It's that time of year again when we're compelled to buy a sentimental card for our loved ones and go out for a set-menu meal - or wallow in our singledom.

The new eight-week competition begins on July 14, when Otago host North Harbour. It involves 14 teams, with games scheduled from Tuesday through to Sunday each week.

United States news organisation CNN International has released its top 10 places to propose to a loved one on Valentine's Day.

Holding his only surviving daughter after a horror car crash, Donald Coulter says: "I thank my lucky stars I still have one. I still wish I had two."

Police searching for a missing Roxburgh man have found a body in the Clutha River.

A union will be appealing Burger King's decision to issue a final warning to a Dunedin employee for posting the message "real jobs don't underpay and overwork people like BK does" on her private Facebook page.

Kiwi crime queen Vanda Symon talks to Craig Sisterson about accidental heroines and playing with swords.

Cheaper calls may be at hand, but you'll probably still need two phones to get the best deals.

A "cowardly" man who attacked a Dunedin police officer - leaving him with concussion, bleeding to the face and bruising - is still at large. The officer was set upon by a passenger who was travelling in a car he stopped late last night.

Burger King has been accused of bullying a worker who complained about work conditions on Facebook.

A search will resume today for a missing man thought to have been swept away in a river in Central Otago.

Grave fears are held for a man believed to have fallen into the Clutha River in central Otago this afternoon.

The Rugby World Cup "party central" will be "a destination second to none" and will be ready in time for the event, Auckland Waterfront Development Agency chairman Bob Harvey says.