Is cash still king or does everybody just use a card or their phone these days?

There’s so much for locals and visitors to see and do on Urupukapuka Island

Hawke’s Bay’s councils have released their meeting attendance sheets.

The Country looks back at some of the biggest and best stories of the past 12 months.

OPINION: Hastings-trained Lohnagan turned around some ordinary form in no uncertain terms.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for February 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, saying it was the only way to give the country a stable government capable of tackling its problems.

Scholz lost a confidence vote on December 16 and leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on November 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalise Germany's stagnant economy.

Steinmeier said he made the decision because it was clear after consultation with party leaders that there was no agreement among Germany's political parties on a majority for a new government in the current parliament.

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"It is precisely in difficult times like these that stability requires a government capable of taking action and a reliable majority in parliament," he said as he made the announcement in Berlin.

"Therefore I am convinced that for the good of our country new elections are the right way."

Since the post-World War II constitution doesn't allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself, it was up to Steinmeier to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. He had 21 days to make that decision.

Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days. Leaders of several major parties agreed earlier on the election date of February 23, seven months earlier than originally planned.

Steinmeier warned about outside interference in the poll, saying it is "a danger to democracy, whether it is covert, as was evidently the case recently in the Romanian elections, or open and blatant, as is currently being practiced particularly intensively on platform X."

A top Romanian court annulled the first round of the country's presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

The campaign is already well underway. Polls show Scholz's party trailling the conservative opposition Union bloc led by Friedrich Merz.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz's government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back.

If recent polls hold up, the likely next government would be led by Merz as chancellor in coalition with at least one other party.

Key issues include immigration, how to get the sluggish economy going, and how best to aid Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.

The populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.

Germany's electoral system traditionally produces coalitions, and polls show no party anywhere near an absolute majority on its own. The election is expected to be followed by weeks of negotiations to form a new government.

It's only the fourth time that the Bundestag has been dissolved ahead of schedule under Germany's post-World War II constitution.

It happened under Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1972, Helmut Kohl in 1982 and Gerhard Schroeder in 2005. Schroeder used the confidence vote to engineer an early election narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.

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A Melbourne woman who was allegedly killed by her husband hours after they hosted a Christmas Day function has been identified as Yvonne Beres.

Emergency services responded to reports the 59-year-old was allegedly stabbed at a home at Wood Duck Court in Langwarrin yesterday at about 6.30am.

Police said the woman was declared dead at the scene.

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John Beres, 63, faced Melbourne Magistrates Court last night charged with her murder.

Neighbours have paid tribute to Yvonne and described the 59-year-old as "loving and friendly".

Her husband will face court again in April.

National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

An Australian mother has revealed how she and her young son survived a freak accident on Christmas Day in New York.

The woman and nine-year-old boy were in the US city for a holiday when they were struck by a taxi a block away from the landmark Macy's department store.

Good Samaritans saved the pair who were under the cab after the 58-year-old driver suffered a medical episode and ploughed onto the footpath on Boxing Day (AEDT).

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"It hit us from behind, it hit us from behind," the mother, who was not identified, told US media.

"I didn't even know what had happened. I just remember being on the ground and something on top of me.

"I could hear the wheels screeching and my son screaming next to me."

The woman's son suffered a broken leg and has undergone two rounds of surgery.

"He's got severe burns on his leg as well, he's going to be in hospital for quite some time," the mother said.

READ MORE: Speculation mounts about cause of Azerbaijan plane crash

The mother and son were among six people injured in the incident.

Ryan Tucker, whose wife was struck on the shoulder by the cab, said after he checked his wife was OK, he went to help the young boy.

"He was trapped under the tyre, and when we moved the car back, [we] realised that what ended up being his mum was underneath the car," Tucker told CBS News.

"She was coherent, she was talking to her son, smiling, trying to help keep him calm."

Video shared on social media shows a group of people rocking the taxi back to free the mother and son.

Tucker said the boy, who was hospitalised with an injury to his thigh, told him it was the worst holiday ever.

Two others were also transported to hospitals for their injuries, all in a stable condition, including a 41-year-old woman who reportedly suffered a head injury and a 49-year-old woman who reportedly suffered a leg injury.

Three others, reportedly aged 19, 37 and 49, refused medical attention.

A New York Police Department spokesperson said the 58-year-old taxi driver may have suffered a medical episode, but the investigation had yet to confirm that as the cause.

