An off-duty police officer was injured during a brazen daylight robbery this afternoon, after six people used weapons to smash into a high-end jewellery store in central Auckland.

Police were alerted that a man had fallen into a gully on the central North Island mountain shortly after 5pm yesterday.

With little time to spare, local councils in many parts of the country are putting a call out for candidates, amid a dearth of nominations.

Protesters blocked roads in central Auckland this afternoon for the second time in two weeks, marching past the main entrance to the city's hospital.

A new synthetic drug has been found for the first time in New Zealand with feedback that it caused extreme anxiety for a user.

Another 25 deaths of people with Covid-19 have been reported in New Zealand today, as well as 4790 new community cases, with the rolling average of cases continuing to fall.

Weather warnings continue across the country as heavy rain, wind and fog have caused major travel disruptions, and new flood and wind warnings have been issued.

Police are facing enforcement action from the Privacy Commissioner for breaches of obligations in relation to officers photographing people.

The government has yet to decide how to address a dire shortage of radiation oncologists, despite more than a decade of health workforce planning.

A stand-off of more than 24 hours ended in Levin on Friday night with the man at the centre of it being taken to hospital in a critical condition.

When the borders shut in 2020, there was talk of the area's economy pivoting or being re-imagined in a post-pandemic world, but the mayor isn't a fan of such language.

Crown lawyers and the police have lost a legal fight to keep secret the contentious interviewing technique used in the failed prosecution of the Lois Tolley murder case.

Twenty-five neo mastiff crosses and bulldog crosses have been rounded up at the Northland property where a man was killed in a suspected mauling yesterday afternoon.

A rescue pilot says a plane crash which happened in the Southern Alps yesterday is an "unsustainable crash to live from".

Police say the 23-year-old man who was killed in New Plymouth this week was a young father.

Police say the man at the centre of a stand-off at a house in Levin where there was a fire this evening is now in hospital in a critical condition.

The newly completed Waikato Expressway is a project 30 years and billions of dollars in the making and now it is set to change the face of the region's towns and villages, for better or worse.

Eight of Auckland's 10 dams are at capacity after the country's wettest July on record.