The sentencing of a man who abducted a 5-year-old girl as she walked to school and indecently assaulted will be delayed while an open-ended jail sentence is considered.

A 23-year-old student who beat his young girlfriend to death in Palmerston North has been sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter.

A family whose beloved purebred dog was stolen turned into super sleuths to track her down, using DNA from one of her puppies.

A head boy's stirring speech about racism in New Zealand has won him first place in the national final of the 2016 Race Unity Speech Awards in Auckland.

A man who fell badly while performing a motorcycle jump is believed to have suffered multiple leg fractures.

A motorcyclist nabbed doing 132km/h on a rural stretch of road and found to have been drinking has led to another stern reminder from police to drive responsibly.

Police are shocked with the actions of a motorcyclist who sped through a stretch of road that only hours before had claimed the life of a man in a horror truck crash.

Two teenage men have been arrested and charged following the aggravated robbery of a petrol station near Palmerston North.

Brendan Henson grabbed girl as she walked to school and assaulted her.

Mum who witnessed abduction of girl in Palmerston North four years ago says it bears striking similarities to snatching of 5-year-old last week.

The boy who fell through the skylight of a school in Palmerston North on Friday night is in a stable condition in hospital.

Friends of a 12-year-old almost killed when he fell through a skylight on a Palmerston North school roof were "distraught as hell" when police arrived.

Two heroes jumped into a swollen North Island river to save the life of a woman swept away.

A woman stranded in the swollen Manawatu River was rescued by a quick-thinking bystander and a firefighter.

Police were called to a house last night after a man reported being shot.

Eight men stationed at Linton Military Camp were hospitalised after taking an "unknown substance". Police are investigating.

A sex offender could spend the rest of his life in jail after he was sentenced today for a spate of attacks and sex crimes including rape.

The man accused of shooting two police stations has appeared in the Palmerston North District Court.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a blaze at the Milson Foundry in Palmerston North this afternoon.

The whanau of a 13-year old girl have spoken of how her death last year has left them "with shattered dreams, struggling, broken, and torn apart".

The two victims who died tragically during a house fire in Exeter Crescent, Palmerston North early on Thursday have been named.

This small North Island city is home to more than 100 cultures, finds Elisabeth Easther.

Officials have cleared a childhood centre of wrongdoing after two pre-schoolers unbolted a gate and wandered across a busy road.

The motivations of a man who fired shots at two Palmerston North police stations last night remain unclear, police say.

A police officer's bizarre Satanic assault claim that shocked New Zealand in 1996 is headed for the small screen.

A man whose body was found outside a block of flats in Palmerston North last week has been identified as Samuel Peter Culling.

Police are moving into the second phase of a homicide investigation after a man's body was found outside a Manawatu block of units yesterday.

A homicide investigation is underway in Manawatu following the discovery of a body outside a block of units this morning.

Central police communications Inspector John Spence said two trucks and a car were involved in the accident.