A mother of three is facing a $38,000 bill for overpayment of Working for Families credits after being caught out due to an oversight in filling out an IRD form.

As LA construction worker Ivan De La Torre surveyed a landscape of smoking wreckage in fire-ravaged Altadena, a question nagged at him: how would insurance companies cover the cost of rebuilding an entire neighbourhood?

The firefighters' union has serious concerns about the deteriorating state of Auckland's frontline fleet of fire trucks and specialist appliances, which it believes is putting crews and the public at risk.