For days, Russian jets had been roaring along the Turkish border, bombing hills on the Syrian side in support of a regime attack on rebel forces.

COMMENT: Russia's President has been taught a lesson with the shooting of a warplane over Turkish air space.

The downing of a Russian SU24 fighter jet by Turkish authorities was inevitable. Russia has flouted the territorial border of Turkey time and again in the past few months so it is no surprise that this has happened.

The immense human toll is a far more immediate and obvious concern.

Muslim communities have to be more forthright in their commitment to Western values and less indulgent of those in their midst who preach and practice hatred, writes Paul Thomas.

The Paris attacks and the largely stalemated war in Iraq and Syria have prompted heavy criticism of Barack Obama's handling of the fight against Isis.

France launched fresh air strikes against Syria yesterday, as a defiant Paris reopened for business.

There is a dissonance between the reality of modern war and the high ideals by which war is justified, writes Chris Barfoot. These ideals form a deadly combination.

A field of 100 wooden crosses will be unveiled to mark the anniversary of the end of World War I.

It is less about retaking territory and mostly about sapping the will of Isis fighters by pummelling them into the sand again and again, writes Ron Mark.

The greatest honour we can pay the dead is to learn from the past and to never commit ourselves to such barbarity again, writes Anton Oliver

France has honoured the heroic efforts of two New Zealand war veterans.

Sometimes historical mistakes are so monumental it is pointless to wonder what might have been.

Filmed from a camera attached to a helmet of one of the commandos, the viewer sees the scene more or less as that soldier did.

Real-life links of Ben Wishaw's family to world of espionage revealed in book by agent's daughter.

An African man shot by an Israeli guard who mistook him for an assailant was then kicked by a mob as he lay bleeding before he died.

Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem are expected to be sealed off and soldiers placed in city centres to support the police amid rising bloodshed and unrest.

Hundreds of people have turned out to commemorate the Battle of Passchendaele - an event military historians describe as this country's darkest hour.

Russia's presence in Syria under the pretence taking the fight to Isis is a strategic triumph for Vladimir Putin and an embarrassment for Barack Obama, writes Paul Thomas.

Moscow says it will work to avert potential mishaps between Russian and US pilots flying missions over Syria, Pentagon officials say.

The New Zealand Defence Force is searching for a famous rugby trophy won by a team of New Zealand soldiers almost 100 years ago.

Russian President's dramatic deployment of soldiers, weapons and aircraft to Syria aimed at reshaping civil war.

A re-enactment of the Rimutaka Crossing was undertaken by 250 marchers travelling the route thousands of WWI soldiers took a century ago.

On the afternoon of October 6, 1915, Leslie Beauchamp, a New Zealander in the British Army, gave a class in grenade throwing. He didn't survive it.

Besides the grey-haired men full of battle scars and secrets, there are many other veterans in the 20s and 30s who need just as much support.

'Thank you in the name of all the refugees," is the first thing the Syrian father-of-three says to us at the Mangere refugee resettlement centre.

For millions of Syrians and other people displaced by conflict in their home countries, the Western Balkan Route can be a road towards refuge in Europe.