Foreign Minister Murray McCully is quite blunt about the Security Council and the Middle East peace process.

Once upon a time Patricia Greig had the good fortune of a luxury stopover in Dubai.

In several of Oman's tiny villages, some clinging to the sides of cliffs, Jim Eagles finds plenty of hospitality from friendly locals.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre is visited by Christians from everywhere, writes Kate Shuttleworth.

Eye-witnesses say streets of Palmyra are strewn with hundreds of bodies – the latest victims of terrorists's savagery.

Mass graves containing the bodies of 1700 Iraqi military cadets killed by Isis are being opened - TV clips showing skeletal remains still wearing combat boots.

Abducted, locked away, all but starved, raped... then, a dramatic escape. How one Yazidi girl escaped the clutches of her Isis captors.

The Syrian conflict is one of several emergencies World Vision is responding to.

The Independent investigates how Isis jihadis govern every aspect of life within the territories they control.

There was no dignity in childbirth for Sabrine. She lay on a bed, exhausted, lurching in and out of consciousness.

'The scenes terrified me': Meet the former jihadi who deserted Isis rather than take part in executions, beheadings and rape.

Many Syrians in refugee camps across the border in Lebanon were lawyers, teachers, dentists, accountants. As the conflict enters its fifth year they have become the forgotten millions.

A decision on whether John Key's deletion of his text messages amounts to a destruction of the country's public records is progressing.

One day, he was a dental surgeon. The next, he was held at gunpoint and thrown in a cell, where he watched the other prisoners shot one by one. Ashour tells his story.

Political unrest. Conflict. The collapse of the country's social infrastructure. And then a daily struggle just to stay alive. An artists has imagined what it would look like in NZ.

Mustafa was standing outside his home in Aleppo when the jet flew over. He has no memory of what happened next but he regained consciousness many days later in Turkey.

Pakistan has test-fired a ballistic missile able to carry a nuclear warhead to every part of India. Yesterday's test was another escalation in Islamabad's effort to keep pace with its neighbouring rival's formidable military advancements.

Zeinab is in the throes of puberty. She is 14 years old, Syrian, and a wife.

Broadcaster Rachel Smalley finds she has a lot in common with struggling mothers who are caring for children in a conflict zone.

The Herald and World Vision are running a major campaign to raise funds and help the 5.6 million children left homeless by war in Syria.

Today the Herald and World Vision begin a campaign to help the 5.6 million children left homeless by war in Syria. Broadcaster Rachel Smalley tells some of their stories.

In the desert beyond Dubai's glittering and manic metropolis, Ewan McDonald unleashes his inner petrolhead ...

Asim Qureshi has caused outrage by saying the murderer Jihadi John was 'beautiful' adding that he 'wouldn't hurt a fly'.

The Isis executioner known as 'Jihadi John' was today named as a graduate from London who was able to flee to Syria despite being on a terror watch list.

The decision to commit NZ military contingent to Iraq is a case of misguided foreign policy.

A senior US security official will visit New Zealand next month as part of a tour of the Asia-Pacific.

The quality of New Zealand's training contribution to the Iraqi armed forces would be a welcome addition to the fight against Isis (Islamic State), Iraq's ambassador to New Zealand, Mouayed Saleh, said last night.

Passions over the announced deployment of a New Zealand training mission to Iraq spilled over in Parliament again yesterday.