A foreign student had nightmares after a shopper told her to either take off her burqa or leave NZ while she was shopping at a Dunedin supermarket, court is told.

The country is in for a mixed bag of weather over Labour Weekend, with sun, wind and rain predicted.

A van used in an attempted abduction at the weekend had been spotted in south Dunedin and the city's business district, police say.

New Zealanders' attitudes to Asian people are becoming more positive, with more than half of non-Asians believing Asian immigration to be a good thing, a study shows.

Two men have been charged with abduction after they allegedly tried to drag a 22-year-old woman into a van at 9.30pm in Dunedin on Saturday night.

The fixed speed camera on Caversham Valley Rd, near Lookout Point, in Dunedin, was removed as part of a multimillion highway safety upgrade.

A gas main was ruptured by workers at a construction site in the Albion Lane area, Dunedin, about 8.45am. The Fire Service has finished dissipating remaining gas residues.

Southern police have taken the unusual step of posting a $20,000 reward in the hope of finding Simon James Garrick, last seen by his family a year ago.

About 130 pairs of hands and a "year's worth" of weekends have helped complete a predator-proof fence perched above the cliffs of St Clair, Dunedin.

A Dunedin man has been sentenced to seven and a-half years' jail for sexually molesting a young boy for more than three years.

At least one person has been taken to hospital after a crash between a car and a truck in Dunedin this morning.

Three Dunedin police officers and a prison officer must wait several months for blood test results after being spat at by two offenders, one of whom said he had hepatitis.

One house has been destroyed and another damaged after two fires in the South Island overnight.

Dunedin police say anyone finding a black bag containing a tear-gas canister and cartridges, lost by officers in the city last Thursday, shouldn't tamper with the contents.

The sale of a collection of Nazi memorabilia has been called a "slap in the face" for the Jewish community.

The beautiful game and some of its best young players are coming to Dunedin, with confirmation Forsyth Barr Stadium will host seven matches during the 2015 Fifa Under-20 World Cup.

Two stationary yellow-eyed penguins standing sentinel over Sandfly Bay on Otago Peninsula have been confusing penguins, tourists and volunteers alike.

A lawyer struck off over accusations of stealing nearly $3 million from clients has had 33 criminal charges laid against him.

Sixty-four Dunedin manufacturing workers will have their working week reduced by a day, following KiwiRail's decision to award a manufacturing tender offshore.

A wheelie-bin arsonist left mounds of melted plastic and a Dunedin suburb "saturated" with police patrols.