Online ODT

Ten maids, six Sher-minators (female Terminators), five chickens, one blue Avatar, one mummy, three genies, doctors, nurses and an airline pilot were among 73 arrested overnight as Christchurch students celebrated the end of lectures.

A service to mark today's 10th anniversary of the Bali bombing in which three New Zealanders died was a moving reminder of the tragedy, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.

ODT rugby columnist Paul Dwyer speaks with Otago captain Glenn Dickson and Fumiaki Tanaka ahead of the team's clash with Auckland at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin tonight. The Razorbacks must win this one to ensure a home semi-final. Can they do it? 

Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez has comfortably won re-election, quashing the opposition's best chance at unseating him in 14 years and cementing himself as a dominant figure in modern Latin American history.

Otago has survived a tight tussle with Waikato to win the national netball championship.

Mobile phone company 2degrees could be set to pay more than $1 million to its co-founder Simon "Tex'' Edwards after the Employment Relations Authority ruled the company had incorrectly cut his pay from $350,000 to $200,000 in 2008.

A powerful typhoon is  lashing Japan's main island with high waves, strong winds and heavy rains, making landfall on its central region.

A severe thunderstorm watch for parts of Canterbury and Otago has been lifted.

State Highway 6 will be closed tonight at a slip site near Makarora.

Three sniffer dogs, 40 searchers and three helicopters scoured an area on the far side of Lake Alta near The Remarkables skifield after a ski patroller spotted debris from an avalanche about 2.45pm.