MIL-OSI Publisher – Page 122

November 20, 2025

Homicide enquiry underway in Waikanae

Source: New Zealand Police

Attributable to Detective Inspector Jamie Woods:

Police have launched a homicide enquiry after a man died in Waikanae yesterday.

Officers were called to Kakariki Grove about 3:15pm yesterday to reports of an altercation.

A male was located critically injured and, despite medical attention, died at the scene.

Two vehicles left the area, with one being stopped by Police a short time later and a male arrested. The second vehicle has also been located and the male driver also arrested.

Charges are being considered.

A scene guard remains in place at Kakariki Grove, and enquiries are ongoing to identify and locate others involved in the incident.

Residents can expect to see a Police presence in the area while these enquiries are ongoing.

ENDS

Issued by the Police Media Centre

November 20, 2025

Red tape relief improves fraud and scam prevention

Source: New Zealand Government

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has cut unnecessary red tape so banks can more easily share vital information to better protect New Zealanders from fraud and scams.

A ministerial exemption to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act 2009 now allows several banks to share AML-related information with one another for the purpose of preventing fraud and scams.

“Anti–money laundering rules have made it too hard for banks to share information about known fraud or scam activity – including ‘mule’ accounts and associated details,” says Mrs McKee.

“This red tape relief means banks will be able to act faster, work together more effectively, and in many cases freeze scam transfers before the money disappears overseas for good.

“It shows that we don’t always need to create new rules or spend more taxpayers’ money to fix what matters.

“Often, the best thing government can do is step aside and give individuals and businesses the freedom to solve their own problems in innovative ways.

“This is especially important in today’s fast-moving digital world, where scammers and fraudsters constantly evolve their tactics. Our regulatory settings need to be just as agile.

“That’s why this Government is also making wider reforms to the AML/CFT regime to ensure it targets actual financial criminals while freeing law-abiding New Zealanders and businesses from the headache and cost of excessive red tape.

“Once implemented, these reforms will deliver the most significant regulatory relief since the AML/CFT regime was first introduced in 2013.

“That means less time and money wasted on box-ticking, and more focus on improving productivity, creating jobs, and lifting incomes.”

November 20, 2025

AFT Pharmaceuticals’ revenue up a third on last year

Source: Radio New Zealand

AFT Pharmaceuticals expected second half sales and earnings to be greater than the first half. OKSANA KAZYKINA/123RF

Drug maker AFT Pharmaceuticals has reported a strong first-half result with revenue up a third over the year earlier.

The company best known for its Maxigesic pain medication made a first net half profit compared with a loss the year earlier, with the businesses Australian divison being its largest generator of revenue and profit.

Key numbers for the six months ended September compared with a year ago:

Net profit $2.7.m vs $2.5m net loss
Revenue $114.9m vs $86.7m
Underlying profit $4.7m vs $1.8m loss

“We’re seeing some good, solid growth right across the board,” managing director Dr Hartley Atkinson said.

“We’re starting to get great attraction now in our global expansion, we’re selling in 85 countries around the globe.”

Atkinson said the company was continuing to invest in research and development, which was expected to pay off in the long run.

“Despite our big spend in R&D and on advancing the business, we’ve still got a really good increase – 363 percent increase in profit over the year, which is really driven by higher sales.”

AFT expected second half sales and earnings to be greater than the first half.

He said AFT was on track to deliver a full year operating profit in a range of $20m to $24m and to further advance its multi-year growth strategy.

“We continue to make good progress advancing the development of our international business hubs in markets that share similar characteristics with our highly successful Australasian operations,” he said.

“We expect our business hubs in the United Kingdom and South Africa to begin to contribute to earnings in the second half of the year, validating the potential we see in these markets and our investment in them.

