Hamish McNeilly

Ministry of Defence cost-cutting came under fire from Montecillo Veterans Home and Hospital Trust chairman David More during a hard-hitting Anzac Day service speech yesterday.

Thousands of people attended the dawn service in Dunedin this morning.

A Dunedin father says he was tossed around his house ''like paper'' by his son trying to go cold turkey from the synthetic cannabis product, K2.

A lost memento commemorating a World War 1 soldier has been reunited with his descendants, after it was discovered during alterations to a Taieri home.

It's an old and battered little blue book, held together by pieces of string and sticking plasters.

A machete, a mallet and large wooden sticks have been seized from several Dunedin dairy owners arming themselves against robbers targeting synthetic cannabis, police say.

An English cricket fan who travelled to New Zealand to watch England play the Black Caps but ''didn't see a ball being bowled'' will fly out of the country today after facing his biggest test.

The future of the Dunedin-based Ngai Tahu Maori Law Centre - the last such facility in the country - is under threat.

The Maori development ministry, Te Puni Kokiri (TPK), claimed it was getting ''value for money'' through its Whanau Ora funding of a Dunedin trust, which was later found to have been used by gang members to buy cannabis.

Another aggravated robbery of a Dunedin dairy this week has prompted police to warn shopowners about the dangers of selling synthetic cannabis products.