The director has agreed to become the first patron of Opotiki's De Luxe Theatre, in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

An agitated, machete-wielding man with a history of violence and mental illness has been subdued by a threat of taser use, say police.

It's all very well acting and starring in the second feature based on your Oscar-nominated short.

An eyewitness to an attack on school principal and councillor Hawea Vercoe, told a court his head was kicked like a rugby ball.

A 37 year-old will appear in court tomorrow after allegedly threatening police with a machete.

Two teenagers who brutally murdered retired Opotiki teacher John Rowe have been sentenced to at least 17 years in prison.

The young age of two attackers convicted of the killing of an elderly retired man left police and the victim's family with a sense of disbelief.

Two teenage girls were found guilty today of murdering retired Opotiki school teacher John Rowe by beating him repeatedly with his own walking sticks.

An 18-year-old has refused to handle the walking staff she allegedly attacked him with.

The killing of retired Opotiki school teacher John Rowe by two teenagers was 'savage and calculated'.

A French man who wanted to experience "the real New Zealand" was abducted and raped while travelling alone on a rural backroad.