A former Australian soldier has been sentence to death in Afghanistan for murdering an Afghan security guard and then accusing the Taliban for the crime.

One of the men accused of Dean Browne's murder had a "loose connection" to the woman who lived at the address where his body was found.

Relatives of a 22-month-old girl shaken and dropped when she would not stop crying are upset at her attacker's sentence.

A man who tore the head off a kitten in front of his family has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

Armed police have arrested the third man they had been hunting in connection with the slaying of a man whose body was found in in New Plymouth.

In the United Kingdom, calls are growing by opposition politicians and the public that the full report of the review of the case of two brothers who savagely attacked a pair of boys in Edlington, South Yorkshire, should be made public.

Police have identified the man who was apparently killed and his body dumped in a New Plymouth garage.

Police have been unable to identify the body of a man found in a New Plymouth garage last night.

A proposed three strikes law would have done nothing to prevent some of New Zealand's most notorious killings, critics say.

Diane Elizabeth White died of head injuries after she was allegedly attacked by her neighbour on a suburban Hamilton street.

Judith Collins has criticised the prison guards' union for suggesting the Government's 'three-strike' policy would put guards at risk.

Neighbours of a murdered Hamilton woman say authorities knew of tensions between her and her alleged killer, and should have acted sooner.

The handling of a 111 emergency call made to police shortly before a woman was found dead in her home is being referred to the Independent Police Complaints Authority.