Syrian refugees Lilas and Basal Slik have been sleeping soundly this year for the first time in their lives.

Hundreds of couples have poured into New York's Times Square to re-enact the famous photograph of a kiss between a sailor and a woman celebrating the end of World War II.

German troops involved in a coalition training mission in Iraq have reported that Isis (Islamic State) fighters have used chemical weapons on a Kurdish militia.

A battlefield centenary service has been held on a hill where nearly 850 New Zealanders were killed in two days of intense fighting during the Gallipoli campaign.

The US is "an insurmountable obstacle" to disarmament, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says in a wide-ranging recent interview published this week.

Whatever his shortcomings in executing the war, Saddam felt he had saved the Gulf sheikdoms and was worthy of greater respect, writes Tom Clifford.

Bravery and resolve of New Zealand's troops' supreme feat of achievement deserves August 8 commemoration.

If there is one event that defines the modern world, it is the blinding, searing, radioactive explosion over the city of Hiroshima 70 years ago today.

Seventy years on, the feared nuclear Armageddon has been kept in check - but a new threat is mounting, writes Alexander Gillespie.

It was a warm summer's morning and 5-year-old Yukiko Nakabushi was the first to arrive at nursery school. She waited for her friends to arrive. Except they never came.

Israeli leaders proposed harsh new measures to curb "Jewish terrorism" after a wave of extremist violence left Israeli and Palestinian children dead in knife and arson attacks.

Johnny Enzed is a composite WWI soldier created by historian Glyn Harper, who has used the device to explore soldiers' lives as they served King and country.

Turkey has now bombed a few IS targets to show willing - but if you look at the videos, the Turkish planes are launching missiles at single buildings out in open fields, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Willie Apiata presented the gold leaf to Mark Brawell, the grandson of Cyril Basset, the only New Zealander to receive the Victoria Cross at Gallipoli.

The leader of the Khorasan Group was killed when a vehicle he was travelling in near Sarmada in northwestern Syria was struck by US missiles.

Britain must accept that "sooner or later" ground troops and tanks will have to be sent into combat to overcome Isis a former chief of the Armed Forces has said.

Simpson And His Donkey is named after the famous Australian soldier, but actually features NZ medic Richard Henderson. Photo / supplied

Unless we allow borders to reform naturally this Sunni time bomb will blow unpredictably benefitting ISIS, writes Ron Mark.

Isis has released new footage from its deadliest massacre, showing executions on an industrial scale at a military base.

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.