Author: Press Room

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…

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…

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,…

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…

A claim that emergency housing motels have not impacted tourism in Rotorua has been rubbished by one of the oldest tourism operators in the country.A three-day hearing began on Tuesday for submissions on the Government’s bid to extend consents for seven emergency housing motels.Independent commissioner David Hill is considering the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s applications to Rotorua Lakes Council to keep operating the seven motels for up to another year after 13 motel resource consents granted in 2022 expire in December.All but one of the 37 submitters oppose the applications.Contracted emergency housing prioritises families/whānau with children, young people,…

The question of whether to issue fresh joint debt to boost the EU’s competitiveness continues to divide political leaders. ADVERTISEMENT”Everything is on the table”, including issuing fresh common debt, to boost the European Union’s sluggish competitiveness and close the deepening gap with the United States and China, European Council President Charles Michel told Euronews.EU leaders are gathered in Budapest, Hungary, on Friday to discuss the bloc’s ailing competitiveness. The talks will focus on the landmark report written by Mario Draghi, which painted a bleak diagnosis of the bloc’s economy paired with ambitious recommendations to cure what he described as a…

Rotorua’s newly upgraded Aquatic Centre has had to deal with thousands of dollars worth of theft and vandalism since it reopened.There have been 11 incidents of vandalism and three thefts since the Rotorua Aquatic Centre partially re-opened in June following a major refurbishment.A Rotorua Lakes Council spokesman said the vandalism included broken shower partitions in the changing rooms, steel pin coat hangers pulled from walls, door handles pulled off and shower rain brackets torn off walls.It cost the council $2964 to fix.The bulk of this was from one month alone, September, where the cost of dealing with the incidents totalled…

The first group of 12 migrants were returned to Italy after a Rome court said their countries of origin, Bangladesh and Egypt, were not safe enough for repatriation. ADVERTISEMENTAn Italian navy ship docked at the Albanian port of Shengjin on Friday, carrying eight migrants, a month after a previous group was denied entry following a failed vetting process.The group will undergo asylum processing before being transferred to the repatriation center in Gjader.It is only the second transfer of migrants since two migrant processing centres started operating in October.The same Italian navy ship previously transferred the first 16 migrants from Bangladesh…

Before Ugeshni Khan converted to Islam at the age of 25, everything she knew about being a Muslim woman was based on what she saw in the media.”It was not a positive reference at all. I too held all these ideas that Muslim women are oppressed. They’re not allowed to be educated; they’re not allowed to drive; their only role in life is to be a wife and a mother… They don’t have freedom,” the 36-year-old says.”After I came into Islam — after I actually started meeting Muslim women — I immediately realised all of this is completely false.”This is…

A horse owner — whose mare had to be put down due to catastrophic injuries caused by fireworks — says the private sale of fireworks must be banned.Remi, a 14-year-old retired race horse, became entangled in a fence after being spooked by fireworks near her Tauranga paddock.The mare’s injuries were so severe, she had to be euthanised.Owner Donna Matherson told RNZ’s Checkpoint people had driven up her rural road and started to party at about 10.30pm.”I went out to my horses to check and they had started running because, I don’t know if there’s something different this year, but the…