“We meanwhile are seeing continuing strong interest in our development portfolio with an out-licensing agreement for our novel iron therapy secured in China, the worlds’ second largest pharma market after the end of the period. We are excited about the expanding prospects for our company.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

Crowd gathers outside Parliament ahead of visit by China’s Zhao Leji

Source: Radio New Zealand

Zhao Leji sits only below president Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang in order of importance. RNZ / Giles Dexter

A small crowd has gathered on Parliament’s lawn, hours ahead of the visit of the third highest ranking member of the Chinese government.

Zhao Leji, the chairman of the National People’s Congress, is visiting Parliament for a bilateral meeting with speaker Gerry Brownlee.

In China’s pecking order, Zhao sits only below president Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang in order of importance.

Security has been tightened on the precinct, with barriers and fences restricting access to the forecourt.

Zhao is not set to visit Parliament until later on Thursday afternoon. RNZ / Giles Dexter

Zhao is not set to visit Parliament until later on Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday morning, he made a courtesy call to the Prime Minister in Auckland.

Speaking through an interpreter, Zhao said the two nations should have “friendly and in-depth exchanges”.

A crowd is also outside a central Wellington hotel where Zhao is believed to be staying.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

Swiss man charged after fatal crash in North Canterbury

Source: Radio New Zealand

A 32-year-old Swiss national has been charged with careless driving causing death after a fatal crash near Sheffield in Canterbury’s Selwyn district on Wednesday.

The person died in the crash that closed part of State Highway 73, shortly before 3pm on Wednesday.

The two-vehicle crash occurred at the intersection with Deans Road.

St John said another two people were taken to Christchurch Hospital with moderate injuries.

The highway between Bulls and Auchenflower Roads was shut for a few hours as the Serious Crash Unit investigated.

Police said the arrested man was due to appear in the Christchurch District Court today.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

Man charged with murder after death in New Plymouth CBD

Source: Radio New Zealand

Robin Martin

A man has been charged with murder after a death in the New Plymouth CBD.

Emergency services were alerted to a fight on St Aubyn Street shortly before 7pm on Wednesday and found a man with critical injuries.

CPR was performed but he died at the scene.

The police said two people were arrested.

Robin Martin

One of them, a 44-year-old man, has been charged with murder and is due to appear today in the New Plymouth District Court, while the other person was released without charge.

A blue police gazebo is set up beside beside the railway line at the Len Lyne Wind Wand sculpture on the Coastal Walkway.

The police said a scene guard has been in place overnight, and cordons will remain in place today while a scene examination is carried out.

Robin Martin

Meanwhile, part of St Aubyn Street remains closed this morning, and motorists should avoid the area if possible, or expect delays.

Police would like to hear from anyone who might have witnessed this incident unfolding, or who has information about those involved.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

Crash between two buses and a car closes road in Auckland’s Glen Innes

Source: Radio New Zealand

One person was injured in the crash. (File photo) RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

A crash between two buses and a car has closed a road in Auckland’s Glen Innes.

Emergency services were at the scene of the crash on Apirana Avenue, which was reported just after 9am.

Police said one person had been taken to hospital in a moderate condition.

Apirana Avenue was closed between Taniwha Street and Delwyn Lane while the scene was cleared.

Diversions were in place and motorists were told to expect delays.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

Police officer needs hospital treatment after alleged Christchurch Airport assault

Source: Radio New Zealand

The officer was treated for moderate injuries. File picture. 123rf.com

A police officer has been taken to hospital after being hit in the face in an assault at Christchurch Airport.

Police said the officer approached two people who were behaving in a “disorderly manner” at 1.50am on Thursday.

One of them is accused of lashing out at the officer, who was taken to hospital by ambulance and treated for moderate injuries.

Two people were arrested.

A 29-year-old man is due to appear in court on Thursday charged with injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

A 24-year-old woman will appear on 26 November charged with obstruction.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

‘How about going for a drive?’ turns into epic global adventure

Source: Radio New Zealand

In 1962, Dunedin farmer Alan MacLeod said to his wife Joan and six kids, ‘how about going for a drive’?’

Little did they know the ‘harebrained scheme’ Alan had cooked up would see them travelling the world in a homemade house truck a year later.

