8 Jan 2010

Summer Report: local papers

7:22 am on 8 January 2010

Friday's headlines: US authorities plan to indict an NZ company involved in selling North Korean arms to Iran; river flows very low in Otago; Dunedin eyes IRB Sevens Rugby tournament.

The Dominion Post follows a previous story about shell companies registered to a virtual office in Auckland.

Sources say United States authorities plan to indict a New Zealand company involved in selling North Korean arms to Iran.

The Otago Daily Times reports river flows in Otago are so low that the regional council is considering legal action against farmers who are breaching minimum flow restrictions.

A plot is being hatched to poach the IRB Sevens Rugby tournament from Wellington for the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.

Wellington's contract to host the annual event expires in two years.

A rapist on the run heads the front page of The New Zealand Herald.

New Zealanders planning to work in Britain for six months or more will need an identification card containing their photograph, fingerprints and some personal details.

Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals will have to be presented with a passport at the border from April next year.

However, the cards are expected to make travelling, accessing medical services and establishing bank accounts quicker and easier.

The Press reports firefighters spent the night battling a huge blaze at a recycling park in Wigram. It's believed the fire started in a wood chipper.

Expensive jewellery, fake limbs, sex toys, a snake, a nun's habit, a riding crop and even a baby are among the items left behind in hotel rooms, according to a Novotel hotels survey.

It also found that more female guests are watching porn and stealing, but nudity in hotel hallways is favoured by men mostly.