New Zealand judge upholds Kim Dotcom extradition ruling

In this Nov. 27, 2014, file photo, Kim Dotcom arrives at Auckland District Court in Auckland, New Zealand. A New Zealand judge on Monday, Feb. 20, 2017, upheld an earlier court ruling that flamboyant internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges.

Banned NZ book scores ‘perfect 10’ in US

A raunchy novel for teenagers that was banned in New Zealand has won a rare “perfect 10” rating from an American young adult fiction website. The novel, Into the River by Aucklander Ted Dawe, has been rated 10 out of 10 in an annual list published by VOYA , which calls itself “the leading library journal dedicated to the needs of young adult librarians”.

Editorial: What slogan for a city you cannot afford?

Taranaki, for example, is ‘like no other’, Whanganui is ‘all you need – and then some’, and Bulls is, as you would expect, ‘unforgettabull’. But Auckland, the ‘City of Sails’, ‘the place desired by many’, is probably in need of a complete branding rethink as we wind our way into 2017.

LDS missionary dies in South Africa

A full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from New Zealand, serving in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission, died on Dec. 23. Elder Nofo-I-Lelenga Latu, 19, from the Auckland New Zealand Tamaki Stake, Clover Park Ward, died of injuries sustained in a car accident. He was traveling with three other missionaries, who are being treated for minor injuries.