Dunedin's "dire'' housing situation is forcing some at-risk youth to engage in prostitution to get a place to sleep, or to sleep rough in cars.

A man who assaulted two cyclists in separate incidents in Dunedin has been jailed.

Member of Dunedin Mongrel Mob Notorious used $20,000 from anti-violence trust to buy cannabis.

Teenage girl hid in a Dunedin public toilet after she was spooked by a man who made "inappropriate sexual comments" to her, police say.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the fire at Six60's former flat which forced a man to jump from a window to safety at the weekend.

Appeals are being made for information regarding a dairy robbery in Dunedin.

A "chubby" thief dropped five-dollar notes all over the floor as he made off on foot after robbing a Dunedin dairy armed with a screwdriver.

Baby girl bitten in face by family pet in Dunedin yesterday 'progressing favourably' in hospital.

A 44-year-old man who stabbed his former partner to death using a combination of knives and a spade has been denied parole.

Gareth Lawrence Smither stabbed his former partner to death in 1997 using a combination of knives and a spade.

Dunedin resident Hayden Smith is "shocked'' he will have to foot the bill for repairs to a retaining wall damaged by last June's downpour.

A volunteer fireman, paged to attend a car fire, was shocked when he stepped out of his house and realised it was his own vehicle ablaze.

Saturday's match was always going to be an uphill battle but no one expected wheels to come off a Dunedin premier club rugby team quite so spectacularly.

An unbelievably one-sided Dunedin premier rugby game was ended in mercy yesterday. One of NZ's greatest whistle-blowers suspects it's a world first.

A young woman had to fight her way free from an attempted abduction in Dunedin yesterday afternoon.

A man is understood to have died in a house fire in South Otago this morning.

Dunedin police are investigating a stabbing outside a nightclub in the city last night.

Firefighters in Dunedin are tackling a fire in a unit, which is threatening properties next door.

A 21-year-old student has been critically injured jumping off the roof of a two-storey house at a large Dunedin flat party.

The owner of three Irish wolfhounds that mauled a woman in Dunedin late last year has been sentenced to community work and must pay $8000 reparation.

Car driven by a 26-year-old man causes extensive damage to Spotlight store.

A Dunedin mother is "heartbroken'' after a memorial to her son who died last year was trashed and some of his ashes stolen.

SPCA Otago posted an SOS to its 7000 Facebook followers late this afternoon after it was told by an elderly couple they could not remember where they parked their car.

A Dunedin woman who found breast cancer a great motivator to chase her ambition of being a film-maker is working on films in New York and Hollywood.

Southern District Health Board internal memo reveals patients have lashed out over poor quality meals.

Residents in parts of Dunedin are being told to stay indoors due to smoke from a fire at a rubbish tip.

An English consulting firm will receive more than $150,000 for work that includes running "listening sessions'' for the Southern DHB.

A raging solar storm has given way to a glorious array of lights in the skies above the lower South Island.