Author: Press Room

EU leaders have embraced Mario Draghi’s economic diagnosis as a “wake-up call” but eluded his crucial advise to issue fresh joint debt. ADVERTISEMENTThe 27 leaders of the European Union have endorsed a much-anticipated “New European Competitiveness Deal” to jolt the bloc’s stagnant economy and plug the widening gap with the United States and China.The document was sealed on Friday during an informal summit in Budapest that brought forth the fears of de-industrialisation and irreversible decline that have come to dominate the political conversation in the aftermath of back-to-back crises, a bleak landscape that could soon darken if Donald Trump makes…

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Possums in Western Australia are developing a resistance to the poison known as 1080, found at low levels in some plants in the state, now prompting researchers to compare genetics to possums in Aotearoa.1080 has killed millions of the Australian pests in New Zealand, with the Department of Conservation (DOC) dropping about 1.5 tonnes of the poison across 700,000 hectares of public conservation land per year.Possums, alongside other pest predators like rats, stoats and cats, kill about 25 million native New Zealand birds per year.Possums “eat a lot of eggs, a lot of chicks and nests and they do a…

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Mesothelioma is connected to asbestos exposure, and its symptoms typically don’t appear until decades after exposure. ADVERTISEMENTThere were 13,530 mesothelioma cancer cases in the EU between 2013 and 2021, new Eurostat data reveals.That is the highest number among work-related cancers over the same period, second only to lung cancer (13,944 cases).Mesothelioma is generally connected to asbestos exposure. Asbestos is a mineral that was once widely used in the construction of floors, ceilings and roofs. The EU banned it in 2005.Mesothelioma symptoms typically don’t appear until decades after asbestos exposure.Last year, the EU parliament approved a new directive that reduces the…

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The decision whether seven emergency housing motels will operate in Rotorua past December is weeks away.Independent commissioner David Hill spent the last three days in Rotorua hearing whether the Government should be able to extend emergency housing motel consents by a year.The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development applied in June to extend seven consents, and the commissioner expected the hearing to be closed by November 25 once he received all updated information.He aimed to have a decision before the current consents expired on December 15.The original consents were granted in 2022 for 13 motels.Hill heard over the three days…

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Dutch authorities said five were hospitalised and 62 detained after attackers targeted Israeli football fans before and after a match in the country’s capital. ADVERTISEMENTAmsterdam has banned all demonstrations in the Dutch capital for three days beginning on Friday, after Israeli football fans were attacked overnight in violence widely condemned as antisemitic by European leaders.Dutch police said five people were hospitalised and 62 were detained after attackers “systematically targeted Israeli fans”. The supporters were in Amsterdam to watch a Europa League match between Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch side Ajax.Ten of the people arrested, two of whom are…

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Blair Kippenberger likes nothing more than a bit of trash talk. The entrepreneur has launched his latest venture, a kerbside wheelie bin washing service catering for both residential and commercial customers in Dunedin. He was inspired by his own experiences. About six months, ago, he was putting his wheelie bin out for collection and it was “pretty grubby and stinky” and had become a haven for insects. He kept meaning to clean it after it had been collected, but that never quite eventuated, and it got him thinking about how good a service which cleaned the bins on collection day…

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A pair of uncontrolled dogs are being blamed for a cat-killing spree in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere.No one knows their or their owner’s identity yet, but they have been captured on private CCTV in the vicinity of reported cat maulings, Hastings District Council’s regulatory solutions manager John Payne said.”There is no evidence of where these dogs are from,” Payne said.He said wandering dogs were a big problem in Flaxmere at times.”It goes in waves and if you get uncontrolled dogs that pair up, they can go on a cat-killing spree.”Figures provided by the council show Hastings is clearly on…

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Greek and Turkish foreign ministers met in Athens as part of efforts to improve relations and boost trade between the historic foes. ADVERTISEMENTThe foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey met in Athens on Friday as part of a diplomatic push to ease tensions between the neighbours and longtime rivals on various issues including maritime and territorial disputes, energy resources and migration. Speaking after the meeting, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said relations between the two countries were improving and that their cooperation was getting “stronger every day”. He acknowledged the disagreements between Ankara and Athens over the Aegean Sea, and…

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Russia launched around 2,000 drones at Ukraine in October, about one-third more than the previous month, making it the third in a row that saw a significant rise in attacks, the UK Defence Ministry said Friday. ADVERTISEMENTRussia battered parts of Ukraine in targeted overnight attacks in an intensified aerial campaign by Moscow, officials said on Friday, while doubts deepen over what Kyiv can expect from a new US administration. A 500-kilogram glide bomb severely damaged a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv in the middle of the night, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. At least 25 people, including an infant, were injured,…

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Whakatāne’s Returned Services Association has made a plea to council for help to reopen its gaming room after its licence expired due to a paperwork error.In spite of its sinking lid policy on electronic gambling machines, Whakatāne District Council has been asked to grant a consent for the local RSA to operate its pokie machines.The Whakatāne RSA owns 18 pokie machines, which, at a council hearing committee meeting yesterday, association president Victor Hape said accounted for 30 to 40% of its income, which it used for the benefit of the community.The income from the pokie machines helped pay for a…

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