Waikato

Residents are being warned to brace for heavy rain and gale-force winds as a subtropical low sweeps down from Northland.

There is a high chance of the heavy rain watch upgrading to a warning in Northland.

Former policeman Stephen Parsons bought a 1990 Mitsubishi V3000 and set about transforming it into a replica of a Ministry of Transport Traffic Safety Service vehicle.

Emergency services are responding to a bus crash near Hamilton.

The school aimed at producing more GPs to plug dire shortages, particularly in rural and regional areas.

Several gates across the forests had been cut open to allow alleged offenders to access the sites, police say.

A drunken shoplifter threatened to rape and kill a Specsavers staff member as he stormed out of the store with more than $2000 worth of glasses.

Council CCTV camera operators have helped nab a group of young people police say were trying to burgle a shop.

A 28-year-old man has appeared in court in Kaitāia accused of murdering 60-year-old Maxwell Connor in Thames earlier this week.

A 28-year-old man has been charged with the murder of 60-year-old Maxwell Connor.

The fire spread rapidly in the dry conditions but was brought under control quickly, police say.

Police have launched a homicide investigation following the death of a man in Thames Hospital overnight.

The death of the 45-year-old, who went missing last month, is not being regarded as suspicious.

Police are hunting a prisoner who has escaped from a transport van in Taupō, and are warning people not to approach him.

Drones with thermal imaging equipment will survey the Black Jack fireground on the Coromandel Peninsula to identify where pockets of fire are still burning.

Police have confirmed two people who fell, one fatally, from a Coromandel cliff on Saturday night were both under 18.