One man has died after his car left a rural road near Hastings and ended up in a stream.

Any talk about the retirement age being upped to 68 or 70 would result in a sort of "so what?" response from Trevor Page of Napier.

A quick-thinking Hastings resident scuttled the mischievous plans of an alleged burglar in Parkvale yesterday - by sitting on the offender until police arrived.

A Hawke's Bay police officer accused of indecently assaulting five teenagers told two girls they were drunk and "no one would believe them", a court has heard.

A spectacular showcase of flavours from Hawkes Bay launches the winter, writes Catherine Smith.

A loving 28-year-old father who fell from his motorcycle in Waipukurau nine days ago has passed away in Wellington Hospital.

One man remained in a critical condition at Hawke's Bay Hospital this morning after collision between a van and a logging truck in Hawkes Bay yesterday.

Two men have died after a car crashed on a rural road and rolled 600m down a bank near Te Hauke, south of Hastings.

Protesters egged Prime Minister John Key's ministerial BMW as it collected him from a state housing development in Napier this afternoon.

A Hawke's Bay volleyball coach has been sentenced to home detention after she admitted engaging in a "damaging psychological relationship" with a young female student.

An 8-year-old girl is in Hawke's Bay Hospital after being shot in the stomach with an air rifle by another child.

Health officials are concerned clusters of the harmful H1N1 virus, responsible for the 2009 swine flu pandemic, are appearing unseasonably early.

Engineers have identified further structural problems within the Hawke's Bay Opera House precinct.

A Hawke's Bay winegrower is picking this year's Chardonnay crop to be the region's best ever vintage.

A Civil Aviation Authority inquiry is under way this afternoon into a fatal helicopter crash in a forestry block near Gisborne this morning in which a 53-year-old local man died.

A man in an arranged marriage has been found guilty of using his wife as a sex slave, during which he raped, beat and threatened to kill her.

A former mayor and lawyer is accused of helping a property developer hide his identity so he could borrow millions from a failed finance company.

The boss of the Ruataniwha dam project has defended his $84k pay hike, saying the ensuing criticism is 'just the reality of a high-profile public role.'

'You should be ashamed of yourself,' an ex-cop told a judge who ordered him to pay $98 in reparation to a shopkeeper he assaulted with a Lotto ticket.

A man charged with dangerous driving in relation to the death of a pet dog on Haumoana Beach has pleaded not guilty.

A man who died while hunting in a remote area of Hawke's Bay is believed to have suffered a medical condition, emergency services say.

Police have made three arrests in the last 12 hours relating to two serious crimes in Hawkes Bay.

A man suffered suspected neck and head injuries after a diving accident near Napier yesterday.

A repeat pilot impersonator sentenced to 300 hours' community work for flying a plane without a license has had an appeal against his sentence dismissed.