Carla Green

A petition calling on the Government to address a broad spectrum of issues, including climate change, has been dismissed by a parliamentary select committee.

About 80 students and activists marched against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) on the University of Otago campus yesterday, just as trade minister Tim Groser prepared to close the deal in the United States.

Environmentalists are ''jubilant'' Shell is postponing drilling just off Otago's coast in the Great South Basin, but ProGas Otago spokesman Andrew Whiley, a Dunedin city councillor, says the victory is ''short term''.

Laura Harris was last night ''ecstatic'' about being elected president of the Otago University's Students' Association.

Otago Fish and Game is warning anglers to get out early in the season before El Nino hits.

A government announcement about job market performance marks a ''dangerous'' step for the tertiary sector.

A ''disappointing'' and poorly attended annual meeting of the Mosgiel Business Association was the latest example of business owners' disengagement with the association, chairman Blair Arthur says.

Otago Polytechnic is expected to take over all programmes offered by Aoraki Polytechnic by early next year, ending Aoraki's operations in Dunedin.

A University of Otago scientist, who took a ''complicated path'' to Dunedin, won a $25,000 grant for women in science at a ceremony in Sydney last night.

Wanaka retailers are rejoicing over proposed legislation to allow trading in the resort on Easter Sunday.

Typical spring weather is on its way for Otago, MetService says.

Police are investigating a suspicious fire that engulfed a Caversham home on Saturday night.

A liquor licensing hearing yesterday took a philosophical turn as committee members tried to determine whether the Macandrew Bay Store was a convenience store, a dairy or a grocery store.

Student presidential candidates debated student allowances, living conditions and engagement with students yesterday afternoon.

Otago Polytechnic arboriculture student Julian Kirby (right) says he ''fell into'' tree-climbing.

An unprecedented review of more than 2000 general staff at the University of Otago has sparked ''huge concern'' among its employees, the Tertiary Education Union says.

The numbers of emaciated and possibly starving fur seal pups being seen along the Otago coastline are the highest since the early 1990s, Department of Conservation rangers say.

Zarghona Lafraie would love to see a refugee resettlement centre in Dunedin.