News in brief: Ramadan begins, New Marsden Pt receives first ship

STI Larvotto offloading diesel at the Channel Infrastructure jetty. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The first ship to call in at Channel Infrastructure, formerly Refining NZ, offloaded diesel at the company jetty for the major oil companies.
The STI Larvotto called in the first trading day of Channel Infrastructure at Marsden Pt on Friday.

A company spokeswoman said the STI Larvotto offloaded diesel at Marsden Point after delivering fuel to other ports around New Zealand. Channel Infrastructure expects additional ships to arrive in the coming days.
Refined fuel will be imported into Channel Infrastructure by its major shareholders Mobil Exxon, BP, and Z Energy and distributed mostly to the upper North Island.

Ramadan begins
Muslims in Northland will from today join more than 50,000 throughout New Zealand and more than 1.5 billion people worldwide to observe Ramadan - the most blessed month in the Islamic calendar.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and a time of fasting. The whole month depends on the sighting of the new moon.

As the moon was not sighted on Saturday night, fasting could not start yesterday.
The Northland Muslim Community Charitable Trust, which caters for the welfare of the region's Muslims, has a centre on Porowini Ave in Whangārei for daily and special prayers.
There are more than 150 Muslims in Northland.

Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan and refrain from all food, drink, tobacco use and sexual contact. Those excused from fasting include the elderly, children, the ill, travellers, pregnant women, nursing mothers and those menstruating.
Muslims are also expected to avoid gossiping, lying, envy, greed and other bad character traits during the month-long fast.
There are more than 70 mosques and Islamic Centres in New Zealand that cater for about 50,000 Muslims.

Lotto results
Powerball and Strike have both rolled over, meaning there is a combined prize pool of $7.3 million on Wednesday night.
The Powerball jackpot will be $6m and Lotto First Division $1m on Wednesday.
Strike Four has also rolled and will be $300,000 on Wednesday night.
The winning Lotto numbers in Saturday's draw were 2, 9, 17 18, 30, 38 with Bonus number 37 and Powerball 8.

Covid deaths
There were 385 new cases of Covid 19 yesterday with 27 cases in Northland hospitals.
Two people died with or of Covid 19 in Northland from a total of 18 deaths nationwide.
The deaths include people who have died over the past five days. Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with, rather than from Covid-19, the ministry noted.
One person was in their 30s, three in their 60s, eight in their 70s, three in their 80s, and three were over 90. Nationwide there were 8810 cases reported.

Toilets open at Mangawhai
Mangawhai Community Park's new toilets are now open with a blessing at the Historic Village. The toilets mean better facilities for visitors to the Mangawhai Historic Village, which features historic buildings from the area that have been restored for community and educational use. The materials and colours used on the new toilets' exterior are in keeping with the historic buildings in the village.
Funding for the toilets was provided by the Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF).