Two youths were remanded in custody when they appeared in Wanganui District Court today after a police officer was brutally attacked with a machete over the weekend.

The Police Minister will meet the Police Commissioner today to discuss a report on whether to give officers easier access to firearms following the brutal machete attack on a policeman on Saturday morning.

Bleeding from a broken eye socket and multiple machete slashes, Bruce Mellor curled up into a ball.

Police have blocked off an inner-city Auckland street after a suspicious substance was found in the carpark of a building that houses the US Consular General and other diplomatic offices.

One of the men injured in an electrical explosion in west Auckland today is about to be discharged from hospital, while the other remains in hospital with minor burns to one of his hands.

Two men working on an underground cable have been injured in an electrical explosion in west Auckland, one of them seriously.

An injured man broke a police officer's nose as the officer tried to help restrain him in an ambulance.

A man was seriously injured yesterday in a house fire, caused by what authorities say was a P-lab explosion.

A replacement for outgoing Commissioner Howard Broad has been announced.

Emergency services were called to Wellington International Airport after a plane was forced to return shortly after take-off this afternoon.

Heroism probably involves an instant calculation of known risk against likely benefit.