1Fifteen people are missing, feared dead, after a series of explosions rocked the Blue Rhino propane gas plant in Lake County, Florida.

2Parliament's speaker has had to apologise after discovering a member of his staff illegally accessed Fairfax reporter Andrea Vance's phone records and gave them to a Ministerial Inquiry without her permission.

3Reporter Jon Stephenson is convinced that the New Zealand Defence Force and the Government have been monitoring his movements through his phone records.

4The powerful global hacking group Anonymous has disabled a number of National Party websites, including that of Prime Minister John Key.

5A Qantas plane that broke down as it landed at Auckland Airport has forced the Australian airline to apologise for the mess that ensued.

6Thousands of protesters have marched across the country in an effort to prevent legal highs being tested on animals.

7It is feared that two New Zealand climbers - Marty and Denali Schmidt, a father and son - have been killed while trying to climb K2.

8Owen Parnell of Whanganui has admitted causing one of New Zealand's worst motorcycle accidents in December 2012 when his van plowed into a group of riders on a toy run near Hawera.

9A day of national mourning has been declared in Italy after its worst road crash in decades. The death toll has risen to 39 after a bus plunged off a viaduct in Monteforte Irpino.

10The body of a train driver has been recovered from rail wreckage in Switzerland following a head-on collision in Granges-pres-Marnand. At least 35 people were injured, including the driver of the other train.

11Pope Francis has shocked some people with comments that gay people should not be marginalised, despite reiterating the Church's view that homosexual relationships are sinful.

12Tauranga woman Ane Leaso has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her eight year old daughter Faith in Cairns in 2011.

13Alan Reay, the engineer whose firm Alan Reay Consultants designed the CTV Building that collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, has gone to court to try to block an investigation by the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ).

14How much are Aucklanders willing to pay to go green? The Auckland Council's Unitary Plan says all non-residential buildings must earn five green stars, a system that measures how green the building is. But will this lead to higher rents for businesses?

15There are fears that this week's elections in Zimbabwe have already been illegally tampered with.

16Some of the vehicles trapped inside a multi-level Wellington car park since last week's earthquake have now been returned to the owners.