Centennial road trip re-enacts parliamentary tour of Northland’s byways in 1917

A century ago New Zealand was in the grip of World War I, in which 18,500 members of the country’s 1.16 million population were killed and 50,000 were wounded. Despite the gravity of the national situation, Kaitaia businessman Colonel Allen Bell managed to persuade Parliamentarians to participate in a car tour to show them the need for road improvements in the “winterless” North.

Champ gives thanks

THE victorious First Light Taveuni rugby 7s team had a thanksgiving church service in Suva yesterday after they won the 2017 Mana Whey Coral Coast 7s at Lawaqa Park, Sigatoka, on Saturday. “He’s the driving factor behind the team’s 12-10 win in the final and during the tournament,” he said.

7s surprise

THE inclusion of Vilimoni Koroi in the New Zealand 7s team brings a shock wave in the host team for the first tournament of the second leg in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, New Zealand media reported last week. It was further reported the 18-year-old only finished at Feilding High School last year and didn’t even play at the national sevens championship last weekend.

Diver mauled by shark north of Australia to undergo surgery

A diver who was mauled by a 4-meter bull shark near the Great Barrier Reef was flown in stable condition to an Australian hospital for microsurgery to an arm, a paramedic said Sunday. The 55-year-old man had been free diving with friends in the Torres Strait from a boat chartered from the Queensland state city of Cairns when the shark attacked on Saturday afternoon, paramedic David Cameron said.

UK offers climate change help

BRITISH High Commissioner to Fiji Melanie Hopkins says the United Kingdom will focus on two key areas of development in Fiji this year. Ms Hopkins said the first issue was climate change and that the UK was ready to work with Fiji during its presidency at the Conference of the Parties this year.

‘On that stage’

US Navy Petty Officer Josua Waqa, 23, was among the 15 ceremonial guardsmen who took part in yesterday’s historic event at the White House in Washington DC in the US. Picture: US MILITARY Her son, US Navy Petty Officer Josua Waqa, 23, was among the 15 ceremonial guardsmen who took part at yesterday’s historic event at the White House in Washington DC in the US.

Protesters rally worldwide in solidarity with Washington march

Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States and around the world are set to join marches Saturday to raise awareness of women’s rights and other civil rights they fear could be under threat under Donald Trump’s presidency. The key focus of the day will be the Women’s March on Washington, which organizers say could attract a quarter of a million participants.

a Ia ve seen rain:a James Taylor bemoans end of Obama era

President Barack Obama sings “Jingle Bells” with James Taylor and others during the lighting ceremony for the 2016 National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington. Taylor, on vacation in French Polynesia, posted a video online Friday bemoaning the end of the Obama era, saying, “Hi, it’s James on the last day of the Obama administration, and it feels like it’s raining all over the world.” BOSTON >> Half a world away from Washington, James Taylor is greeting fans with a video bemoaning the end of the Obama era.

NZDF Firefighters Hit the Ground Running in Whitianga

The New Zealand Defence Force’s five-member firefighting crew worked overnight Thursday to extinguish hotspots to prevent the massive bush fire south of Whitianga from spreading further. “We got straight to work as soon as we arrived about 10 o’clock last night and finished about 6.30 this morning,” Corporal Alex Walker, who is leading the NZDF’s firefighting crew, said.

Tigerair to resume flights between Australia and Bali

‘Help, we are dying of the cold’: Desperate guests trapped in Italian ski hotel send texts to loved-ones after huge avalanche hits the building killing up to 30 people The wedge salads are on me! Trump pays one fan’s $1,000 dinner bill as he’s mobbed while stopping by his DC hotel for a meal after ditching press pool 36 hours before inauguration Aaron Rodgers’ family doesn’t ‘trust’ Olivia Munn: More details of NFL star’s rift with relatives emerge ‘after he chose model over her’ Overweight and rather whiffy, the REAL young Queen Victoria: New book claims Lord Melbourne dropped hints to the monarch about her personal hygiene and gave her slimming tips ‘Nope’: The last word of cold-blooded killer as he is executed for invading family’s home and murdering two young girls and their parents who had left the door open while preparing New Year’s party Poll shows Hillary Clinton would BEAT Bill … (more)

Billionaire Li Ka-Shing Sweetens Duet Offer to $5.5 Billion

Billionaire Li Ka-shing agreed to buy Duet Group in a A$7.4 billion deal, sweetening an earlier offer, as the Hong Kong tycoon seeks to expand his infrastructure assets in Australia to diversify away from Europe. In the revised bid, endorsed by Duet, investors will receive A$3.03 for each share in the energy company after including a newly announced special dividend of 3 cents a share, according to statements from the companies.

