Shawn McAvinue

Dunedin beneficiaries applying for more than five hardship grants in a year have ''swamped'' budget advisers in Dunedin with nearly 2000 referrals in less than two years.

The Dunedin football community still hopes the city will get a shot at hosting some 2015 Fifa Under-20 World Cup games.

Residents keep fishing and taking their dogs and grandchildren swimming in Lake Waihola, despite toxic algae warning signs that are scaring away potential holiday-makers and business from the lakeside town.

Mobility scooters have been given a bad rap lately. Reporter Shawn McAvinue slipped on a high-visibility vest yesterday and tried to find out why.

A Dunedin bar has paid to be invaded by British cricket fan club the Barmy Army and become its official headquarters for five nights next month.

A mix of sounds and sunshine bought a ''spectrum ''of music lovers to the Waitati Music Festival on Saturday.

Telecom cancelled the passwords of about 60,000 Yahoo! Xtra email accounts on Saturday night to stop spam being sent from customers' accounts.

The stadium was an ''oasis'' for vintage New Zealand music in Dunedin last night.

Flowers, chocolates, teddy bears, balloons, shock and surprise were delivered yesterday. Mike's Couriers owner Mike Williamson (37) said he started Valentine's Day deliveries yesterday at 6.30am.

A Mosgiel woman is angry after synthetic cannabis was sold to her 16-year-old son yesterday.

Eleven Northeast Valley women are ready to play their part tomorrow to end violence against women. The Vagina Monologues co-director and co-producer Emily Duncan said only amateur actors were allowed to perform in plays put on as part of a global movement called One Billion Rising.

The Mornington robberies show the importance of businesses having security measures and plans in place, Dunedin police say.

A Dunedin woman who works with physically disabled athletes in Otago and Southland wants the Halberg Awards to serve as a reminder that all paths to elite sporting success begin somewhere, just like the foundation she organises.

The man allegedly behind three armed robberies of a Dunedin dairy, which left the owner upset and wanting out of the business, was arrested by police last night.

The offshore rescue of a sick fisherman yesterday capped off two ''full-on'' days of varied missions for the Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter.

An 86-year-old man cycling from Hawkes Bay to Bluff stopped in Dunedin yesterday as he repeated a journey he made almost 70 years earlier to save paying for a bus ticket.

An elderly Mosgiel man wants to know why somebody would shoot his beloved cat, leaving him blind in one eye. Dave Radley (76), who adopted Reddy, a 7-year-old ginger tomcat, from the Otago SPCA when he was a kitten, said he had lived alone with Reddy since his wife, Betty, moved to a Mosgiel rest-home.

Welfare reforms will mean more drug addicts, beneficiaries with the same small chance of employment and parents being displaced from their child's education, a Dunedin social service chief executive says.