Wellington, July 26 NZPA - The New Zealand Defence Force was mentioned among the 90,000 United States military records leaked recently.

By Shabnam Dastgheib and Maggie Tait of NZPA

By Chris Ormond of NZPA Wellington, June 24 NZPA - Administrations with forces in Afghanistan are confident the situation there will improve to a stage where it will be set to self-govern by the end of 2011, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp says.

Wellington, June 8 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key today offered his condolences to Australia after two Australian soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan.

By Maggie Tait of NZPA Bamiyan, April 4 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key spent his last day in Afghanistan in Bamiyan province rubbing shoulders with the locals.

By Maggie Tait Bamiyan, May 4 NZPA - On a hill overlooking Kabul, Aghanistan's capital, is the odd sight of a large swimming pool with tiered diving boards. Homes on the hills of Kabul are concrete or even mud and such luxuries do not abound.

By Maggie Tait of NZPA Bamiyan, May 3 NZPA - New Zealand Special Air Service troops were involved in an operation in Kabul that saw a terror cell busted and a quarter tonne of explosives seized -- foiling plans for suicide bombings and other attacks.

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.