New Zealand believes it has found a good middle ground for a Security Council resolution demanding an end to attacks that may kill civilians in Syria - days after Russia vetoed a similar text.

Minister Anne Tolley says the UN Rights of the Child committee in Geneva asked her 250 questions but only one on child poverty.

New Zealand has accused Syria of telling "blatant lies" about the delivery of humanitarian aid to its own people.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called for the Syrian and Russian governments to face a war-crimes investigation over attacks on civilians in Syria.

There are a number of reasons Antonio Guterres may have been the popular choice.

COMMENT: Helen Clark did not go to ground following her failure this week to secure the job of her dreams, the head of the UN.

COMMENT: Helen Clark's push for the top United Nations job failed through no fault of her own.

The United Nations' next boss is a charismatic, former socialist prime minister who led the UN's refugee agency during one of its most difficult times.

Helen Clark is politically astute enough though to know that she was always going to be an outside choice for the top UN job.

Lawyers and activists in the Philippines fear that drug users who sign up to the government's amnesty end up on so-called "kill lists".

New Zealand has ratified the Paris Agreement, becoming one of the countries to do so before the threshold at which the historic agreement will come into force.

The former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is poised to become the next Secretary General of the United Nations after topping the sixth ballot.

Helen Clark will face her sixth ballot early tomorrow in her bid to become UN Secretary General but it will be the first one in which the permanent five will vote with a red ballot.

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.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says he would like to "slaughter" millions of addicts just like Adolf Hitler "massacred" millions of Jewish people.

Health authorities are considering plans to move mental health patient Ashley Peacock, to the dismay of his parents.

Helen Clark to continue campaign despite a drop in the latest straw poll for Secretary General of the UN.

On a clear afternoon last Monday a line of humanitarian aid trucks eased to a stop in front of a cluster of warehouses packed with aid supplies 24km outside the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Prime Minister John Key reflects on his big week at the United Nations.

New Zealand is to take a greater role in ensuring the safety of air travel in the Pacific.

COMMENT: Chairing the UN Security Council earns kudos for little effort - but Key deserves the praise.

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.

John Key has used his speech at the UN General Assembly to go into bat for Helen Clark, advocate for the TPP and call for the Security Council to take action on Syria.

Iraq would welcome more New Zealand troops to train local forces, its Prime Minister tells John Key.

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.