Author: Press Room
A Christchurch daycare has expressed their “shock” and “deep regret” after five children and two adults were taken to hospital after a corrosive chemical was mistaken for detergent and put on a water slide this afternoon.In a statement this evening, Kindercare Woolston said initial indications suggest the children and staff were “potentially exposed to a chemical detergent used for the centre kitchen steriliser unit, which was mistakenly believed to be dishwashing liquid and poured onto a slide with water for the children’s ‘slip ‘n slide’ activity”.All children were showered following the incident. Five children and two employees were taken to…
The mother of a Dunedin man who died after falling from a moving trailer is still haunted by the decision to turn off his life support, a court has heard.Robert Douglas Ralston died in hospital almost two weeks after the fall in Brockville in March, following a heated argument with his partner Andrew Jayden Mercer who was at the wheel of the car.Mercer was sentenced to almost three years in prison for the 32-year-old’s manslaughter at the High Court on Friday.The court heard Mercer was driving erratically and aggressively when he swung onto Brockville Rd as Ralston clung to the…
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has been reinstated as a member of Te Pāti Māori after she took her expulsion from the party to court, just two days before its annual general meeting.Justice Paul Radich, who heard the case in the Wellington High Court, issued the interim order today, finding “serious questions to be tried” about the way Kapa-Kingi was expelled last month. A substantive judicial review hearing was scheduled for February.Kapa-Kingi was removed as a member on November 10 after the party’s National Council alleged she misused funds and brought the party into disrepute. Takūta Ferris was also expelled from the party…
Health New Zealand has today confirmed two new measles cases – with one attending a concert in Auckland last week.It brings the total number of cases nationwide to 30, of which 22 were no longer infectious.Today’s cases – one in Auckland and another in Queenstown – were linked to known exposures.Health NZ identified several new locations of interest, including two Bluebridge Connemara ferry sailings on Sunday, November 30. The sailings were from Wellington to Picton between 8.15am and 11.45am, and a return journey from Picton to Wellington between 2.15pm and 6.30pm. Another location of interest was identified as the Rüfüs Du Sol concert at Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium from 6.30pm to 11pm on Saturday, November 29.New locations of interest in Wellington and…
The Black Ferns will join the All Blacks on next year’s “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry” tour of South Africa in a double header with the Springboks Women.NZ Rugby confirmed the Black Ferns will play the Springbok Women ahead of the third test between the All Blacks and the Springboks in Johannesburg on September 5.Chief executive Mark Robinson said the double-header added extra weight to what was shaping up to be “one of the most significant tours in modern rugby”.”It gives fans, players and the broader rugby community an opportunity to witness the depth, history, and intensity of rivalry between four of…
A homicide investigation is underway and two areas cordoned off in Auckland’s Mt Wellington after a man who presented to a medical centre with critical injuries died in hospital.Police said a man arrived at a medical centre on Lunn Ave with critical injuries at around 12.15pm.Detective Inspector Scott Beard said police were contacted and units responded to the area, including the police Eagle helicopter.”After arriving at the medical centre, the man was transported to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition,” he said.”Despite best efforts, the man has died in hospital this afternoon.”At this early stage, Beard said it was…
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has commenced an investigation into matters raised about the chairperson of the Financial Markets Authority.Craig Stobo has agreed to temporarily step aside from the role while the investigation was undertaken.”He will also step aside from his other Crown governance and advisory responsibilities,” a statement read.Among those, 1News understands Stobo has been temporarily stood down from his role on the ministerial advisory group for school property.”MBIE will be leading an independent investigation into these matters as the monitoring department for the FMA. MBIE can make no further comment until the investigation is complete.”Stobo is…
A South Korean man who expected to be paid a few thousand dollars for smuggling rare geckos out of the country has instead been jailed for 14 months.Gunak Lee, 23 and unemployed, was caught in a sting in October with an undercover Department of Conservation officer at an Auckland hotel.He thought he was buying 10 geckos for several thousand dollars, but the officer handed over just two in the operation, with the rest of the containers empty and hidden.A search warrant was executed when Lee got back to his hotel room to check how many of the prized jewelled geckos…
A feral cat that wiped out an entire endangered black-fronted tern colony in Canterbury has finally been caught – more than a year after the attack.The tom cat killed and ate birds, chicks and eggs from all 95 nests of a tarapirohe (black-fronted tern) colony on a large island in the Waiau Toa/Clarence River in December 2024. The colony was abandoned, and the local tern population plunged from about 180 to just 20.Contractors Jasen and Shannon Mears of J & S Mears caught the 6kg culprit during a Department of Conservation (DOC) predator control operation targeting feral cats in the…
Relocations of asylum seekers across the EU from countries under the most pressure from migration are set to be fewer than previously expected in 2026. At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, the 27 EU Home Affairs Ministers are set to discuss the size of the “solidarity pool”, a mechanism to determine the total number of asylum seekers to be relocated the following year and the amount each country should allocate, or to compensate for by paying. The European Commission proposed to relocate a certain number of asylum seekers from four countries considered “under migratory pressure”: Spain, Italy, Greece, and…