Sexual predator and former St John officer Christopher King has admitted assaulting two girls, as more evidence of his sinister past is revealed.

A former St John officer convicted of sexual offending has pleaded guilty to more charges.

A Hastings woman has been referred to Child, Youth and Family after leaving her 6-month-old baby on the floor of a Hastings KFC restaurant yesterday.

A principal who formed a sexual relationship with a teacher and threatened her if she told anyone he'd made her pregnant has been found guilty of serious misconduct.

A Muslim man is calling on "souljahs of Allah" to make their way to Hawke's Bay and join him in forming the "Islamic State of Aotearoa".

The police national dive squad will today search for a snorkeler who went missing from a Hawkes Bay beach.

A man being treated for drinking petrol was killed after he jumped from an ambulance and into the path of a truck in the Hawkes Bay, police say.

A Hawke's Bay mechanic says he found two women - one unresponsive, the other trapped and covered in blood - as he rushed to the scene of a serious crash near Hastings yesterday.

An ambulance officer accused of eight sex crimes claims a teenage patient was "huffing" gas in his ambulance, a place he described as "safe".

A forensic scientist says she has "extremely strong scientific support" a teenage girl's DNA was found on the fingernails of the ambulance officer accused of sexually violating her.

A Hawke's Bay Muslim man has come out in support of terror group Isis, and is trying to spread his beliefs through social media.

The home of sunshine has a lot of activities to offer away from the usual charms of beach and blue sky, writes Julie Haines.

A Hastings primary school is in lockdown, with pupils told to stay indoors, as police search for a gunman in the area.

"It was horrible, I've never seen so much blood." Two women have described rushing to help a boatie who was deeply cut in the groin by a propeller.

A strong quake has shaken the lower east coast of the North Island this morning.

A 17-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital after suffering multiple injuries in a crash in the Hawkes Bay this morning.

New Zealand's best produce is world class and a first-rate reason to travel, writes Nadia Lim.

Cycling adventures show off the country's most exhilarating views, discovers Ellie Mitchell.

A young Hastings woman has been found not guilty of fatally stabbing her boyfriend.

A judge has told a mother caught driving with seven unrestrained children that she did something "a large number of families would do" thirty years ago.

About 100 riders from the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club will converge on Napier today to remember a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

A young man has died after his car hit a power pole in Hawke's Bay overnight.

A crash this year which caused the death of an unborn child and multiple injuries to others has been described as a "complete tragedy" by a judge.

A Napier family is reeling after a man allegedly entered their home and attacked the father with a hammer.

Police are investigating why two men separately drove themselves to a Napier clinic with serious injuries overnight, one with stab wounds to the head.

A Hastings woman who died following an overdose made two calls to emergency helplines that went unanswered before her death.