Former Labour Prime Minister Mike Moore will be NZ's next US Ambassador, Foreign Minister Murray McCully has confirmed.

New Zealand has begun 'small steps' to rebuild its diplomatic relations with Fiji after a string of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.

The Govt has committed to improving diplomatic relations with Commodore Frank Bainimarama's interim Fiji Government.

PM keen to hear Hillary Clinton's views on what progress has been made towards establishing a corruption-free Government in Afghanistan.

Hillary Clinton's visit to NZ this month comes at a time of continued growth in the relationship with the US, Murray McCully says.

British intelligence passed on to US authorities about a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner - but he was not singled out as a particular risk, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said Monday.

The closure of the US embassy in Yemen highlights how vulnerable embassy facilities and its workers are in the age of the suicide bomber writes Patrick Cockburn.

Pakistan's sports minister has suggested govt intervention after the national cricket team was racially abused during the Napier test.

Israeli PM says warrant issued in Britain for the arrest of Israel's former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, is "an absurdity".

The US will not ask New Zealand to send more troops to Afghanistan as part of Barack Obama's final surge, its new ambassador to Wellington says.