After a Hutt High School student was attacked on a college sports field, nine people have been arrested.

It should be mentioned here that the three adults and six youth aged 14-17, who were not associated with college and have been charged with unlawful assembly. They will appear in court tomorrow.

Following a series of fights, which broke out just before 3pm, more than a dozen officers arrived at a spot.

During the violent fight, a cut was received by one female student after a rock was thrown at her.

The profit for the December quarter of DB Breweries fell 28 percent.

It has been specified via the financial statements from its owner, Asia Pacific Breweries in Singapore, "Its New Zealand operations made a S$13.2 million (NZ$16.8 million) profit before interest, taxation and exceptional items, a 46 percent drop from the same quarter in 2007."

25 percent devaluation in the New Zealand dollar was included in the fall. The figure equated to a 28 percent fall, excluding the foreign exchange difference.

Troubled property developer Andrew Krukziener, who owes a debt to Hanover Finance even had another $2.82 million added to the debt in Auckland's High Court this morning.

It has been learnt that Hanover which obtained a summary judgment in its favour in 2007, over a debt of $4.159 million relating to a failed joint venture property development is now trying to bankrupt the disturbed developer.

Due to hiked competition, tight regulations and economic problems, the ratings service Moody's downgrade Telecom's senior and unsecured short term commercial paper ratings.

The outlook is stable and the ratings have gone down from A2/P-1 to A3/P-2.

With the rating action, the ongoing pressure on Telecom is quite well reflected. According to Moody's vice president and senior analyst, Ian Lewis, the pressure would continue given challenging operating conditions.

It has come to vision that two of New Zealand's most famous cultivars, royal gala and braeburn are creating a novel red bi-colour apple, which will hit the supermarket shelves in two years.

The produce dubbed as PremA193 was created at HortResearch and is now part of the Plant and Food Research state science company.

It should be noted here that rights to the apple in the domestic market and for exports have been sold to a consortium made up of Fresh New Zealand Ltd, Heartland Group Ltd, Johnny Appleseed Holdings Ltd and the PickMee Fruit Company Ltd.

New Zealand Refining Co., operating the only refinery in New Zealand at Marsden Point, near Whangarei, which had forecasted a profit for the year ending on December 31, between $115-125m in the month of October, had a profit higher by 11 percent of $124.9 million, on account of high refining margins and a favourable exchange rate. Its Revenue increased 18 percent to $397.8m.