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.

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.

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.

Friends are concerned for the missing brother of alleged gunman David John Bourke as police delay identifying the body found in his crashed car.

Police tackled and disarmed a hypothermic fugitive who had been on the run for about 48 hours in Hawkes Bay today.

Police are this morning resuming their search for a gunman who shot at two people - one a policeman - and fled, leaving a dead body in his car.

Police launch a murder inquiry over a body found in the back of an accused Hawkes Bay gunman's car.

A Hawke's Bay gunman who shot at police and threatened farmers has gone to ground.