Two disability charities are the grateful recipients of a monetary gift from a late Canterbury benefactor.

Christchurch, Jan 21 NZPA - A jury's verdict has overturned the result of a 2007 trial in which a Christchurch man was convicted of injuring the minder for a transgender sex worker during a carjacking.

Christchurch, Jan 21 NZPA - No application for bail was made for a 17-year-old Nelson youth remanded for two weeks on a long list of charges in Christchurch District Court today.

21 January 2009 - 968 natural hazard events recorded in 2008: earthquakes and weather warnings most common

21 January 2009 - London and Oxford Universities vice-chancellors Sir Graeme Davies and John Hood and Ngati Ranana founding member Esther Jessop have been named as the finalists for the 2009 New Zealander of the Year award.

21 January 2009 - Nearly 400 entries have been received in the 2009 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, incorporating the Sharemilker of the Year, Farm Manager of the Year and Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions.

21 January 2009 - Finalists for the prestigious Air New Zealand New Zealander of the Year Award 2009, were announced in London last week.

SINGAPORE, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

21 January 2008 - Investigators will today return to the scene of a crash that claimed the life of a Glenn Massey man near Ngaruawahia overnight.

The crash happened outside the town on Waingaro Rd shortly after 5pm.

Auckland, Jan 21 NZPA - A rapist who was driven to the police by his victim as he slept, has been jailed for 9-1/2 years.

Vipul Romik Sharma, 22, was found guilty in Auckland District Court last November of abduction and two counts of sexual violation by rape in February, 2006.