Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that the country is ready to assist Iraq in its battle against extremist Sunni Islamists.

Escalating violence in Iraq has spooked world sharemarkets and pushed up oil to its highest price in nine months.

Islamic militants have captured Iraq's northern capital, Mosul, in a devastating defeat for the Iraqi Government, whose forces fled the city, discarding weapons and uniforms.

Children in Iraq could be legally married before the age of nine under legislation tabled this week that introduces new religious restrictions on women's rights.

China carries out more executions than any other country, a new report has estimated.

Shocking images depicting US soldiers burning the bodies of what appear to be Iraqi insurgents have sparked a military probe.

A truck bomb tore through an outdoor vegetable market in northeastern Iraq, the deadliest of a series of attacks that killed at least 48 people, officials said.

An Iraqi sheik cradled his grandson's tightly wrapped body, his face grim and his eyes downcast, trailed by men bearing the coffin of the infant's mother.

Iraq reaches out to travellers as the 'cradle of civilisation', writes Prashant Rao.

A series of coordinated evening blasts in Baghdad and other violence killed at least 67 people in Iraq on Tuesday (local time), officials said.

Iraq's wave of bloodshed has sharply escalated with more than a dozen car bombings across the country.

Bombs ripped through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas Friday (local time), killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months.

A New Zealander's dramatic account of a daring secret mission to rescue American hostages has emerged after being left out of the Hollywood hit film Argo.

A wave of bombings has torn through Iraq, killing 65 people on eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion and showing how unstable Iraq remains.

Adventurous travellers are looking to document the exact geographic intersection of several latitude and longitude point in Iraq and around the world as part of an Internet-based project.

Syria's neighbours are increasingly being drawn into the country's civil war in a variety of ways, whether militarily or due to an exodus of Syrians fleeing the fighting at home.

In their unwillingness to face the reality of changing demographics, US Republicans are behaving like King Canute.

The US President must be allowed to build on his Administration's achievements, writes Reverend Jesse Jackson.

The British-Iraqi man killed in last month's quadruple Alps shooting had access to a bank account linked to Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein.

Former NZ diplomat Warren Searell called Damascus home until the Arab spring made life far too dangerous. This is his story.

Local burger chain BurgerFuel is tapping into the rising wealth of a volatile region with a taste for fast food.