It is a quarter of a century since Straight Outta Compton, the seminal gangsta rap album, made a 25 sq km area of Los Angeles synonymous with gang violence and murder.

The Boxing Day feats of Brendon McCullum have underlined his favouritism to win this year’s supreme Halberg Award. Andrew Alderson selects another six of the finest performances by New Zealand test cricketers in a calendar.

Grisly exhibits linked to some of Britain’s most notorious criminals are set to go on display for the first time – after years hidden away.

Every American knows about the Mayflower making landfall in 1620 in what is now called Provincetown, Massachusetts...

The Marsden Cross is known to most of us only as a photograph. It is on a remote northern shore in the Bay of Islands, not as accessible as Waitangi or Russell.

In the film Zero Dark Thirty, she was the persistent, conscientious CIA officer who finally tracked Osama bin Laden to his lair.

More than 500 people gathered on a hilltop in the Bay of Islands yesterday to celebrate the bicentenary of Pakeha settlement in New Zealand.

On Wednesday it rained and on the few occasions it stopped, it thundered. It was a hell of a day to go to poor old Motat and hardly anyone did.

There is a growing belief that we're going to end up with a national flag that reflects our prowess on the rugby field rather than continuing with the existing emblem.

Four surviving veterans of one of New Zealand's most famous naval battles joined nearly 600 sailors and thousands of well-wishers in a parade on Auckland's Queen St yesterday to mark the Battle of the River Plate's 75th anniversary.

"I wasn't as dead as I had first surmised." Those were the words of HMS Achilles gunnery officer, Lieutenant Richard Washbourn, in a previously unpublished letter.

Many years ago, when I was a young man, I visited London for the first time.

A tunnel will remove a road that had cut off part of the heritage site, and restore some tranquility to the mystic setting.

New research suggests Viking conquests were more like romantic getaways than drunken stag dos - but they still had a penchant for brutality.

With bells clanging, whistles screeching and hundreds of booted sailors clattering to their firing stations, boy seaman Bob Batt had every right to be scared.

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of one of New Zealand's worst riots. On December 7, 1984 Auckland's Queen St was the scene of a bloody struggle between 100 youths and police.

World War II's greatest escape, which involved Kiwi officers scaling barbed wire fences instead of the previously favoured method of tunnelling, has been told for the first time.

Scientists studying the DNA of Richard III, whose body was found buried beneath a Leicester car park, have revealed that there was marital infidelity among his descendants.

She parachuted behind enemy lines, evading the Nazis to to spy on their troop movements. Now a quiet Aucklander is to receive France's highest honour.

Spend a moment with the ghosts of Little Bighorn, writes Ben Stanley.

An agent who evaded the Nazis to send coded messages to Britain is to be honoured by France. Andrew Stone writes about a modest war hero who lives quietly in Auckland.

A macabre international trade in severed heads intensified Maori inter-tribal warfare to such an extent it was feared they would be wiped out altogether, a new book claims.

Our small population means we've produced few world-renowned people warranting the ultimate tribute of a statue.

Prince Harry returned to Afghanistan today on behalf of the Queen as he led emotional tributes to his friends who died in the name of war.

44: Hastings-born George Masters took part in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 before being posted to Europe. His bravery was recorded in the London Gazette

The South Island's Waitaki Valley is big country: a wide-open world of bare brown hills and huge rocks. Despite this inland setting, Otago University palaeontologist Ewan Fordyce likes to think of himself as snorkelling when he visits.

Given Auckland's chequered history in saving heritage buildings, best to keep the Lindauer on ice for the time being, writes Brian Rudman.

With the Labour leadership contest now in full swing, NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner looks back at some memorable screen appearances from past Labour leaders who left a big impression.

A cousin of Winston Churchill has died, leaving the son he once described as a "black sheep" to inherit one of Britain's most prestigious aristocratic titles.

A New Zealand woman accused of destroying a Buddha statue in Cambodia says she did it because it “didn’t belong in the temple”.