Latest New Zealand News
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Kiwis booked on worlds first commercial space flight
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo under rocket power. Photo / AP A number of Kiwis have already stumped up a total of more than $1.8 million to book a place on the world's first commercial space flight. Virgin Galactic hopes to be taking commercial flights outside of the earth's atmosphere by 2014. Eight New Zealanders have signed up with House of Travel already. Expert agent ...
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Kiwi firm makes app for Will Smith blockbuster
A New Zealand firm operating out of the UK has taken the lead role in developing the official app for new sci-fi thriller After Earth, starring father and son duo Will and Jaden Smith. BeyondTheStory - which started in Wellington in 2005 before relocating to London four years later- has created After Earth: Kitai's Journal for Sony Pictures Entertainment/Overbrook ...
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Enraged pupil sees school go into lock down
Source: ONE News An Invercargill primary school principal who called police yesterday to deal with an out-of-control pupil said it was the sensible thing to do in the circumstances. Classes at Fernworth Primary School were locked down and police called when an agitated 11-year-old boy became aggressive towards other pupils and threw school equipment around the hallway. Principal Anne ...
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Kiwis fork out over $1.8m for Virgin space flights
Branson confident of year-end space target Kiwi travellers are snapping up the chance to experience a trip of a lifetime, spending more than $1.8 million on space travel. Eight New Zealanders have forked out more than $200,000 each to book a place on the world's first commercial space flights. Tickets are being sold through House of Travel at a cost of $224,000. In an advertisement ...
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Helen Clark ranked 21st most powerful woman
Helen Clark has been ranked as the 21st most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. The head of the UN's development programme is the only New Zealander in the list of 100 women - and moves up from number 50 two years ago and 61 two years before that. It is the ninth time she has featured on the list. Helen Clark is in charge of a budget of almost $6 billion and a staff of 8000 in 177 ...
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Surge in fake notes worries shopkeepers
Photo / NZPA Fake $100 notes are circulating in Auckland, with one group of businesses being targeted repeatedly. Several Otara businesses have received the counterfeit notes with one man recognised by several retailers as someone using the fake money. Bhajnam Kaur, 31, received one at her Chapel Downs dairy on Tuesday. It wasn't the first time and when she spoke to ...
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KiwiRail eyeing asset cash
Labour transport spokesman Ian Lees-Galloway said he was not surprised the Government was tipping more cash into KiwiRail. Photo / Natalie Slade Struggling KiwiRail may soak up almost $600 million - or a tenth of the cash raised from partially privatising state-owned power companies, Budget documents reveal. In last week's Budget, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee announced ...
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Familys home raid heartbreak
Candy Atkinson says she's horrified such young children could think of destroying her family's home as they have. Photo / Christine Cornege Candy Atkinson and her three children huddle together in a friend's bedroom at night and struggle to sleep a week after a group of kids burgled and trashed their home. Four children, aged just 12 and 13, have been referred to Youth ...
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NZ still the kid in intelligence family
Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones. Photo / Greg Bowker When it comes to the Five Eyes intelligence sharing grouping, it's like a family with the United States and Britain as parents, and New Zealand being the 5-year old that others were made to play with. That's how Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones described the grouping yesterday, while trying ...
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Rent aid for new tenants only
Minister Nick Smith. Photo / Mark Mitchell Housing Minister Nick Smith has finally cleared up a mystery from last week's Budget - disclosing that only new tenants moving into community housing, and not existing tenants, will get state-subsidised rents. That explains how he was able to extend income-related rental subsidies to community housing tenants for an average of only $35 a week per ...
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Residents inwardly bitter over officers actions
Tame Iti says he holds former Prime Minister Helen Clark responsible for the impact the Urewera raids have had on Tuhoe. Photo / Alan Gibson Residents of the eastern Bay of Plenty say there is still an "inner bitterness" towards police after the way they were treated during the Urewera raids. Jack Purewa, brother of activist Tame Iti, remembers being made to kneel for hours with no ...
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New mum unaware of pregnancy
Erica Gunther and Thomas Jones, who says he was told by doctors he would be a father 10 minutes before Laurelin was delivered. Photo / Otago Daily Times Thomas Jones and Erica Gunther have the ultimate souvenir of their New Zealand holiday. Mr Jones, 23, from England, and his United States-born partner Ms Gunther, 22, had been in New Zealand for a few weeks when they had the biggest, and best, ...
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Heating homes properly out of reach for many - survey
Photo / Thinkstock One in three New Zealanders can't afford to heat their homes properly in winter, an especially acute issue for younger people, a survey shows. A University of Otago public health professor said the findings were concerning because living in a cold house can have serious heath implications. A nationwide Canstar Blue survey of 2060 people found 74 per cent have changed ...
