Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori hopes his side gets plenty of batting practice in today's fourth one-day-international in Napier.

Alison Shanks has stood on the dais to receive world championship and Commonwealth Games gold medals. But she remembers just as vividly standing at the helm of the Spirit of New Zealand.

A body found in a crashed car near Napier yesterday has been formally identified as missing motorist Alex Binns, police say.

A young woman who has accused a former Hastings jockey of repeated rape, sexual and physical abuse from the age of six, told a court today he began plying her with alcohol when she was about eight.

A retired mechanic has modified his car so he can tuck it under his bed.

The family of a girl, 5, found dead last month had to be restrained when the man accused of sexually violating her appeared in court today.

They may not be able to exchange wedding rings, but a couple who survived a four-car smash will be united forever by matching scars.

Roads and vehicles must be "more forgiving" to curb a road toll which averages more than one death a day, the AA says. Figures released by the Ministry of Transport today show 371 people died on the roads over the past year.

Joe Cocker aims for radio hits on his latest album Hard Knocks.

The holiday road toll has risen to six after a fatal crash on the Napier-Taupo highway this afternoon.

A chronically ill Hawkes Bay girl has been put on experimental drugs to stop her body rejecting transplanted organs.

Matisse Reid's celebration of her 10th birthday and Christmas Day came to a halt when she was taken back into intensive care.

This is the face of the latest New Zealand child to die as a result of alleged abuse. Five-year-old Sahara Jayde Baker-Koro was found dead in her bed in Napier early on Tuesday.