Author: Press Room

The remains of the fire-razed Roxburgh Entertainment Centre will be demolished, the Central Otago District Council has announced.The centre — home to New Zealand’s oldest cinema — was gutted in a fire last week, leaving little more than the façade of the building standing.The front of the Roxburgh Entertainment Centre after fire gutted the rest of the building (Source: Central Otago District Council)At the time, a hotel and another nearby building were evacuated as smoke billowed from the building on February 6.The cinema opened on December 11 in 1897 and could seat 258 persons.Today, Central Otago District Council said an…

An army sergeant has been kicked out of the military for assaulting a junior soldier in a drunken melee at the end of an international operation in Hawaii, while his fellow attacker loses rank.They were part of a drinking culture under examination at a Court Martial hearing at Linton Military Camp, near Palmerston North this week.A military panel of senior officers on Friday found Sergeant Leaongo Tanginoa, 35, guilty of strangling and striking Gunner Nikau Minhinnick Gill.The prosecution said Tanginoa overreacted to a drunk and insubordinate Gill abusing him about perceived grievances, dishing out “barrack room justice”.Tanginoa had already pleaded…

With electricity set to play an ever more central role in Europe’s energy system, the trade association Eurelectric has called on Brussels to urgently update a security of supply strategy that dates back to 2014. ADVERTISEMENTSoaring costs linked to rocketing gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, more recently, suspected sabotage of undersea power lines have underlined the need for the EU to overhaul its decade-old European Energy Security Strategy, electricity companies have warned.“With the threats faced by our sector, security of supply is becoming an urgent priority that policymakers and regulators must acknowledge,” president of the trade association…

It is somewhat ironic that a young Michelle Findlater did not want to go to university. Next year, Ms Findlater, who is dealer principal at Southern Automobiles in Invercargill, will travel to Boston to study at Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She is this year’s recipient of the Janet Lane MNZM Scholarship, awarded by the Motor Industry Training Organisation (MITO) and the Inspiring Futures Foundation in their annual scholarship awards. She will complete the Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s certificate of leadership excellence in strategy and innovation, doing three of the required courses online and…

Police had to deploy road spikes five times to finally end a 75km-long fleeing driver incident in Waikato today.At about 11am, police received reports of a Subaru vehicle driving “dangerously”, and overtaking vehicles through road works in Te Kuiti.Police said the vehicle was located and officers signalled for it to stop, but the vehicle fled and was not pursued.”It continued to drive in a dangerous manner on State Highway 3 towards Hamilton, where more members of the public called to report its erratic driving,” police said. “These updates of the vehicle’s location greatly assisted the police response, by allowing resources…

Shareholders of long-standing Dunedin oat miller Harraway & Sons are preparing to vote on investing millions of dollars to increase capacity in the business. Speaking at an oat industry field day near Gore this week, chief executive Henry Hawkins said shareholders would vote at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday on whether to contribute $3 million of the $10m required “to do a pile of capital expenditure and refurbishment projects”. The investment project would include buying new milling gear to increase capacity and installing a new grain intake facility to improve the process of delivering oats to its Green Island…

An Auckland school principal has expressed concern at the suitability of the new school lunches programme for Muslim students after being told they were halal-friendly but not halal-certified. Papatoetoe Intermediate principal Pauline Cornwell told 1News she had been asking for certification for the halal meals from the new provider since the beginning of the term. She received a note two days ago, saying the meals were “halal-friendly” rather than halal-certified.”I’ve had to notify our Muslim community and give them the option to opt out of the programme; or to take vegetarian meals; or continue with meals that aren’t certified,” she…

Most job-seekers are open to the use of AI, but are concerned it won’t judge their skills fairly. ADVERTISEMENTMost workers think AI can help them in the job hunt, but seem much more sceptical when artificial intelligence is supposed to assess their skills in the selection process.In 19 industries out of 22 surveyed, job seekers value human judgement more than AI when it comes to assessing non-traditional skills and experience, particularly in the manufacturing (+18%), healthcare (+17%), and legal (+17%) sectors.Furthermore, the Adecco survey on 30,000 workers in 23 countries – including US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy – shows…

Some speed-safety cameras around the country — particularly in the Wellington and Otago — are temporarily out of action, as police hand them over to the NZ Transport Agency.NZTA is taking over camera management, after a 2019 Cabinet decision.As part of that rollout, most fixed speed cameras in Wellington, and all of them in Otago and Southland have stopped issuing infringements — for now. Fines were still being given out from two fixed speed cameras in Wellington.”Before cameras go live on our network, they go through a rigorous testing process,” NZTA said. “Other organisations complete the tests and issue certificates.”Cameras…

The EU Commission will propose to activate the escape clause for defence investments, Ursula von der Leyen announced in Munich. “This will allow Member states to substantially increase their defence expenditure,” she said. ADVERTISEMENTEuropean Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that she will propose to activate the escape clause in the bloc’s fiscal rules in a bid to “substantially” boost member states’ defence investment. The measure, von der Leyen told the Munich Security Conference, would be done in “a controlled and conditional way” and will be followed by “a wider package of tailor-made tools to address the specific…