American Buddhist Net

An activist from New Zealand has been arrested by Japan's coastguard after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean last month.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Two glass vials purportedly containing the ghosts of two dead people sold for 2,830 New Zealand dollars (1,983 US dollars) at an auction.

The "ghosts" were put up for sale by Avie Woodbury from the southern city of Christchurch.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The government may press charges under domestic law against a New Zealand activist who secretly boarded a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic Ocean, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Tuesday.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A poor university student in New Zealand who offered her virginity on an auction site has accepted a £20,000 offer to sleep with a stranger.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

...Warrant-less Searches

Once you are arrested or even simply detained, the police and enforcement officers are able to search your home, workplace, car, friend’s home or any place with which you are associated, without a warrant if they believe they can find evidential material related to the offence. This power, combined with ‘plain view’ searches is a nightmare. Whilst you are sitting in the cells, your home can be turned upside down with no warrant.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

New Zealand Police mounted a three day operation against The Daktory last Thursday, Friday,and Saturday. (31st December 2009, 1st and 2nd January 2010)

This involved Police parking up the street then following and stopping our members as they left The Daktory. Somehow the Police thought they had the right to randomly stop and search people and vehicles for the sole reason our members were departing from The Daktory. "A known place where cannabis is dealt", according to Police.

Unfortunately for Police, their actions are illegal and a formal complaint is being prepared.

After suffering this nonsense for 2 days a plan was hatched should they return for a third day. They did and the plan was implemented to perfection.

The plan was simple. Dakta Green would drive away from The Daktory (his home and current court approved bail address), circle the block and pull up outside The Daktory.

Would Police take the bait? They sure did.

The collision between an anti-whaling vessel operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and a Japanese whaler has sparked protests and discussion in Japan over the possibility of applying anti-piracy laws against the society.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The Japanese are masters at euphemism, as evidenced by their calling the ramming of the Ady Gil a "collision." I do not want to be judge and jury on this, and it is true that Sea Sheperd was deliberately hassling the whalers, but that is not the same as deliberately ramming them (not just "colliding" with). Here are two videos of the event that will let you decide for yourself: Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil, crew safe, boat sinking. I admit I am on the side of the whales, but the following statement from the Japanese official Akira Gunji criticizing Sea Shepherd does not help Japan's case at all, IMHO: It was dangerous behavior that threatened a ship from our country together with the lives of the crew and their property. It cannot be forgiven under any circumstances. Does it look to you like the Ady Gil is threatening the Japanese ship and lives of its crew or the other way around? ABN

A proudly “progressive” Anglican church in New Zealand turned heads and ruffled feathers this past week when it put up a billboard featuring an illustration of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, in bed.

The billboard, which has been twice put up and pulled down as many times by vandals “lampoons literalism and invites people to think again about what a miracle is”, say church leaders at St Matthew-in-the-City in Auckland.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

LINK TO ORIGINAL

An Auckland Anglican church decided last night to take down its controversial Christmas billboard after an elderly woman slashed it with a knife - the third attack in two days.

St Matthew-in-the-City vicar Archdeacon Glynn Cardy said he was worried that people could be injured if there were any further attacks on the picture of Mary and Joseph in bed after sex.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A New Zealand church has sparked outrage by erecting a billboard depicting Mary and Joseph lying semi-nude beneath the sheets.

In an unorthodox take on the Christmas tale, the billboard depicts a forlorn Joseph and Mary looking to the sky with a caption which reads: "Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Beware the labrador - and even the bichon frise. When it comes to dog attacks on humans, the culprits are not always the breeds we tend to vilify.

Lee Exler, of North Shore City animal control, said labradors and labrador-crosses - usually seen as dopey family dogs - usually top the area's bite statistics.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

This is from a New Zealand newspaper, but we've got all the same breeds here. Good to keep in mind, without being too paranoid of course, that all dogs really are descended from wolves. Robyn

A Maori legend about a giant, man-eating bird has been confirmed by scientists.

Te Hokioi was a huge black-and-white predator with a red crest and yellow-green tinged wingtips, in an account given to Sir George Gray, an early governor of New Zealand.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A New Zealand-based Burmese monk has spoken out in support of a new call for Buddhist monks to boycott military officials and their families across Burma in a protest over human rights abuses.

