"He was just lying on the ground screaming." A five-year-old's condition after a suspected hit and run is now described as "critical".

A teenager accused of smashing the windscreen of a police car parked outside Napier District Court on Monday, later allegedly threatened to 'sort out' a judge if sent to jail, a court has been told.

A man who seriously injured his 6-year-old daughter when he crashed his overloaded quad bike while driving drunk avoided prison due to the "appalling experience".

A 10-month-old baby is being returned to his mother this afternoon after his Mongrel Mob father allegedly kidnapped him after a domestic dispute in Hastings today.

An elderly man has been flown to hospital after he tripped at his Hawkes Bay home and fell through a plate glass window.

Internal Affairs Minister and Napier MP Chris Tremain has requested a report into how a British killer managed to obtain a New Zealand passport issued in the name of a severely brain-damaged Hastings man.

Hawkes Bay residents were jolted by an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale, just before 10am this morning.

A former North Island mayor has applied for the High Court to dismiss some of the charges he is facing in a Serious Fraud Office case.

A Hawkes Bay teacher with a conviction for aggravated robbery has pleaded guilty to stealing a pair of sunglasses.

A Hawke's Bay man who helped rescue a couple from their crashed station wagon in rain near Wairoa has clear memories of the driver's pleas.

A Dannevirke family have been left with nothing after a suspicious fire destroyed their rural home on Saturday night.

The four leading Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection candidates share their final thoughts about their four-week campaign with Lawrence Gullery before people vote tomorrow night.

Ollie Williams thought he was going to die as he lay pinned beneath a jetboat on the Ngaruroro River, trapped underwater and running out of air.