Kiwi homeowners are forking out nearly $300,000 more for a typical home than house hunters in the United Kingdom, new figures reveal.And new data from the OneRoof Property Report shows homes in areas such as South Auckland can…
Category Archives: headline
Vape study: Are e-cigarette flavours bad for you?
Vapers might find flavours like “gooseberry fizz” and “vanilla custard” fun – yet not enough is known about the potential harm these novelties might cause.Now, Otago University researchers have been funded to develop the tests that’ll…
Herald morning quiz: May 31
Test your brains with the Herald’s morning quiz. Be sure to check back on nzherald.co.nz at 3pm for the afternoon quiz. To challenge yourself with more quizzes, CLICK HERE.
Wild Weather: Thousands of homes threatened, Cantabrians evacuated, as 1-in-100-year weather events hits the South
Canterbury residents will wake to a region-wide state of emergency today after torrential rain caused rivers to burst their banks and forced mass evacuations in what is being labelled a one-in-100-year event. Heavy rain flooded…
Australia PM Scott Morrison arrives in Queenstown to iron out the 'wee devils between us'
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is talking up the importance of New Zealand’s “family ties” with Australia to counter China’s increasing influence in the Pacific.And though New Zealand and its neighbour will not always see eye-to-eye…
Northland family of nine escape house fire thanks to working smoke alarms
Members of a Northland whānau are grateful to be alive after smoke alarms alerted them to a house fire that took hold as they slept. The family of nine, including young children, have been left shell shocked and homeless after…
Boris Johnson, fiancée Carrie Symonds 'wed in London'
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and fiancée Carrie Symonds have married in a small private ceremony in London, his Downing Street office has confirmed.
Mr Johnson's office confirmed reports in the Mail on Sunday and The Sun that the couple wed at the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral in front of a small group of friends and family.
"The Prime Minister and Ms Symonds were married yesterday afternoon in a small ceremony at Westminster Cathedral,'' Downing Street said.
"The couple will celebrate their wedding with family and friends next summer."
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The newlyweds have reportedly sent save-the-date cards to family and friends for a celebration on July 30, 2022.
Under current coronavirus restrictions in England, no more than 30 people can attend a wedding.
Mr Johnson, 56, and 33-year-old Ms Symonds, an environmental advocate, announced their engagement in February 2020 and have a son together, 1-year-old Wilfred.
The marriage is Ms Symonds' first and Mr Johnson's third. He has at least five other children from previous relationships.
The last British prime minister to marry in office was Lord Liverpool in 1822.
The nuptials come after a tumultuous political week for Johnson, who was accused by former top aide Dominic Cummings on Wednesday of bungling the government's response to the coronavirus and being "unfit for the job."
On Friday, an ethics inquiry found the Prime Minister acted "unwisely" in renovating his Downing Street apartment without knowing where the money had come from but it cleared him of misconduct.
A member of the opposition Labour Party, Jon Trickett, suggested the wedding was "a good way to bury this week's bad news" on Mr Cummings' testimony and the report on the funding of the Downing Street flat.
Mother's emotional plea for teenage daughter's return
A Perth mother has issued a desperate plea to help find her teenage daughter, who has been missing for more than a day.
Rose Burns, 15, has been missing since Saturday afternoon and her family is concerned for her safety as she's been unwell.
"You stay at home and you think, 'I've got to go and find her', so I roam around aimlessly and maybe I'll find her," Sue Burns told 9News.
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"Where is she, is she warm? Is she safe?"
Ms Burns said her daughter wasn't carrying money or any means of communication such as a phone to contact home.
The teenager left the Bicton area in Perth on Saturday afternoon and was last seen in Mount Lawley.
"She did, last night, contact somebody, she just knocked on a random door and she went in and a very kind lady let her sleep on the settee that night and gave her something to eat," Ms Burns said.
But Rose left the woman's house before the alarm was raised. She hasn't been seen since.
"I love her so much," Ms Burns told 9News, before breaking down.
"We've had a great bond, we've had a great bond all our life."
