Why I would rather live in Gaza than Egypt, my birthplace

The hell of Gaza is better that the paradise of Egypt: This could be hard to believe since Gaza has a reputation of being unsafe, but this is the conclusion I have reached after searching for a safer place to live with my wife and baby boy.

How could this be? Just two years ago, Egypt appeared to some to be on the cusp of an exciting democratic revolution, which would bring more power to the people and give them the freedom Arabs across the Middle East have been yearning for after half a century of Western-backed dictators.

Instead, on my nine visits since then, I have found the country so changed for the worse that I would rather live in a tiny coastal territory with no sovereignty, unemployment rates of more than 30 percent, and a government punished by Israel and the West, both of which consider the ruling Hamas movement to be a terrorist organization.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Egypt? Take this quiz.

To be sure, I have faced frequent violence between Israel and Gaza militants, as well as hazards in my career as a journalist ? especially during military conflicts with Israel, such as the 2008-09 war and the 2012 Pillar of Defense operation.

And I thought I had found a way out.

In 2012, I got Egyptian citizenship, since I was born to an Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father. This, together with my desire for safety and stability, was a strong motive for me to move back to Egypt, where I was born and spent 14 years of my childhood, and where three sisters and my mother's family live.

I received more than half a dozen job offers from media outlets, and also had promising plans to start an education center to teach students English, math, science, and other subjects.

The salaries were not as high as what I receive in Gaza, but since I was looking for safety and stability, I did not care much about money. Things were rosy in my eyes, although many of my relatives and friends in Gaza criticized my decision because the economic and security situation in Egypt was not that good.

I did not believe them until last month.

I traveled to Egypt together with a coworker to receive a media course for TV journalists, which also drew journalists from Yemen, Libya, Iran, and China.

On the second of day of the course, we had a field training, in which we were to film a feature story about how the roadblocks placed by the police around government buildings negatively impacted the lives of both pedestrians and residents downtown.

While filming, we were in front of Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the Egyptian revolution. A Yemeni colleague was taking photos with his mobile phone of the place that means a lot for a Yemeni who demonstrated in Sanaa?s Change Square to topple a dictatorship.

As he was taking pictures, a teenager snatched the iPhone 4 from my colleague?s hand and walked away confidently. The Yemeni followed him and tried to stop him. To his surprise, the boy turned back with a knife in his hand and threatened that he will stab my colleague if he continues to ask for the phone.

We were nine guys and three women. We thought that we could help him if we all go out of the minibus and frighten the boy, but the boy went wild and started to scream.

A few seconds later, more than 20 of his peers came with knives and sticks and were about to attack us. An older guy riding a motorbike came and the boy jumped behind the biker and they sped off. No one even tried to stop and watch what was going on. At this very moment, our fear made us get into the minibus and drive away.

This was a turning point for me. After watching this, only one thing was on my mind, how could I live here? It's not the incident itself that made me change my mind to move to Egypt, but rather the passersby who were watching us being attacked and blackmailed by thugs at daytime. While Egyptians are known for being helpful, the spike in criminal activity has made many reluctant to intervene as they would have before the revolution.

Tahrir Square is one of the most crowded squares, if not the most, in Egypt. To have your cellphone stolen at daytime and in front of hundreds of watchers, one needs to think 100 times before deciding to settle in Egypt, but thank God, I only thought once and decided not endanger the lives of family in country that almost has no safety.

It's not that I've given up on Egypt forever. My love of Egypt is endless and priceless. It's my birthplace and the country that embraced me for 14 years, the country that granted me citizenship.

But I feel so sad that Egypt is no longer safe. Once this country was the safest place in the world with millions of foreign tourists spending their most beautiful times under its warm loving sun or enjoying its golden beaches.

The problem is that after the revolution the prisons were emptied. There now seem to be more criminals than policemen on the streets. I have heard true stories of rape, kidnapping, murder, and many crimes.

One more thing that has frightened me about the new Egypt: extremism. Islamic extremism is growing rapidly in Egypt, this has been notable after the revolution, and more clear after the Muslim Brotherhood?s Mohamed Morsi took office a year ago today.

Gaza is ruled by an Islamic party, but there is no extremism. Gaza is blockaded and frequently attacked by Israel, but the crime level is very low and internal security is near to excellent.

From my heart, I hope that Egypt will be safe like Gaza soon.

Ahmed Aldabba is a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor in Gaza City, Gaza.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-rather-live-gaza-egypt-birthplace-132900386.html

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Alec Baldwin GOES OFF on Daily Mail Reporter: I'm Gonna Eff You Up!

