Hawke's Bay, New Zealand News

The New Year Honours List features five Hawke's Bay people, but an American who has often called the province home during a 15-year involvement with New Zealand received the highest honour.

Bad-smelling gas has forced the temporary closure of Hastings' new wastewater treatment plant just six months after it opened.

Relatives of an elderly southern Hawke's Bay woman who died after her dressing gown caught fire on a gas heater are warning others to dispose of old flammable clothing.

AA fire raced through a Waiohiki house this morning leaving it "gutted". Flames had engulfed the unoccupied Korokipo Rd home by the time the Napier Fire Service arrived at 4.09am. Senior Firefighter John Wakefield said the blaze was just "coming out" of the front of the dwelling.

Four people are dead following road accidents in Waikato, the East Coast and Hawke's Bay today.

One of Norsewood's famous trolls has returned home for Christmas - minus his head.

Arson has wrecked a Christian family's dream of spending summers by the sea in a converted church.

A Napier publican critically injured when he crashed while riding a child's bicycle down a hill during a Christmas party has died.

Hawke's Bay's rescue helicopter has been called out to an accident where a man's car left the road at Puketitiri and plummeted 30 metres down a bank.

Jonathan Jervis is struggling to find any Christmas spirit after his holiday home burnt to the ground last night.

SUSPENDED: Wi Derek Huata at Hastings District Court yesterday. He faces 12 charges of assaulting a child at a kura kaupapa in Hawke's Bay.

Warnings are still in place for the Karamu Stream and Clive River while tests are completed on water samples after a damaged pipe leaked sewage into a waterway near Havelock North.

A New Zealand florist is facing charges after she allegedly altered details about her competitors on Google Maps, authorities said.

A Kapiti Coast technician stole family photos of children from computers brought to him for repair and then supplied them to an international network of paedophiles, a court has been told.

WEB OF ACCUSATIONS: Napier florist Kendra Drinkwater is accused of changing the website details of Flowers by Tanya in Hastings and other florists.

State Highway Two south of Hastings is closed after a double fatality. Two cars have collided head on the straight near Te Hauke.

A man has been flown to Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital after he accidentally became crushed between the floor of the woolshed and the digger he was driving.

Two people are dead and two injured after a head-on smash between two cars on State Highway 2 in central Hawke's Bay.

A Napier florist is thought to be the first person in New Zealand to be charged with maliciously changing the website details of her competitors.

The man charged with theA A manslaughter of Hastings father-of-four Shawn Ian Brooking is his uncle, Andrew Noel Bell.