Foreign Minister Murray McCully should be removed from Cabinet over his handling of the Saudi farm deal, Labour says.

The Great Barrier Reef will not be listed as endangered but will remain under watch because of "major threats" to its health.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully will leave behind an ongoing controversy over a multi-million dollar farm deal when he heads overseas on official business this weekend.

The world's largest nuclear meeting, the five-yearly Review Conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has just closed at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

For most of us, it's a tough ask to draw a link between somewhere as warm as Bangladesh and as chilly as Antarctica.

It may well be that NZ on the Security Council has to pick its battles, or choose the lesser of two evils when it is deciding who to support, writes Dita De Boni.

Every country should play a part in confronting extremism, Prime Minister John Key said at a peace conference in Istanbul today.

A former New Zealand hockey player has been appointed to help head Government efforts to manage the environment and natural resources.

Blind belief in New Zealand's status as a global human rights leader is hampering real progress, a new report says.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has confirmed that legal protection has been secured for New Zealand troops to fight in Iraq against the Islamic State.

Previous experience has been positive and benefits would outweigh the costs.

China has placed on the record - ever so diplomatically - its displeasure at the latest Edward Snowden revelations, Fran O' Sullivan writes.

Every political party laid claim to the moral high ground in the argument over sending a team of army training personnel to Iraq, John Armstrong writes.

Modern warfare is vastly different today. Those going to Iraq will not be in the frontline - at least not yet, Fran O'Sullivan writes.

The decision to commit NZ military contingent to Iraq is a case of misguided foreign policy.

Jim McLay, New Zealand's representative at the United Nations in New York, will be replaced in May by career diplomat Gerard van Bohemen after Mr McLay's second term ends, Foreign Minister Murray McCully has announced.

A team of Kiwi nurses working as part of the international Red Cross Ebola response team in Sierra Leone got to meet Helen Clark this week.

Ukraine has appealed to the West to get tough on Russia after separatists it says are militarily backed by Moscow stormed a flashpoint town.

There is no crime of war, nor crime against humanity that they have not committed, writes Alexander Gillespie. But what is NZ's risk in getting involved?

More than 200 boat people were missing early today after their overcrowded dinghies sank in the frigid waters of the Mediterranean.

A child soldier who became an infamous commander in Joseph Kony's militia is before the International Criminal Court.

Former National MP Michael Cox says Anzus conflict in 1984 will hurt chances of Helen Clark becoming United Nations secretary general.

Nick Sheppard writes: "Due to factors including nationality, gender and timing, Helen Clark may be the front runner" for the top United Nations post.

New Zealand has taken its seat at the heart of international decision-making for the next two years.

Yesterday we saw how progress has been made on matters where both language versions of the Treaty say the same thing. Those areas are predominantly natural resources and cultural treasures.

The possibility of former Prime Minister Helen Clark leading the United Nations is a common subject of speculation.

United Nations Ambassador Jim McLay dismisses suggestions that New Zealand will be in the pocket of the United States on the Security Council.