He wanted to reconnect the family with their MacLeod ancestry on the Island of Skye in Scotland, and visit friends he had made fighting in the Italian campaign in World War II.

Hannah Bulloch has written a book about her grandparents decision to take six kids around the world on a house truck.

Supplied by Otago University Press

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The family were living a hard life on a farm her grandparents had bought just after the war, she says.

“The book opens with the scene of my grandmother shouting out the back door that tea’s ready and ‘come and get it while it’s warm or I’ll chuck it to the cat’, which was one of her sayings,” she told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

Alan built a house truck called ‘Holdfast’ from the chassis of an armoured scout car, the cab from a city bus with ‘Thompson’s Purity Lemonade’ still advertised across the front, a tractor engine and the tyres from a Daimler Mk2 armoured car, Bulloch says.

“He built an accommodation section on the back out of box section steel. He put bunks in the back for all of the kids, all but one. There wasn’t quite enough bunks for everyone.

“So one person had to sleep on the floor, which turned out to be Marilyn, my mother.”

As with all the other tasks on the farm the whole MacLeod family, including the children were expected to chip in with the fundraising, she says.

“My grandmother was canning, she canned 400 tins of meat to take with them and preserved fruit and vegetables and made jam and so forth.

“Alan had told the kids that they would have to pay their own way on the trip. So, they cut flowers, they bagged moss to sell, plucked geese, collected eggs, picked wild blackberries. They fattened pigs and calves and sold all of these things.”

Alan’s motivation for the trip remain buried in the family history, but his desire to reconnect with his Scottish clan was one and to revisit battle sites of World War II another – he also saw looming boarding school fees coming and figured a round world trip would probably be cheaper, she says.

The trip begins in 1963 with a ship to Singapore, despite the family being warned off starting there due to the war in Malaya. The first hurdle they faced was dodgy paper work, their carnet for the house truck had been bungled by a Wellington official.

“The date of its expiry was the same as the date it was made out. So, they had an invalid carnet to passage for the whole trip and had to kind of negotiate every country they went through with the border guards.”

The roads in that part of South-East Asia were practically non-existent at the time, she says. And crossing rivers in Thailand involved nursing the 8-tonne truck over rudimentary bridges.

“Often just some logs resting bank from bank and they’d have to get out and shift them to align the logs with the distance between Holdfast’s wheels.

“They were then very tentatively easing onto these logs and holding their breath, I imagine, as it crossed. All the kids would get out first, of course.”

In southern Thailand, they were staying in police compounds because they’d been told that would be the safest place, she says.

“In these compounds there were bamboo or iron cages with people they were told were communist guerrillas who would sort of sit there and stare at the family.

“And the family at first would stare back. My mother always said that she wondered, who was the more exotic exhibit? Because being a white family that was so unusual in those parts at the time.”

Further travails followed in India.

“They were travelling up through Karnataka when they had a very serious accident. So, the vehicle unexpectedly went off the road and plummeted down a bank. And almost all of them were injured.

“And my mother was very badly injured. There didn’t seem to be any medical help nearby. So, the situation was quite desperate.”

They were eventually rescued by an American missionary, she says.

But the journey continued; through India, Pakistan, through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia and Western Europe and then a ferry across the Channel up to UK and up to Isle of Skye, she says.

The adventure affected the family in different ways, two of the boys went to become inveterate travellers themselves, her mother settled into a more “homebody” life back in New Zealand.

But for the whole family it was life-changing, she says.

“I think many of them look back on it as the best time of their lives.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

November 20, 2025

Serious crash, Mount Eden

Source: New Zealand Police

Motorists are being advised to expect delays following a serious crash in Mount Eden.

Emergency services were called to the single vehicle crash on Dominion Road at about 10.18am.

Early indications suggest one person is in a critical condition.

Dominion Road, between Milton Road and Elizabeth Street, has been closed and diversions are in place.

The Serious Crash Unit has been notified.

ENDS.

Holly McKay/NZ Police