with his father over his inheritance.

DOCTOR GUILTY: A Rotorua doctor has been found guilty of unbecoming conduct after a disciplinary hearing into the severe brain damage of a Bay of Plenty boy during his 1994 birth. The doctor, whose name and specific occupation are suppressed, appeared before a Medical Practitioner's Disciplinary Tribunal in May.

MARK TODD: Blurry photographs alleged to be of equestrian Mark Todd snorting cocaine appeared in New Idea yesterday after the magazine paid more than $20,000 for them. The images, first printed by Britain's Sunday Mirror, were allegedly taken last month in an Oxford hotel room where Todd is said to have snorted the drug during an encounter with a gay lover.

CANCER INQUIRY: When Gisborne gynaecologist Diane Van de Mark became alarmed at the number of women coming to her with invasive cervical cancer, she started recording their names in a notebook. She collected 17 names in 30 months. Three of those on her list have died.

ROBERT MAHUTA: Tainui leader Sir Robert Mahuta is tipped to be dumped today as head of the financially troubled tribe's corporate bodies. The Herald has been told the iwi executive, Tekaumarua, yesterday resolved to strip Sir Robert of his company directorships, including the Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust, MDC Investment Holdings and Tainui Group Holdings.

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