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Ted Allen: Engaged to Barry Rice!

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U.N. council brings Iraq closer to end of 1990s sanctions

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council brought Iraq one step closer on Thursday to ending United Nations sanctions imposed on Baghdad more than two decades ago after former President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait In 1990.

The 15-member council unanimously agreed that the issue of missing Kuwaiti people, property and archives should be dealt with under Chapter 6 of the U.N. Charter - which urges countries to peacefully resolve any conflicts - instead of Chapter 7.

Chapter 7 of the charter allows the Security Council to authorize actions ranging from sanctions to military intervention if states do not abide by council demands.

The move by the council is a significant political boost for Baghdad as it struggles to restore its international standing a decade after a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam in 2003.

The Security Council resolution recognized "the importance of Iraq achieving international standing equal to that which it held prior to (1990)." U.S.-led troops drove Iraq out of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.

"This is a new beginning for the relations between our two neighborly and brotherly countries," Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters after the vote. "This is an example for other countries also to resolve their disputes and differences through peaceful means."

The only issues linked to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait that remain under Chapter 7 are an arms embargo and Baghdad's payment of $52 billion in compensation to Kuwait, diplomats say. Iraq still owes $11 billion and has said it expects to pay by 2015.

There are still a range of Chapter 7 issues imposed on Baghdad after Saddam's ouster in 2003, diplomats say, including the freeze and return of Saddam-era assets and trade ban on stolen Iraqi cultural property.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended that the U.N. political mission in Iraq should take responsibility for facilitating the search for missing Kuwaitis, or their remains, property and the country's national archives.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-council-brings-iraq-closer-end-1990s-160009890.html

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Berlusconi faces verdict in sex-for-hire trial

MILAN (AP) ? A Milan court was considering Silvio Berlusconi's fate in his sex-for-hire trial Monday, with the former Italian premier risking an end to his two-decade political career and a prison term if found guilty.

Berlusconi, 76, is charged with paying an underage Moroccan teen for sex and then trying to cover it up with phone calls to Milan police officials when she was picked up for alleged theft. Berlusconi and the woman deny having had sex with each other.

Prosecutors are seeking a six-year jail term and a lifetime ban from politics for Berlusconi. Even if he is convicted, there are two more levels of appeal before the sentence would become final. The process can take months.

Berlusconi holds no official post in the current Italian government, but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that emerged after inconclusive February elections.

The charges against the billionaire media mogul stem from his infamous "bunga bunga" parties in 2010 at his mansion near Milan, where he wined and dined beautiful young women while he was premier. He says the dinner parties were elegant soirees; prosecutors say they were sex-fueled parties that women were paid to attend.

Neither Berlusconi nor the woman at the center of the case, Karima el-Mahroug, better known by her nickname Ruby, have testified in this trial. El-Mahroug was called by the defense but failed to show on a couple of occasions, delaying the trial. Berlusconi's team eventually dropped her from the witness list.

El-Mahroug did testify in the separate trial of three Berlusconi aides charged with procuring prostitutes for the parties. She told that court that Berlusconi's disco featured aspiring showgirls dressed as sexy nuns and nurses performing striptease acts, and that one woman even dressed up as President Barack Obama.

Berlusconi was not in court on Monday as the three female judges began deliberating his fate at 9:45 a.m. Outside the courthouse a few people held signs supporting prosecutors, including one reading: "Justice, Legality and Dignity." A pair of Berlusconi supporters was also there.

Asked if Berlusconi was optimistic, defense attorney Piero Longo said outside the courthouse that he was a "realist." Longo turned sarcastic when asked if the Milan courts were biased against his client: "No, Berlusconi has always been treated with great kindness and care in Milan. Having a trial in Milan for Berlusconi is a privilege."

Berlusconi frequently has railed against Milan prosecutors and judges, accusing them of mounting politically motivated cases against him.

El-Mahroug, now 20, said in the other trial that she attended about a half-dozen parties at Berlusconi's villa, and that after each, Berlusconi handed her an envelope with up to 3,000 euros ($3,900). She said she later received 30,000 euros cash from the then-premier paid through an intermediary ? money that she told Berlusconi she wanted to use to open a beauty salon, despite having no formal training.

She was 17 at the time of the alleged encounters but passed herself off as being 24. She also claimed she was related to then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Berlusconi's lawyers argued that he ? thinking el-Mahroug was indeed Mubarak's niece ? called police after she was detained in a bid to avoid a diplomatic incident.

