New tests will be carried out by police and forensic scientists on the gun used in the Bain family murders next week.

Justice Minister Judith Collins' staff sought to stop a judge appointed to independently review David Bain's compensation case from "going completely feral".

The teenager accused of a vicious assault on homeless man Edwin Linder was on bail at the time of the attack.

A Hamilton pizza delivery driver was struck with a metal bar in the face and again as he tried to crawl away from his assailant as he was on the ground.

The family of homeless man Edwin Linder wept in court as they faced the teenager charged with an assault that led to his death.

Homeless man Edwin Linder survived life on the dangerous streets of South Africa, and a near-fatal beating in Sydney, before he settled in Auckland's CBD.

A New Zealand man found guilty of shooting dead his mentally ill stepson in Perth has been spared jail.

A woman charged with murdering her godson told her biological children to lie about the incident when interviewed by police, a High Court jury heard today.

As her husband lay dying from gunshot wounds, Carmen Maheno struggled with her armed nephew, who struck her with the rifle, a court heard today.

A woman charged with murdering her godson has formally entered a not guilty plea at an appearance in the High Court at Auckland.

A dispute over who was supposed to wash the dishes has led to a three-year jail term for stabbing a man in the buttocks.

Authorities who found the bodies of three women in garbage bags in a low-income Ohio neighbourhood ended a daylong search without finding other victims.

Javed Mills' incomplete skeleton was found at a Mt Wellington property in September 2011. James Cooper was charged with his murder in 2012.

A man has been charged with murder after a woman was found dead at a block of council flats in Christchurch last night.

Friends, family members and supporters of murdered New Zealand teacher Prudence Hockley sighed with relief at her killer's sentencing in the United States yesterday.

The alleged killing of baby Atreyu has proved a timely reminder about the community's real priority - to seek out solutions to child abuse.

A woman was found dead at a block of council flats last night and a 59-year-old man was arrested shortly afterwards.

Was it a hate crime? Or did the jury members make the right call when they acquitted George Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager?

Gun-supporting Republicans in America have missed an opportunity to make their argument that more weapons make us safer.