Police arrest fleeing driver of stolen car after Otahuhu chase
Police were called to Settlement Road outside Papakura Intermediate School, where a man was found with serious injuries. Video / Dean Purcell
A Nelson-based alarm and security systems company shared a video of a suspected drunk driver slamming through its doors at full speed. Video / Nelson Alarms Security Systems
A kiwi musician claims he was discriminated against after being refused entry to a downtown Auckland bar for breaking a tattoo policy that the bar will not provide to him.
Christchurch local captures moment masked raiders take over a Christchurch Metro-Mart. Video / Supplied
It's been six months since I interviewed Rocket Lab chief executive Sir Peter Beck. We have a lot to discuss following the space company's Q1 earnings! Video / Cameron Pitney
US calls for leader-level peace talks, apprentice numbers drop, and Wellington fights public bullying in new campaign.
Naples, Italy, has been confirmed as the host of the 38th America's Cup.
Raised in the shadows – Canterbury artist Sheelagh McHaffie draws the light she's fought to find. Video / Frank Film Made with funding from NZ on Air.
MetService National Weather Update: May 15 - May 18
Brooke van Velden thinks it is odd Winston Peters would criticise her for using the c-word.
NZ Herald Business Editor-at-large, Liam Dann breaks down all you need to know about the upcoming budget. Video / NZ Herald
Willis emphasises it should not be weaponised against women. Video / Jason Dorday
Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff, economist Craig Renney and secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges speak after meeting with Minister Brooke van Velden
CCTV footage shows two hooded offenders using a stolen car to ram the front doors of a Temuka petrol station around 3.23am, before fleeing with stolen items.
Minister for Social Investment, Nicola Willis talks to the media after a Pre-Budget 2025 Social Investment Speech at the Southern Initiative.
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RNZ News
21 hours ago
- RNZ News
50 police employees snooped into file of slain cop Lyn Fleming
By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice multimedia journalist of Tributes to slain police officer Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming outside the Nelson police station after she was struck by a motor vehicle in the early hours of New Year's Day 2025. Photo: NZ Police / RNZ An internal police investigation has revealed 50 employees snooped into the file relating to the death of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming without good reason. Fleming died after she and fellow officer Adam Ramsay were struck by a vehicle while on foot patrol in the early hours of the morning on New Year's Day in Nelson. The 62-year-old succumbed to her injuries in the hospital that day, surrounded by her family and Ramsay suffered serious injuries. Fleming was the first policewoman to be killed in the line of duty in New Zealand. She was also the first police officer to be killed while on duty in Nelson. A 32-year-old man charged with offences linked to Fleming's death pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder earlier this year. His interim name suppression is still in place and he's due to appear again in August. Weeks after Fleming's death, police launched an internal investigation into alleged misuse of an intelligence database called the National Intelligence Application (NIA), which holds sensitive information about incidents and offending, as well as information about the public. Police employees, including civilian staff, have access to the database, but their use is tracked and audited and they must have a valid work reason for accessing anything within the system. Following an audit in January, a memo was sent to staff by the Deputy Commissioner of frontline operations Tania Kura, noting that a number of employees had checked the file relating to Fleming's death, but it had no connection to their duties. "Alarmingly, and disrespectfully, we have found people randomly checking the files on the devastating incident in Nelson," the memo read. "Unauthorised use of NIA will not be tolerated and final decisions on any sanctions for staff will be decided by a dedicated team." An Official Information Act request released to NZME confirmed there have been a total of 76 instances of misuse of NIA in 2025. A total of 116 police employees were investigated as part of the internal audit and 76 staff were found to have a legitimate reason for accessing the file. The funeral for Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming was held at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson in January. Photo: RNZ / Anthony Phelps A spokesperson for police said the 50 staff who had misused the system in relation to Fleming's case had accessed both the event file, which holds a running log of information related to an open case, as well as the file for the alleged offender. "The audit provided an opportunity to remind all staff that NIA searches must be for appropriate reasons," the spokesperson said. All 50 staff members who accessed the file improperly were issued warnings. New Zealand Police Association president Chris Cahill said the numbers were a little bit surprising, but not concerning. "From my understanding, most people were looking to see if they could identify the officer because they were concerned it was someone they knew," he said. Cahill said it was possible there had been a similar spike after the death of Auckland police officer Matthew Hunt. "If we look at this nationally, it's not that bad considering how many NIA checks are done every year, hundreds of thousands a year, only to see 60 or so that are seen as inappropriate," he said. "It shows that things are pretty tight." Cahill said that a warning was far from a slap on the wrist and was actually quite serious. "It could be the step before dismissal in some cases." It is possible for police employees to be criminally charged for misusing NIA. An example is Kayla Watson, who was sentenced to 80 hours of community work after taking photos of files in the system and posting them into a Facebook chat with her friend. However, few police employees are criminally charged for breaching the terms of use of the database. For context, there were a total of 79 misuses in 2023, of which only one resulted in a criminal charge. The bulk of the rest resulted in a warning or performance action. In 2024, there were 65 misuses of NIA, again with the majority being resolved in a similar manner. Of the 220 alleged misuses of the application in the last three years, 54 incidents are still being investigated. -This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Scam victim ‘blessed' by free wood delivery