The taxi jumped the curb near Macy's flagship store at Herald Square about 4pm on Wednesday (8am Thursday AEDT) and hit the pedestrians on the footpath, police said, adding that the driver remained at the scene.

Video footage from the scene showed a damaged yellow taxi on the sidewalk cordoned off by police tape. The car's front bumper appeared to have fallen off.

The taxi was towed away later in the evening.

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Aviation experts say an Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan most likely went down after being hit by Russian air defence systems.

Here are some things to know about the crash that killed 38 out of the 67 people on board.

How did the plane crash?

Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons that aren't yet fully clear.

It crashed while trying to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the Caspian Sea.

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The plane went down near the coast about three kilometres from Aktau.

Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before hitting the ground and exploding in a fireball.

Rescuers rushed 29 survivors to hospitals.

How did Azerbaijan react?

Azerbaijan observed a nationwide day of mourning on Thursday.

National flags were at half-mast, traffic across the country stopped at noon, and sirens were sounded from ships and trains.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

What do officials and experts say about a possible cause?

Kazakhstani, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities say they are investigating the crash.

Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company is "ready to assist all relevant authorities".

Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said that preliminary information indicated the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.

While officials remained tight-lipped, an Azerbaijani lawmaker directly pointed the finger at Russia.

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Rasim Musabekov told the Azerbaijani news agency Turan that the plane was fired upon in the skies over Grozny and urged Russia to offer an official apology.

Some aviation experts say the holes seen in the plane's tail section after the crash indicate that it could have come under fire from Russian air defence systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.

Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which monitors the world's airspace and airports for risks, said that the analysis of the fragments of the crashed plane indicate with a 90-99 per cent probability that it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.

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Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm based in the United Kingdom, warned its clients that the "Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air-defence system".

Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said that the company had issued more than 200 alerts regarding drone attacks and air defence systems in Russia since the full-scale war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the aircraft had faced "strong GPS jamming" that interfered with flight tracking data allowing to monitor planes' flight path.

Russia has extensively used sophisticated jamming equipment to fend off drone attacks.

A day later, no definitive word

Yan Matveyev, an independent Russian military expert, noted that the images of the crashed plane's tail show damage compatible with shrapnel from the Russian Pantsyr-S1 air defence system.

It's unclear why the pilots decided to fly hundreds of kilometres east across the Caspian Sea instead of trying to land in Russia after the plane was hit, he said, adding that they probably faced restrictions on landing at a closer venue and may have thought that the damage was not critical.

In Azerbaijan, Caliber online newspaper also claimed that the airliner was fired upon by a Russian Pantsyr-S air defence system and also had its systems affected by jamming equipment as it was approaching Grozny.

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The paper questioned why Russian authorities failed to close the airport despite the drone attack in the area on Wednesday, and why they didn't allow the plane to land in Grozny or other Russian airports nearby after it was hit.

Asked about the claims that the plane had been fired upon by air defence assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that "it would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators make their verdict".

Officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have similarly avoided comment on a possible cause of the crash, saying it will be up to investigators to determine it.

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A southerly buster is moving along parts of the NSW coast, bringing relief for heat-affected residents.

The heat which affected South Australia, Victoria and western parts of NSW yesterday swept into Sydney and eastern parts of NSW today.

Greater Sydney and surrounding areas were under a total fire ban as more than 30 bushfires and grassfires were burning this afternoon.

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Seven of these were uncontained and may have been ignited by lightning strikes.

Sydney Airport hit 38.8 degrees by 2.30pm, with Bankstown, Camden and Penrith all nudging past 37.

Greater Sydney, the Greater Hunter and north-western NSW were all under extreme fire danger today.

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A cool change has since moved into the NSW south coast, including Wollongong, this afternoon.

There is a risk of thunderstorms parts of Sydney, Wollongong and the Hunter before a drop in temperatures, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The storm caused some damage around Sydney, including to restaurant Brazilian Flame in Zetland.

"In Sydney, we'll see that cool change push through between 5pm and 6pm," senior Meteorologist Jonathan How said earlier this afternoon.

"In Newcastle and the Hunter, (it will hit) by about 9pm."

"The temperature will drop back quite significantly through the day.

"Thankfully it will be just that one hot day today, with much cooler conditions coming through tonight.

A cool change came through yesterday for Victoria and South Australia, with both states still fighting bushfires.

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