An alert that activates when a baby is taken past a barrier is on the cards at Middlemore Hospital after an urgent security review into the kidnapping of a 5-day-old baby from the hospital's maternity ward.

A man who killed a sickness beneficiary with a taiaha has today been sentenced to 17 years jail.

The mother of a baby kidnapped from Middlemore Hospital would like to see the findings of a review into security released as soon as possible.

Amended charges will be filed against three men facing kidnapping charges to include a third complainant.

Two men wanted in relation to an alleged kidnapping in Queenstown last week have been remanded in custody.

A South Auckland woman has admitted abducting a 5-day-old baby from Middlemore Hospital.

A man who allegedly tried to entice a nine-year-old girl into his ute as she walked home from school in Hamilton on Thursday is being sought by police.

A teenager who was tied up and told her throat was going to be slit had to climb across balconies nine floors high to escape her attacker, a court has heard.

A woman accused of abducting her infant daughter in the US in 1994 and living a secret life in New Zealand and Australia under an alias, has appeared in a South Carolina court.

A former North Shore woman charged with kidnapping her daughter has been extradited to America.

The mother of a newborn baby that was abducted from Middlemore hospital in 2012 says she is shocked it has happened again.

A mother whose newborn baby was kidnapped from Middlemore Hospital while she showered just metres away has spoken about her terrifying ordeal .

A man and a woman have appeared in court this afternoon charged with kidnapping a 5-day-old baby from Middlemore Hospital last night.

Middlemore Hospital says improved security systems from the last baby kidnapping helped a speedy resolution to last night's abduction of a five-day-old.

Police are hunting for a five-day-old baby who was kidnapped from Middlemore Hospital earlier this evening.

A schoolgirl escaped an attempted kidnapping in Mt Maunganui yesterday, police say.

A father has today admitted abducting his young son from Dunedin and driving away at speeds of up to 170km/h north of Christchurch.

An open-ended sentence is being considered for a teenager who raped a 17-year old woman and a young girl who jumped out of a speeding car to escape him.

A man whose body was found buried in a shallow grave months after he disappeared was bashed with a taiaha, a court has been told.

Nigeria's president has been sent a new video of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in which they beg him to spare their lives through a prisoner swap.

A photograph of a young girl at the Europa League soccer final who bears an uncanny resemblance to missing Madeleine McCann has gone viral.

A girl who spent several months last year as a hostage of Boko Haram has told how she was ordered to fight alongside the Islamists in ambushes on the Nigerian military.

The father of one of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram has spoken of the "other worldly" moment when he saw his daughter's face on the hostage video released by the group.

A wealthy Briton has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of holding a group of women against their will and fathering at least seven children with them.

One of the teenagers who escaped from the Islamic extremist group that abducted more than 300 schoolgirls has said the kidnapping was "too terrifying for words".

'She's a brave wee girl', say police of an eight-year-old who was grabbed from her driveway and put in a car before she managed to escape.

Pressure is growing for Western military drones to be used in the hunt for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria, as the terrorist thought to be holding them threatens to "marry off" girls aged as young as 9.

Western countries are in talks with Nigerian security forces to help rescue hundreds of kidnapped schoolgirls still missing three weeks after they were seized.