The Prime Minister's landmark speech on national security has two messages for New Zealanders, but they are somewhat discordant.

John Key says any NZ commitment to the campaign against Isis in the Middle East would be for a long time, pointing to the 10-year deployment of troops to Bamiyan.

Isis is a nasty, brutish group that uses terror in parts of the globe, but it doesn't threaten the entire world. So Kiwis don't need to fight, says David Shearer.

New Zealand's contribution to the fight against Isis is set to be discussed at Cabinet today.

The second of three brothers who travelled to Syria to join forces seeking the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad has been killed in fighting, his father has confirmed.

John Key says he believes Isis is full of 'very bad people' and a military response is morally justified - but hasn't yet made a decision on whether NZ will fight them.

A teenage jihadist who ran away from his family in Australia to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria, has reportedly appeared in a new video.

In the weeks and months before he was brutally murdered on camera by militants from Isis, James Foley was beaten, starved, subjected to mock executions and even waterboarded by his captors.

Ginger jihadist Abdullah Elmir could face 25 years in jail if he ever sets foot on Australian soil again.

Australian special forces and aircraft will not be sent into Iraq until the Cabinet considers a risk assessment and the United Nations gives the operation the nod.

Cameras captured the moment a Palestinian man was allegedly shot by an Israeli sniper while he searched for his family, before being shot again as he struggled to get up.

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent.

Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican's financial watchdog - all Italians - in the latest move to break with a murky past under his predecessor.

Pope Francis has called for Christians, Jews and Muslims to work together for peace as he toured holy sites in Jerusalem on the final day of his Middle East pilgrimage.

His only previous trip to the Middle East had to be cut short after the outbreak of one of its worst crises - the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria.

To some, they are heroes ready to trade their personal liberty for the sake of high principle. To others, they are spoiled rich children, shirking their national duty on the backs of the less fortunate.

The second round of peace talks for Syria have now collapsed. This double failure will accelerate the death toll.

The fate of dozens of men detained by the Syrian security forces as they left the besieged city of Homs is continuing to cause international concern.

A New Zealand Army officer serving as a United Nations military observer was detained and released by armed men in Syria on Monday.

A senior Taliban leader thought to be behind a roadside bombing in which three New Zealand soldiers died has reportedly been killed by coalition forces.

A New Zealand documentary maker has escaped the Gaza Strip in a taxi as Israeli air strikes began while he was filming.