East Coast

A large scrub fire in Hawkes Bay destroyed a house and cut power to dozens.

The body of Leotisia Malakai, the third person to die from a Christmas Eve bus crash near Gisborne, will be taken home to Tonga today.

Fire crews have contained a large scrub fire which destroyed one house and threatened others at Mahanga, near Wairoa on the East Coast.

A scrub fire in Gisborne has been brought under control.

Police are making a fresh appeal for help in catching a man who attacked a sleeping woman at a Gisborne campground. Audio

Another person who was on the bus that crashed south of Gisborne on Christmas Eve has died, bringing the toll to three. Audio

Eight people have been arrested after a drug bust at the Rhythm and Vines festival in Gisborne.

Prayers and services will be held in Tonga for Sione Taumololo, 11, and Talita Fifita, 33, who were killed near Gisborne on Christmas Eve.

Two men have been arrested in Tauranga after a 57-year-old man was left with a serious chest injury.

Grieving members of a touring Tongan brass band involved in a fatal bus crash have met for a church service.

The second body has been recovered from the site where a bus with members of a Tongan school band and supporters crashed south of Gisborne last night.

Gisborne retailers will have to shut their doors again, just a week before Christmas, when power is cut to the region for eight hours tomorrow.

Police have named the second man who died when a top-dressing plane crashed into powerlines near Wairoa.

Air crash investigators are preparing to remove the wreckage of a top-dressing plane that crashed, killing two people.

A shop owner in Gisborne says she has had thousands of dollars of takings stolen following the city's two-day power outage.

A power cut that affected about 40,000 people following yesterday's double-fatality plane crash is over. Video