El-Mahroug denied that Berlusconi had ever given her 5 million euros ($6.43 million). She said she told acquaintances and even her father that she was going to receive such a large sum "as a boast," but that it was a lie to make her seem more important.

The verdict garnered intense international media attention with half a dozen TV satellite trucks taking positions outside the courthouse. The verdict comes on the heels of Berlusconi's tax-fraud conviction, which along with a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban on public office, have been upheld on a first appeal.

The tax-fraud case is heading to Italy's highest court for a final appeal after Berlusconi's defense failed to derail it last week at the constitutional court.

Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times relating to his business dealings, has been convicted in other cases at the trial level. But those convictions have always either been overturned on appeal or the statute of limitations ran out before Italy's high court could have its say.

The sex-for-hire case is the first involving his personal conduct.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/berlusconi-faces-verdict-sex-hire-trial-073149630.html

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Indexes edge up as Fed slowdown fears ebb

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks are ending slightly higher after a report of tepid U.S. economic growth raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue its stimulus program.

The government lowered its estimate for growth in the first three months of the year to 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent.

Stocks slid last week on concerns that the Fed might slow its bond purchases.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 21 points to 15,324 Thursday, or 0.1 percent. The Dow was up 95 points in the afternoon, then faded in the last hour.

The Standard & Poor?s 500 rose six to 1,654, or 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq rose 23 points to 3,491.

Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was average at 3.5 billion shares.

Source: http://feeds.salon.com/salon/index

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Taliban offer adds urgency to Idaho POW rally

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) ? The tearful mother of the only known U.S. prisoner of war said Saturday she's feeling "very optimistic" about his eventual release after his Taliban captors offered last week to exchange him for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's mother, Jani Bergdahl, spoke to about 2,000 people gathered in Hailey, his hometown, in a city park where he played as a toddler and little boy.

About 400 in the crowd arrived astride motorcycles, adorned in leather and patches commemorating America's military missing in action.

Bowe Bergdahl, 27, was taken prisoner in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. First Jani Bergdahl, then his father, Bob Bergdahl, who accompanied the motorcycle procession on his son's 1978 dirt bike, spoke for a combined 15 minutes about rejuvenated hopes that their son's now-four-year ordeal will soon come to a joyful close.

"We are feeling very optimistic this week," his mother, before addressing her son directly. "Bowe, we love you, we support you, and are eagerly awaiting your return home. I love you my son, as I have, from the first moment I heard of you, the never-ending, unconditional love a mother has for her child."

Buses also brought POW-MIA activists to the event from as far as Elko, Nev.

Though yellow ribbons on Main Street trees and "Bring Bowe Home" placards in Hailey shop windows are a constant reminder of the 27-year-old Bergdahl's captivity, organizers of the event said the Taliban offer has lent an addition element of urgency ? and hope ? to Saturday's gathering.

Many in the crowd said they were Vietnam veterans; some of them supported the proposed prisoner exchange without reservation.

"Give them their guys and get our guy home," said David Blunt, of Elko, Nev., who said he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a medic. "Bring our guy home. He's suffered enough."

Bergdahl is believed held somewhere in Pakistan, but the Taliban said they would free him in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay, the American installation on the southeastern tip of Cuba that's housed suspected terrorists following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The militant group's exchange proposition came just days ahead of possible talks between a U.S. delegation and Taliban members.

Bergdahl's father, Bob Bergdahl, urged those gathered at Hailey's Hop Porter Park to remember everyone, regardless of nationality, who had suffered during the 12-year conflict in Afghanistan that began following the Sept. 11 attacks.

He described his son as "part of the peace process."

"I wish she was the only mother that was suffering in that way," Bob Bergdahl said of his wife. "Mothers all over the world are suffering because of this war, and I don't forget that for even one day."

He addressed his son's captors in Pashto, the Afghan language he's learned since Bowe Bergdahl went missing.

Bob Bergdahl, who has grown a beard and wore all black at Saturday's event, said that while he is physically in Idaho, he's living vicariously through his son, having set his cell phone to Afghan time, in a bid to share as much as he can his son's experience in exile.

Both mother and father talked of Bergdahl as an adventurer, a young man who once helped crew a sailboat through the Panama Canal, disembarked in San Francisco and then rode a bicycle south along the Pacific Ocean to meet family in Santa Barbara, Calif., 350 miles away.

He joined the military at 22 because "he honestly thought he could help the people of Afghanistan," Bob Bergdahl said.

