There have been more than 1000 submissions against plans to build houses on an unspoilt Coromandel beach.

Police are believed to have tracked the movements in Waikato of two men who knew Carmen Thomas - at the time that her car was abandoned in Hamilton.

Vulnerable health workers are being suspended without pay to intimidate them into ending their industrial action, the lab workers' union says.

The dangerous combination of a weekend of drinking and a sleeping pill resulted in Jarrad Hoeata going on a reckless drive that ended when motorists blocked him off the road.

Police have asked for the public's help to track two armed robbers who stole cigarettes and tobacco from a Hamilton diary on Sunday.