The Iraqi Army and Isis rebels are battling for control of Iraq's largest refinery outside Baiji, north of Baghdad, with each side holding part of the complex.

Election, what election? In three months the country goes to the polls. In the meantime, Prime Minister John Key and several leading MPs are out of the country.

The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening and the number of people needing urgent help has reached 10.8 million.

Max Key, the 18-year-old student son of PM John Key, got a special mention by President Barack Obama during John Key's visit to the White House today.

Saudi Arabia has warned against Western or regional intervention in Iraq, as the country's ambassador to London joined international calls for a new government to be established in Baghdad.

With evil geniuses what you see is just the first instalment of what you're going to get.

John Key has called the intervention by Obama to allow the NZ Navy to berth at the US naval base a 'tangible sign of the warmth of the relationship.'

The United States should launch targeted military attacks against an emerging "terrorist army" in Iraq if the security of the West is jeopardised, the former head of coalition forces in the country said yesterday.

No nation is more thirsty for Canadian oil than China. But until now, the oil from Alberta has only flowed south to the United States.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is ducking earlier threats to take Australians back to the polls as Labor and the Greens dare him to call an early election.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was criticised over a claim that the current generation of political leaders is to blame for the violence engulfing Iraq.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott arrived back in Canberra yesterday from talks with world leaders in United States, Canada, France and Indonesia.

Prime Minister John Key says he would support Helen Clark making a bid for United Nations Secretary-General if she put up her hand for the job.

After five days of siege and foreboding, the citizens of Baghdad breathed easier yesterday and old-world tea houses were once again brimming.

Liam Dann asks, "What sort of economic fallout can we expect if Baghdad falls? It is a question that has carried serious geopolitical weight for thousands of years."

Australian taxpayers will prop up Nauru's ailing finances more than residents of the tiny Pacific Island nation.

A Tea Party candidate running for office in Oklahoma has appeared to endorse the practice of stoning gay people to death.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned British Prime Minister David Cameron not to threaten her over the appointment of an arch-federalist.

Pakistan security forces relaunched their military operation at Karachi airport last night after gunfire was heard hours after all the attackers had been declared dead.

China's state-run media has stepped up criticism of US technology companies including Apple and Microsoft as tensions escalate over cyberspying and hacking allegations.

Hopes rose of a resolution of the Ukraine crisis after the inauguration of Petro Poroshenko as the post-revolution President yesterday.

Italian businessmen accused of bribing politicians in exchange for contracts for a huge flood-prevention project came up with a novel tactic for evading police attention.

Scientists have called on the British Government to give its immediate approval to laws allowing three-parent babies after experts found the techniques were safe.

A major new poll on Australians' view of themselves and the world has revealed a nation nervous at the rise of China

An Australian man who died in a US drone strike alongside a New Zealander was introduced to radical Islam at a Christchurch mosque, it's reported.

Prime Minister John Key has announced a $1 million package for tourism in Samoa on his Pacific Mission.

Editorial: From time to time, national referendums have thrown a spanner in the EU's plans for closer ties between its members.