The attack in which Lieutenant Timothy O'Donnell died yesterday was in a particularly troubled part of Afghanistan, where the mountainous terrain lends itself to ambushes by Taleban insurgents and criminals.

Tim O'Donnell grew up dreaming of being a soldier. He first revealed his military aspirations aged 4, in his grandmother's arms. She encouraged him by giving him an Army helmet.

Labour leader Phil Goff knows the pain of the grieving O'Donnell family - his nephew was killed in Afghanistan three years ago.

A senior volunteer for Wikileaks in the US was detained as the FBI steps up its investigation into the leak of thousands of Afghanistan war secrets.

Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange says 75,000-plus Afghan war documents "only scratched the surface" and 15,000 more papers were still being reviewed.

NZ sailor Kerry Hamill, tortured and killed in a Cambodian jail, can never be laid to rest but his brother Rob was yesterday able to see the man responsible for his death jailed.

Wayne Mapp has confirmed the WikiLeaks report of a missile threat faced by an RNZAF Hercules in Afghanistan last year.

Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, who participated in the torture and killing of Kiwi Rob Hamill's brother, Kerry, is sentenced to 35 years jail.

Today, a court in Cambodia will deliver its verdict on the man who ran Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng jail.

Murray McCully says Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province, where NZ troops have been since 2003, will be ready to stand on its own before Hamid Karzai's 2014 deadline.

Ninety-four years to the day after they were killed and buried anonymously in one of the first world war's bloodiest battles, 250 Australian and British soldiers have finally been laid to rest with the recognition they deserve.

The strategy sits for now on a table in a locked-down Afghan capital: Hand over security in all 34 provinces to the government by the end of 2014.

Brigadier Richard Felton points to the maps on the wall of his office in Lashkar Gah, dotted with markers for impending military operations over the long, hot, Afghan fighting season.

The three Gurkhas who died stood no chance. Two - believed to be British nationals - died in the operations room when it came under attack by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Eric Batchelor, one of NZ's most highly decorated World War II soldiers, died in Waimate, on Saturday.