Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

The three children killed in a Sanson house fire have been identified on a page set up by the loved ones of their mother.

The children have been named as August, Hugo and Goldie, aged 7, 5 and 1.

The Givealittle page has since raised more than $136,000 for their mother as she dealt with the “unimaginable loss”.

“They were the light and love of her life, and her entire world has been shattered,” the Givealittle page said.

“In the midst of this unimaginable grief, she also lost her home and everything she owned. She is facing the hardest journey possible, stripped of her physical security, while navigating the deepest emotional pain.”

The search for the body of one of the children is still ongoing, police said.

The bodies of two children were recovered on Sunday night and were blessed by the family with karakia.

The body of the adult was removed earlier. Manawatu Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham confirmed to Morning Report it was the children’s father, which RNZ understood was Dean Field.

Police had put up emergency tape roping off the entrance to the property. Down the driveway was a police car, and a police branded truck was visible. A couple of flowers look to have been placed near the front of the driveway.

Police said their focus now would be on finding the third child’s body.

“It’s unimaginable, the tragedy for the families going through this,” Grantham told Morning Report. “We are working very carefully through the scene to establish how it started, and that’s still going to take us some time.”

He said it was too early to tell yet if the fire was deliberately started.

“It’s pretty risky with the part of the structure still there and the the dust that’s generated from the fire, so it will take us some time just to go through and establish what’s happened.”

Grantham said police were not seeking information from the public at this stage, but if anyone knew anything, they could “reach out”.

He said it was “unusual” for a house fire to begin in the afternoon.

Neighbour describes seeing the fire as it happened

A neighbour told RNZ he was working at his home on Saturday, when someone noticed smoke from the nearby property.

“We all came out to have a look and we saw a horrific amount of smoke coming from about 300 metres away, where the neighbour’s house is – pretty thick black billowing smoke.

“It was a very, very windy day and we knew it wasn’t any kind of controlled fire. We knew it was some sort of what we considered to be a house fire at that stage.”

He said, over an hour, many firefighters turned up, attempting to put the blaze out.

An hour after it started, the blaze and billowing smoke was still visible. He believed it took two hours for firefighters to put the fire out.

“They were still dousing it down and there was just very slight wisps of smoke coming from the property two hours after it started.”

He said State Highway One near the property did not open until 8pm Saturday.

The neighbour said that, during the fire, he was “pretty shocked” at what was happening before his eyes.

“Nothing we could do about it and just a feeling of kind of despair, I guess just watching what was going on.

“Knowing that a young family was potentially losing everything they owned and knowing that is going to be a very, very hard place to come back from.

“Just the thought of not knowing whether everybody was alright or not, and subsequent to that we found out, that isn’t the case, which has made things 10 times worse.”

Police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the fire.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A 57-year-old woman has been charged with murder following the death of a man in Kaitaia.

Emergency services were called to an Okahu Road address shortly after midday on Sunday following a report of assault.

The man was found critically injured but despite efforts by emergency services, he died at the scene.

Acting Detective Inspector Tania Jellyman said police arrested the woman at a different address on Sunday afternoon and later charged her with murder.

“Police are not seeking anyone else in relation to this matter,” Jellyman said in a statement.

“A scene examination is continuing and a post mortem examination will be carried out in the coming days.

“Police will look to release more details about the man after these processes have been completed.”

The woman was expected to appear in Kaitaia District Court later today.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Spraying to eradicate the yellow legged hornet is not currently in Biosecurity New Zealand’s plans.

Biosecurity New Zealand North Commissioner Mike Inglis told Morning Report international and domestic experts continue to advise they target the use of traps.

More of the invasive pests and their nests were found over the weekend, meaning 10 queens and two worker hornets have been located in the Auckland suburbs of Glenfield and Birkdale in the last month.

North Commissioner Mike Inglis said they had a clear plan.

“At this stage, the advice is not to spray both in terms of the efficacy of the spray and also the potential impacts in the wider community.

“We’ve got independent scientific experts from companies that have successfully managed these incursions as well as our own internal expertise.

“With the nests and particularly the workers, that’s part of the plan and expecting that over the next four weeks to 12 weeks. So again, that’s why we’ve put more staff on the ground.”

Inglis said they have also responded by increasing the amount of carbohydrate and protein bait traps to more than 200.

He said they were going to extend the trapping out to five kilometres from where the concentration of hornets had been found, and that more expert help was on the way.

“We’ve got a specialist coming across from the UK as well as introducing potentially tracking technology, and that tracks the hornets back to their nest. So that’s the next stage that we’re continuing to work through.”

“We’ve got sufficient staff in that area. We’ve ramped up over the last week and we’re getting support from our industry partners, regional councils, Department of Conservation to make sure that we continue to stay on top of this.”

“Our intent is to eradicate this hornet. We’re in a good space based on the technical advice, but we’ve got to keep pushing on and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Inglis continued to praise the public’s help, saying they had received nearly 3000 notifications from Aucklanders.

He said he was confident the predatory insects, which hunt honeybees, remained confined to Glenfield and Birkdale.

