More than 30 years after Rodney Tahu was gunned down outside a Turangi service station, a man will today go on trial for his murder.

Police yesterday descended on a rural Rotorua property as part of the investigation into the murder of roadworker George Taiaroa a month ago today.

The last person sent to prison for the killing of pizza delivery man Michael Choy is about to be released - after breaking prison rules and becoming listed as a prison drug user.

Two brothers from the rock-reggae band Kora have been in trouble with police this week.

One of Auckland's top police officers is being investigated by fellow police.

Evidence of how teenager Hayden Miles was cut into 12 pieces before being dumped in two Christchurch graveyards proved too much for one juror yesterday in the murder trial of Gavin John Gosnell.

Stabbing her long-term lover seven times in the back with a peeling knife was an "utterly irrational response" to seeing him with his wife, a judge told Gloria Cherrington.

The man accused of killing a Christchurch teen fantasised about killing a child in foster care just to say he had done it, a former partner told his murder trial today.

A man who visited the Christchurch flat the morning after Hayden Miles died says he can't forget the dead boy's face.

A judge has asked if the police were being used as a "tool" in a domestic dispute involving a public relations executive and a property developer.

Hayden Miles was a "difficult" child whose behavioural issues saw him put into foster care before he was killed, his mother told a court today.

Murder accused Gavin Gosnell asked a neighbour if he'd ever shared a room with a killer around the time teenager Hayden Miles was killed, a court heard today.

The girlfriend of the man accused of murdering Christchurch schoolboy Hayden Miles was threatened with the same fate if she told police.

The man accused of bashing teenager Hayden Miles to death also tried to break his arms and legs on the night of the attack, the alleged murderer's ex-girlfriend says.

A judge slammed New Zealand's binge drinking culture as he sentenced a promising league player to nine years in jail for a "brutal" alcohol-fuelled attack.

A 26-year-old man has been hospitalised with stab wounds after being attacked by a group of youths on Friday night.

The family of murdered teenager Emily Longley are preparing to return to London for her killer's appeal, hoping it will bring some closure to the nightmare.

A request for a cigarette ended with a Dunedin teen in hospital and a man allegedly weilding a meat cleaver in police custody.

An elderly woman has been left bruised and shaken after escaping through a window during a "cowardly" attack in her home.

An 18-year-old was stabbed in the chest in the early hours of this morning by a man who was wielding a meat cleaver and a kitchen knife.

On Thursday night, while Jesse Ryder lay in intensive care in Christchurch Hospital after a savage and apparently random beating that has left him fighting for his life, I drove home from work just after midnight.

The man charged with murdering pregnant woman Rae Portman has pleaded not guilty, and will face trial later this year.