The proposed $150 millon Milford Dart Tunnel will do Glenorchy businesses and tourism no favours, the town's community association and tourism operators say.

The exclusion of Dunedin from the iwi consultation for partial state-owned enterprise share floats has rankled Otago Chamber of Commerce president Peter McIntyre.

At least 160 people were so badly mauled by dogs last year that they needed additional support for lost income, home help or rehabilitation.

John Key is lowering public expectations that the Government can deliver on its promise to have its books back in surplus by 2014-15.

Farmers did not create Fonterra "to kill it off by a thousand competitive cuts", Federated Farmers dairy chairman Willy Leferink said, referring to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's latest discussion document which lays out proposed changes involving the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) and the raw milk regulations.

A suicide car bomber has struck a Shiite funeral procession, killing 33 people as suspected al-Qaeda militants stepped up apparent efforts to provoke a counterattack by Shiite militias on Sunnis that could pave the way toward open sectarian warfare now that US troops have left Iraq.

Two years ago, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom joked in emails with his new neighbors in New Zealand about his bad-boy reputation before telling them his criminal past was behind him and he was coming to the country with good intentions.

A newly established Aboriginal advocacy group says it wants to return Prime Minister Julia Gillard's shoe after she lost it while running a gauntlet of protesters in Canberra on Australia Day.