A Dunedin woman left in the cold after falling victim to a firewood scam is thanking an "angel" who came out of nowhere and saved the day. When Wakari resident Visha Webster was left desperate early this month after discovering all her stored firewood was soaked, she messaged a man advertising 4cum of firewood for $300. However, after about a week of back and forth, she was left empty-handed and realised she had been scammed. The scammer, who claimed he was Balclutha-based, kept promising to deliver the wood, but also kept coming up with excuses. "I told him $300 is a lot of money for me, you know, and this is not a very warm house." However, after missing another delivery, the scammer blocked her on Facebook. It was her last hope, and she was "crying her eyes out" at work over the situation, when she arrived home to find an "angel" had stepped in to save the day. Affordable Firewood Mosgiel owner Pete Thompson had delivered 4cum of firewood to her house. She cried again, but this time it was tears of relief and happiness. A tearful Visha Webster (right) hugs Affordable Firewood owner Pete Thompson and colleague Stacey Morton, for delivering free firewood to her house after she was scammed. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY Mr Thompson said he and colleague Stacey Morton decided to help Mrs Webster after they saw a post on Facebook about the scam. "I hate that, because it gives us guys that do firewood a bad name." He even went as far as providing her with a tarpaulin to keep the wood dry. "Pete just said, 'this is not right, this time of the year for that', and dropped it off. "My husband asked me, 'why are you looking at the firewood and crying?' "I said, 'this is miracle'," Mrs Webster said. She said she forgot all about the scammer, and her feeling of loss. "The sadness from my heart was gone — I know I am being watched and cared for. I am very blessed." She said retelling the story still gave her "goose bumps". "We have these kind of people who rip you off, and then you have these kind of people who just came up from nowhere and tell you, I will help you. "Until I die, I'm going to buy firewood from them — I wished that cremation on wood was allowed in New Zealand, I would have bought from them for that too."
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Rights abuses continue in North Korea: investigator
A decade after a landmark U.N. report concluded North Korea committed crimes against humanity, a U.N. official investigating rights in the isolated state says many abuses continue, exacerbated by COVID-era controls that have yet to be lifted. James Heenan, who represents the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul, said he is still surprised by the continued prevalence of executions, forced labour and reports of starvation in the authoritarian country. Later this year Heenan's team will release a follow-up report to the 2014 findings by the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which said the government had committed "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" that constituted crimes against humanity. DPRK is North Korea's official name. While the conclusions of this year's report are still being finalised, Heenan told Reuters in an interview that the last 10 years have seen mixed results, with North Korea's government engaging more with some international institutions, but doubling down on control at home. "The post-COVID period for DPRK means a period of much greater government control over people's lives and restrictions on their freedoms," he said in the interview. North Korea's embassy in London did not answer phone calls seeking comment. The government has in the past denied abuses and accused the U.N. and foreign countries of trying to use human rights as a political weapon to attack North Korea. A Reuters investigation in 2023 found leader Kim Jong Un had spent much of the COVID pandemic building a massive string of walls and fences along the previously porous border with China, and later built fences around the capital of Pyongyang. A report this week by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the COVID pandemic raged in North Korea for more than two years before the regime admitted in May 2022 that the virus had permeated its borders, and that the regime bungled the response in a way that violated freedoms and left most citizens to fend for themselves. On Wednesday SI Analytics, a Seoul-based satellite imagery firm, released a report noting North Korea is renovating a key prison camp near the border with China, possibly in response to international criticism, while simultaneously strengthening physical control over prisoners under the pretence of facility improvement. Heenan said his team has talked to more than 300 North Koreans who fled their country in recent years, and many expressed despair. "Sometimes we hear people saying they sort of hope a war breaks out, because that might change things," he said. A number of those interviewees will speak publicly for the first time next week as part of an effort to put a human face on the U.N. findings. "It's a rare opportunity to hear from people publicly what they want to say about what's happening in the DPRK," Heenan said. He expressed concern about funding cuts for international aid and U.N. programmes around the world, which is pressuring human rights work and threatening support for North Korean refugees. While human rights has traditionally been a politically volatile subject not only for Pyongyang but for foreign governments trying to engage with the nuclear-armed North, Heenan said the issues like prison camps need to be part of any engagement on a political settlement. "There's no point self-censoring on human rights, because... no one's fooled," he said.
