The Corrections Minister, Judith Collins, says that smoking in prisons will be banned from July 2011. Prison will be safer because there will be no cigarettes, no lighters and no matches. At the moment, prisoners are allowed to smoke in their cells a...
On Thursday morning, Australians were surprised to find they had a new Prime Minister. She is Julia Gillard, Australias first woman Prime Minister. On Wednesday, Kevin Rudd was still PM of the Australian Labour government, a position he has held for...
The IWC is meeting this week in Morocco to discuss whether some countries can be allowed to kill whales. New Zealand is especially interested in whaling in the Southern Ocean, near Antarctica. Japan has a quota of 935 Antarctic Minke whales each year...
June 20th is World Refugee Day, a day to remember refugees world wide who have had to leave their homes and may never return. A refugee is a person who has had to escape from their country because they could be imprisoned or killed for their beliefs....
E-books have been available overseas for a number of years but they are now available in New Zealand too. The introduction of e-books, electronic books, means New Zealanders will are able to download and read a book on their computer, an e-reader or...
The New Zealand football team, the All Whites, has had a good result in their first World Cup game against Slovakia. The All Whites were not expected to do very well as they are only 78th in the world while Slovakia is 34th, but they scored a goal 30...
We have heard a lot of talk in the last six years about the foreshore and seabed. The foreshore is the beach up to the high tide mark. The seabed is the ocean as far as New Zealands limit, 200 miles out to sea. This is the part of the ocean which New...
Cabinet Ministers like the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or the Minister for Trade or the Minister for the Environment have to travel overseas as part of their job. They have a credit card to pay for expenses such as hotels, taxis and food. They are...
The governor of the Reserve Bank, Alan Bollard, increased the official cash rate (OCR) from 2.5% to 2.75%. This is the first rise in three years. During the economic recession, Bollard reduced the OCR from 8.25% in July 2007 to 2.5% in April this yea...
Today, we learnt that one woman is now a Dame and six men are Sir. Many other people will receive medals for community work. The award is not given for their paid job but for the voluntary work they have done. For more about the Honour awards, listen...
