Cost-cutting at Otago Polytechnic will see about 20 staff losing their jobs or reducing their work hours by the end of the year.

"Significant" financial impacts at Cardrona Alpine Resort have been accepted as an inevitable outcome, as the skifield presses on to reopen as soon as possible after wastewater backups shut the operation down yesterday.

Police in Auckland and Wellington are hunting men who tried to abduct young girls during the past week.

Premium South Canterbury Finance assets - Scales Corporation, Helicopters (NZ) Ltd and Dairy Holdings Ltd - will attract a lot of attention as receivers McGrathNicol look to dispose of them.

The new marine and coastal legislation may not be a final solution to the divisive foreshore and seabed issue and could be relitigated in future, Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell says.

Debate continues on whether the new plate-to-pasture red meat programme is reinventing the wheel or an extension of Beef and Lamb New Zealand's central progeny test.

Labor Party leader Julia Gillard will form the first minority federal government in Australia since 1940 after winning the support of key rural independents.

Google's methods of recommending websites are being reviewed by Texas' attorney general in an investigation spurred by complaints that the company has abused its power as the internet's dominant search engine.

Year 12 student David Vaughan, of Mount Aspiring College, considers the complex history and changing fortunes of an oft-maligned hairstyle.