A senior member of Whakatane's Maori university, Mark Laws, drowned yesterday at the East Cape settlement of Te Kaha.

Crowd control at Gisborne's Rhythm and Vines festival is being improved after boisterous partygoers forced organisers to shut down bus services last night.

The two men arrested for attacking a police officer on the East Coast are facing more serious charges of threatening to kill him after appearing in Gisborne District Court today.

A Wairoa policeman attacked by two men in Mahia on Boxing Day is keen to get back to his job, Police Minister Judith Collins says.

A Wairoa policeman became the fourth officer to be attacked on the job this month after he stopped two men suspected of carrying out a series of burglaries on the East Coast.

New Year's Day is tipped to offer sunny weather for most of the country and some respite from the recent muggy, humid weather.

There is extra security at Gisborne Hospital following a gang brawl between Black Power and the Mongrel Mob last night.

Peter Dunne has defended the timing of the announcement of eight job losses at the IRD in Greymouth.

Another 80 job losses announced today in a third sawmill unable to profitably export timber suggests the wood industry is in crisis, says a union representing workers in the sector.

More than 50 sawmill workers at two North Island sawmills have been told they will lose their jobs.

A 14-year-old boy was jailed for 20 months and his father for two years at the High Court in Gisborne today in an emotional sequel to the shooting of an 11-year-old boy on an East Cape farm in July 2009.