Tag Archives: CNN News

Land of the Free

Land of the Free

The 2003 Index of Economic Freedom has named NZ the world’s third freest economy, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. The Index, compiled by the US-based Heritage Foundation, ranks economies according to factors including trade policy, capital flow,…

Rings wins double at Saturns

Rings wins double at Saturns

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was a multiple winner at the 29th annual Saturn Awards – a joint presentation of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and…

Lest We Forget in Troubled Times

Lest We Forget in Troubled Times

Due to the current world climate, ANZAC services in Australian and NZ this year carried particular emotional resonance CNN remembers an event “marked by both countries as a tragic turning point in their national development.” The Age: “In…

Shooting from the lip

Shooting from the lip

Legendary NZ-born war correspondent, Peter Arnett, has again found himself in the midst of political controversy. NBC and National Geographic fired Arnett after he stated on Iraqi state television that the initial US war…

Inappropriation?

Inappropriation?

Shock-boxer Mike Tyson has paid a dubious tribute to Maori culture by having a moko-inspired design tattooed around his left eye. New York Post: “‘It was meant to be Maori-ish,’ one source said of the…

Sir Ed Reflects

Sir Ed Reflects

Sir Edmund Hillary is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his Everest climb with a round of fundraising for The Himalaya Trust. “When I look back over my life, I have little doubt that the most worthwhile…

Kiwi vs Kiwi

Kiwi vs Kiwi

Team New Zealand will face the Swiss challenge Alinghi in the America’s Cup finals in February, setting up a match up between Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts and his understudy when he was at the helm of…

Cleaner Greener NZ

Cleaner Greener NZ

The Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions came one step closer to enforcement after its ratification by the NZ and Canadian governments. Although both countries are relatively minor industrial polluters their signatures are vital in making up the…

Arnett phones home

Arnett phones home

“So Broadcast News meets Armageddon. It’s a rilly big show!” Telefilm Live From Baghdad – based on Robert Wiener’s memoir of CNN’s involvement in the Gulf War – aired on US HBO December 7….

Last action hero

Last action hero

“In the age of digitized battle, is there still such thing as a war correspondent?” According to New York Metro, NZ-born Peter Arnett is the last, and greatest, of a dying breed: “He is…

Auckland Holding its Breath

Auckland Holding its Breath

The 2002 America’s Cup challengers series has begun (click here for BBC, CNN coverage), launched with fanfare on the streets of Auckland. The competing teams paraded through the central city, the Swedes blasting ABBA,…

“It’s All About That Fern”

“It’s All About That Fern”

The Cinderalla New Zealand Tall Black’s sensational hoop dreams soared as they hustled and impressed their way into the semi finals of World Championships (Indianapolis). Sports Illustrated calls them the ‘thunder from

On the Straight and Narrow Isles

On the Straight and Narrow Isles

A survey of 102 countries by German-based Transparency International found NZ to be one of the least corrupt states. The annual report claims “to reflect perceived levels of corruption among politicians and public officials.” NZ scored 9.5…

Sporting success: air guitar and Scrabble

Sporting success: air guitar and Scrabble

Hastings meatworker Toby Peneha took out second place at the 7th annual World Air Guitar Championship in Oulu, Finland. Narrowly beaten by two-time British winner Zac Munro, Toby “the Tobanator” achieved unofficial glory by…

America’s Cup Build-up

America’s Cup Build-up

Team NZ captain Dean Barker beat ex-boss Russell Coutts 3-0 in the Swedish Match Cup finals. Coutts is heading Alinghi, Switzerland’s America’s Cup challenger. In other Cup news, Team New Zealand launch the first of…

Surfing on the Web

Surfing on the Web

Sailor Graham Dalton (older bro of Grant) has set up an educational website where children can watch his yacht “Hexagon” circumnavigate the globe as part of the Around Alone race yacht race beginning 15th September. Hexagon was…

Gondwanaland Farming Co.

Gondwanaland Farming Co.

Trans-Tasman dairy giants Bonlac Foods (AUS) and Fonterra (NZ) have merged consumer food lines to create a new company – Australasian Food Holdings Pty Ltd (AFHL). AFHL will incorporate leading brands including Tip Top, Mainland, Ferndale, and…

And God Created … the Chainsaw

And God Created … the Chainsaw

Tiny farming/forestry town of Tapawera holds church service in honour of chainsaws. Churchgoers “brought their chainsaws with them, placed them on the altar, and afterwards performed an impromptu ‘chainsaw orchestra,’ complete with Mexican wave…

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget

CNN reports on revivified NZ and Australian interest in the memorial of ANZAC Day and it’s importance to trans-Tasman relations: “Tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealanders arose before dawn on Thursday to pay their respects…

Superyacht Supremos

Superyacht Supremos

“New Zealand is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest centres for superyacht construction, with its low-cost high-tech designs.” Alloy Yachts is the world’s 2nd largest manufacturer of superyachts: advantages that make the sailing smooth include…

Pleasantville 2002: Deep Impact

Pleasantville 2002: Deep Impact

The release of NZ company Deep Video Imaging’s new ActualDepth 3-D monitor is being likened to the dawn of colour television in the 1950s, with Deep Video aiming to be to the monitor what Dolby was to…

Sir Ian swoons for our free land

Sir Ian swoons for our free land

Sir Ian McKellen: “I fell for New Zealand rather heavily. It’s not just the environment, though that does do something to your head…it’s discovering the culture, one which is extremely relaxed and liberal”. And…

