A Dunedin ACC beneficiary is to be paid $10,000 after the Crown admitted a police search of his home was unlawful.

A new mother who rescued her sleeping baby and then battled a blaze in a bedroom is urging people to install smoke alarms.

It is the love of Anna McLean's life, but her Mazda Axela is a "magnet" for trouble.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has apologised for his "slight" against the Dalai Lama after sparking a minor protest over comments about the spiritual leader's upcoming visit.

An Oamaru man who admitted indecently assaulting three women in a Dunedin swimming pool was remanded in custody for sentence next month.

The University of Otago took a "very serious" look at the implications of hosting the Dalai Lama before opting to let him speak on campus during his visit to Dunedin next month.

South Dunedin cat owners are being warned to keep their pets indoors as police investigate an alleged feline serial killer stalking the suburb.

A life ban for a lawyer accused of stealing $3 million from clients was "the only appropriate penalty", the Law Society says.

A Dunedin father says he was tossed around his house "like paper" by his son trying to go cold turkey from the synthetic cannabis product, K2.

There are fears Dunedin could lose out to Auckland as a result of proposed changes to the way the New Zealand Transport Agency allocates funding for roading projects.

The fight against the sale of synthetic cannabis in Gisborne has stepped up with the support of community leaders.

A holocaust survivor and one of the last remaining Jews to be saved by Oskar Schindler hopes her story can help prevent the horrors she witnessed happening again.

Thousands of dollars of synthetic cannabis was stolen in an aggravated robbery of a North Dunedin dairy last week, prompting concerns over potential health risks to users, police say.

A North Dunedin dairy was robbed by two knife-wielding offenders early this morning.

The Dunedin City Council has agreed to let bars to stay open for the first hour of Anzac Day so Aerosmith fans can have a nightcap after the band's gig at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

A 19-year-old skateboarder who suffered a serious leg injury after skating under a truck has been charged by Dunedin police with careless use of a skateboard.

A Secondary boarding school for senior Muslim boys in South Dunedin is now a certainty, with the sale of a former Roman Catholic school settled, and plans for the site to be developed are well under way.

Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was all smiles yesterday as she viewed her likeness in a stained glass window at St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin.

Drunk university students who set couches alight after being turfed out of parties are blaming police for inflaming tensions.

A good Samaritan was punched in the face and had his car stolen after assisting a man to escape a gang fight in Dunedin, police say.

It appears the 54-year-old man saved from his burning Dunedin flat on Monday night may have been rescued twice, by different people.

A Dunedin woman is being hailed as a hero after running into a burning City Council flat to pull a 54-year-old man to safety.

More cycle lanes throughout central Dunedin are likely to be widened by the New Zealand Transport Agency, which also plans to seek consultation on more drastic safety improvements in June or July.

Neighbours of a man who lay dead in his South Dunedin home for more than six weeks say he was "reclusive" and would sometimes not answer his door or take calls.

John Burrows Baird, 74, lived alone and, his neighbours said, kept to himself.