Author: Press Room

A company that once operated a popular South Dunedin tavern has been liquidated, leaving behind more than $100,000 of remaining debt. Akuhata Ltd was put into liquidation in February last year, with Trevor and Emma Laing appointed liquidators. The company was incorporated in November 2020 for the purpose of purchasing a tavern operation from a leased premises in Dunedin, The Kensington Tavern, the liquidator’s first report said. The business was placed on the market in 2023 and an agreement for sale was entered into and settled on in January last year. Payments to secured creditors were made from the sale…

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Five years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and hauled to jail in handcuffs, the former movie mogul returns to a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday (local time) for a new trial covering the very same allegations — plus one that hasn’t been tried before.It isn’t double jeopardy, but rather a legal redo after a New York appeals court overturned the landmark #MeToo verdict a year ago.The state’s Court of Appeals threw out Weinstein’s convictions and 23-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial after finding that the original one was tilted by “egregious” judicial rulings and prejudicial testimony.Jury selection could…

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Tomato crops are thriving in Reporoa, powered by what Aucklanders are throwing in their green bins.Auckland’s food scraps collection and a clever process called anaerobic digestion are helping to cut landfill waste, reduce emissions, and reuse organic material as energy and fertiliser.Unknowingly fuelling this transformation are families in Auckland, such as Ōtara resident TyraTheir food scraps – and those of thousands of Auckland households – are collected weekly and transported to Ecogas, a processing facility in Reporoa, in the Rotorua Lakes district.Food scraps are broken down without oxygen to generate renewable energy, liquid fertiliser, and soon, carbon dioxide to enhance…

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ADVERTISEMENTFrance’s strong resistance to the Mercosur agreement is beginning to crack in response to concerns over potential restrictions on EU exports to the US.“Existing and future trade agreements between the EU and other economies (JEFTA [the free trade agreement with Japan], CETA [the free trade agreement with Canada], the free trade agreement Mercosur‑UE) could further cushion tariff shocks linked to US trade policy,” Bank of France’s Governor, François Villeroy de Galhau, said in his annual letter to French President Emmanuel Macron on 9 April.In December the European Commission concluded a political agreement with the Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and…

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Thousands of senior medical doctors have voted to go on strike for 24 hours over pay at the beginning of next month in a move the Health Minister has called “deeply disappointing” and “failing patients”.The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists union said its 5500 members would go on strike on May 1.Executive director Sarah Dalton said the planned 24-hour strike was “huge”.In the last round of pay negotiations in 2023, members took took two strikes – one for two hours, one for four hours.”A 24 hour strike is unprecedented, but we’re really stuck,” she said.Dalton said the union’s collective agreement…

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Kiwibank has joined ANZ this week in cutting its interest rates ahead of quarterly inflation statistics being released on Thursday.The change — due in effect tomorrow — comes after the Reserve Bank reduced the Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points last week.Kiwibank’s standard six-month fixed rate would drop 16 basis points to 6.39%. Its special six-month fixed rate would also drop by 16 basis points to 5.49%.The bank’s one-year standard fixed rate would go down 20 basis points to 5.89%. The special one-year fixed rate would also drop 20 basis points to 4.99%.The rest of Kiwibank’s fixed home loan…

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Creditor claims totalling nearly $300,000 have been received for a former Dunedin restaurant which went into liquidation last year. Mexican eatery Alley Cantina, which operated in a lane off George St, closed last June and liquidators Trevor and Emma Laing, of Laing Insolvency Specialists, were appointed in August. The business was then marketed as an opportunity for a new operator, but no offers had been received that would cover the costs of sale, the liquidators said. Potential purchasers cited the costs of a refit as a main barrier to making an offer. An initial appraisal for a sale price had…

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When Allan Smith’s lawnmower from The Warehouse packed up, he was relieved to see he simply needed a new fuel line fitted. But it took a long battle, and an intervention from Fair Go, to finally get it fixed.’I thought, oh well that’s an easy fix’: Watch more on this story on TVNZ+It was less than two years ago that Wellington man Allan Smith made a trip to The Warehouse to invest in a brand new lawnmower. He chose a brand called KiwiGarden, feeling he’d like to support New Zealand business. For months, he used the mower to give him…

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A 77-year-old man who went missing from Auckland’s Mt Roskill yesterday has been located this morning. Police earlier asked for the public’s help in finding the man. “The 77-year-old man reported missing in the Mt Roskill area has been located safe and well,” a spokesperson said in an update. “Police thank the public for the information provided.”

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If you want to get some shopping done this long weekend, it might pay to plan ahead. Some stores will be forced to close on certain days, but not all of them – and which are and aren’t open could depend on what part of the country you’re in. And if that wasn’t enough, the law also restricts what kind of items can be purchased over Easter. And not all of them are actually public holidays, even if the shops can’t open. Confused? Let’s try and fix that. What’s open? There are just three and a-half days a year which…

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