Samples taken from clippings of victim's fingernails detected DNA 430 times more likely to have come from the accused, court hears.

There are concerns for 17-year-old Yuri Santana, who hasn't been seen for a week.

Levels of arsenic higher than the acceptable level for drinking water have been found in the Hawea Flat Kindergarten's supply.

The Kurow community has lost a second sportsman in tragic circumstances within 17 months.

Sales on the first charter flight from Dunedin to see the aurora australis are taking off and the trip's organiser is considering making the flight an annual event.

Changes undermine value of national bowel screening programme, expert says.

Police say they have arrested a 55-year-old man and charged him with arson after a house fire last night.

A 21-year-old Dunedin cleaner accused of murdering his boss allegedly told a workmate he wanted to burn the victim's family in front of her.

Elisabeth Easther explores a Central Otago hamlet, population 300, where newcomers are welcomed with a community dinner.

Police are hunting for two men who fled on foot after the car they were in crashed into a power pole in the Dunedin suburb of Concord this evening.

At first she thought the body was a rubbish bag, mother of accused told the court today, before realising it was her colleague.

Two days after a Dunedin woman was found dead outside her workplace last December, the blood-soaked hammer allegedly used to bludgeon her was found in a bin outside a colleague's home.

A group of golfers playing through the mist at the St Clair Golf Club on Saturday morning came up against an unusual hazard.

A float carrying two horses has crashed in the Waitaki District this afternoon. Emergency crews were called to an area near Hampden-Palmerston

A Dunedin cleaner beat his boss to death with a hammer because she had complained about his conduct at work, the Crown says.

Shareholders of a Central Otago winery are fighting over a share sale.

Police are investigating after a milk tanker ran off the road in North Otago, killing the driver.

An 11-year-old boy has been rushed to Dunedin hospital after falling almost four metres from a rope swing.

The Otago Regional Council fears someone is intentionally releasing wallabies in Otago and is warning the culprit they face prison time if caught.

Two New Zealand universities are among the top 100 in the world for these subjects...

A bus driver and the blind woman he knocked over have shared an unlikely embrace outside court.

We will find you and we will kill you - that is the message the Otago Regional Council is set to issue today to Bennett's wallabies that enter Otago.

A Balclutha man who stabbed a sheep to death told the farmer he did it because he was hungry.

A knife-wielding man who paraded around in public with his shirt off, challenging people to fight him, has been jailed for nearly two years.

The Minister for Primary Industries has approved a customary fishing reserve in Otago Harbour following an eight-year consultation and proposal process.

The Dunedin City Council faces a potentially protracted legal battle as New Zealand's supermarket giants join forces to fight the city's local alcohol policy.

A Lord of the Rings sightseeing flight crashed, killing the pilot, after he flew low to clear livestock from the airstrip.

A group of students went out for a dive in Otago Harbour yesterday and came back with a whale of a tale.

An international student has avoided conviction for starting a nuisance fire, despite admitting lighting the blaze.

A 33-year-old psychology student has admitted leaving a trail of destruction following a drunken wild ride through Mornington last month.