“We’re still focused on that area, and through our ramped up efforts last week, that’s where we found the further two nests.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A specialist in treating childhood diabetes says that some children are born “almost what we call ‘programmed'” to have the disease – but new medicine could help put them in remission

Inked onto award-winning investigative journalist Guyon Espiner’s right forearm in “cursive, fancy, gangster script” is “Diabetic”. On his inner wrist: “Type One”. It’s a permanent and “proud” reminder of the medical condition he was diagnosed with seven years ago.

Espiner was able to show the tattoo to ambulance staff during a diabetic episode that landed him in hospital earlier this year.

He had woken feeling “extremely low and completely delusional because it’s like that feeling of starving oxygen to the brain – I was so low that my brain was not working properly, it didn’t know where I was, it didn’t know what I was doing”.

“I don’t like wearing medical bracelets,” says Espiner, who flashed his tattoo to medical staff to explain his symptoms and behaviour.

“I am also proud to be a diabetic. I am proud to be a Type 1, it’s part of my identity, it’s shaped my life a lot.

Diagnosed at age 47, Espiner is one of more than 300,000 New Zealanders living with diabetes. But he’s in the minority group, with Type 1, which is an autoimmune condition where the body doesn’t produce insulin. It can develop rapidly and is usually diagnosed in childhood. Up to 10 percent of people with diabetes have Type 1.

Type 2 diabetes is far more common – about 90 percent of cases – and happens when your body can’t use insulin properly. It usually occurs in adults, but more and more children are now being diagnosed.

Starship Hospital Paediatric Endocrinologist Craig Jefferies tells The Detail that Type 2 diabetes was once rare for children, but that’s no longer the case in New Zealand, and this should act as a wake up call for the country.

“Type 2 diabetes 20 years ago was very rare. At the moment, we get 70 new kids a year with diabetes, most of them are Type 1 but about 10 percent are Type 2 now … 30 years ago, it was no-one.

“It almost always comes from high-risk ethnic groups, in New Zealand that is Maori and Pasifika. They are not the biggest kids at school but they are on the heavier for weight range, and almost always have a strong history of diabetes in the family, so there is a really strong genetic component.”

Children whose mothers had diabetes during pregnancy are also at an increased risk.

“It’s like a domino effect, there is diabetes in the family, the kids are getting exposed to high blood sugars in utero, getting born almost what we call ‘programmed’, and that’s getting worse as generations come through.

“Sadly we see a number of families where the parents have got diabetes complications, and the parents aren’t very old – kids are 10, mum and dad are 30s, maybe 40s – and unfortunately, we have had a couple where they have died of renal failure or are on dialysis.

“That’s the parents, so we are really keen to treat the children really aggressively to get the diabetes well controlled, we call it, or, even better, in remission.”

He says a recent study shows that “magic” new weight loss and diabetes drugs could be a game changer for Type 2 youth, getting them into full remission and off treatments.

“They could lose significant weight and they won’t have diabetes within four to six weeks if we can get these agents … and they could get on with teenage, normal life.”

But the drugs aren’t currently funded by the government.

“It’s going to cost,” Dr Jefferies says. “I think we need to be able to fund some of these new agents, some of these new diabetic/weight loss drugs to target this group.

“I mean we have a group of relatively small youth onset Type 2, if we can target the new agents, specifically for that, we will have a massive impact on their health, economy, and reducing their risk of long term complications.”

He says early detection is critical, and symptoms include excessive thirst, frequent urination, extreme tiredness or unexplained weight loss.

Dr Jefferies adds that “there’s a lot of stigma on diabetes. Children on insulin are stigmatised, adults with Type 2 are stigmatised. All of us are at risk, whether it’s a random autoimmune event, which is Type 1, or it is part of ageing or high risk genes, you can’t say ‘only they get it’.

“We are all in the same boat and we have to treat it appropriately.”

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

A person has been found dead at an Ōtāhuhu property and police are treating it unexplained.

Emergency services were called to Atkinson Avenue at 1.50am after a person was found deceased.

Cordons were in place along a section of Atkinson Avenue on Monday morning and emergency services were at the scene.

Police asked members of the public to avoid the area.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A person has been taken to hospital in a serious condition from an e-scooter crash in Auckland’s CBD.

It happened at the intersection of Cook and Nelson Streets just after 5.15am Monday.

Police, St John and Fire and Emergency were all involved in the response.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Some schools in Canterbury have closed for asbestos testing because a brand of play sand they had been using has been found to contain asbestos.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said four products sold by Kmart – the 14-piece sandcastle building set and the blue, green and pink Magic Sand sets – tested positive for tremolite, a form of asbestos associated with higher cancer risks at low exposure levels.

The findings expand an already significant recall that began last week, when rainbow sand products used widely in schools and childcare centres were found to be contaminated.

In posts to Facebook, Burnside Primary School, Clearview Primary, and Waitaha School said they had become aware recalled sand products had been used in their schools and were closed on Monday as a precaution while tests were done.

Rolleston’s Clearview Primary said it had identified one home base that used the recalled Kmart product. The school’s board of trustees said a further four classrooms had used other brands of kinetic sand, or kinetic sand that had been removed from its packaging, making its origin unclear.

