One of NZ's most notorious killers was released from prison yesterday and was later enjoying freedom on the balcony of his new Auckland home.

A man accused of murdering his Thai sex worker girlfriend admitted the killing to another woman he had been seeing in Thailand, a jury heard today.

The biological mother of dead Australian-born 10-year-old Zahra Baker has arrived in North Carolina.

David Tamihere was this morning released from prison after 20 years behind bars for the murders of Heidi Paakkonen and Urban Hoglin.

A woman who smashed a broken bottle into Leonardo DiCaprio's face could go to prison for up to seven years.

Only one man has been charged out of the hundreds responsible for last weekend's booze-fuelled mayhem at Eden Park.

A taxi driver was in hospital with a broken leg last night after being dragged from his cab and attacked.

A man accused of murdering his elderly neighbour was suffering from a major depressive episode with psychotic features at the time of the killing, a court is told.

The Law Society has renewed its call to reinstate the partial defence of provocation following its successful use in the Bourke manslaughter case.

A man was "delusional" at the time he strangled his 84-year-old neighbour, a court was told today.

Police investigating the shooting of a school caretaker in Palmerston North yesterday say it may be linked to similar incidents in recent months.

A man has been arrested for a series of sexual assaults on other men.

A Palmerston North jury has found David Bourke not guilty of murdering his brother Timothy while on the run from police last year.

A man accused of murdering his girlfriend showed no emotion when he opened the door to the apartment where her decomposing body lay and admitted killing her, a court hears.