Author: Press Room

A prominent sportsman has been found not guilty of breaking a baby’s ribs and collarbone.It took the jury about four hours to unanimously find the man, whose name is suppressed, not guilty of injuring with reckless disregard and an alternative charge of assault following a three-week trial in the Dunedin District Court.The prosecution claimed the man lost patience with the unsettled baby on July 16, 2023 while the infant’s mother was at the gym, squeezing him after a “brain explosion” and breaking more than a dozen of his ribs and his collarbone.But defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC called it a…

Smiths City liquidation sales across the South over the weekend left shelves stripped of their stock in just one day, as staff are left in the dark about what comes next. The future of Smiths City remains up in the air with more advice likely by the end of the week. The 107-year-old retailer went into voluntary administration on Tuesday last week and on Friday announced a nationwide liquidation sale over the weekend. Seven of the eight stores — Auckland, Christchurch, Greymouth, Oamaru, Alexandra, Gore and Invercargill — reopened to sell remaining stock. The exception was the Dunedin store, which…

A wildlife advocacy group is urging Wairarapa councils to go harder on cat regulations in a proposed set of bylaws.Carterton District Council would be the first council to adopt the revised Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw at its meeting on Wednesday.Despite several changes being consulted on, the final proposed set of bylaws was largely similar to the current version.At a recent Wairarapa bylaw hearing, Forest and Bird presented detailed examples of cat-related nuisance from Masterton, Carterton, and South Wairarapa, and advocated for proactive regulation, including desexing and identification of owned cats.This stance was also supported by SPCA and Companion Animals New Zealand.Despite…

Two people have been sentenced following the severe neglect of two dogs in Auckland, leaving one so emaciated he had to be euthanised. The SPCA was first alerted to the situation in March 2022, after receiving reports of concern about a dog named Tyson at an Auckland property. Inspectors found the white crossbreed in poor condition. The condition of another dog at the property, Sarge, was unknown. Both were aggressive and Tyson appeared underweight, with visible ribs and spine. The SPCA said both dogs retained some muscle mass. The female owner claimed the dogs had recently been treated for worms…

The mother of Marokopa fugitive Tom Phillips’ children says there was a “wave of complex emotions for our whānau” in the wake of today’s dramatic incident.A police officer was wounded before Phillips was fatally shot in western Waikato, after Phillips and one of the children tried to break into a store in Piopio. Phillips had been evading police since December 2021 and along with his three young children Ember, Maverick and Jayda was spending a fourth winter on the run. Follow 1News’ live updates hereHe was shot after firing at and critically injuring a police officer during a burglary response…

Published on 08/09/2025 – 16:18 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT Now, you may think about Donald Trump whatever you like, just like Americans: one half hates him, the other half adores him. But you have to concede: Trump has guts. The last time he went to Flushing Meadows (in Queens, his birthplace) in 2015 to see the US Open he was brutally booed upon arriving at the VIP entrance at Arthur Ashe Stadium and booed again when he was shown on the big screen. At the time, Trump was a New York celebrity who had just announced a run for the presidency. That booing…

Pharmacists are calling for more support amid workloads and pressures described as “very dire”. It comes as the Pharmacy Council, the sector’s regulator, reported a doubling of concerns raised over the past eight years. Clive Cannons, a pharmacist of 40 years, said the number of prescriptions, and the extra services expected of pharmacists “just exploded” after the Covid-19 pandemic. He said his Wainuiomata pharmacy Clive’s Chemist deals with a thousand prescriptions on a busy day. “This is absolutely the worst I’ve seen it, and the morale is low because no one can see any hope on the horizon,” he said.…

ADVERTISEMENT This year, wildfires across the EU have burned an area nearly half the size of Sicily, according to the latest data from Copernicus’ European Forest Fires Information System. So far in 2025, about 986,000 hectares have gone up in flames, more than three times the 227,627 hectares recorded in the previous year, with nearly 2,000 blazes detected. Since late February, the average monthly number of fires has been the highest on record. Spain suffered the worst damage, with over 380,000 hectares burnt, roughly 1.5 times the size of the state of Luxembourg. Portugal suffered even worse damage relative to…

Police are searching for the driver of an unwarranted and unlicensed car that allegedly did a brazen set of burnouts outside New Plymouth’s police station and district court over the weekend.Footage circulating online showed a vehicle revving and skidding on Powerham St around 5pm on Saturday, with tyres screeching and thick smoke billowing into the air.A man recording the incident can be heard encouraging the driver, saying, “Come down here, bro” as the skidding car approached a pedestrian crossing near the station.An orange roadwork sign reading “TEMPORARY” appeared to have been placed over the vehicle’s number plate, obscuring its registration.Several…

A Queenstown landlord who crammed tenants into partitioned rooms, garages, caravans and a bus has been ordered to pay $81,050 on behalf of 117 tenants.Conrad Joseph Lawrence Goodger and his companies Rent Ezi and Nice View Limited ran eight boarding houses – four of them unlawful and overcrowded, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said.The ministry began investigating after complaints from tenants and a fire at one of his properties.(Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment)Despite site visits, an interview and a formal warning from its Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT), the Ministry said Goodger’s properties remained non-compliant…