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Pre-trial hearing adjourned for Kiwi in Canada
A pre-trial hearing for an ex pat New Zealander accused of murdering his wife in Canada has been adjourned. Former Napier city councillor Peter Beckett, 56, was due to stand trial at Salmon Arm Provincial Court for the murder of his wife Laura Letts-Beckett by allegedly pushing her off a boat in 2010. The pre-trial opened yesterday in Canada [Tuesday local time] but was adjourned ...
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$100k car scam
An online car dealer has been snared placing thousands of fake bids on more than 500 of its own auctions. The Auto Co (Millennium) Ltd pilfered more than $100,000 from Trade Me users in a year by "shill bidding" on $1 reserve auctions. The company was the biggest motor trader on the site at the time and the case is the largest of its kind in New Zealand. The scam came ...
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Storm chaser joins rescue effort as dream trip turns to nightmare
Neill Ellis travelled from his Bay of Plenty home to "Tornado Alley" in the United States to fulfil a lifelong dream. But what he saw when a huge twister ravaged the community of Moore on the outskirts of Oklahoma City was the stuff of nightmares. The Tauranga man was the only Kiwi in a group of storm-chasers - the others were Australians and Americans - on a five-week trip to the region, where ...
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Online car dealer pilfers more than $100k
An online car dealer has been snared placing thousands of fake bids on more than 500 of its own auctions. The Auto Co (Millennium) Ltd pilfered more than $100,000 from Trade Me users in a year by "shill bidding" on $1 reserve auctions. The company was the biggest motor trader on the site at the time and the case is the largest of its kind in New Zealand. The scam came ...
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Police got off over raids - Maori MPs
Maori MPs say police have escaped punishment for illegal actions after a landmark report finally confirmed that some operations during raids at Ruatoki were "contrary to law, unjustified and unreasonable". Prime Minister John Key said he was taking advice on whether the Government should apologise to Tuhoe after the long-awaited Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report ...
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Twitter and Kiwi athletes Sports world riding the wave of change
When Usain Bolt sprinted clear of compatriot Yohan Blake to complete an unprecedented second straight Olympic 100m-200m golden double, those fans not jumping for joy were furiously bashing buttons on their phones. Eighty-thousand tweets were sent reacting to the race. Every minute. It was the second-most tweeted event of the London Games - trailing the Spice Girls playing at the closing ceremony ...
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Familys home-raid heartbreak
Candy Atkinson and her three children huddle together in a friend's bedroom at night and struggle to sleep a week after a group of kids burgled and trashed their home. Four children, aged just 12 and 13, have been referred to Youth Aid in Hamilton for their part in what police called "the worst burglary in a decade". Ms Atkinson, a data manager, returned home on Tuesday of last week about 8pm ...
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Familys home-raid heartbreak
Candy Atkinson and her three children huddle together in a friend's bedroom at night and struggle to sleep a week after a group of kids burgled and trashed their home. Four children, aged just 12 and 13, have been referred to Youth Aid in Hamilton for their part in what police called "the worst burglary in a decade". Ms Atkinson, a data manager, returned home on Tuesday of last week about 8pm ...
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Wellington IT staff paid more - report
Auckland IT professionals are more likely to head overseas for a more lucrative job offer than their Wellington counterparts, a survey suggests. The Wellington Market Insight report, by recruitment firm Absolute IT, said workers in the capital were 10 per cent less likely than those in New Zealand's biggest city to leave the country for another job. The research suggests higher ...
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Familys home-raid heartbreak
Candy Atkinson and her three children huddle together in a friend's bedroom at night and struggle to sleep a week after a group of kids burgled and trashed their home. Four children, aged just 12 and 13, have been referred to Youth Aid in Hamilton for their part in what police called "the worst burglary in a decade". Ms Atkinson, a data manager, returned home on Tuesday of last week about 8pm ...
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Familys home-raid heartbreak
Candy Atkinson and her three children huddle together in a friend's bedroom at night and struggle to sleep a week after a group of kids burgled and trashed their home. Four children, aged just 12 and 13, have been referred to Youth Aid in Hamilton for their part in what police called "the worst burglary in a decade". Ms Atkinson, a data manager, returned home on Tuesday of last week about 8pm ...
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Editorial Raids report offers lessons for the future
Five and a half years after the Urewera raids, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has issued a report that is surely the last verdict on that strange operation. The authority has found "the police were entitled, on the information they had, to view the threat posed as real and potentially serious, necessitating investigation". Everything else the police did that day has to be judged in the ...
Auckland Feature Story
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Auckland's infastructure needs upgrading in the long run.
Auckland may in the next few years be able to upgrade two major pieces of infastructure and reap the economic benefits for the city.
There may, in the near future, be a four-lane road of national significance (RONS) between Auckland and Whangarei, which would make travel between the country’s largest city and Northland much faster and more efficient, while providing significant economic benefits to both regions as well. Read more
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