Wellington, Feb 2 NZPA - Defence Minister Wayne Mapp leaves today to attend a meeting of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) defence ministers in Istanbul, Turkey to discuss the war in Afghanistan.

Wellington, Feb 1 NZPA - New Zealand will not contribute to a fund to pay Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to give up their weapons. At an international conference last week countries, including Australia, Britain and Japan, pledged about $200 million to the fund.

Wellington, Jan 27 NZPA - There will be less secrecy around New Zealand Special Air Services (SAS) activities from now on after the Government and Defence Force agreed to greater openness.

Wellington, Jan 26 NZPA - The Special Air Services (SAS) involved in an incident in Afghanistan capital Kabul last week fired no shots.

Wellington, Jan 24 NZPA - The Government will face questions when Parliament resumes next month over the role of New Zealand's Special Air Service in Afghanistan.

Wellington, Jan 24 NZPA - A politics academic says Prime Minister John Key broke his promise to the New Zealand public that the Special Air Service (SAS) personnel in Afghanistan would not be fighting alongside the soldiers it was training.

Wellington, Jan 20 NZPA - An attack which killed a dozen people in Kabul on Monday shows New Zealand Special Air Services' (SAS) presence in Afghanistan is not the solution to the country's problems, Opposition MPs say.

Wellington, Jan 19 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key has confirmed a small group of New Zealand Special Air Services (SAS) soldiers was at the scene of an attack which killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 70 in the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, yesterday.

By Maggie Tait of NZPA New York, Sept 23 NZPA - New Zealand troops will be out of Afghanistan in three to five years, Prime Minister John Key told the head of Nato today.

Last week I was not able to blog due to the fact that I have had a problem in changing over to a new internet service provider and consequently I missed the September 11th anniversary and the chance to blog about my views surrounding it on that very date.