Finance Minister Bill English has asked banks and the Inland Revenue Department to be flexible with Christchurch earthquake victims.

John Key has cancelled his scheduled trip to Europe in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake.

Supermarket chains are counting millions of dollars in damaged stock as they ship in groceries to cover shortages and access lost to distribution centres.

Christchurch tourism operators say there is some disruption from the earthquake but most are open for business.

If you only have a minute and you want today's need-to-know earthquake news at a glance, this is the page for you.

Aftershocks rocking Christchurch have damaged an earthquake welfare centre and forced its closure.

All Black assistant coach Steve Hansen and his family face an uncertain future in their Tai Tapu home, after the Christchurch earthquake.

It's a bitter blow as Cantabrians toiling to clean up after Saturday's quake now face a potential shortage of Canterbury Draught beer.

The fault that ruptured the surface of Canterbury paddocks and produced the magnitude 7.1 earthquake has been quiet for at least 16,000 years.

Students are using social networking skills to pull together a volunteer army of more than 1300.

As aftershocks continue in Canterbury, exhausted parents are pleading for help with children too terrified to be on their own.

Devastated shop owners in Christchurch had to flee as aftershocks interrupted their damage checks.

The growing number of sightseers in central Christchurch are putting themselves and others in danger, say police.

Thousands of Canterbury residents will probably have to keep boiling water until the end of the week to minimise the risk of disease after Saturday's earthquake.

An estimated 5000 uninsured homes damaged in the Christchurch earthquake will have to make a case of "true hardship" to be considered for financial help.

The economic impact of the earthquake will be sharply negative in the near term but probably positive for GDP over a longer period, economists say.