APNZ

A solo mum who wants to study so she can get off welfare says she has had to turn to prostitution to pay for childcare and transport to the course.

A US rap star was spoken to by police over a vicious daylight assault on a couple and young father near a children's playground in an affluent Auckland suburb.

Christchurch was rattled by another shake in the early hours of this morning.

Brendon McCullum has never appealed as a person who takes a dim view of a half-full glass.

The Canterbury Wizards couldn't conjure up enough magic this evening to stop South Africa opening their New Zealand tour with a 20-run win.

Just when summer couldn't get any worse, heavy downpours are forecast to pound central and upper North Island tomorrow.

Almost one year on from the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, buildings still lie in ruins in the red zone at the city's centre.

Former Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall was a "dodgy git'' and a "megalomaniac'' who blamed others for his mistakes, the Royal Commission of Inquiry was told today.

An extensive land and aerial search has failed to find any sign of a missing yachtie, whose unmanned vessel was found doing circles in the Bay of Plenty yesterday.

A 30-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with murder after a man was stabbed to death in Gisborne last night.