A major earthquake has flattened homes and offices on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border, rattling buildings as far away as New Delhi and Dubai and killing dozens of people, including 34 in one Pakistani town.

With the rebuilding of Christchurch gaining momentum, some engineering and construction firms are looking overseas for people with the skills they need.

The psychological impact of the Canterbury earthquake has been accepted by the Employment Court as a valid reason for a lawyer filing legal documents several weeks late.

Civil Defence officials say there could be up to 10,000 casualties when the Alpine Fault ruptures sometime in the next 50 years - and 1000 could be fatal.

A national building industry conference has been told that seismic fears are now dominating the sector.

Tsunami warning sirens that sounded across Auckland in a test-run at the weekend are not favoured by our national emergency agency.

As one of the world's most tsunami-threatened countries, New Zealand faces the triple menace of distant-source tsunami, regional tsunami and local-source tsunami.

A relatively large earthquake struck off the coast of the North Island's East Coast overnight.

Insurance giant Tower must pay out a Christchurch couple for a like-for-like replacement on another site, after their home was damaged in the earthquakes.

New Zealand is moving by 4cm a year, new satellite surveys have revealed, as tectonic forces deform the land surface by stretching, slimming and sliding it southward.

Large parts of the country's building stock will be off-limits for disabled people under a proposal to trim the cost of upgrading thousands of earthquake-prone buildings, advocacy groups have warned.

The University of Canterbury's new high-tech security system is designed to speed up response times to critical incidents like natural disasters.

Live music in hastily-built venues has helped shaken Cantabrians beat the post-quake blues, a university researcher says.

Panicked Aucklanders have been snapping up emergency kits in the wake of last Sunday's earthquakes.

How much would your house cost to build? If you don't know and don't want to rely on your CV or an insurer's online calculator, you may be facing a $500 bill from a valuer when a major change to the way insurance policies work kicks in.

Aucklanders have been reassured that a big earthquake is highly unlikely, although a geologist says the rare pair that struck yesterday might be a sign of more to come.

A "moderate" 3.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Auckland today was the biggest in the city since February 2007.

A closely-watched insurance battle is expected to wrap up at the High Court in Christchurch today.