APNZ

Prime Minister John Key says the Government did not have any valid reasons to refuse approval for the Chinese bid from Shanghai Pengxin to buy the 16 Crafar farms - and blocking it may have broken the law.

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

A job surge associated with last year's Rugby World Cup may have proved a false hope for unemployed New Zealanders, as benefit numbers have crept up again this summer.

An American couple holidaying on the Coromandel Peninsula froze in their seats as a man smashed the windows of their van with a crowbar after an argument they had with him on a beach.

It had been nearly 22 months to the day since Ross Taylor last made a test century for New Zealand so the skipper was understandably happy to have broken his drought in Napier yesterday.

A man has been seriously injured after the car he was driving hit two parked cars and a light pole in Auckland overnight.

All Black Sonny Bill Williams has been linked to a new girl - the teenage daughter of former rugby and league international Matthew Ridge.

Snow fell near Dunedin and other parts of the South Island reached near freezing temperature last night as a midsummer cold snap makes its way up the country, the website WeatherWatch says.

You have just turned 24, won a Rugby World Cup, are young enough to play in a couple more, and cemented a place in New Zealand rugby history. How do you top that?

New Zealand has dropped out of the top 10 countries for media freedom after a year in which police searched newsrooms over the now-infamous "teapot tapes''.