Two men have been rescued from stormy seas off Niue after their yacht capsized yesterday.

Wayne Mapp has confirmed the WikiLeaks report of a missile threat faced by an RNZAF Hercules in Afghanistan last year.

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.

A formal police investigation is underway to determine if a man gunned down by police last night fired the first shot.

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