Class action lawsuits have been filed against BP and contractor Halliburton as a vast oil spill threatens the US coast.

Three teenagers were killed and two others left fighting for their lives after their small car collided with a bus yesterday on a notorious stretch of State Highway One.

After the worst US oil spill in decades, documents have emerged showing that BP had downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the rig.

Three people killed in a head-on crash between a car and a bus may all have been in the front seat of the small car, the Fire Service says.

Questions are sure to be raised about a self-policing system that trusted a commercial oil operator to take care of its own mishap.

Agnes was perched on the boot of a car with a mate when her best friend started the engine. For whatever reason, the pair didn't get off.

Attorney-General John Caughi has accused the Tongan govt of trying to curb an independent judiciary and attempting to interfere with the Princess Ashika inquiry.

A man originally charged with dangerous driving over a fatal crash on Auckland's North Shore has now been charged with manslaughter.

John Key spent half an hour in Wellington Hospital with the only survivor of the Anzac Day Iroquois crash on the eve of the funeral for his three colleagues.

Prince William sends his condolences to the Defence Force after the Anzac Day crash.

The Air Force crewmen killed in an Anzac Day crash were farewelled at a full military funeral in Ohakea this afternoon.

The survivor of a crash that killed three colleagues is having difficulty comprehending his fate, his uncle said.

The father of one of three Air Force crewmen killed in the Anzac Day Iroquois crash said his son "died doing the thing he loved."

About 160 Defence Force personnel will miss the military funeral for their colleagues killed in the Anzac Day helicopter crash.

A soldier and new father died in a road crash outside the Linton Army Camp yesterday - the fourth military death in two days.