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.

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.

NZ recently rebuffed a bid by Australia to form an Anzac training unit in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan, John Key has revealed.