Progressive Governance

Progressive Governance

Prime Minister Helen Clark joins leaders of “third way” governments from five continents at a Progressive Governance Conference in Stockholm. “The post-September 11 environment requires not just a military response but much broader international cooperation”, says Helen Clark. “If…

Deep Video Tech

Deep Video Tech

New Zealand company Deep Video Imaging throws away the wacky red and blue desktop monitor capable of displaying several layers of information. The first clients will be in the gambling industry, seducing casino customers with the glitziest…

Cell-phone Sunblock

Cell-phone Sunblock

SMS sun-safety – who says cell-phones are bad for your health? As the Kiwi summer heats up Auckland’s Hyperfactory, in partnership with telco Vodafone and cosmetics company Nivea has developed a short-message service advising cellphone users of…

Johnson and the Whale

Johnson and the Whale

Mark Johnson is literally leading the way with research into whale behaviour – part of his work involves attaching digital recorders to 60-foot sperm whales out in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists like Johnson are trying…

CNN on PM

CNN on PM

With a focus on Clark’s style of governance and personal history, CNN attempt to get behind the professional life of the New Zealand Prime Minister.  

Dishy

Dishy

Sam Neill transmits tension in The Dish, the story of how Neill Armstrong came to be broadcast from a giant dish in the middle of the Australian desert.

Kiwi Burger?

Kiwi Burger?

“If you were in a position where every family could eat kiwi for lunch, then you would have solved the problem, wouldn’t you,” says John Wamsley, head of the private Environmental Sanctuaries group. But, “our aim…

Go Russell, go!

Go Russell, go!

“What we do in life/echoes in eternity.” Russell “Maximus” Crowe gets a second Best Actor nomination (last year was for The Insider), continuing a fine run of Wellington actors and filmmakers who have been…

They’re Off

They’re Off

The Race, featuring New Zealand skipper Grant Dalton, kicked off in Barcelona on December 31. The giant catamarans are expected to circumnavigate the globe in around 65 days.

Travel Edge

Travel Edge

“Bungee jumping got its start here, and if dangling off a bridge by your ankles isn’t your idea of fun, there’s hiking – or “tramping” as the locals, known as Kiwis, call it – along with…

Connection made

Connection made

New Zealand is on one end of the Southern Cross cable, the longest and largest fibre optic cable ever. The cable provides 120X the capacity of the 1992 vintage PacRim, but is expected to…

Repair Bill

Repair Bill

New Zealand vet Deborah Saunders describes the revolutioary bill-binding putty she used on Deidre the duck: “it’s nice and hard and keeps the two parts of the bill together and well supported”.

Secret History

Secret History

An Italian monk’s stinging criticism of British mistreatment of Maori has been published in New Zealand for the first time – more than 100 years after it was written. Written by Benedictine monk Dom Felice Vaggioli,…

Air NZ Freshener

Air NZ Freshener

Air New Zealand is helping the in-transit global citizen feel more at home by offering amenity kits to make passengers feel fresh as a daisy when they debark. First Class flyers get aromatherapy kits to combat…

Dionysian Olympic Success

Dionysian Olympic Success

“Eventually, excellence of all sorts is rewarded, and one day New Zealand will be able to show off its medals.” The New York Times explores the success of New Zealand’s contender in the wine making Olympics:…

Deep Forest Blends With Massive Attack in Oceanic Swirl

Deep Forest Blends With Massive Attack in Oceanic Swirl

Oceania, with the release of its self-titled debut album and led by ex-Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman, makes a spirited and successful atempt to bring Maori music from New Zealand to a global stage. The result is…

Kiwi Innovation Helps Blind See the Future

Kiwi Innovation Helps Blind See the Future

A Christchurch company has taken computers for braille users from the age of the typewriter to the age of the super-computer, with Braillenote, the first notebook computer for the blind. Asiaweek (CNN) profiles the innovation in its…

Edge living: Roman style

Edge living: Roman style

From whistle-blower to tiger-slayer, countless billboards are proclaiming a new hero. But despite the many high-tech advances made since the earlier cinematic days of the wide-screen Roman Empire, at least one fact remains the same:…

Magnetic Maximus unleashes Hell to please the masses in

Magnetic Maximus unleashes Hell to please the masses in

Apart from its spectacular visuals the film’s other strength is its acting, “… but everyone else can step aside for Crowe. “Gladiator” should make the Oscar-nominated actor an international star. When he’s in a…

The Wired Doctors

The Wired Doctors

Free medical consultations for a year are being offered by a group of Internet doctors to a small rural town in New Zealand. The New Zealand-based Doctor Global is offering to give “virtual housecalls” and adopt…

Hotspots: Wellington, New Zealand

Hotspots: Wellington, New Zealand

With more cafes per capita than New York, the city has been transformed into one of the country’s leading holiday destinations “… whether you choose to eat, drink or just relax you can’t escape Wellington’s beautiful…

Watch out France – New Zealand is on the Fast Track to Becoming Top Wine-producer

Watch out France – New Zealand is on the Fast Track to Becoming Top Wine-producer

New Zealand may be one of the newer players in the wine industry, but it has already carved out a niche as one of the best producers of white wines in the world and is now…

Xena: motherhood becomes her

Xena: motherhood becomes her

Lucy Lawless’ pregnancy not only changed scripts on Xena: Warrior Princess, but the costume department had to ‘expand’ with the times too. New to the show: Spandex.

Swimsuit Edition 2000

Swimsuit Edition 2000

Supermodel Kylie Bax was born and raised on her parent’s horse breeding farm in North Island, New Zealand.