John Key has signalled a rapid and unexpected rise in interest rates and "something big that happens internationally" as the biggest threats to the NZ economy.

The father of the little girl who was pulled alive from the rubble in Syria has spoken out and revealed his older daughter was killed in the air strike.

"Good afternoon from Aleppo," tweets seven-year-old Bana al-Abed. "I am reading to forget the war."

A Syrian rescue worker has been filmed breaking down in tears as he heroically pulled a 30-day-old baby girl from the rubble of a

There is no electricity in the rebel-held portion of eastern Aleppo, and the warplanes flying overhead target any light piercing the blackness below.

The cat man of Aleppo aka Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel has rescued more than 100 stray and abandoned cats in warstricken Syria. Many of

The two largest hospitals in the Syrian city of Aleppo have been bombed, knocking them out of service and worsening an already dire medical crisis.

As Syrian regime troops begin a massive Aleppo ground offensive, doctors are having to operate on kids without anaesthetic after being overwhelmed by patients.

Dozens of civilians were killed in Aleppo as Russian and Syrian regime bombers pounded city with a wave of air strikes on unprecedented scale.

A 6-year-old boy's letter to Barack Obama asking him to send a Syrian refugee child to come and live with his family has gone viral.

Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, slammed the United States at the special Security Council meeting.

John Key said will be blood on the hands of everybody including the Security Council and major participants in the Syria crisis if they could not find a resolution.

John Kerry has called for an immediate halt to airstrikes in Syria in an impassioned speech to the UN Security Council chaired by Prime Minister John Key.

Many New Zealanders might wonder why we bother with the UN, until they hear Key lament the council's performance on Syria in his speech.

The bar of depravity is sinking lower, says Ban Ki Moon in blistering attack on Syrian Government.

John Key's session chairing UN Security Council on Syria crisis has a heightened significance after the bombing of a UN convoy delivering aid near Aleppo.

COMMENT: John Key is set to land in the centre of a diplomatic crisis between the US and Russia during leaders' week at the UN over the truce in Syria.

Before he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, all 3-year-old Alan Kurdi knew was war. But for a moment his tragic death seemed not to be pointless. Warning - graphic.

Clashes between Syrian rebels and Kurdish-aligned forces, both backed by the United States, have intensified in northern Syria.

Turkish tanks and attack aircraft have clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, just hours after hopes were raised about a new general ceasefire.

New Zealand hopes of a breakthrough in Syria during its Presidency of the Security Council next month will be a tough ask if a debate in the Security Council on Monday was anything to go by.

The five-year-old's eyes are glassy with shock and he seems hardly aware of the blood seeping from a wound in his forehead.

An Islamic State insider has revealed the never-before-told story of the shadowy meeting that spawned the bloodthirsty terror group.

At least two people have been killed and several, including babies, were injured in an air strike on a maternity hospital in Syria's Idlib province.

An offer of amnesty by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been met with scepticism by rebel fighters and residents.

US-backed Syrian fighters have found evidence that the Islamic State has rewritten school textbooks to promote its violent ideology.

In NZ Herald Focus this morning - a boy has been pulled from the rubble of a building destroyed in Aleppo.

Isis fighters shot down a Russian helicopter above Syria, killing both pilots on board.

Relatives of Marie Colvin, a Sunday Times journalist, have filed a lawsuit claiming that Syrian government officials killed her.