Rose is 170cm tall, with a slim build and long blonde hair.
Massive search underway for surf skier missing off Stradbroke Island
A massive search is underway for a surf skier who has been missing for more than a day in dangerous waters off North Stradbroke Island.
Police hold grave fears for Jordan Kelly, 26, who left Dunwich with his friend Jack McDonald, 28, heading for Cylinder Beach at 10.30am on Saturday.
As the pair were making their way to Cylinder Beach just after 1.30pm, Mr McDonald's ski started taking on water and Mr Kelly tried to help him.
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Queensland water police acting Senior Sergeant Mitch Gray told reporters the men both held on to the one ski, until after dark when they had become weak and tired from being in the water, resulting in Mr Kelly "slipping away".
Authorities were alerted when the men failed to arrive at their camp in the afternoon to meet their partners.
More than a dozen boats and aircraft, from the Brisbane water police, Surf Life Saving Queensland and the coastguard, launched a full-scale rescue mission just after 2.30pm on Saturday but neither man was able to be found.
At 8pm on Saturday night, after being at sea for some 10 hours, Mr McDonald managed to make his way to Amity Point Wharf.
Authorities believe the pair hit trouble in the notoriously dangerous South Passage Bar.
He was treated at the scene for minor hypothermia and has since been reunited with his family.
An air search continued throughout last night looking for Mr Kelly. It was set to finish at 1am on Monday and resume again at sunrise.
So far, the search has found no trace of Mr Kelly and authorities hold grave fears for his welfare.
Acting Senior Sergeant Mitch Gray said swells had been between four to six metres high with south-easterly winds up to 20 to 30 knots.
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"To describe the conditions, I would say they are hazardous," Sgt Gray said.
"Not suitable for the activity they had planned to do.
"We're doing everything we can, with everything we've got.
"We've got over 16 vessels and we've got eight aircrafts which have flown over 440 square nautical miles of ocean to try and find him."
Sergeant Gray said as time went on "we become more and more concerned we will not have a happy ending".
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Mr Kelly is understood to be in good physical health and was training for a surf ski event at the Sunshine Coast, giving authorities some hope.
Mr Kelly's family members are believed to be flying in from New Zealand today.
Technician disabled emergency brake before Italy cable car deaths
The three suspects in Italy's cable car disaster have been allowed to leave prison after a judge indicated most of the blame fell on a service technician who intentionally disabled the car's emergency brake because it kept locking spontaneously.
Judge Donatella Banci Buonamici said there wasn't sufficient evidence suggesting the owner of the Mottarone cable car company, Luigi Nerini, or the maintenance chief, Enrico Perocchio, knew the technician had deactivated the brake on several occasions even before the May 23 disaster, which killed 14 people and left a five-year-old child in hospital.
After evaluating the prosecutors' case and request for the trio to remain behind bars, Buonamici ordered the owner and maintenance chief be freed while allowing the technician, Gabriele Tadini, to leave under house arrest.
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The three men left the Verbania prison on Sunday, accompanied by their lawyers.
Fourteen people were killed when the lead cable of the Mottarone funicular overlooking Lake Maggiore in northern Italy snapped and the emergency brake failed to prevent the cable car from reeling backward down the support line.
The cable car pulled off the line entirely when it hit a support pylon, crashed to the ground and then rolled down the mountain until it was stopped by a stand of trees.
The lone survivor, five-year-old Eitan Biran, remains hospitalised but conscious.
It is not known why the cable snapped.
The Italian region of Piedmont observed a minute's silence at noon on Sunday (8pm AEST), and flags were flying at half-mast to mark the moment one week ago when the disaster struck.
Mr Tadini admitted during questioning that he had left a fork-shaped bracket on the cable car's emergency brake to disable it because it kept locking on its own while the car was in service, his lawyer Marcello Perillo said.
Speaking to reporters outside the Verbania prison, Mr Perillo said Mr Tadini never would have left the bracket in place if he thought the lead cable would snap, as it did.