Jade Bayliss was strangled, had socks stuffed in her mouth, and her family home was set on fire by Jeremy McLaughlin, an ex-partner of her mother, a court has heard.

The head teacher at a Northland kindergarten has made a plea to the community to help catch the culprits who are destroying their playground with vandalism that now includes an arson attack.

Forty years after 15 people died in the firebombing of Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub, controversy and conspiracy theories still surround what was until the Port Arthur massacre, Australia's worst mass murder.

A Rotorua woman whose home was torched by her ex-partner is shocked he has been released from jail after serving just over one-third of his sentence.

A teenager accused of burning down a family home on Christmas Day has spoken for the first time.

Arsonists and "idiots" defied fire bans yesterday as at least five suspicious fires stretched firefighters to the limit.

Fires raged up and down the country yesterday stretching emergency services to "maximum capacity".

A former lover has admitted setting fire to his ex-partner's house and torching her car after failing to win her back.