Misinformation circulating online is causing some parents and caregivers to confuse regular rheumatic fever swabs for Covid-19 tests. The National Hauora Coalition (NHC) and Counties Manukau Health issued a statement warning the…

For the first time at the University of Otago’s O Week, drug checking is out of a legal grey area and out in the open.Know Your Stuff NZ volunteers began three days of testing samples of illegal recreational drugs in the front room…

An evening shopping trip has ground life to a halt for more than 1200 shoppers, yet the ever-widening net of contact categories in Auckland’s Covid-19 response is stirring up confusion.As officials try to contain Auckland’s community…

From RNZ Political pressure is mounting on the Government to prioritise vaccinating South Aucklanders against Covid-19.The area is currently grappling with the latest outbreak of Covid-19 and was the centre of the August cluster…

Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, the daughter of Dubai ruler and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has sent a letter to police in the UK asking them to investigate the alleged kidnapping of her older sister, Princess Shamsa, from Britain in 2000.​​

"In the summer of 2000 Shamsa escaped the family vacation house in England. She was 18 years old … and of sound mind," Princess Latifa, who has also claimed she is being held hostage, wrote in a letter sent to CNN by her friend David Haigh, a campaigner for her release and part of Detained International, a legal advocacy NGO.

"She was enslaved and oppressed and suffered physical abuse at the hands of family members … She wanted to seek asylum in the UK where she has family permanently living there. After a few months, she was kidnapped … She was dragged from the street kicking and screaming. She was tranquilised and flown back to Dubai," Latifa wrote in the document dated February 2018.

READ MORE: Missing Dubai princess re-emerges in videos at 'jail villa'

The princess added her sister was tortured, "kept incommunicado with no release date, trial, or charge."

"She was tortured by getting her feet caned which is something I experienced myself with my own imprisonment," she wrote.

"Her ultimate goal is to be an emancipated person, to live with dignity, to have freedom of choice and freedom of movement … She wants the basic rights that all human beings are entitled to," the princess continued.

RELATED: Backers of detained Dubai princess seek Joe Biden's help to win her freedom

The princess said her sister has "strong links to England" and was "abducted in an illegal manner, on UK soil."

"All I ask of you is to please give attention on her case because it could get her freedom, which is the only thing that she wants in life," she added.

In a statement sent to CNN, Cambridgeshire Police confirmed it has received a letter, "dated February 2018 in relation to this case which will be looked at as part of the ongoing review."

The force also said it is investigating the recent BBC Panorama documentary, in which Latifa herself claims to be held hostage in Dubai.

The UK Foreign Office declined to comment on Thursday.

A recent statement by her family said coverage of Latifa's situation "is not reflective of the actual position," according to the United Arab Emirates embassy in London.

The letter was obtained and delivered to the police by one of Latifa's cousins and Haigh.

The group also submitted a "transcript of a number of video statements from Sheikha Latifa," which were obtained by "smuggling, with great difficulty and danger, a mobile phone into the Dubai jail of Sheikha Latifa," Haigh said in the letter sent to police and shared with CNN, using her Arabic title.

"Contact [with Latifa] was maintained throughout the majority of 2019 and 2020. Contact was lost in the second half of 2020," Haigh said.

The group also claims it has evidence that one British citizen was involved in the kidnapping of Princess Shamsa.

"We were not able to release such evidence previously due to what we believed was an unacceptable risk to the life and safety of Sheikha Latifa. However, now that contact has been lost, we are gravely concerned for her life and safety and decided to take the step to release the evidence obtained," Haigh added.

A man has died overnight after a police shooting in Papatoetoe.Counties Manukau District Commander Superintendent Jill Rogers today confirmed the man died in hospital overnight.He had been taken to Middlemore Hospital for surgery,…

A New York prosecutor has obtained copies of Donald Trump's tax records after the Supreme Court this week rejected the former president's last-ditch effort to prevent them from being handed over.

The Manhattan district attorney's office enforced a subpoena on Trump's accounting firm within hours of the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday and now has the documents in hand, a spokesperson for the office, Danny Frost, said Thursday.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. had been fighting for a year and a half for access to Trump's tax records for a criminal grand jury investigation into his business dealings. The documents are protected by grand jury secrecy rules and are not expected to be made public.

