Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on European countries to "step up" with stronger help to defeat the Islamic State during a brief, unannounced visit to Australian troops in Iraq.

It will raise NZ's target profile amongst Islamists and could invite attack at home. But it is a necessary, justifiable and ultimately right thing to do, writes Paul Buchanan.

Labour leader Andrew Little says Labour would support sending Special Air Service troops to fight Isis if the right conditions were met.

More than a breach of the Anzac Treaty, the exiling of New Zealand-Australians to Christmas Island is an astonishing breach of the Anzac spirit, writes Hugh Templeton.

Not before time, the United States Navy has been invited to send a ship to New Zealand which, if accepted in the spirit in which it is given, could end a 30-year suspension of visits to our ports.....

A woman died during what police described as a "serious armed incident" in Napier last tonight.

The identity of the Counties Manukau police officer charged with assaulting three people he arrested can be revealed.

New Zealand's deployment of troops to train the Iraq Army continues to have strong public support, says the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey.

Naval ships Te Kaha and Endeavour were welcomed back to Devonport today.

Iraqi soldiers have graduated from the New Zealand and Australian Defence Force training at Taji Military Camp to join the fight against Isis.

The doctor who prescribed pain medication to ease his chronic and painful inflammation of the intestines had disappeared.

President Barack Obama has admitted that American forces still "don't have a complete strategy" for training Iraqi troops to stand their ground against Isis (Islamic State) fighters.

The news that Islamic State (Isis) fighters have advanced to within 100km of Camp Taji where New Zealand's 143 military advisers are based wasn't the only bulletin from the war zone.

The American Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter, could not have been blunter in his assessment of the Iraqi Army.

NZ First MP Ron Mark has labelled the Iraqi Army "cowards" and questioned why New Zealand forces were being put at risk trying to train an army that did not want to fight.

NZ's contingent of military training specialists have barely arrived and the folly of this military (mis)adventure is already becoming apparent, writes Armstrong.

The Defence Force chief has downplayed a car bomb attack which killed three people near the NZ base on the first day of its deployment in Iraq.

In 1915, a New Zealand flag sat in a drawer in an Auckland home for many years until, by chance, it became well known.

The Anzacs fought for seven months on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli's Sari Bair range.

The Returned and Services Association says it cannot afford to wait until after the centenary of Anzac Day this month to take its fight against proposed changes to the country's flag.

Prince Harry paid his respects to the lost brothers of the Australian military he's joined for a month-long secondment Downunder.

Prince Harry has flown a Spitfire as he caught up with an injured serviceman and veterans hoping to pilot the aircraft in a Battle of Britain flypast.

Nine years ago, the decision to buy eight NH90 helicopters for the air force was accompanied by considerable fanfare.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee says the difficulties in using the Royal New Zealand Air Force's helicopters in cyclone-hit Vanuatu shows the Government needs to be very careful in making its next military purchases.

The illegal fishing vessel at the centre of a New Zealand Navy operation earlier this year has been detained in Thailand.

Canada's mysterious and small operation has become a lot bigger and more costly since it began, writes Dita De Boni. Which could be our fate, too.