Hostages are a "military consultant" who headed to war zones after his wife died of cancer and a journalist dedicated to revealing horrors of war.

Intelligence agencies believe a teenager and her 20-year-old friend have become the first Australian women to join terrorists in Syria and offer themselves as jihadi brides.

Parliament has just passed legislation aimed at stopping would-be foreign fighters from leaving New Zealand to join Islamic State in Iraq.

The father of a teenager from Cardiff is thought to be the first Briton to have rescued his son from the jihadist group Islamic State.

Urgent changes to the law introduced to combat the threat of "foreign fighters" had been flagged by the Prime Minister as for short-term only.

The Islamic State militant known as Jihadi John has threatened to bring slaughter to the streets of Britain and the West in a new video announcing the murder of an American aid worker.

Three NZ Defence Force personnel have already left for the Middle East to scope out a role for New Zealand forces to help train Iraqi forces fight ISIS.

The Prime Minister's landmark speech on national security has two messages for New Zealanders, but they are somewhat discordant.

New Zealand's contribution to the fight against Isis is set to be discussed at Cabinet today.

The second of three brothers who travelled to Syria to join forces seeking the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad has been killed in fighting, his father has confirmed.

John Key says he believes Isis is full of 'very bad people' and a military response is morally justified - but hasn't yet made a decision on whether NZ will fight them.

A teenage jihadist who ran away from his family in Australia to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria, has reportedly appeared in a new video.

In the weeks and months before he was brutally murdered on camera by militants from Isis, James Foley was beaten, starved, subjected to mock executions and even waterboarded by his captors.

Ginger jihadist Abdullah Elmir could face 25 years in jail if he ever sets foot on Australian soil again.

Abdullah Elmi, an Australian jihadist, has been lambasted by his Australian relatives as an idiot for his chilling video message.

French journalist Nicholas Henin reveals describes his "brutal and gruesome" life as an Islamic State hostage.

Australian special forces and aircraft will not be sent into Iraq until the Cabinet considers a risk assessment and the United Nations gives the operation the nod.

Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican's financial watchdog - all Italians - in the latest move to break with a murky past under his predecessor.

Pope Francis has called for Christians, Jews and Muslims to work together for peace as he toured holy sites in Jerusalem on the final day of his Middle East pilgrimage.

His only previous trip to the Middle East had to be cut short after the outbreak of one of its worst crises - the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria.

To some, they are heroes ready to trade their personal liberty for the sake of high principle. To others, they are spoiled rich children, shirking their national duty on the backs of the less fortunate.

The second round of peace talks for Syria have now collapsed. This double failure will accelerate the death toll.

The fate of dozens of men detained by the Syrian security forces as they left the besieged city of Homs is continuing to cause international concern.

The Pakistan Government met the Taliban for the first time yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to end the group's seven-year campaign of terror.