“At this stage, there is no immediate risk to staff or students. However, out of an abundance of caution, we are closing the school on Monday, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday this week while all our teaching and learning spaces are professionally tested,” Clearview Primary said.

In a Facebook Post, Burnside Primary School said a recalled kinetic sand product sold at Kmart had been used in “some areas of our school”.

The school said while the risk to staff and students was considered very low, it had been advised by WorkSafe to close on Monday as a precaution to complete testing and ensure learning spaces were safe.

In a post to Facebook, Waitaha School said it was also closed on Monday.

“Waitaha School will be closed on Monday November 17 as we have become aware that a number of areas of the school across satellites and the base school have been exposed to various coloured sand brands that have been recalled. The Ministry of Education have advised the Board to close the school and arrange for an investigation and clean by professional asbestos cleaners,” the school said.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment product safety spokesperson Ian Caplin said he understood how alarming the discovery would be for families.

“We appreciate that the presence of asbestos in products that are used by children will be concerning to parents and caregivers. We urge families who have purchased these products to stop using them immediately, secure them safely, and contact your local council for advice on where and how to dispose of the contaminated material safely,” he said.

“If you are a workplace, where you may have higher volumes of these products or more people may have come in contact with the products, you should contact a licensed asbestos assessor or removalist for immediate advice and support on your specific situation. A list of these is available on the WorkSafe website.”

The contaminated Kmart products include:

• 14-piece Sandcastle Building Set
• Blue Magic Sand
• Green Magic Sand
• Pink Magic Sand

The newly identified products are in addition to the previously recalled sands from Educational Colours and Creatistics:

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealanders are losing six-figure sums to scammers pretending to offer anything from jobs to cryptocurrency investments and technology support.

Financial Services Complaints Ltd, an external dispute resolution service for the financial services sector, said it recently investigated a complaint from a retiree who lost $250,000 to a company falsely claiming to offer cryptocurrency trading services.

He thought he was signing up to an online platform for trading crypto and transferred money from his bank account to a money transfer service.

When the victim thought he was confirming regulatory declarations, he was actually authorising transfers to a financial service provider in the Middle East.

“Scammers use extremely sophisticated methods to recreate legitimate tools, such as websites, or reassure consumers and portray themselves in convincing ways, that can fool even experienced investors,” FSCL’s ombudsman Susan Taylor said.

She said people should check out the intended recipients of money they were transferring, not rush into making payments and be cautious about downloading anything.

Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden had a similar message.

She said the percentage of complaints her scheme received about fraud and scams had dropped from 22 percent of its caseload last year to 13 percent this year.

But the average amount being lost in the cases it considered rose from $73,000 to more than $100,000.

In one case it dealt with, a woman who had been having trouble with her internet speed received a call from someone claiming to be a technician ringing to fix it .

That person tricked her into downloading remote access software and asked her to log into her internet banking to test her internet speed.

The scammer then logged in and set up a payment of $14,200. The woman said she was sent an authorisation code for the payment but when she received the text, she hung up the call and shut down her computer.

Her bank would not reimburse her for the loss because it said she did not take reasonable care.

The ombudsman scheme investigated and said many customers would not know that logging into their bank account when someone was working on their computer remotely could disclose their login details.

“We also had reservations about whether [she] had in fact texted the authorisation code and online screen code to the bank.

“[Her] evidence was very clear and consistent on this point: she maintained she did not send a reply text and hung up the phone when she saw the test. The bank did not investigate this point.”

The bank ended up reimbursing the customer.

Sladden said people should stop and think before acting.

“Check you’re actually dealing with the legitimate organisation by contacting it directly using contact details you find yourself, not those provided by the sender – and read any messages from your bank carefully. Report suspicious approaches to help protect others from becoming victims.”

She welcomed amendments to the Code of Banking Practice which will introduce more protection for customers from 30 November, including identification of high-risk transactions, pre-transaction warnings to customers and improved information sharing.

Banks have committed to reimburse eligible customers up to $500,000 for authorised payment scam losses if a bank does not meet those commitments.

“These changes will undoubtedly strengthen consumer protections,” Sladden said.

“But they do not diminish the need to stay alert and take care with your banking, which remains the best way to protect yourself from scams.”

In another case, a woman authorised two payments of $5000 to another bank account as part of what she thought was a legitimate cryptocurrency investment.

The bank thought the payment was suspicious and called her but she said she authorised it.

After another payment a few days later, she called to report the scam.

A scammer then contacted her and tricked her into believing he could help her get her money back.

He told her to accept $4200 into her bank account as part of recovering what she had lost but she was being used as a money mule.

The bank got in touch and told her she had received fraudulent funds, and froze her account.

She was not able to access any money other than her wages until it completed its fraud investigation.

She had recently been made redundant and was living off money her husband put into her account every week.

Four months after reporting the first scam, the bank told her it would not reimburse her initial $10,000 loss and it had taken the $4200 out of her account that had been received fraudulently.

The ombudsman said the bank was not required to reimburse her for the $10,000 and was entitled to reverse the $4200.

But it said the bank did not treat her fairly and reasonably.

It offered her $1200 to compensate for the stress and inconvenience she suffered.

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