Len Brown insists a self-inflicted chest and head beating on Tuesday night was nothing more than a Maori gesture.

Manukau Mayor Len Brown has confessed to making another personal purchase on his credit card - this time a $59 Xmas ham for the family table.

Barely a day after the end of a Queen's Birthday weekend with the lowest road toll in 54 years, two people - one a 3-year-old boy - died in separate crashes.

A child has been killed in a bus crash near the Northland town of Kaeo and another person has died after a crash in Canterbury late today.

Two men accused of killing an undercover cop were fit, young men who decided to take the law into their own hands, a court hears.

A fire at an Auckland primary is the second major school fire in the upper North Island in two days, after arsonists torched classrooms at Kerikeri High.

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John Skinner says the only thing he can remember from the confrontation with a slain officer is firing a single shot before his memory went "blank".

A man accused of shooting dead an undercover police officer in 2008 denied he had guns and weapons at his house to protect a meth operation, the High Court heard today.

The man accused of shooting dead an undercover police officer says he did so out of self defence, the High Court has heard.

"Most of my teammates read comic books and would not even know what political science means", says political science scholar Ryan Nelsen.

Murder accused John Skinner said he fired shots at Sergeant Don Wilkinson because he thought Mr Wilkinson was "reaching for something to harm him with", a jury has heard.

Beautiful singer/songwriter Erakah plans on dressing to impress at this weekend's S3 Pacific Music Awards in Manukau.

Water supply to Howick and Bucklands Beach areas should be back to normal today after a valve failure.