A 38-year-old man was killed when he was thrown into Ahuriri Lagoon in a head-on collision between two trucks on the Hawkes Bay expressway.

A 64-year-old Hawkes Bay man died about noon yesterday when his quad bike rolled at his Porangahau farm.

The Jackass-influenced teenager who doused another person in petrol and set him on fire has been sentenced to three years in prison.

"Million-dollar rain" was how Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills described yesterday's downpours which swept the region.

The first quarter of the financial year has been described as one of the worst for the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.

A dangerous prisoner who bit his partner badly on the cheek and was granted bail to attend his son's funeral has disappeared.

A man left paralysed after being shot by police near Otane has been convicted of threatening to kill the police officers who shot him.

Broadcaster Paul Holmes says he is missing work but hopes to be discharged from Hawke's Bay Hospital soon.

A spokesperson for the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter said the 52-year-old forestry worker was injured in a tree-felling accident near Putere.

Police in Napier are looking for a male who sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in a green belt area of the city.

A 4.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded 20 km north-east of Waipukurau this morning at a depth of 34km.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck near Taupo this afternoon and was felt along the East Coast of the North Island.

A businessman has been discharged without conviction for threatening to kill his partner with a knife after an argument broke out over his mother washing his underwear.

Aftershocks are unlikely after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake rocked much of the central and lower North Island today.

The teenagers involved in a "horrific" car crash at Waipukurau have been flooded with online messages of love and support from friends and family.