A man found dead in a Wanganui park was a former Mongrel Mob gang associate who was jailed over the death of toddler Jhia Te Tua in a drive-by shooting in 2007.

A man's body was recovered from the Whanganui River about 6.30am today.

A man who punched his partner and her mother and threw a metal pole at her sister has been sentenced to community detention.

'I wasn't involved,' says a man - jailed for a hostel fire in Australia which killed a tourist - whose house has been hit twice by fire in Wanganui.

A 14-year-old boy had to leap for his life in Wanganui yesterday as a car crashed through the fence he was standing in front of.

Holidaymakers heading home this weekend will be hoping a 5km queue of traffic near Whangarei yesterday will not recur.

Whanganui man pleads not guilty to rape

A woman who spent 14 hours alone with the wreckage of her car after she crashed down a bank had to set her car on fire to attract attention.

A driver was stabbed by a hitchhiker he picked up near Wanganui at the weekend, police say.

A Whanganui woman who took two and a half years to complete just one hour of a 200-hour community work sentence has been hauled back before a court.

This diverse river city offers adventures, galleries, top cafes and more, writes Elisabeth Easther.

A deer hunter has been hospitalised after his quad bike rolled and crushed him in remote forest overnight.

Convicted sex offender Alan Rubick was highly manipulative and skilled at identifying young vulnerable boys, the High Court at Wanganui was told.

Police have given former Wanganui mayor Michael Laws a formal warning after he was accused of smacking his child.

Police investigating the homicide of Wanganui man Brett Hall have arrested and charged a man with his murder.

A bus driver who crashed a bus full of Wanganui college students, teachers and parents near Taumaranui has been given community work and disqualified from driving.

An Auckland man who fell 40 metres down a remote bluff into the Whanganui River on Thursday is lucky to be alive, his wife says.

One person died at today's dawn Anzac service in Wanganui.

A Wanganui dairy has gone smokefree - and business has never been better, says its owner.