A man has died in a workplace incident in Carterton. Emergency services are at the scene of the incident at a transport depot on Waingawa Rd in Carterton, police said.”A man has been injured and has died at the scene.”The incident…

Emergency services are responding to a serious crash on Pakowhai Road, Hastings.Police say the crash, involving a motorbike and a car, was about 1pm.Initial indications are there are serious injuries.Road closures are being…

A huge piece of a concrete pier is currently floating along the Brisbane River, sparking warnings for boaters.

Queensland Police said a large piece of a concrete pier estimated to be about 40 metres long has broken away as the region is inundated with heavy rain.

It is currently floating eastbound along the Brisbane River towards the Gateway Bridge.

LIVE UPDATES: Kindergartens attacked by Russia: Zelenskyy

It was first spotted at Hamilton.

"Please secure your boats, there are concerns of a collision," Queensland Police said in a statement.

Boat owners have been urged to secure their vessels as the concrete floats down the river amongst other debris from the rising floodwaters.

READ MORE: Two killed, two missing as fears grow floods could match horror of 2011

https://twitter.com/QldPolice/status/1497359353904459777

It comes as authorities are concerned the severe weather event currently battering the state will be worse than the 2011 floods, when dozens of people died.

Floodwaters are expected to continue rising this weekend as heavy rainfall continues.

The flood death toll has reached four, as two people sadly lost their lives in floodwaters overnight.

READ MORE: Ukraine and Russia's militaries are David and Goliath, how they compare

Rain records have been broken, including in Brisbane City where 206mm was recorded in the 21 hours to 6am this morning.

"Usually in Brisbane we see an average of 150mm so essentially we've seen a month's worth of rainfall in one day," meteorologist David Grant said.

Shoppers munching on their lunch in Napier’s CBD were briefly distracted by about 200 anti-mandate protesters on a day when 106 Covid 19 cases were announced for Hawke’s Bay.The march, preceded by the loud revving of a motorcycle,…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of attacking childcare centres and other civilian infrastructure during their invasion of Ukraine.

In an address aimed at the people of Russia earlier today, Mr Zelenskyy said such targets have been shelled by invading forces.

"There is nothing that could possibly explain why the kindergartens and civilian infrastructure are being shelled," Mr Zelenskyy said.

READ MORE: US President personally sanctions Putin and foreign minister

"What kind of war is this against the Ukrainian children? Who are they? Are they also neo-Nazis? Or are they NATO soldiers that imposed a threat to Russia?"

Vladimir Putin has frequently made the baseless and untrue assertion that the Ukrainian Government is a Nazi regime, claiming "denazification" as a justification for launching the invasion on Thursday.

Mr Zelenskyy also warned tonight would be the "hardest" for Ukraine, warning Russia would use "all available means to break our resistance. This night they will launch an assault".

"This night will be harder than the day. Many cities of our state are under attack: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, our boys and girls in the Donbas, the cities of the south, special attention to Kyiv," he said.

"We can't lose the capital."

READ MORE: 'All of us are here': Ukraine President in Kyiv to 'defend independence'

Mr Zelenskyy also claimed Russian casualties have been "very grave".

"Our main goal is to finish this slaughter. The enemy losses are very grave — today there were hundreds of killed soldiers who crossed our border and came on our land," he said.

He also reiterated a plea for faster international aid and for Western nations to do more to stop Russia, including cutting it off from banking network SWIFT.

"Europe has enough strength to stop this aggression," he said.

READ MORE: Harrowing footage shows Russian tank run over Ukrainian civilian car

In an unsurprising move Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that demands Moscow cease its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.

The vote was 11 to one, with China, India, and the UAE abstaining.

It highlights that wide-ranging, but not complete opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine from global actors.

READ MORE: Ukraine's capital under threat

The US along with other countries predicted the resolution was unlikely to pass, but argued it would illustrate Russia's growing isolationism in the international sphere.

The failure of the resolution means its supporters can vote on a similar measure in the UN General Assembly.

In the General Assembly none of the 193-member states are able to veto a resolution being put forward.

At this stage there no time has been scheduled for a potential General Assembly vote.

In a heated exchange during today's UN Security Council meeting, Ukraine's representative Sergiy Kyslytsya has rebuked claims from Russia's representative that images and footage emerging from the conflict in Ukraine are false.

READ MORE: US President personally sanctions Putin

"There are videos alleging Russian strikes targeting residential areas, which were filmed in other parts of the world and have nothing to do with Ukraine," Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said.

"I will not dignify the Russian diabolical script that is rather a letter of application for a rather up-scaled seat in hell," Mr Kyslytsya replied.

US representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield joined Mr Kyslytsya in condemning Russia's accusations.

"I'm not going to respond to the atrocious lies and propaganda, and misinformation that you've heard from our Russian colleague," Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.

Then Kyslytsya called on the entire UN Security Council to "dedicate a moment of complete silence to pray or to meditate, if you do not believe in God, for peace."

"To pray for the souls of those who have already been killed. For souls of those who may be killed.

"And I invite the Russian ambassador to pray for salvation."

There were 13,606 new community cases of Covid-19 announced in New Zealand today.There were five people in intensive care units and 263 people in hospital, the Ministry of Health said.The new cases included 9262 in Auckland, 218…

A Dunedin woman says an aggressive sign threatening to shoot people’s pets erected at the entrance to a popular Dunedin walking track is unacceptable and left her child anxious.Rochelle Crossman was out for a walk at Whare Flat…

Australia is imposing sanctions against all 339 members of the Russian parliament and is considering sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne also announced sanctions against eight Russian oligarchs close to Mr Putin today.

Australia was also taking steps to imposed sanctions on key figures in the Belarusian government who had aided the Ukraine invasion.

LIVE UPDATES: Explosions in Kyiv as Ukrainians take cover from Russian attack

READ MORE: US President personally sanctions Putin and foreign minister

Payne said she was seeking advice from her department on following western allies' example in sanctioning Putin.

"It is an exceptional step to sanction leaders, but this is an exceptional situation," Ms Payne said.

She defended the use of sanctions against Russia after the Australian government made it clear it would only provide non-lethal support to Ukraine.

"Sanctions have been progressively rolled out, and they take an amount of time to come into effect," she said.

"That is the nature of the mechanism, but they are impactful and significant sanctions."

"They are highly targeted, they are highly focused, and they are coordinated.

READ MORE: Soldiers' defiant last words as Russian warship targets Snake Island

READ MORE: Harrowing footage shows Russian tank run over Ukrainian civilian car

She continued to condemn the actions of Russia and Mr Putin as the attack on Ukraine and its people intensifies.

"We have said clearly that the behaviour of an authoritarian state… breaches completely the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another country," Ms Payne said.

She said the world will not tolerate Russia's actions.

"There can be no doubt, absolutely no doubt about the view of the international community overwhelmingly in relation to this matter, not for anyone," Ms Payne said.

"There is very strong agreement and determination to ensure that Russia faces a high cost for what is a completely unprovoked, an unjustified attack on its neighbour," Ms Payne said.

She is seeking guidance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about sanctioning the two Russian leaders.

"He [Vladimir Putin] will be personally responsible for the deaths and the suffering of innocent Ukrainians."

The isolation rules that apply to people entering New Zealand may soon change following new advice from experts. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed this morning the Government had requested “rapid advice” from the Strategic…