It has taken more than 100 years to come to light, but the web of intrigue and corruption that toppled China's last emperor has finally been pieced together by a Chinese historian.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, weren't in Babylon at all - but were instead located 480km to the north in Babylon's greatest rival, Nineveh, according to a leading Oxford-based historian.

Sir Edmund Hillary's diaries from his ascent of Mt Everest will be released on a daily blog in the lead-up to the 60th anniversary of the climb.

Brian Rudman asks: "Should we be shipping this cultural heritage off to a commercial collector of photographic libraries in the United States for safe-keeping?"

Ian Steven took the bait, and it landed him in a whole lot of trouble with his wife.

A famous German World War II bomber nicknamed "the flying pencil" has spent decades submerged in the English Channel after being shot down in the Battle of Britain. Now, divers are braving dangerous tides to bring it to the surface.

Archaeologists say they have found physical proof that some of the earliest British settlers in America resorted to cannibalism to survive.

On Anzac Day people in this part of the world commemorate the cost of war, loved ones lost, families ripped apart and lives forever changed, writes Ulrike McCullagh.

Harry "Middy" Middleton spoke very few words about the Great War.

It had been a long time since busy mum Kylie Perry had taken a day off work to stay home with her pair of boisterous pre-schoolers.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt Everest, a new book published this week collects photographs from the other New Zealander in the 1953 British Everest Expedition.

Danielle Wright details some of the best Anzac parades and services in Auckland for families.

After nine years of hogging the limelight, Robert Muldoon found himself on the fringe in 1984. Four months earlier, the self-assured strongman had lost the general election. Just hours before this photo, he lost the National Party leadership.

For the next five months, in a small gallery at the Auckland Museum, Sir Edmund Hillary will once more climb the world's highest mountain.

A grass-roots protest against a planned Rotorua Eastern Arterial (REA) route is gaining momentum with hundreds of people taking to the internet to voice their opposition.

New Zealand could play a role in repealing Papua New Guinean sorcery legislation following an Easter "witch-hunt", Amnesty International says.

These days your "mobile communications centre" fits in the palm of your hand - but in 1992 you needed a custom-built car to take work on the road.

Alexia Santamaria joins Mt Maunganui's magnificent men in their flying machines.

Police are considering trying to ban gang patches in New Brighton, Christchurch, after a flare up between gang members and ongoing intimidation.

When confronted with a truly gruesome historical visage, the inclination of many people is to avert their gaze, in the hope something unseen becomes unknown, and then eventually forgotten.

Oscar-winning movie Argo cut New Zealand out of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis credits, but former NZ Embassy worker Maureen Campbell-White wants to set the record straight.