Debbie Porteous

It is unclear exactly when the Beach Hotel in St Kilda will reopen as the landlord tries to recover "a substantial amount" owed by the former lessee.

The back-breaking work will continue for Wenita forest crews as long as no rain falls at the Mt Allan forestry block after 820ha of land was damaged in a fire last month.

Letters to some elderly people telling them their housework assistance is being stopped will be sent out this week, the Otago District Health Board says.

Unaccompanied children wearing school uniform have been banned from one major South Dunedin retailer during school hours, and two other large retailers may consider doing the same.

Repeated vandalism to saplings in the Otago Museum reserve is "pretty disappointing", the Dunedin City Council says.

An officer was punched in the head about eight or 10 times while attempting to arrest a 17-year-old in the Octagon, Dunedin, at the weekend, police say.

The first batch of the southern police trained to use Tasers are now waiting for their new stun guns to be dispatched.

Three Dunedin city councillors took to the streets on Saturday night to familiarise themselves with what goes on in the central city in the wee hours.

The Ministry of Education wanted to close alternative education centres last year and programmes may not yet be out of danger.

The closure of a Dunedin service to help secondary school pupils with behavioural problems has been described as short-sighted and a tragedy.

A proposal to get rid of New Zealand's give way to right-turning traffic driving rule has received general support from Dunedin driving instructors.

The only conclusion to draw from the closure of Dunedin's Phoenix Centre is that their opinion is not valued by the Ministry of Education, Dunedin secondary school principals say.

When former Dunedin man Stewart McSkimming woke as he was being flung from his Santiago hotel room bed across the room, he thought his time was up.

The New Zealand Army Band set the tone for this weekend's 150th anniversary of military service in Otago celebrations with a rousing lunchtime concert in the Octagon yesterday.

Harry Hedges has lost something precious and he really hopes someone finds and returns it.

Firefighters say strong winds are hampering their efforts to contain a forest fire north west of Dunedin and it may continue burning through to the weekend.

Fire in forestry northwest of Dunedin was all but contained last night, but far from over.

Residents evacuated from houses near the Mt Allan forest fire northwest of Dunedin have been allowed to return to their homes this morning.

Organising the initial visit of Otago's new naval namesake is one of the first big tasks for Dunedin's new residential naval officer.