Author: Press Room

The country’s prestigious Gold Guitar Awards has reached its own triumphant milestone of the same colour — it’s golden anniversary.Many of the past winners of the highly-acclaimed competition returned to Gore’s golden stage in Southland to celebrate 50 years.The three-day event is part of 10-day Tussock Country Festival in the south that brings country lovers from New Zealand and the world.On Thursday night, the Gold Guitars held a special gala for more than 20 returning winners to perform — many for the first time in years.Peter Cairns took the coveted prize in 1984.”This is, literally, the best of the best…

A 10-year-old disc golf star from Christchurch is getting ready to jet off to the US to defend her world title.It will be Sarah Wadsworth’s third time at the junior world championships.In the build-up to her trip, even cold and moody Christchurch days won’t deter Wadsworth from getting all the practice she can.Disc golf is typically played in public parks, and is growing in popularity.Wadsworth was first invited to give it a go when she was six, thinking she was “going discoing”.Sarah Wadsworth. (Source: 1News)But, after playing it, she soon caught the eye of those in the know.Her dad, Paul…

Former Black Caps captain Kane Williamson is unlikely to tour Zimbabwe for a two-test series starting in July, after opting out of a central contract for a second year running.However, he says he will continue to be available for the national team without being obliged to play, adding that he is still passionate about playing for his country.Williamson has arrived in London for a stint with Middlesex in the County Championship and the T20 Blast, and with London Spirit in The Hundred. He will be play in at least 10 T20 matches and five County Championship matches, through to September.Black…

One person has died after a serious crash in Canterbury this afternoon.Police said emergency services were called to incident occurred on Newtons Rd in Templeton, west of Christchurch, at about 2.45pm.”The crash involved a truck and two cars. Sadly, a person died at the scene.”Our thoughts are with their family at this difficult time.”The death was the first for the King’s Birthday weekend period this year, which began at 4pm on Friday and would end on Tuesday at 6am.”The Serious Crash Unit has conducted a scene examination and the road is due to reopen shortly,” police noted.While the investigation into…

Southland’s emergency management service is facing serious staffing issues with just seven staff in place for a population of more than 100,000.Recent reports have highlighted a raft of issues for Civil Defence in the area, including a lack of dedicated roles impacting “already stretched” staff and missed calls following the March earthquake.Staffing levels have not shifted since 2018, even though the population, workload and frequency of responses increased, a report noted.”As expectations grow at the national level and climate and disaster risks intensify, continuing to operate with insufficient, non-specialist staffing is not sustainable,” it said.There was an “urgent” need for…

By Euronews with AP Published on 30/05/2025 – 13:10 GMT+2ADVERTISEMENTAt least 11 people, including two children, have been injured in Ukraine after a wave of missile and drone strikes hit the city of Kharkiv and the nearby region, officials have said.The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) reported widespread destruction and that shelling ignited a major fire at a municipal transport company. A building and a trolleybus were destroyed by fire.The blaze extended to nearby vehicles and residential buildings, injuring three people, officials said.The Chuhuiv district suffered extensive damage from a combination of missile and drone strikes. A private residence, farm structures,…

By Euronews Published on 30/05/2025 – 13:42 GMT+2ADVERTISEMENTItaly and Kazakhstan have signed a set of deals worth €4bn during a visit by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to Astana. The agreements were across a variety of sectors, including oil and gas, renewable energy and water management. Meloni said she did not consider her visit “merely a formality, but substantial”. “Italy was the first EU nation to have decided to invest in relations with Central Asia and its individual member states, setting up a stable format for the sharing of ideas,” Meloni continued. The Italian prime minister added that the EU-Central Asia…

Rowing NZ has launched an investigation into a recent tour to the United States, after a top New Zealand rower was arrested for assault following an incident at a post-regatta celebration.RNZ has learned Zack Rumble, a member of the New Zealand men’s elite team, missed his flight home from the US tour as he was in police custody following his arrest on suspicion of assault on 3 May.The national team, made up of a men’s and women’s eight crew, had been in Seattle for the prestigious Windermere Cup.According to records with Washington State’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD),…

Credit card reward schemes are likely to be scaled back further as pressure goes on interchange fees, Consumer NZ says, but most aren’t delivering value for many New Zealanders, anyway.On Tuesday, Kiwibank and Air New Zealand announced they were cutting ties and Kiwibank would no longer offer an Airpoints credit card.Kiwibank pointed to increasing regulation of interchange fees, which are the fees paid by the bank that processes a transaction to the card issuer.The Commerce Commission has already introduced new standards to reduce these fees, which led to a reduction in some credit card rewards in 2022.More reductions are expected…

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford could have expressed herself better, but meant no offence when she made comments about receiving emails from people in India, the Prime Minister says.When answering parliamentary questions about the use of her private email, Stanford said she received a number of unsolicited emails.”I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to. I almost regard those as being akin to spam,” Stanford said.Erica Stanford. (Source: rnz.co.nz)The comments have since been covered in Indian media, including in Times of India and the Indian…