Health NZ is refusing to reveal how much it is paying private hospitals to perform elective surgeries under a new national contract - a move critics say makes it impossible to know if taxpayers are getting value for money.

There are calls for a Rental Warrant of Fitness to ensure student flats in North Dunedin are actually complying with Healthy Homes Standards.

A 12-year-old giraffe and a young zebra foal have died at Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park, leaving staff "heartbroken".

“For the rest of his life, he will have to live with the knowledge that his poor actions killed his son… It’s a sentence that has already begun.”

Israel struck Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and others.