Two people have suffered moderate to serious injuries after the car they were driving crashed and rolled down a bank near Bucklands Crossing.

Smoke from domestic fires may cause not only respiratory diseases, but skin conditions as well, NZ researchers have found.

Aurora Energy's Otago consumers are in line to be hit with a price increase as the powerco looks to catch up on spending on assets.

Giving back to the community and educating more people in basic Te Reo was the goal of the winners of Otago's Young Enterprise Scheme awards this year - and they have won the competition for a brilliant but simple idea.

Tonga gave a spirited but error-ridden display as they went down 34-16 to league's world champs Australia.

Wim Kok, a former Dutch prime minister who helped forge the country's famed consensus-based politics and oversaw pioneering legalisations of euthanasia and gay marriage, has died at 80.

Afghans have begun voting in parliamentary elections overshadowed by chaotic organisation, allegations of corruption and violence that has forced a postponement of the vote in the strategic southern province of Kandahar.