NZ releases 55 years of UFO files

THE New Zealand military has released hundreds of previously classified reports detailing claims of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings and alien encounters.

The reports, dating from 1954 to 2009, have been released under freedom of information laws after the New Zealand Defence Force removed names and other identifying material.
In about 2000 pages of documents, members of the public, military personnel and commercial pilots outline close encounters, mostly involving moving lights in the sky.
Some of the accounts include drawings of flying saucers, descriptions of aliens wearing "pharaoh masks" and alleged examples of extraterrestrial writing.
Before their release, Air Force squadron leader Kavae Tamariki said the Defence Force did not have the resources to investigate UFO sightings and would not be commenting on the files' contents.

"We've just been a collection point for the information. We don't investigate or make reports, we haven't substantiated anything in them," he told the Dominion Post.
One of the most comprehensive files concerns two sightings of strange lights off the South Island town of Kaikoura in 1978, one of which was captured by a television crew aboard a plane in the area.
The incident made international headlines at the time but a contemporary Air Force report found it could be explained by natural phenomena such as lights from boats being reflected off clouds or an unusual view of the planet Venus.
The original documents on which the reports were based will remain sealed in the national archive, some until 2080.

A NEW Zealand man has pleaded guilty to the careless use of a firearm over the death of a school teacher who was shot after being mistaken for a possum.

Andrew Neville Mears, 25, pleaded guilty to the charge in Taupo District Court this morning.
It was alleged the Hamilton man was illegally spotlighting from a moving vehicle when he fired a shot that killed Rosemary Ives, 25, on October 22.

The victim was on a camping holiday with her boyfriend and was killed while she was brushing her teeth, when Mears mistook her headlamp for the eyes of a possum. The fatal shot was believed to have been fired about midnight from a distance of 15 to 26 metres.

Ms Ives' father, Malcolm Ives, said he had no interest in the case.

He and the family were more focused on dealing with the loss of their daughter, he said.

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Outside court today, Mears' lawyer Roger Laybourne read a statement from the accused to the victim's family, news website stuff.co.nz reported.

In it Mears said he wanted to convey "my absolute sorrow and remorse for being the person responsible for taking the life of Rosemary"."I am sorry for the dreadful loss I have caused to you all," Mr Laybourne read.

Immediately after the shooting, Mears said, he handed all his hunting gear to his wife to take away.

"I do not want to ever have anything to do with hunting again.

"Nor do I want my infant son to."

Mr Laybourne said Mears had not intended to go hunting that night after arriving with friends to set up camp and went to sleep in his tent.However, his friends had seen deer on the roadside and woke him to go searching for the animals.
Mr Laybourne said this spontaneous decision to go hunting was not to be seen as an excuse for what had happened.

The Crown is considering more serious charges.
Mears was remanded on bail until November 18.

George W Bush considered dumping Dick Cheney - book

FORMER US president George W Bush admits he considered dropping Dick Cheney ahead of his re-election run, but defends his vice president as well as the invasion of Iraq in a new autobiography.

The memoir, Decision Points, is due out next week and will break Mr Bush's relative silence since he made way for President Barack Obama two years ago.

According to the New York Times, Mr Bush uses the book to defend his record, predicting that history will judge him better than voters, who gave him rock-bottom approval ratings as he finished his second term.

Addressing the issue of his abrasive and hawkish vice president, Mr Bush says that he spent weeks considering an offer by Cheney to drop from their 2004 re-election ticket.

"I did consider the offer," Mr Bush writes, according to the Times, quoting an advance copy of Decision Points.

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"While Dick helped with important parts of our base, he had become a lightning rod for criticism from the media and the left," Mr Bush says. "He was seen as dark and heartless - the Darth Vader of the administration."

Ultimately, Mr Bush thought that he needed Mr Cheney to "help me do the job" and the pair went on to win another four years in the White House.

Mr Bush calls the invasion of Iraq justified, saying that "the Iraqi people are better off with a government that answers to them instead of torturing and murdering them".

However, he only admits to a "sickening feeling" on learning that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq - nullifying the claim made by Washington as the basis for the invasion and occupation of the country.

He defends his decision to allow what have been called harsh interrogation techniques or torture, such as near-drowning, against terrorism suspects.

He says the techniques "saved lives" and that in response to a CIA request to use waterboarding against the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, he answered: "Damn right."