Samoa’s top health officials says not enough young children are being vaccinated; and driving speeds around the country’s schools will be reduced to make streets safer for students walking to school.
1.The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that two officers were legally justified in fatally shooting at a man 12 times on an Auckland motorway. Jerrim Toms was shot dead by police after his car was stopped with road spikes on State Highway 1, north of Wellsford, on March 31 2018.
2.Samoa’s top health officials says not enough young children are being vaccinated. All but four of the 33 deaths in Samoa’s escalating measles epidemic have been of children under four. The age group has been made a priority under a mass vaccination campaign and 1,400 have been immunised in two weeks but Samoa’s Director-General of Health Leausa Dr Take Naseri says not enough children are being reached.
3.Driving speeds around the country’s schools will be reduced to make streets safer for students walking to school. Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced the changes at Owairaka School in Auckland this morning. Speed limits will be reduced to a maximum of 40km/h around urban schools and 60km/h around rural schools.
4.The former Dunedin hospital doctor who murdered a teenage girl is back under investigation by the Medical Council. Venod Skantha was found guilty last night of killing Amber-Rose Rush in February last year and will be sentenced in March.
5.A man who assaulted two teenage boys at a Young Labour summer camp has been discharged without conviction. Judge Russell Collins refused to grant the 21-year-old permanent name suppression, but his identity will remain a secret for now as his lawyer Emma Priest indicated she would appeal the decision.
6.The mastermind behind a multi-million dollar synthetic cannabis ring has been sentenced to two-years and four-months in prison. 48-year-old Fei He, 34-year-old Sui Jun Zhou and 30-year-old Xiwen Miao pleaded guilty to running an illegal synthetic cannabis operation valued at between $3 million and $4 million out of a Sockburn Dairy.
7.Fletcher Building says a solution to the Ihumātao land dispute in South Auckland may be reached by the end of the year. Work on a housing development which Fletcher’s was to be built on part of the site has been halted by protests and occupation by Mana whenua groups.
8.A public hui is underway on Ōwairaka in Mt Albert to discuss the future of its regeneration project. Dozens of protesters who object to plans to remove 345 exotic trees and plant 13,000 natives have been camped out at Maunga for two-weeks now and they are not attending the hui.
9.A man who murdered his ex-girlfriend and her young daughter and hid their bodies under an Auckland bridge is appealing against his life sentence. Kamal Reddy strangled Pakeeza Yusuf with a cord of an iron in late 2006 and used a pillow to kill her daughter Jojo.
10. A political bone of contention has finally been put to rest with the change in the way Crown limos are charged out to the Opposition. Opposition leaders have historically been charged a much higher rate than Ministers to use the VIP vehicles. Parliament speaker Trevor Mallard has now announced they will be charged at the same rate effective from July this year.
11. The incoming president of the Medical Students Association Ally Baxter says the revelation some final year students went on holiday rather than completing overseas hospital placements has damaged the trust placed in trainees.
12. There is a sense of optimism about Bougainville’s future as polling continues in its independence referendum. The fortnight long polling period began at the weekend.
13. As millions of people in the United States head home for the Thanksgiving holiday, the weather is set to cause widespread disruption.Two major winter storms continue to track across the nation, bringing a miserable mix of rain, snow and wind from coast to coast.
14.A body found on a west Auckland beach this morning is believed to be that of a fisherman who was swept off rocks 10 days ago.Wei Shi who was 56 has not been seen since he was hit by a giant wave while surf-casting on Nine Pin Rock.
15.Sky Network Television and Television New Zealand (TVNZ) have cut a surprise deal to share broadcast coverage of next year’s Tokyo Olympics on their free-to-air and paid channels.State-owned TVNZ would be allowed to air 12 hours of the events each day on TVNZ 1 in the afternoon and evening, while Sky would air all of the events across its 12 dedicated pay TV sport channels and on its Sky Sport Now streaming app.
16. A bridge in rural Wairoa in Hawkes Bay that provides the only vehicle access to three urupa will be fixed after the district council determined it is the legal owner.
