A 21-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman are dead after a crash in south Canterbury.

Nearly a quarter of people invoiced for St John ambulance treatment aren't paying - leaving the emergency service millions of dollars out of pocket.

Three suspects are being searched for after a Buddhist monk was attacked in a vicious robbery in south of Auckland last night.

Emergency services are attending a report of a person being hit by a car in central Tauranga.

There is nothing mellow about the new colour scheme of St John ambulances - the bright yellow makeover is a move to improve safety for staff, patients and the public.

A drunk man who's alleged to have shot his friend in the knee with an air rifle in Alexandra early this morning will face an array of firearms charges.

Police were called to the administration block at Invercargill Prison this morning after a letter was discovered to contain white powder.

A readymixed concrete truck overturned in the Auckland suburb of Avondale this afternoon, spilling wet concrete onto the road.

Government Minister Gerry Brownlee isn't impressed by parliamentary security staff doing a sniff test on white powder that arrived in his office at Parliament last week.

A man who admitted causing the death of a motorist can't remember what happened in the few seconds his car veered across State Highway 1 last year.

Envelopes containing white powder have been sent to the Wellington offices of MPs Gerry Brownlee and Peter Dunne.

More details have emerged over a bizarre incident in which a man's body was left behind at a crash scene, only to be discovered later by a passing school bus.

A 17-year-old was knocked unconscious before being stabbed multiple times in the neck, arms and torso in a suspected gang incident in Porirua last night, police say.

A 25-year-old man has fallen 50 metres onto rocks in a paragliding accident at an Auckland beach.

A 27-year-old woman is fighting for her life in Christchurch Hospital after falling from a moving vehicle early this morning.

An Auckland teenager has died of injuries he suffered in a suspected assault at a school rugby training session early this evening.

Work is underway to prevent today's predicted heavy rain causing further damage at a Wellington landslip which forced eight households to evacuate.

Residents affected by Wellington's landslip won't get a quick answer on when they can return home, experts say.

People left homeless by a huge landslip in Wellington are being offered clothing and help while they remain barred from their precariously perched houses.

Two houses perched precariously on the edge of a huge landslip in Wellington may never be safe to live in again.

A teenage girl has died and several others have been seriously burned by a fire in a Rotorua industrial building where police had earlier shut down a party.