A senior train driver who crashed into a concrete block with a trainload of passengers and later tested positive for cannabis has lost his last appeal to win his job back.

A Lower Hutt man who was caught on film verbally attacking two foreign men on a Wellington bus last week says he is "not a racist".

There is "sympathy" and "forgiveness" within the Muslim community for a man who was caught on camera making offensive comments, a religious expert says.

A Lower Hutt man has been arrested after a video of a racist rant on a Wellington bus against two young men who appeared to be Muslim was published online.

Isaac Young's parents could not believe a small lump on their young son's leg was melanoma. The resulting biopsies, surgeries and skin graft are more than any child should have to endure.

A young family are devastated after a major house fire wrecked their suburban home this afternoon.

A man has been arrested and charged after a 39-year-old man was killed in Lower Hutt last night.

The hunt is continuing tonight for a prisoner who escaped from hospital on Friday night.

A remand prisoner at Rimutaka, escaped from Hutt Hospital last night.

A train hit a pole in Lower Hutt last night and brought down overhead cables at the Ava Station.

Police investigating the mysterious murder of Lower Hutt man Matthew Stevens are looking for a shoe missing from his body.

A man found guilty of murdering a hairdresser he thought was a love rival has been sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Mental health services at two district health boards have been criticised in coroner's rulings after it was found administrative errors played a role in two self-inflicted deaths.

Labour leader David Cunliffe says he’s sorry that he’s a man because men commit most family violence but Prime Minister John Key says the comment is 'silly'.

David Cunliffe says Trevor Mallard's plan to resurrect and reintroduce the moa to Lower Hutt is "not going to fly".

A post-mortem examination will be carried out today on a body found in bush in Lower Hutt yesterday.

The killer of Lower Hutt school girl Karla Cardno is a sadist who enjoyed his crime, a report denying him parole has found.

The man who snatched Lower Hutt school girl Karla Cardno off her bike, then raped, tortured and killed her, has been denied parole.

Police are seeking witnesses to a daylight sexual assault on a woman in Lower Hutt park yesterday.

A woman has been taken to Hutt Hospital with a knife stuck in her abdomen after a violent stabbing.