Three Dunedin police officers and a prison officer must wait several months for blood test results after being spat at by two offenders, one of whom said he had hepatitis.

Student behaviour in Dunedin appears to be improving, with a significant drop in students being dealt with by the University of Otago for serious incidents.

The sole occupant of a newly-renovated Dunedin home extensively damaged in a fire fled the inferno after she was woken by a smoke alarm.

One house has been destroyed and another damaged after two fires in the South Island overnight.

Dunedin police say anyone finding a black bag containing a tear-gas canister and cartridges, lost by officers in the city last Thursday, shouldn't tamper with the contents.

The sale of a collection of Nazi memorabilia has been called a "slap in the face" for the Jewish community.

Two stationary yellow-eyed penguins standing sentinel over Sandfly Bay on Otago Peninsula have been confusing penguins, tourists and volunteers alike.

A lawyer struck off over accusations of stealing nearly $3 million from clients has had 33 criminal charges laid against him.

Sixty-four Dunedin manufacturing workers will have their working week reduced by a day, following KiwiRail's decision to award a manufacturing tender offshore.

A wheelie-bin arsonist left mounds of melted plastic and a Dunedin suburb "saturated" with police patrols.

An Otago student who nearly died after swallowing his own vomit during a drinking game is among examples being used to put students off such practices.

Unsuspecting Dunedin pensioners have been duped of their cash by a young female hustler with a toddler.

A woman bit the top off another woman's little finger and spat it out during a drunken argument, a court has been told.

Brighton residents occupying a planned 2degrees cellphone tower site face a standoff with the company after the Dunedin City Council ruled out issuing a trespass notice against them.

Injured and intoxicated revellers from the Illuminate Paint Party made a busy night worse for emergency department staff at Dunedin Hospital.

A man escaped with minor injuries after the Fulton Hogan truck he was driving rolled 50m down a bank into a Brighton creek near Dunedin yesterday.

A disqualified driver, already on bail on other driving charges, stole a funeral director's truck with five empty caskets on the back, Dunedin District Court was told yesterday.

Ice is causing Dunedin motorists to slide off the roads and police are advising people to take extra care.

Many of the landmarks of the fabled Dunedin Sound of the 1980s can be visited on a relatively short and intriguing walk.

A holiday wildlife tour ended in hypothermia for four young women kayaking near Taiaroa Head, in Otago, yesterday.

Fire safety officers are investigating the cause of a Dunedin house fire in which a dog died yesterday.

Dunedin's reputation with cruise lines is among the world's worst, and behind the soured image are badly behaved tour operators, Cruise New Zealand says.

A Dunedin woman was tight-lipped when she rang 111, after mistakenly gluing her lips together.