Today's memorial service for Malaysia Airlines victim Rob Ayley will be held at the same church where he regularly played the drums.

Malaysian Airlines is set for a brand overhaul after two major tragedies in the last six months, it emerged today.

The 19-year-old Australian tourist who fell from a Queenstown hotel after he tried to climb from a second-floor balcony to the rooftop has died overnight.

The sister of Denali Schmidt, who was killed with his mountaineer father in an avalanche on K2 last year, is fundraising to take her brother's art on a world tour.

France says there are no survivors from the Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali and several families have been been wiped out in the tragedy.

The family of Rob Ayley, who was killed on flight MH17, will hold a private memorial tomorrow while they wait for his body to be returned.

US patient Johnny Lee Banks sues doctors over circumcision that ended up as amputation.

Feeling rattled? A series of earthquakes have shaken the lower North Island this morning.

A young woman whose car crashed "head first" down a 60m bank before flipping managed to crawl out of the vehicle and phone emergency services and family.

The 19-year-old Australian visitor to Queenstown who fell from a hotel balcony remains in a serious condition in Dunedin Hospital, police say.

A young West Auckland plumber has been sentenced to almost two years in prison after the deaths of two of his friends while he was driving drunk last year.

A woman who died in a mid-air collision had noticed flaws in the aviation industry and was trying to make changes, according to her father.

Survivor of the Anzac Day helicopter crash Sergeant Stevin Creeggan has endured years of pain and humiliating treatment from the Air Force, but his family are speaking out.

A kayaker who drowned in a New Zealand river at the weekend was pictured in front of the raging water just hours before he lost his life.

New Zealand wakeboarder Brad Smeele has suffered a setback since his serious accident almost two weeks ago.

It is like Pauly has died again and we are in that huge emotional hole of shock and absolute despair.

Black ice has caused several crashed on State Highway 5 this morning, with parts of central North Island experiencing temperatures well below zero.

A person has died after a motorbike crash north of Auckland.

One person was taken to hospital in a critical condition after a crash on Auckland's Tamaki Drive this morning.

New Zealand journalist Alexi O'Brien this morning described the scene as horrendous. O'Brien is in the Ukraine for Al Jazeera.

Tensions are ramping up between two global super powers after a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight was shot down over Ukraine.

Scenes of horror, with crumpled corpses and body parts strewn amid the smouldering wreckage, greeted local villagers and pro-Russian rebels who were first on the crash site.

A fate as horrific as that of the 298 people on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 invites a thorough rethinking of a number of cherished notions.

"We have every expectation our son will be getting off a plane in Wellington tomorrow," says Wendy Ayley, mother of Otaki man Robert Ayley, who was on flight MH17.

News organisations have forever struggled with determining the line where news value ends and shock value and sensationalism begin.

A New Zealand woman has been confirmed as being among the victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash. Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully confirmed the death and said another person, a British citizen who had been living in New Zealand, was also killed. The New Zealand woman, a longtime resident of Australia, was travelling with her husband, a Dutch citizen."Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those involved," says Foreign Minister Murray McCully.