The government has announced an inquiry into the handling of the Tom Phillips case by government authorities.

Former patients of the Lake Alice psychiatric hospital's child and adolescent unit, tortured during the 1970s, have received individual compensation payments of up to $600,000.

Three people have been arrested after police executed search warrants in Christchurch as part of an investigation into an organised crime group that had a license to cultivate cannabis for medical use but allegedly sold it illegally.

An Auckland mother who murdered her son and daughter before hiding their bodies in suitcases has been sentenced to at least 17 years' jail.

A man has been charged after the death of a well-known rural postie on his last day of work before retirement.

Police and the family of a 14-year-old Christchurch girl been missing for more than a week have "great concerns for her welfare".