A large scrub fire that endangered buildings in Taupo yesterday has been extinguished.

A scrub fire in Taupo which endangered buildings in the area this afternoon appears to have been deliberately lit.

Police have released the name of the man killed in a crash near Kaiapoi on Friday.

An academic says the loophole that lets people buy "lethal" air rifles should be closed following the death of a south Auckland teenager.

A teenager has died after being shot with an airgun he and four friends were playing with while they were drinking at a Manurewa home last night.

A fisherman who died after being swept down the Motu River has been identified as 41-year-old Benjamin Robert Tekira from Waimana, near Whakatane.

Two 15-year-old girls are being hailed as heroes after going to the rescue of men caught in a rip and near drowning at a Northland beach.

An unconscious 61-year-old diabetic man was believed to have been lying on a Dunedin park bench for a day and a night before he died.

The body of a 41-year-old man was found last night after he was swept away while trying to cross an East Coast river earlier in the day.

The body of a man has been found, hours after he was swept away at the Motu rivermouth near Whakatane today.

An Eastern Bay father and his 8-year-old son had to be winched to safety when large waves trapped the pair on rocks near the Whakatane Heads.

Neighbours say the 42-year-old was burned in her Whakatu house, 5km north of Hastings, after a day-long domestic dispute on Christmas Day.

Fatal accidents, breakdowns and huge traffic backlogs have plagued the first four days of the official Christmas road toll period.

Neighbours heard screams that "somebody was on fire" before emergency services discovered a badly burned couple on Christmas Day.

A volunteer firefighter failed to mention his conviction for arson when he applied for duty with a rural fire force.