The Government is being asked to step in and make sure ANZAC Day poppies stay New Zealand-made.

Anzac Day Poppies will be made offshore, New Zealand's Returned Service Association has announced.

More than 80 per cent of Christchurch households have filed insurance claims for the Canterbury quake.

The slaughter of 23 seals on the Kaikoura coast last week has prompted debate on whether seals need to be culled in the area.

When the earthquake-rattled people of Christchurch were in need, Suresh Patel stepped up.

A 27-year-old Christchurch woman charged with murdering her new born child has been remanded in custody for a psychiatric report.

A speeding driver has been ticketed by the same policeman on both sides of the world.

The number of seals which will die as a result of a brutal attack could be many more than the 23 found, a zoologist says.

Twenty-three seals, including eight newborn pups, were found clubbed to death on the Kaikoura coast. DoC believes the seals were attacked over a number of days.

Among the many terrible and tragic headlines appearing in the newspapers of late, one that is not only terrible and tragic but also potentially rather disturbing leapt out at me: "Call for alcohol ban after Xmas concert ends in violence."

A mystery wrapped in an enigma is the very apt winner of the inaugural New Zealand crime-writing award.