Former PM Helen Clark decided to send soldiers to Iraq to stop Fonterra losing Oil for Food contracts, according to a US Embassy cable - in just one of many WikiLeaks revelations that have been labelled 'disturbing'.

The US Govt quietly approved eight new areas for military co-operation with NZ in 2007, cables show.

US intelligence agencies have given a pessimistic account of military progress in Afghanistan.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp has announced his intention to stand down at the next election.

Two trainee officers at Linton Army Camp were caught with a haul of 210 ecstasy tablets.

He was a boy who loved war games. Now he plays them for real. Our new head of the Defence Force is also the son of a pacifist.

The Government is being asked to step in and make sure ANZAC Day poppies stay New Zealand-made.

Tony Blair is to be recalled before the Iraq inquiry.

The Navy's newest ship, the fault-prone HMNZS Otago, is once again being forced to return to port.

Tributes to Private John 'Jack' Howard, reveal a brave man known to his British mates as 'Kiwi'.

The mother of a NZ soldier shot in Afghanistan told an emotional press conference today that if her son "wanted something, he did it", describing John Howard as a man "never prepared to accept less than the best."

The death of a New Zealander serving in the British Army in Afghanistan is "very sad", Prime Minister John Key says. The soldier is understood to be John "Jack" Howard.

The New Zealand soldier killed in Afghanistan while serving with the British Army is understood to be John "Jack" Howard. Private Howard had been patrolling in the Nad 'Ali district of Helmand province when he was shot.

NZ troops were forced to step in for ineffective Hungarian troops in a neighbouring Afghanistan province, a leaked diplomatic cable says.

Comments made about China's dominance in Asia by Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd could prove embarrassing to Canberra.