Ruben van Assouw joins a list of more than a dozen known examples of sole survivors from air disasters.

Three companies and a director were yesterday ordered to pay more than $120,000 in fines and reparation after a steel gate fell off its hinges, killing a 7-year-old girl.

Family and friends have farewelled a 16-year-old Auckland student who died after drinking a bottle of vodka last weekend.

The Netherlands has gone into mourning over the deaths of at least 61 Dutch citizens among the 104 people on a plane that crashed in Libya.

The head of the European Parliament has described the survival of a 10-year-old in a Libyan plane crash that killed over 100 people as "truly a miracle."

Two men are lucky to be alive after missing explosive gel and a box of detonators by half an inch while ploughing with a rotary hoe.

Bar patrons took a drunk man outside because they thought he was about to vomit, not realising he was choking on a pie, the coroner has found.

Police will use undercover tactics - including hiding behind trees with video cameras to film motorists - in a hardline campaign to cut down the road toll.

A soldier was struck by a stray bullet while operating a standard-issue light machine gun late this morning.

"I bow to no man or beast, but respect all who rock before me," wrote an American alligator trainer not long before he was attacked by a 2.4m reptile.

A banking blunder by Westpac involving almost $50,000 left an Auckland man momentarily richer.

A post mortem into the death of a schoolboy who died in his sleep after a large drinking session fails to confirm how he died.

Everything appeared normal just before a New York harbour ferry malfunctioned and slammed into a pier yesterday, injuring dozens of people.

The family of Kings College student James Webster believe he died after drinking a bottle of vodka.

Rescue workers are scrambling today to save 83 people trapped in Russia's largest underground coal mine.