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

The trial has begun of a freezing worker accused of shooting dead his brother and driving around the lower North Island with him in the back seat, avoiding police during a two-day manhunt.

A legal loophole has allowed an unregistered teacher back in the classroom after having sex with a 16-year-old student.

Slips and surface flooding are causing havoc for motorists in the lower North Island as heavy rain and gale force winds sweep the region.

A referee in a schoolboy rugby game was threatened by players and had to be accompanied off the field, after a game marred by brawling.

Two men are lucky to be alive after missing explosive gel and a box of detonators by half an inch while ploughing with a rotary hoe.

A teen was abducted from a street in a small Hawke's Bay town and driven to a remote field where she sexually assaulted by two masked men.

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by two men in Dannevirke last night, then left in a paddock.

A horror seven days has seen 18 people die in 12 road accidents and has left police blaming speed and alcohol as a factor in many of them.

Blood, fat and discarded pieces of butchered animals were spread 15km on SH2 after a tailgate opened on a truck.

David Bourke is remanded for a psychiatric report after making no plea in the Palmerston North District Court.