The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are greeted at Botanical Gardens in Christchurch. Photo / Greg Bowker
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are greeted at Botanical Gardens in Christchurch. Photo / Greg Bowker
Here are the top news stories today, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about tomorrow.
1. A 'good chance' of seeing blood moon
NASA explains the blood moon
It's not often that we get a chance to see our planet's shadow, but a lunar eclipse gives us a fleeting glimpse. During these rare events, the full Moon rapidly darkens and then glows red as it enters the Earth's shadow. Though a lunar ...
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NOW PLAYING • NASA explains the blood moon
It's not often that we get a chance to see our planet's shadow, but a lunar eclipse gives us a fleeting glimpse. During these rare events, the full Moon rapidly darkens and then glows red as it enters the Earth's shadow. Though a lunar ...
Many around the country looking towards the heavens tonight will have a "good chance" of seeing the blood-moon, MetService says.
The lunar eclipse - where the Earth passes between the moon and the sun, casting a red glow on the moon -will be seen in the early evening.
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The Duke and Duchess play cricket in Latimer Square, and former New Zealand stars Sir Richard Hadlee and Debbie Hockley spoke to the couple before the royals took up a bat and ball. ...
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NOW PLAYING • Touring Royals play cricket
The Duke and Duchess play cricket in Latimer Square, and former New Zealand stars Sir Richard Hadlee and Debbie Hockley spoke to the couple before the royals took up a bat and ball. ...
Surrounded by empty lots and raw new buildings in Christchurch's partly rebuilt city centre, the Duchess of Cambridge's eyes welled with tears as she spoke to relatives of the 2011 earthquake victims.
The official motorcade was greeted with the cheering and shouting typical of this royal tour - but the mood on the corner of Madras St and Cashel St soon turned sombre as William and Catherine stepped on to the site where the CTV building once stood.
3. ZM's champions of breakfast to front new brand
Two of the country's biggest radio stars are changing stations to a newly branded network to be named The Hits.
Polly Gillespie and Grant Kereama have filled the breakfast airwaves on ZM for around 20 years but are moving in a fortnight to launch The Radio Network's new The Hits brand, which is replacing Classic Hits.
Vaughan Smith, Megan Sellers and Carl 'Fletch' Fletcher from The Edge will replace Polly and Grant on the ZM morning slot.
4. US Airways tweets pornographic image
US Airways rushed out an apology after a graphic sexual image was tweeted from its official Twitter account in response to a disgruntled customer.
The company has been known to respond rapidly and gracefully to complaints on social media, particularly about delayed flights or lost baggage.
This time was different. The company triggered shock, howls of protest and a deluge of crude jokes on the internet when they responded to Twitter user @ellerafter by attaching an extremely not-safe-for-work photograph of a model of a Boeing 777 jet plane in a woman's vagina.
5. Flight MH370: Search area too deep for submarine
Photo / Australian Defence Force/AP
The search area for the missing Malaysian jet has proved too deep for a robotic submarine which was hauled back to the surface of the Indian Ocean less than half way through its first seabed hunt for wreckage and the all-important black boxes, authorities said today.
Search crews sent the Bluefin 21 deep into the Indian Ocean to begin scouring the seabed for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 after failing for six days to detect any signals believed to be from its black boxes.
6. Teina Pora's first day of freedom
Teina Pora enjoyed a cafe visit and a trip up Auckland's Sky Tower on his first day of freedom.
He was released from prison on parole yesterday morning, and was spotted sitting at a central-city cafe where he had a bottle of soft drink and a coffee before heading up the Sky Tower.
Photo / Sarah Ivey
Construction on the Sky Tower began in 1994 - the year after Pora was arrested for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett.
7. Pistorius' story picked apart by prosecutor
His right leg cocked and rested on a chair, his voice loud and resolute, the arm of his tiny spectacles repeatedly jabbing in the direction of the witness box, State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel looked Oscar Pistorius in his reddened eyes, and dismantled almost every aspect of how the Olympic sprinter claims he shot and killed his girlfriend.
Piece by piece, the picture painted by Pistorius, of a tragic accident in which he mistook Reeva for an intruder locked in his toilet, was pulled apart, accompanied by a quiet and repetitive chorus from the witness box of, "It's not true, my lady", "I'm not sure, my lady," and "I don't remember."
Photo / AP
8. Nigeria bombing: Deadliest attack on capital ever
Suspected Islamic militants struck in the heart of Nigeria with a massive rush-hour bomb blast at a bus station that killed at least 72 people and wounded 164 in the deadliest attack ever on the nation's capital.
Survivors screamed in anguish and the stench of burning fuel and flesh hung over the area, where billows of black smoke rose as firefighters worked to put out the fires. Rescue workers and police gathered body parts as ambulances rushed the wounded to hospitals.
Photo / AP
9. Hijacked airman's family still suffering 37 years after crash
The daughter of the pilot killed in what, until Flight 370, was Malaysia's deadliest aviation crash talks to Phil Taylor about living with the disaster.