Bill Shorten throws support behind federal ICAC following Sussan Ley scandal

Federal Parliament is set to conduct its first comprehensive investigation into the case for a national anti-corruption watchdog after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten threw his support behind an inquiry. Mr Shorten said reform needed to go beyond the independent parliamentary expenses system proposed by Malcolm Turnbull to also include “an open and honest discussion” about whether Australia should have a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption .

New Australia Day lamb ad isn’t landing well with Indigenous Australians

The latest Meat and Livestock Association Australia Day ad has been widely hailed as diverse and progressive on social media, but many Indigenous Australians have reacted very differently. Ryan Griffen, creator of ABC drama Cleverman, believes the ad to be in “poor taste”, telling Daily Life: “as important as it is for Australians to celebrate multiculturalism, I feel for us to be able to appreciate an ad like this on screen a lot of work needs to happen off screen.”

A chance judicial encounter in remote Papua New Guinea

PAPUA New Guinea’s remote Hela province, in the north-central part of the country’s southern highlands, is home to the indigenous Huli tribal clan of hunter-gatherers. It’s also the only place in the world where you will find the King of Saxony bird of paradise, and a plethora of other winged wonders.

Throwback Thursday – January 12, 2006 | photos

South Australian buyers Peter and Janice Ceete, left, with Elders Penola agent Steve Hill, paid $1180 for 16 joined Angus-Friesian heifers at the Warrnambool F1 sale last Friday. Julie Suter, from Port Fairy Rotary Club, and Mary Bishop, from the Port Fairy Quilters Group, look at a quilt made for Rhonda Coxall by her friends ahead of the annual Port Fairy quilt exhibition.

Rod Culleton’s last-ditch effort to stay in the Parliament

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Fairfax NZ posts first annual loss in four years in 2016

Fairfax New Zealand posted its first annual loss in four years as it wrote off than $100 million from the value of its mastheads and buildings and more than doubled its bill to pay out redundancies in 2016, all while resuming dividends to its Australian parent and lifting executive pay. The Wellington-based unit of ASX-listed Fairfax Media Group reported a loss of $75.3 million in the year ended June 30, 2016, turning around a profit of $21.9 million a year earlier and marking the first time the books were in the red since 2012.

the Naked Magicians to Bring Hot, Hilarious Magic to Chicago; Tickets on Sale Friday

Broadway In Chicago has announced individual tickets for the Chicago premiere of the world’s naughtiest and funniest magic show, THE NAKED MAGICIANS go on sale Friday, Jan. 13 for a limited one-week engagement at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place March 14-19, 2017. Direct from Australia, the show features magic, mirth and more than a touch of mayhem as these two hot and hilarious magicians say abracadabra and take magic to a whole new level.

Timaru electrician’s leg, arm and chest tattoos are all pure Kiwi

Tattoos on Jonty Penney’s right leg read like a Kiwiana exhibition: the goodnight kiwi and cat, jandals, gumboots, Horse from Footrot Flats , a Morris Minor, a tomato-shaped squeezable sauce dispenser, Buzzy Bee, the Four Square guy and a tiki. The electrician’s first tattoo, of a tiger, at the age of 16 on his right upper arm shocked his mum and he has since covered it up with other tattoos.

NZ to benefit from Trump/Brexit?

New Zealand could be the accidental beneficiary from the election of Donald Trump as US President and the Brexit vote if it speeds up the pace of free trade talks with the European Union in a bid to stamp out protectionism. Prime Minister Bill English met with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels earlier this morning.

Four Local Ladies to Walk 100km to Help Fight Poverty

Janet Broome-Nicholson is a participant of the Teach First NZ program teaching Te Reo Maori, Serene Rountree is a mother of one and Kapiti Photo School student and lives with Gemma Macann who is a leader at Ngatiawa River Monastery, and Liz McGimpsey a breastfeeding mum to two kids under two, hails from Shannon. They call themselves ‘Operation Friends’.

Rescue beacon alerts top 450

A woman climber sustaining severe head injuries on Christmas Day, and a motor boat stuck on a sandbar off Foxton Beach, were among the more than 450 rescue beacon incidents for 2016. The Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand received 146 beacon alerts north of Taupo last year, and 107 in the lower half of the North Island.

NZ’s luckiest Lotto town revealed

Kiwi punters may wish to buy their next Lotto ticket in Otorohanga, after the Waikato district was named the country’s “luckiest” area for 2016. On average Otorohanga District residents won about $1526 per capita, almost $600 more than the second most prosperous area .

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.