Shawn McAvinue

A banished dog has been granted a reprieve to stay with his family in a Mosgiel state house.

Staff embroiled in a pay dispute at Anglican Family Care will return to work today after they were suspended without pay.

A criminal investigation has been launched after the death of a man at a Christmas party.

The power outage of about 470 homes in Leith Valley in Dunedin is expected to be restored by 8.30pm, Delta spokesman Gary Johnson said.

The Seacliff asylum patients in a mass unmarked Dunedin grave need to be remembered, the man who discovered the burial site said.

Burning sun pushed the mercury to nearly 30degC at the Boxing Day races at Wingatui Racecourse yesterday.

A waka submerged in a locked wooden tank at the Otakou marae in Dunedin continues to reveal the past to archaeologists.

A mother and daughter gardening partnership has contributed to the Olveston Historic Home being awarded garden of national significance status.

The cruise ship Dawn Princess docked in Dunedin yesterday, passengers and crew celebrating Christmas on foreign soil.

The Digital Writers' Festival organisers want emerging Dunedin writers to pitch ideas for a live 20-minute literary tour of their city.

A Dunedin book has made the ''must reads of 2014'' of one of the world's biggest eReader companies.

For strength and spring, the girls beat the boys in Dunedin yesterday but the insects beat them all.

Pitcairn Scout Group members (clockwise from front left) Austen Dustow (9), Josiah Trounson (10), Fletcher Moore (10), Christopher Caulton (8) and Aidan Hurd-Vial (9) in Dunedin yesterday with presents for Presbyterian Support Otago Family Works.

Tears of joy and a sign celebrating the safe return of Snowball and Mischief greeted Mosgiel kindergarten pupils yesterday.

A Dunedin mural has caused some onlookers to reminisce and another to recoil in apprehension.

Beach Education programme head instructor Zoe Lenagh-Glue taught surf and sun safety to year 3 and 4 Silverstream School pupils earlier this month.

The insults have stopped and the suspended Anglican Family Care staff returned to work yesterday and provided social services in Otago, the union secretary says.

A formerly untidy part of Fairfield looks wonderful, following a beautification project.