A post on the Google News Blog details the additional features:
Depending on the most recent coverage and materials available for a given story, the page features top articles, quotes from the people in the story, and posts from news blogs. You'll also find image thumbnails, videos, articles from sources based near the story, and a timeline of articles to trace media coverage of the story.
Click the image atop this story to see a large-size blowup of the buffed-up news search results.
Why is Google doing this? There's only one answer these days: The additional news results thingies have been heavily tested and found to bring in more revenue.