Two cars linked to a Waikato home invasion where two teenagers were shot last night have been found by police.

Complaints were made about balloon pilot Lance Hopping being too impaired to fly, and cheating on his pilot's test before the Carterton disaster, but no action was taken.

The wife of a man crushed between two trucks near Auckland airport this morning is by his bedside as he remains in a critical condition in hospital.

One person has been seriously injured after a car left the road and crashed on train tracks south of Auckland this evening.

Malaysian Airlines is set for a brand overhaul after two major tragedies in the last six months, it emerged today.

The 19-year-old Australian tourist who fell from a Queenstown hotel after he tried to climb from a second-floor balcony to the rooftop has died overnight.

The sister of Denali Schmidt, who was killed with his mountaineer father in an avalanche on K2 last year, is fundraising to take her brother's art on a world tour.

France says there are no survivors from the Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali and several families have been been wiped out in the tragedy.

The family of Rob Ayley, who was killed on flight MH17, will hold a private memorial tomorrow while they wait for his body to be returned.

US patient Johnny Lee Banks sues doctors over circumcision that ended up as amputation.

A novice rally driver has put his two high-performance racing cars up for sale after cheating death in an horrific crash just five months ago.

A young woman whose car crashed "head first" down a 60m bank before flipping managed to crawl out of the vehicle and phone emergency services and family.

The 19-year-old Australian visitor to Queenstown who fell from a hotel balcony remains in a serious condition in Dunedin Hospital, police say.

A young West Auckland plumber has been sentenced to almost two years in prison after the deaths of two of his friends while he was driving drunk last year.

A woman who died in a mid-air collision had noticed flaws in the aviation industry and was trying to make changes, according to her father.

Survivor of the Anzac Day helicopter crash Sergeant Stevin Creeggan has endured years of pain and humiliating treatment from the Air Force, but his family are speaking out.

A kayaker who drowned in a New Zealand river at the weekend was pictured in front of the raging water just hours before he lost his life.

New Zealand wakeboarder Brad Smeele has suffered a setback since his serious accident almost two weeks ago.

Two families will never be the same again. Shane Summerfield lost his wife, Sally, and his 12-year-old daughter, Ella; Sam Summerfield lost his mother and his little sister.

A Taumarunui mum is serving a life sentence. Her gut instinct told her it wasn't safe to hold her baby in her lap and put the carseat in the boot , but Mary Navacilla did it anyway, just this once.

It is like Pauly has died again and we are in that huge emotional hole of shock and absolute despair.

Black ice has caused several crashed on State Highway 5 this morning, with parts of central North Island experiencing temperatures well below zero.