Two Wanganui charities have been left reeling after they were broken into over the weekend.

The "very old" maternity services building where a newborn baby died when he did not receive effective ventilation following his birth has been demolished and replaced.

A coroner has found that a newborn baby died because he did not receive effective ventilation following his birth at Whanganui Hospital.

The Whanganui River Rd has more tourists than last year, including an increasing number of cyclists.

Two firefighters suffered injuries likely to keep them off work for days while battling a "wall of fire" at a Wanganui house.

A retired engineer who helped design the Wanganui wastewater treatment plant says the solution is to put the fresh excess waste straight out to sea while the problem is being sorted.

A Wanganui real estate agent's appeal against his conviction and sentence for making a threatening phone call to his former employers has been dismissed.

Two of Wanganui's largest wet industries say they are not responsible for dumping solid waste into Wanganui's wastewater treatment plant, causing it to malfunction.

A Whanganui man has been sentenced to 10 months' home detention for supplying methadone which eventually led to a woman's fatal overdose.

A Castlecliff principal has quit the profession he loves after 24 years, slamming schools becoming businesses and the advent of National Standards.

Wanganui District Council has not breached resource consent despite the city's wastewater treatment plant having to be partially shut down.

Wanganui racer Mick Paul is aiming to realise the dream of a late Christchurch aircraft engineer to break Burt Munro's land speed record.

Both place names 'Wanganui' and 'Whanganui' have been recognised as official names of the city in Parliament today.

The sister of a "big, gentle, kind kid" stabbed in the face with a screwdriver in Wanganui still hopes the police will find her brother's attacker.

The Wanganui phone book will no longer have an image of Italian dictator Mussolini on its cover.

The teenager stabbed in the face in Wanganui will spend Christmas in intensive care at Wellington Hospital.

An "unprovoked attack" in Wanganui was described by a female staying the weekend at a Victoria Ave flat as like being in a war zone.

Twelve people travelling as part of a group of 48 Italian tourists staying at a Jerusalem marae on Sunday night had $5000 worth of gear taken by thieves.

Medical staff say it is too dangerous to operate on a teenage boy after he was stabbed in the face with a screwdriver in Wanganui - reportedly for wearing a blue hat.

A supermarket manager had a firearm thrust into his stomach during a brazen armed hold-up of his Wanganui store on Saturday night.

A Wanganui Collegiate student is in a serious but stable condition in Wanganui Hospital with bacterial meningitis.

Wanganui district councillors Clive Solomon and Michael Laws remain habitual non-attenders at council and committee meetings.