The PM's insistence that he was referring to all of the members of the multi-national force as the "club" defies logic, writes John Armstrong.

New Zealand troops sent to Iraq to help in the fight against Isis will not be 'on the front line', Prime Minister John Key says.

John Key speaks on New Zealand's possible involvement in the fight against Isis.

Prime Minister John Key has all but confirmed that up to 100 New Zealand Defence Force staff will be sent to the Middle East to help Australia train Iraqi soldiers to fight Isis .

Cabinet is expected to approve sending soldiers to help Iraqi forces fight the Islamic State group when it meets tomorrow.

Winston Peters says Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee should pay $43,550 in costs for an inquiry into his 'arrogant' security breach at Christchurch Airport last year.

NZ troops are preparing to return to Iraq, a decade after Kiwi soldiers were last in the violence-wracked nation. On Monday the cabinet is expected to set the ground rules for the deployment.

Replacing ageing military equipment is often fearsomely expensive.

Iraq has issued a general invitation to the international community for support, the country's foreign minister says.

New Zealand troops have been given the go-ahead to begin training for a likely deployment to Iraq.

Jury selection in the trial of a man accused of killing former Navy Seal Chris Kyle - author of American Sniper - has begun.

Buildings lie in waste, reduced to rubble. Others, their faces are shorn clean off. Bullet casings litter the streets, unexploded mortars burrow into pavements.

A former financial controller for the NZDF will receive more than $70,000 in unpaid redundancy after winning an employment battle over an error in his contract.

In the best tradition of gunboat diplomacy, this country is flexing its muscles in the Southern Ocean.

New Zealanders living in Australia have chalked up a small but important victory for expats after being accepted for trials with the Australian Defence Force.

United States markets head into the last week of the year with a "Santa Claus rally" having lifted them to record highs, picking up momentum from outstanding GDP numbers in the world's biggest economy.

Even by the outrageous standards of North Korean propaganda chiefs, it was an unusually vulgar slur, a dramatic escalation in the two-week-long war of words between Pyongyang and Washington.

Being far from his children on Christmas Day is hard for Major Brett Grieve, especially when he's stationed in Antarctica, but he knows it's all part of his duty, he says.

The Defence Minister has paid tribute to the events the Defence Force has participated in this year, including the search for missing flight MH370.