Convicted double murderer Mark Lundy has been leaving prison for medical treatment, the Department of Corrections has confirmed today.

A grandmother jailed after driving at nearly twice the legal alcohol limit and killing cyclist Frank van Kampen on the Kapiti Coast has been released on parole after serving just half of her sentence.

"You did a monstrous thing, but I do not think you are a monster," a High Court Judge told the killer of a two-year-old boy today as he sentenced him to a life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years today.

A Whanganui man was today jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for kicking to death his partner's two-year-old son.

The High Court has ruled Whanganui District Council's gang patch ban is unlawful.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is investigating the cause of a helicopter crash which left a pilot with head injuries after it came down north of Levin this morning.

Three senior members of the Rebel Motorcycle Club have been banned from visiting a Northland prison after attempting to recruit members there.

Two people are dead and five others have been taken to hospital after a vehicle carrying seven people rolled this morning near Foxton.

A jury in the Palmerston North High Court has today found a man not guilty of murdering a three-year-old girl but guilty of her manslaughter. Kash McKinnon died of head injuries in Palmerston North Hospital in August 2009.

One of two teenagers charged with attempted murder after a policeman was attacked with a machete at Taihape on December 11 last year has pleaded guilty.

A spiralling shortage of doctors has sparked a warning of future "severe safety issues" in New Zealand hospitals, with predictions that patients could suffer from increasing medical mistakes and treatment delays without urgent action.