The call two years after the Saffron Revolution is a condemnation of continued political repression and human rights violations by the ruling military dictatorship, says the All Burma Young Monks’ Union.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Four monks living in a house in Wainuiomata have been forced to apply for resource consent on what appears to be an obscure technicality.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Two New Zealand journalists will set off explosives in the Gobi Desert in an attempt to find the legendary creature.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand biotech company began a trial Thursday that will implant cells from newborn pigs into eight human volunteers as an experimental treatment for their diabetes.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Canada: Court challenge aims to legalize all cannabis use--Advocates say previous rule a 'mockery'

...Zion Lion Park won worldwide fame in the television series, The Lion Man but its reputation is now in tatters following a string of animal attacks.

Buddhist monks were called in March to bless the park and "bring peace to the animals" after a teenager and an employee were attacked in separate incidents.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Police are hunting an Asian couple thought to have fled the country with millions of dollars, after a banking error.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

..."I'm not a Christian, I'm a Buddhist ... but it doesn't matter what an individual's beliefs are .. I think that ... mum and dad and the kids ... that's a model that works ... anywhere in the world."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A club for cannabis smokers has been openly flouting the law for months, with hundreds of people a night turning up to buy and smoke dope.

The "Daktory" has been operating from an Auckland warehouse since November and boasts having 400 people on a busy night.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Personality types are linked with structural differences in the brain - which could explain why one child grows up to be impulsive and outgoing while another becomes diligent and introspective.

Anatomical differences between the brains of 85 people have been measured and linked with the four main categories of personality types as defined by psychiatrists using a clinically recognised system of character evaluation.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A New Zealand father of six is desperate to give a 16-year-old daughter he has never met the chance of life outside a religious sect that still has his former wife in its grasp.

Phil Cooper escaped the sect, a Christian community set up by his father Neville Cooper in 1989 - bundling his five children and wife Sandy into a waiting car in the middle of the night.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

There has been a sharp rise in the number of New Zealanders with no religious affiliation, new research shows. In a study of 1,000 people by Massey University, 40 percent said they had no religious affiliation compared to 29 percent 17 years ago. Just over a third of New Zealanders described themselves as religious.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

...Hmmm - I think the words are 'get f*****' - just because South Africa are gutless wonders dependent on aid handouts from the Chinese, doesn’t mean we in NZ should bow to these demands. This is NZ, this is not the largest totalitarian communist dictatorship on the face of the planet and the Dalai Lama should be welcome here whenever he turns up. These Chinese residents need to understand that in their new home we allow people free speech and only ban them on the most serious of issues, and the Dalai Lama pointing out the brutal repression of his homeland certainly doesn’t get anywhere near those levels.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

An umbrella group representing 28 local Chinese organisations wants the Government to follow South Africa's lead in refusing to grant the Dalai Lama a visa to visit.

The 73-year-old Tibetan exiled spiritual leader is scheduled to visit Auckland on December 6. He will speak at the Vector Arena and plans to meet Prime Minister John Key.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

I think the Chinese community disgraces itself when it does stuff like this. And especially when they do it in a country that has given them the right to free speech. ABN

The allure of two female German hitch-hikers was blamed by a Southland man convicted of drink-driving.

Christopher Ralston, 30, was driving through Motueka in November when he stopped and got talking to two female German hitch-hikers, the Invercargill District Court heard yesterday.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

This reminds of the Buddhist story about the man who has a glass of wine, then decides to have another. Pretty soon he is tipsy and decides to steal his neighbor's chicken, which he kills and eats. When the neighbor comes over to ask him about her chicken, he lies and because he is drunk makes a pass at her. And thus, due to a single glass of wine, he breaks all five precepts. ABN

Tibetans and supporters in New Zealand have, in solidarity with Tibetans in Tibet, cancelled traditional celebrations of Losar, (Tibetan New Year 2009) and are marking the occasion with Prayers sessions in various Buddhist Centres around New Zealand.

Large numbers of Tibetans in Tibet have decided not to hold the traditional celebrations of this auspicious holiday, both as an act of passive resistance and a mark of respect to those who lost their lives during China’s crackdown on the wave of peaceful protest that swept the Tibetan plateau following 10 March 2008.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

A dog which died protecting a group of children from two pitbull terriers in New Zealand has been given the highest honour for animals.

George, a Jack Russell from Manaia, in Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island, fended off the two dogs, allowing the children to escape.

LINK TO ORIGINAL