A quantity of chemicals has been stolen from University of Canterbury's chemistry department -- including some which could be used to manufacture illegal drugs.

Two minor earthquakes hit central parts of both main islands today.

The digger driver killed in a quarry landslide will be farewelled on Monday.

A mentally-handicapped man, with the mental age of a 9-year-old, was accidentally strangled to death after becoming entangled in electrical bed wires.

The full extent of illegal quarrying is not known after it was revealed the latest person to be killed was operating without a safety certificate.

Police have recovered the body of digger driver Murray Taylor from the more than 1500 tonnes of rubble that buried him in a mammoth landslide.

Digger driver Murray Taylor, who was buried in a mammoth quarry landslide, has been remembered as a great bloke after hopes of finding him alive faded yesterday.

The digger driver buried under 1000 tonnes of rubble has been named as Murray Taylor.

A person is dead and another seriously injured after a crash in south Canterbury this afternoon.

There's no shortage of options for keen skiers in the South Island, writes Jane Jeffries.

A Canterbury rugby league legend, known at his club simply as ‘The Godfather’, has died suddenly during a training session on the eve of his 300th and final match.

The country’s top road cop is lamenting the deaths of five people over the Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend, including a 5-year-old boy who died in hospital yesterday.

A Christchurch pedestrian has been taken to hospital after she was knocked down by a vehicle in the central city this morning.

It took just eight seconds to bring down the former police station in Christchurch. Watch video of the controlled implosion here.

A female motorbike passenger has died after she was knocked into the path of an oncoming car, and then flung underneath a van in Canterbury today.

Police have identified the human remains found on Aoraki-Mt Cook this year as a climber who went missing more than 40 years ago.

Enjoy the meandering Kaiapoi River in this pretty little historic town, writes Elisabeth Easther.

A strong earthquake centred in Marlborough was felt as far away as Wellington this evening. GeoNet said the magnitude 4.6 quake happened 16km underground.

Community support has been lauded after a crash in the Hakataramea Valley at the weekend in which six people were thrown from a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Police want the public's help to locate a 24-year-old Canterbury man who has been missing since Monday.

Jarrad Ethan Blackler is being remembered as an ''ultimate rugby player'' for the Kurow club with a love of the hills.

A person has been hit by a freight train and killed in Canterbury.

Two people have died in a crash on a Christchurch motorway this evening.

The Canterbury rebuild's imminent conclusion and business sales will push New Zealand's biggest listed business to make operating earnings of between $650 million to $690 million - the lower end of....