Author: Press Room

The EU’s first Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism addressed the vexed issue of overcrowding at visitor hotspots and announced he is consulting widely with a view to a forthcoming sustainable tourism strategy, at Euronews’ Destination Europe Summit in Brussels on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENTThe EU’s first Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism addressed the vexed issue of overcrowding at visitor hotspots and announced he is consulting widely with a view to a forthcoming sustainable tourism strategy, at Euronews’ Destination Europe Summit in Brussels on Thursday.“We have seen residents protesting against overcrowding, against cost of housing and environmental strain in some key…

Mid Canterbury could be on course for introducing some form of cat management policy after conservationists asked for help to keep bird songs ringing out.The Ashburton District Council will investigate a cat policy after a request from the Methven and Foothill Birdsong Initiative.Project representatives Barry Maister and Mac McElwain went to the district’s biodiversity advisory group on Tuesday asking for them to recommend the council introduce a cat management policy.The group — consisting of representatives from groups such as Federated Farmers, DOC, ECan, Fish and Game, Forest and Bird, the birdsong initiative, as well as the council — supported the…

Choosing between putting food on the table or paying essential bills, while applying for hundreds of jobs – and and not hearing back. That is the reality for many of the people who have found themselves out of work, as they compete for a scarcity of available jobs.According to the latest Stats NZ employment data, out yesterday, unemployment rose to 5.1% in the three months ended December – the highest level since 2020.Among the 156,000 unemployed are thousands of workers culled in the coalition government’s programme of public sector cuts.Suzanne George is 35 and has been job hunting for over…

A Brussels prosecutor said the perpetrator was still on the run after the second shooting in the Belgian capital in less than two days. ADVERTISEMENTPolice responded to a second shooting in less than two days near the Clémenceau metro station in Brussels on Thursday.According to the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office, one person was injured in the incident and transferred to hospital.Prosecutor Julian Moinil told RTBF radio that the shooting took place overnight at around 3am CET, and that the perpetrator used a handgun.Authorities have sent a team to the site to investigate. The incident is the second in two days…

Dozens of coastguard volunteers continue to assist police in the search for a man who disappeared while attempting to cross the Cook Strait on a jetski earlier this week.The man left the Tasman District in the morning bound for Plimmerton, north of Wellington, but did not arrive as expected.Police and search and rescue teams have been conducting a water search with the assistance of Coastguard and the Rescue Coordination Centre NZ.The New Zealand Defence Force had also joined the effort.”A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon was involved in the search this morning and early this afternoon,” a spokesperson…

Radiologist Gianluca Fanelli took his pet Athena to the hospital where he worked in northern Italy to perform a CAT scan and life-saving operation. ADVERTISEMENTA doctor in Italy is reportedly under investigation after taking his injured cat to the hospital where he worked to carry out a CAT scan and life-saving operation on the pet.Gianluca Fanelli took his cat, Athena, to the Umberto Parini hospital in the northern region of Aosta after she fell from a six-storey roof last month, according to Italian media.The two-year-old cat was “between life and death”, Fanelli — who is a radiologist — wrote in…

The backlash is growing against a speed limit increase in Rakaia, with the local National MP saying he supports a “sensible, safe speed” through the town.Ashburton District Council wrote to the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to strongly oppose the speed limit increasing on State Highway 1 through Rakaia – and it appears the Government is willing to listen.The speed limit through the town is set to increase to 70kph by July 1, nine months after it was reduced to 50kph.It’s one of the 38 sections of the state highway network that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) will automatically reverse speed…

Police are appealing for information after a man was seriously injured in a fight in a Lower Hutt car park last night.Police were called to a car park on The Strand after a report of people fighting at around 10pm.”Those involved have left the scene in two vehicles before police arrived,” a spokesperson said.Emergency services received a call for service to Riverside Dr a short time later, saying that a man had been injured and required medical assistance.”He was located in his vehicle with serious injuries, which are believed to have been sustained in the altercation at The Strand.”The man…

The IMF may have predicted that the UK will be the fastest-growing European G7 member, but it’s not projected to be the fastest-growing European economy overall. ADVERTISEMENTMisleading claims are going around on social media which suggest that the UK is projected to be the fastest-growing economy in Europe.A raft of posts on X, for example, show people celebrating a prediction by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that UK GDP will grow by 1.6% in 2025, ahead of its neighbours.It came as part of the IMF’s wider Global Economic Outlook for the next couple of years, in which it put projected…

A police officer has been taken to hospital after a vehicle hit them and their patrol car, while it was stopped in a Waikato town last night.Police said the incident took place in Huntly at about 8pm.”The officer, who was conducting enquiries at an address on an unrelated matter, had stepped out of their patrol car when another vehicle drove toward them, colliding with the patrol vehicle and the officer,” a police spokesperson said.”The offending driver fled but was located and arrested.”A 47-year-old man was taken into custody over the incident and is due to face charges in the Hamilton…