A man is in hospital with suspected spinal injuries after he leapt off Whangarei Falls when bystanders egged him on.

Lion Man Craig Busch will not let scammers put him off trying to regain Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Gardens or open another big-cat park.

A senior staff member at a Whangarei bank has been sacked for fraud involving thousands of dollars.

Police are investigating claims that officers filmed two youths being made to dance by homeowners whose fence they had allegedly vandalised.

A recidivist drink driver was today jailed for four years for killing a Northland mother while driving with nearly double the legal alcohol limit.

A new wave of legal party pills has hit Whangarei secondary schools, with two parents asked to take their teens home after they arrived for class high.

A man who admitted more than 20 drug charges, and was found guilty of a toddler's manslaughter, has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years.

A businessman has told of his desperate attempts to save his badly injured wife after she drove off the road in bad weather.

A week after being released back into the wild, and more than two months after being knocked over by a car, North Island brown kiwi Darkstar has drowned in a culvert.