Poor policy and a culture of not asking questions led to senior Defence Force staff double-dipping on allowances, a report has found.

The Auditor-General Lyn Provost has questioned the values within the New Zealand Defence Force which allowed a belief to develop that any officer could be ordered to commit an unlawful act.

Murray McCully says Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province, where NZ troops have been since 2003, will be ready to stand on its own before Hamid Karzai's 2014 deadline.

Ninety-four years to the day after they were killed and buried anonymously in one of the first world war's bloodiest battles, 250 Australian and British soldiers have finally been laid to rest with the recognition they deserve.

The strategy sits for now on a table in a locked-down Afghan capital: Hand over security in all 34 provinces to the government by the end of 2014.

Eric Batchelor, one of NZ's most highly decorated World War II soldiers, died in Waimate, on Saturday.

Claims that more than one hundred Iraqi civilians were tortured and abused by British soldiers must be fully investigated, Britain's High Court was told yesterday.

A double-pronged aid effort is getting up a head of steam in Tuvalu this week, as more than 300 New Zealand Defence Force staff descend on the tiny nation north of Fiji and nearly 4000km from New Zealand.