More than half the 57 million young children still not in classrooms today live in countries torn apart by conflict or natural disaster, writes Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

United States President Barack Obama says the coalition battling Isis (Islamic State) jihadists is intensifying its campaign against the group's base in Syria.

We see ISIS as thuggish martyrdom-seeking zealots, but brutal and disgusting though they be, its actions as a fighting force belie any belief they are oafish bandits, writes Ron Mark.

Now that it is our turn to chair the United Nations Security Council Murray McCully says we will attempt to revive peace talks between Israel and Palestine. Not an easy task.

56: Dave Gallaher fought on three battlefields — in the South African Boer War, on the Western Front in Europe and on rugby paddocks as an influential All Black.

100: New Zealand shed gallons of blood for Britain in the Great War.

99:William Henwood Johns went to war twice. Once he returned injured; the second time he never came home.

Israeli forces and Hamas may have committed war crimes during their 50-day conflict in Gaza last northern summer, a widely anticipated United Nations report said.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, known as the "one-eyed sheikh" has been killed in a US air strike, according to Libyan authorities.

President Barack Obama has admitted that American forces still "don't have a complete strategy" for training Iraqi troops to stand their ground against Isis (Islamic State) fighters.

94: When two medical men signed up for World War I, they hoped to make a difference by treating the wounded. But nothing could prepare them for what they saw.

Suzanne McFadden discovers just how much the city changed to host American servicemen during WWII.

93: A soldier plagued by wartime foot injuries later had an Auckland rugby league trophy named after him - the William Devanney Stormont Shield.

The Syrian Air Force dropped barrel bombs on a market and another civilian area of Aleppo province, killing 71 people.

Displaying leadership skills beyond his rank and compassion for fellow soldiers were just two of the reasons behind the Queen's Birthday Honour for Staff Sergeant Rob McGee.

The news that Islamic State (Isis) fighters have advanced to within 100km of Camp Taji where New Zealand's 143 military advisers are based wasn't the only bulletin from the war zone.

91: Southland surgeon-captain was tending wounded men when bayoneted by Germans.

90: Percival Beaumont Greenhough had always been a military man.

A 71-year-old working for a Tokyo antique book dealer was sifting through a stack of old documents acquired from a Japanese collector when he made a fascinating discovery.

America claimed a significant blow against Isis when Delta Force commandos launched a rare night-time strike inside eastern Syria, killing a commander.

Britain’s longest-serving poppy seller has been found dead amid concerns that she was being besieged with begging letters from dozens of charities.

A Kiwi professor will deliver a lecture at London's Imperial War Museum today on a flu pandemic that killed more people than the whole of the First World War.

The general who led Israel's war against Hamas last year believes it is in Israel's interest that Hamas continue to rule the Gaza Strip.

88: Almost 100 years after he died in the uniform of another country, soldier Alexander Ormond stands firm in relief beside the pounding Pacific.

The Defence Force chief has downplayed a car bomb attack which killed three people near the NZ base on the first day of its deployment in Iraq.

A strong majority of New Zealanders support the Government's decision to deploy 143 troops to Iraq to train the Iraqi Army in its fight against Islamic State.

After nearly 50 years of service, the famous, versatile aircrafts - which have served in war zones and carried out search and rescues - will be phased out.