Vance, a Democrat, is conducting a wide-ranging investigation that includes an examination of whether Trump or his businesses lied about the value of assets to gain favourable loan terms and tax benefits. The district attorney is also scrutinising hush-money payments paid to women on Trump's behalf.

READ MORE: New York prosecutors subpoena Steve Bannon's financial records in investigation

Vance's office issued a subpoena to Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, in August 2019 seeking eight years of his tax returns and related documents.

Trump's lawyers immediately went to court to block its enforcement, first arguing that he was immune from being investigated while president.

When the Supreme Court rejected that argument 7-2 last July, Trump's lawyers returned to a lower court and argued the subpoena was issued in bad faith, overly broad, might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment. An appellate court rejected that argument and the Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene.

In a three-word statement after the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, Vance said only: "The work continues."

Trump has called Vance's investigation "a fishing expedition" and "a continuation of the witch hunt — the greatest witch hunt in history."

Vance is leading the investigation along with his general counsel, Carey Dunne, who made arguments on behalf of the office at various appellate court hearings. Vance recently hired former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz as a special assistant district attorney to assist in the probe.

Vance, whose term expires at the end of the year, hasn't announced if he will seek reelection, leaving questions about who will lead any Trump-related prosecutions in the future.

Vance's subpoena sought from Mazars USA not only the final versions of Trump's tax returns, but also draft versions of those returns and "any and all statements of financial condition, annual statements, periodic financial reports, and independent auditors' reports" held by the company.

Mazars did not object to the subpoena and, in a statement at the time, said it would "respect the legal process and fully comply with its legal obligations."

The Mazars subpoena also sought engagement agreements that define the accountants' role in creating the tax returns and financial statements; source documents providing the accountants with raw financial data; and work papers and communications between the firm and Trump representatives.

Those would include communications showing how the raw data was analyzed and treated in the preparation of the records.

The New York Times separately obtained years of Trump's tax data and published stories last year detailing some of his finances, including that he paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2017 and no income tax in 11 of 18 years because of major losses.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is denying allegations from a former aide who accused him of sexual harassment, including an unwanted kiss, in a Medium post on Wednesday.

Lindsey Boylan alleged that in 2018, the Democratic governor kissed her on the lips following a one-on-one briefing in his New York City office.

"As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips," Boylan wrote, describing the encounter. "I was in shock, but I kept walking."

Boylan first accused the governor of sexual harassment in a Twitter thread in December.

"As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behaviour are quite simply false," Caitlin Girouard, the governor's press secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday.

In that same statement, the office also issued a denial from four current and former staffers about a specific interaction on a flight wherein Boylan says the governor suggested they play strip poker. The four staffers, who flew with Cuomo and Boylan, said that this never happened.

Cuomo also firmly denied the allegations in a press conference in December when Boylan first made them.

CNN has not been able to corroborate the allegations, and when asked for further comment, Boylan replied that she was letting her Medium post speak for itself.

The post, however, has set off another series of bad headlines for the Cuomo administration.

New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, released a statement on Wednesday calling the accusation "disturbing."

"This is deeply disturbing. Clearly there is no place for this type of behaviour in the workplace or anywhere else," Stewart-Cousins wrote.

Cuomo, who had enjoyed sky-high popularity and national recognition for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, is now facing growing criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in his state regarding his administration's handling of nursing home death data. CNN has reported he has been pleading with lawmakers for support and has even been accused of threatening political retribution against Democrats who have criticised him in an aggressive effort to contain political fallout from the revelations.

CNN has also reported that the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn, along with the FBI, are scrutinising the handling of some of the data surrounding COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities in New York. The inquiry was described as preliminary, and it was not clear whether authorities are looking at the governor himself or members of his administration.

Boylan is currently running for Manhattan borough president. She unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Jerry Nadler in a Democratic primary in 2020.

Auckland’s ageing Harbour Bridge can’t take any more strengthening and traffic will need to be restricted in order to maintain its “structural integrity”.Waka Kotahi says the bridge has previously been strengthened several times…

Inappropriate sexual behaviour by a teacher with a “group” of students at an exclusive Christchurch boys’ school was “brushed under the carpet” and not passed on to police. The teacher was dismissed and it later emerged he had…