On June 6, the family said it received its first letter from their son in his handwriting in four years, ferried through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The circumstances of his capture aren't completely clear, though U.S. officials on July 2, 2009, told The Associated Press a soldier had been taken after walking off his base following his duty shift. For some of the motorcycle riders who participated Saturday, those details are something to be sifted through later, after Bergdahl is safely in the arms of his family.

"He didn't go over there on his own," said Randy Danner, a former U.S. Air Force member from Mountain Home, who rode his motorbike to Hailey with a group called the Green Knights. "No matter the circumstances, for our men and women over there who have put themselves in harm's way, we have a duty to support them in any way we can."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-offer-adds-urgency-idaho-pow-rally-081600377.html

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Watch Dogs Live Goes Live In Canada, Is Like Foursquare With Hacking

Watch Dogs has been getting lots of good press lately with its cool, topical take on cybersecurity and data. And like many other next-gen games coming to consoles in the near future, Watch Dogs will have a companion app called Watch Dogs Live that will help extend the game in some shape or form.

Today, the app went live for iOS in Canada in what looks like a beta test in preparation for Ubisoft?s worldwide roll out. The premise of the game is to reach certain locations defined by the app and to ?hack? that location to gain data. Doing so will give you points, which in turn get accumulated on the leaderboard, and if you are at the top of the leaderboard when the game comes to an end, you will be the lucky winner of a Watch Dogs-themed Scion. That?s right: a car. There will also be weekly missions and other prizes for you to win.

It?s kind of a game-ified Foursquare, and hacking more locations will net you in-game resources to upgrade your hacking skills. It?s a pretty cool concept which is becoming a lot more prevalent these days with more mobile-centric marketing.

There hasn?t been a date set for the app?s release on Android and iOS, but it looks worth a look whenever the Canadian trial ends. Who would give Watch Dogs Live a try? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Pocket Gamer via Droidgamers

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Stephen Yuen

I'm Australian. My Android bubble was popped by the LG Optimus One, however I've moved onto much bigger and better things (literally): a Samsung Galaxy Note II and a Nexus 7. I love all things tech, especially Android, but my heart and soul belongs in games.
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Source: http://androidspin.com/2013/06/19/watch-dogs-live-goes-live-in-canada-is-like-foursquare-with-hacking/

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Afghan police chief survives car bomb attack

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An Afghan police chief survived a suicide car bomb attack on his convoy that wounded three officers early Monday, officials said. It was the latest apparent attempt on a commander's life in an intense Taliban assassination campaign.

Broken glass and the charred remains of the bomber's car were strewn in a main road in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah after the attack.

Helmand provincial Police Chief Mohammad Nabi Elham sustained only minor injuries when the car bomber struck as he was on his way to his office at about 7 a.m.

The force of the blast tore off the door of Elham's vehicle. Three police officers traveling in the convoy were wounded, provincial spokesman Ummar Zawaq said.

"Thanks be to God that it was so early in the morning," Elham said later in an interview. "If it had been 8 or 9 in the morning, there would have been laborers here who are building a road for a mosque. Shopkeepers would have been here, and how many people might have been killed?"

Taliban insurgents have been targeting police and civilian officials and attacking government positions around the country as Afghan police and army prepare to officially take over full responsibility for security from international troops.

The toll on Afghan forces has been high. In May alone, at least 271 police were killed in attacks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-police-chief-survives-car-bomb-attack-055732633.html

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East Antarctic ice shelves melting at surprising pace, study suggests

Breakup of the shelves can accelerate the flow of continental ice to the sea, contributing to sea-level rise, and the Antarctic shelves 'are melting too fast,' the study's lead author says.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 14, 2013

Emperor penguins walk across sea ice near Ross Island, Antarctica. New research finds the frozen continent's ice shelves melting at an alarming rate.

Courtesy Thomas Beer/AP/File

Enlarge

Several small ice shelves along the East Antarctic coast appear to be melting at surprisingly high rates, some at rates comparable to those of shelves in West Antarctica, long a center of concern over the impact of climate change on the region's vast ice sheet and sea-level rise.

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This is an unexpected result of a new study that documents the current status of ice shelves around Antarctica's coastline and the relative influence of the factors melting them.

It's unclear if the unexpected melt rates represent a trend. Conditions off the East Antarctic coast have been less-well studied than those off of West Antarctica, notes Stanley Jacobs, a researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., and a member of the team reporting its results in the current issue of the journal Science.

The cause also is unclear. But a lead suspect is relatively warm water that deep currents drive up onto the continental shelf. This water melts the ice shelves from underneath.

Still, "the numbers were a little bit larger than we were expecting ? about the same as for shelves on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet," Dr. Jacobs says.

