Germany has overtaken Japan to become NZ's fifth-biggest source of tourists and the royal visit has increased interest in other key markets.

Here are the top news stories today, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about tomorrow.

National's audacious poaching of Shane Jones could be seen as a cynical ploy to undermine the electoral chances of the Opposition, writes Bryce Edwards.

A shop display of golly dolls, previously known as golliwogs, has some shoppers angry the "racist symbol" continues to be sold.

The Easter weekend trading laws aren't working and need an overhaul, Prime Minister John Key says.

The truck driver involved in a crash that killed Whenuapai mother Lysette Brown was on his way to deliver chairs to his sister's wedding.

Cooks Global Foods, the New Zealand franchisor of the Esquires cafe chain in markets outside Australasia, is poised for North American expansion.

The Herald's list of the 50 coolest New Zealanders has polarised the opinions of more than 2000 readers who claim Sonny Bill Williams, Lorde and Tame Iti are not cool.

Corstorphine House's history of accommodating royals and Hollywood actors may help attract global "A-listers" when the Dunedin property goes on the market for $3.8m.

A burglar with 80 convictions had just been released from prison when he broke into an Auckland family's home.

Life is just fine for many Kiwis living in Australia who say they have nothing to moan about after crossing the Tasman in search of a better life.

Acoustic engineers have been trying to soften the air-conditioning noise on Auckland's new electric trains with a week to go before they are rolled out for commuter use.

When Paul Southwick embarked on a lengthy search for his father's World War II acquaintances, the best he hoped for was a few words of remembrance, maybe a photo.

Interest rates could peak at a level which would see first-home buyers in Auckland spending two-thirds of household income paying the mortgage.

Long-established golf courses in the financial rough are selling land and property to generate the funds they need to stay open.

Benji Marshall's inclusion in the Blues match-day squad is now hanging by a thread.

The proportion of house sales to first-home buyers has gone down in 90 Auckland suburbs since the Reserve Bank's mortgage lending limits came in.

A woman has described her dramatic escape from her submerged car after it was swept off the road by raging floodwaters.

In the magical world of beauty pageants, Collette Lochore is the fairy tale queen. But the infighting and recriminations behind the scenes of Miss Junior NZ are stranger than any fiction.

It is amazing how often business resembles life.

Almost exactly seven years ago I sat in a room in a fancy Auckland hotel with a funny, sweet, roundish little fellow who was so nervous he kept pulling at his ear.

When the Blues look back on their Benji Marshall experiment, regardless of how it turns out, they might want to take note of the lessons learned, because there will be many.

Students buying assignments, forging signatures, and using phones in exams were among more than 540 cases of cheating dealt with by universities last year.

Only fifty percent of Kiwis reported themselves as 'Christian' in the 2013 census, writes Paul Morris. But what does Easter really mean to most NZers?

From the strangest yellow card you will ever see to the best training ground brawls, Daily Shorts looks at the light-hearted side of sport.

Labour's truck ban could cover 0.7 per cent or 7 per cent of New Zealand's motorways - depending on who you listen to.

A witness has described an incident where a rugby player almost lost his ear in a ruck as "the worst example of an attack on a player'' he had ever seen.

The sister of a murdered south Auckland man knew she had to face her brother's killer to see what his features revealed.