Members of the public have come forward with new information about the 1969 murder of Welsh hitchhiker Jennifer Beard.

Police returned bloodstained knives used in the murder of a young mum to her family - in a box with other items still covered in blood.

There was standing room only at Michelle Hoffman-Tamm's funeral as tributes flowed for a woman whose greatest joy was to help others.

The teenager stabbed in the face in Wanganui will spend Christmas in intensive care at Wellington Hospital.

A German-born Auckland woman was called a Nazi and asked if she liked to stamp people "just like at Auschwitz" after she denied four men entry to a concert.

Medical staff say it is too dangerous to operate on a teenage boy after he was stabbed in the face with a screwdriver in Wanganui - reportedly for wearing a blue hat.

Police have released a photograph of a man they believe followed a woman off a train in West Auckland and viciously assaulted her.

Gate crashers stormed a family barbecue, smashing car windows, causing three people to be hospitalised and sparking and armed offenders call-out.

A woman who fought off an attacker at an Auckland train station last night is being praised by police for her "gutsy display".

A Whangarei father has been arrested after police say he slapped his two-year-old daughter several times because she wouldn't shut up and kept demanding her bottle.

The man accused of killing security guard Charanpreet Dhaliwal will go to trial to defend the charge of murder.

An 18-year-old woman was punched in the face during what appeared to be a random attack in the Masterton McDonald's carpark early yesterday.

A former international footballer has been sentenced to nine months of home detention for assaulting a referee during an Anzac Day match in Auckland.

A man who subjected his newborn baby to months of torture, including biting through her earlobe, will not spend any time in prison.