Missing woman found
An elderly women who went missing from a rest home in Waipu on Sunday night was found safe and well a little over an hour later. She was found not far from Ranburn Rest Home on Nova Scotia Dr, which she left with her walker about 9.30pm. Police had mounted a search for the 79-year old and asked local people to look out for her.
Man dies after crash
A man has died after the car he was in rolled and plunged into a fence in a suburban Whangarei street. The crash happened on Keyte St just before 10.30am on Sunday, New Year's Eve. The man was taken to Whangarei Hospital with critical injuries and died later that day. Two other people in the vehicle had minor injuries. Police said investigations into the crash are ongoing.
Drugs investigation
No further charges have been laid so far against a Frenchman accused of smuggling 24kg of cocaine worth up to $10.8 million seized in a Customs-led sting in Paihia. French national Alexander Steeve Yelengwe Yonkwa-Dingom, 26, appeared in the Whangarei District Court yesterday charged with possession for supply of a class A drug and with failing, without reasonable excuse, to assist a police constable exercising a search power under the Search and Surveillance Act 2012. Yonkwa-Dingom will next appear in court on January 12.
Call for rodeo ban
Animal rights protesters outside the 45th Warkworth Rodeo are calling for a total ban on the sport. A hundred people turned up yesterday to wave stop signs at the event, calling for an end to the sport they describe as bullying. Direct Animal Action spokesman Apollo Taito says activists are hoping the new coalition Government will be more open to their call than the National-led Government was. Green MP Gareth Hughes says he's working on a private member's bill to outlaw some of the worst practices of the sport - calf roping and flank straps.