NZ at Noon: Limb lobbing, big rats and bully girls

Big rats are causing problems in Napier.

Stories making headlines across New Zealand at noon include a man who allegedly did some serious damage to another person with his artificial leg, people noticing things that are badly wrong, girls are becoming biggest bullies while boys take up their 'aggressive' sports.

Police are closing in on a Kaitaia man who allegedly committed a serious assault using his artificial leg.

After her children and husband threatened to leave her and she couldn't even put milk and bread on the table, not to mention stealing money from her kids, Belinda Sullivan realised something was badly wrong.

A Hawke's Bay woman also realised something was badly wrong when her bank phoned asking why she was so desperate to change her phone banking passwords.

A Hamilton woman with an empty wine bottle in her handbag demanded to know what police wanted after she drove through a crash scene cordon bowling over road cones and bearing down on a cop before swerving into a driveway.

Reversing "thousands of years of male-dominated violence", girls are apparently overtaking boys as the biggest bullies. Meanwhile boys are taking up girls sports in Masterton. "You have to be quite aggressive, you have to get stuck in," said one local lad of the female-oriented sport.

Big rats are causing problems in Napier.

Scott the heading dog, who spent three days hanging in the fork of a tree after falling about 14 metres down a bluff on a Matawai farm, starts his national championship campaign today. Over 720 entries from across New Zealand are contesting the North Island sheepdog trial championships on Mt Te Ahu Ahu.

A couple who found an unconscious man lying in a pool of blood in Masterton are still shaken up about the incident.

MPs visiting Christchurch have been told selling off New Zealand's state owned assets is "like a farmer eating his last chicken."

Danger lurks in the water for duck retrieving dogs at Lake Ellesmere.

"Pigheaded" mid-Canterbury duck shooters have generally thanked the rangers who issued them infringement notices. Meanwhile "yawning gaps" are likely to open up in the Ashburton townscape.

Former Act leader Rodney Hide is in Queenstown supporting a long-term friend in court.
Former Otago cricket coach Mike Hesson, pictured patting a lion, has quit his job in Kenya saying he fears for his family's safety.

People living on the Haast coastline near the Alpine fault-line finally have somewhere to flee to in the event of an earthquake and tsunami.

Top trending items on Twitter at noon were: #NeighboursAtWar, #20ThingsAboutMe, If I Had a Gun, Zayn Malik is Flawless, #HarryFollowFans, Niall and Ali, Liam Neeson, Colin Craig, Pregnant Because Of Jerry and Greg Inglis.