A Tauranga family with a hearing-impaired child is facing bankruptcy after going it alone in legal action over their failed Blue Chip investment.

Four police officers beating a young man with batons and pepper-spraying him 65 times was "unnecessary, unreasonable, and unjustified", the IPCA has found.

A freak tornado has ripped off a shed roof, flinging it almost 100m, while leaving almost everything else untouched.

A person Amelia Gough trusted as a Facebook friend ended up stealing her photos and using them to create fake pages in her name.

A horror weekend for a Merivale family saw them become victims of both a house fire and a burglary within hours.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce has given the go-ahead to a half-billion-dollar, 23km toll road east of Tauranga.

A two-car crash which left five Rotorua Girls' High School students injured today has been "absolutely devastating", principal Annette Joyce says.

A judge says a man who killed his younger brother in a drunken car-surfing accident would be behind bars if it was 'someone else's kid'.