The biggest names in Kiwi music are lining up to star in a benefit concert for earthquake-struck Cantabrians.

Student volunteers who helped in the earthquake clean-up have been rewarded with tickets to a sold-out Metallica gig.

Richie McCaw was in Kaiapoi yesterday filming an advertisement to help earthquake victims.

Yvonne Knipe-Ackermann, who died in January on her 73rd birthday, left her $800,000 Ponsonby home to Oxfam.

Disgraced former Govt minister Roger McClay has yet to apologise to the two cash-strapped charities he rorted in a $25,000 fraud.

The Mad Butcher received his new moniker yesterday - officially becoming Sir Peter Leitch at a ceremony in Auckland.

The country's Lions Clubs have struck a deal with the Reserve Bank to get the full value of defunct NZ coins, for charity.

Two Salvation Army volunteers have been convicted of stealing groceries intended for the organisation's charity food bank.

Militants in northern Afghanistan have brutally murdered more civilians.

Friends and family will today farewell a man credited with getting Radio Sport on its feet.

Team New Zealand is among dozens of organisations that have lost their charitable status in a crackdown by the new Charities Commission.