Author: Press Room

The country’s newest retailer has opened its doors in Dunedin this week. The Outlet is in the old Torpedo7 store in Andersons Bay Rd which closed last month. Auckland-based Tahua Group Ltd, which owns Torpedo7 along with the likes of Burger King, Hannah’s Shoes, Number One Shoes and Starbucks in New Zealand, converted 10 existing stores into an “off-price retail concept”. Categories include apparel, footwear, adventure and outdoor gear, home and living, toys, health and beauty and gifts.

Card skimming is on the rise in the capital with Wellington police saying people have lost “thousands of dollars” in recent weeks.Card skimming is when an offender installs a device with a camera on an ATM or POS (point of sale) terminal to capture card data and record pin numbers. The information obtained was then used to create fake payment cards to make unauthorised purchases or withdraw funds from victim’s accounts.Wellington District Operations manager acting Inspector Tim McIntosh said there had been an increase in the number of victims losing “large amounts” of money to card skimming.”In the last week…

ADVERTISEMENTPolice in the Hungarian capital issued an order on Tuesday denying a request to hold an pro-LGBTQ+ event in Budapest, a consequence of recent steps by the right-wing government aimed at banning the popular Budapest Pride march.The police’s decision to prohibit the event planned for later this month came after Hungary’s parliament passed legislation in March that allowed the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities.That was followed a month later by a constitutional amendment banning such events.Both moves were slammed by legal scholars and critics decried it as another step towards authoritarianism by what they call an autocratic government.In its…

An Auckland man has been sentenced to home detention after issuing almost 700 fraudulent warrants of fitness without proper authorisation.Imroz Taki, owner of Newmarket Automotive Repairs, was sentenced to 10 months and 2 weeks’ home detention by the Auckland District Court on May 26.He was found guilty of issuing 677 WoFs between December 2022 and June 2023, despite not being appointed as an authorised vehicle inspector.Taki had used the vehicle inspector appointment belonging to a former employee and had not completed any of the inspections, an NZTA investigation found.Customers were charged $60 per WoF, with Taki pocketing more than $40,000…

ADVERTISEMENTThe European Commission is confident that the European Union will manage to avoid the economic blowback from a new US Senate bill that envisions 500% tariffs on importers of Russian energy, which, if applied, would wreck about a dozen member states.”We are in the process of phasing out imports of fossil fuels from Russia, and therefore, this should ultimately not be a problem,” Paula Pinho, the Commission’s chief spokesperson, said on Tuesday afternoon.The draft law, jointly promoted by Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, foresees primary sanctions against Russia and secondary sanctions…

Both National and Labour have slid in the latest 1News/Verian poll, while New Zealand First have moved to their strongest position in eight years.If an election were to be held today the right bloc of National, ACT and New Zealand First would have 63 seats — enough to form a coalition, while the left bloc of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori would have 58 seats.This is a small change from the last Verian poll in April, where the coalition had 64 seats.Winston Peters’ party moves up to 8%, according to the survey of 1002 eligible voters from May…

ADVERTISEMENTThe Polish parliament is set to hold a confidence vote in his coalition government on June 11, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday.He called the vote on Monday, a day after his ally, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, lost Sunday’s presidential runoff.”We are starting the session in a new political reality,” Tusk said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Warsaw.”The political reality is new, because we have a new president. But the constitution, our obligations and the expectations of citizens have not changed. In Poland, the government rules, which is a great obligation and honour.”Trzaskowski’s defeat…

The annual meeting of media company NZME has rubber stamped a compromise deal allowing an activist shareholder onto its board.A former National government minister has also been appointed as its chairperson, with the existing board kept largely intact.Auckland-based Canadian businessman Jim Grenon bought a stake in the company and launched a bid at the start of the year to replace the current board with himself and three associates.But he ended up accepting a truce in which he alone got a seat, and Steven Joyce took over as chairperson.Grenon told the meeting that his move to shake up the company was…

ADVERTISEMENTThe European Parliament’s key catering tender holder withdrew because it struggled to make the work profitable, according to sources Euronews has spoken to, leaving essential workers at the institution concerned for the safety of their jobs.The European Parliament outsources various internal services such as management of cafeterias, canteens and office cleaning to private companies. But the unprofitability drove the company running Parliament’s food services, Compass Group, to prematurely end its contract. The catering and hospitality multinational will operate until 30 June and hasn’t pitched to renew its tender for the main staff canteen, according to three people familiar with the situation. Compass…

A man has been arrested and charged with murder after a critically injured man died in hospital in Tokoroa last week.Police were called to an Abercorn Pl address at around 4.15am on May 27 to reports a man had been injured by another man known to him outside his house.”The man was rushed to Waikato Hospital in critical condition, but has since passed away,” said Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Yardley.A 21-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder and was expected to next appear in the Rotorua High Court on June 27.Yardley said a homicide investigation had been launched.”Police are…