52 vehicles have been entered in the 2009 AA Motoring Excellence Awards.

Wellington, Feb 11 NZPA - Legal argument over a manslaughter charge against Arcanie Vincent Optetaia Matagi has been put off to March 17 after a change of defence counsel.

Matagi, 26, earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving causing death of a woman while street racing.

Wellington, Feb 11 NZPA - Caring for her three young daughters is the only thing that has kept the widow of slain Hawke's Bay man Mark McCutcheon going in the three weeks since his death.

Auckland, Feb 11 NZPA - Former All Black Doug Rollerson was today convicted but freed without penalty for his part in an elaborate fraud which cheated sport organisations out of charity money.

Grabaseat international auctions are this week offering one loved-up couple the opportunity of a lifetime - a quickie marriage in Las Vegas on Valentine's Day!

Environment Waikato says it is extremely pleased at the Government's announcement that it will fund an early start to construction of a new Kopu Bridge near Thames on the Coromandel.

The Government said this morning the project will get underway in July, two years ahead of schedule.

The World Association of Newspapers has confirmed the new dates for its World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo, the global meetings of the worlds press, which will now be held in Hyderabad, India, from 30 November to 3 December 2009.

Wellington, Feb 11 NZPA - The cost of the multi-million dollar fraud of the Otago District Health Board has been revealed as higher than previously thought.

Fourteen Northern tuatara of rare Cuvier Island descent, bred at Auckland Zoo, are today being released back to their ancestral home off the Coromandel peninsula.

Tauranga, Feb 10 NZPA - A 25-year-old man who had just appeared in Tauranga District Court for drunken behaviour went outside where he headlocked and punched a total stranger.

Samuel Charles Watson, 25, unemployed, had to be restrained by court staff after his Christmas Eve appearance.