Ice shelves are the leading edges of glaciers that flow from the continental interior into bays and fjords. Friction with a bay's sides or with raised features on the sea floor turn the buoyant ice shelves into brakes that slow the pace at which the glacial ice upstream moves toward the sea. The last area where the ice touches sea floor is known as the grounding line.

Relatively warm water, driven by deep-ocean currents up onto the continental shelf, can melt the shelves from underneath. The water-induced melting also can cause the grounding line to retreat. Both are thought to contribute to the break-up, or calving, of the ice shelves into icebergs. On the shelf surface, meltwater can work its way into crevasses, freeze, and act as a wedge to help cleave the ice.

"Ice shelf melt doesn't necessarily mean an ice shelf is decaying; it can be compensated by the ice flow from the continent," notes Eric Rignot, a professor of earth science at UC Irvine and the study's lead author. "But in a number of places around Antarctica, ice shelves are melting too fast."

Excessive breakup of the shelves can accelerate the flow of continental ice to the sea, contributing to sea-level rise.

Some of the most dramatic break-ups have occurred along the Antarctic Peninsula, a region of the continent that has seen some of the most pronounced warming on the planet ? warming most climate scientists attribute to the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuel and from land-use changes.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/SLBtJxmiB_Q/East-Antarctic-ice-shelves-melting-at-surprising-pace-study-suggests

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Home detention for Dominion Finance collapse - Stuff

Two former Dominion Finance directors have been sentenced to home detention for their part in causing investor losses totalling $176.9 million.

At the High Court in Auckland this morning Justice Robert Dobson sentenced commercial lawyer and former Dominion director Robert Barry Whale to 12 months' home detention, 250 hours of community service, and ordered him to pay $75,000 in reparations to the company's receivers.

Whale originally pleaded not guilty to seven charges brought by the Financial Market Authority (FMA) under the Securities Act, but changed his plea at the end of last month.

Whale was acquitted on five charges of theft brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last month.

Former Dominion director Ann Butler was sentenced to nine months' home detention, 80 hours of community service, and ordered to pay reparations of $300,000 to the company's receivers on seven FMA charges of misleading investors under the Securities Act.

The charges included making untrue statements in a Dominion Finance Group prospectus and investment statement, and making untrue statements in a North South Finance prospectus and investment statement.

Butler also pleaded guilty to the charges last month.

Justice Dobson said letters and prospectuses issued to shareholders included untrue statements that were in the market for nine months, which made the level of offending "relatively serious".

The charges were laid by the FMA against all directors of Dominion Finance after it collapsed into receivership in 2008, owing more than 5900 public debenture investors $176.9 million.

North South Finance, a subsidiary company that operated under the same directors, was placed in receivership in 2010 owing $31m to 3900 investors.

The maximum possible sentence was five years' jail or a fine of up to $300,000 on each charge, but finance company directors in similar circumstances have been sentenced to home detention.

Justice Dobson said both former directors had been grossly negligent but Whale's offending was more serious due to the close involvement he had in the issuing of documents to shareholders.

However he had taken into account Whale's good character and remorse, Justice Dobson said.

Whale's lawyer Paul Davidson QC said his client was "severely and significantly remorseful".

He had an unblemished record, but had "fallen from grace", Davidson said.

Justice Dobson said he had also taken into account Butler's previous good character, and the effect a jail sentence would have on the 64-year-old.

Butler had been a director of Dominion and North South Finance, and was formerly an executive director until 2005 when she stepped down as chief financial officer.

Property records show the Butlers still own a 487-square-metre home in Remuera with a rateable value of $6.8m.

The mortgaged property was advertised for sale last year for more than $7m.

Last month Justice Dobson asked for a report on Butler's financial position.

Butler's husband, Terry, was due to face the same charges but died of cancer this year.

Terry Butler also faced charges laid by the SFO, which Dominion Finance chief executive Paul Cropp was found guilty of in April.

In that hearing, Justice Graham Lang found Cropp guilty of knowingly breaching the trust deed of Dominion Finance and its subsidiary North South Finance, which said the company was not able to make loans to related parties.

Last month Cropp was sentenced to two years and seven months' jail on the four Crimes Act charges of theft.

Another director, Paul Winstone Forsyth, also faces the FMA charges.

Speaking outside the Auckland High Court Davidson said Whale was relieved by the outcome, and added that the sentence was appropriate.

The FMA case illustrated how far the effects of directors' decisions reached, even when there was no intention of wrong-doing, he said.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8796410/Home-detention-for-Dominion-Finance-collapse

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