This year is turning out to be one of the deadliest for asylum-seekers who try to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

The non-combat deployment in the battle against the Islamic State had been set to finish early next year, but would now last until November 2018.

In the same way, people in 100 years will live with the consequences of the decisions we make now.

A disfiguring tropical disease has spread across the Middle East as millions are displaced from the war-torn region.

In the Middle East, the luxury-goods industry is grappling with shifting sands.

Lebanon's Hizbollah militia has blamed the killing of a militant described as its top commander in Syria on extremist Sunni insurgents.

It is not often that international solutions work so well but when it happens, it deserves a tentative cheer.

The Isis affiliate in Egypt prompts Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to form an unlikely alliance against the terrorist group.

This will be the new longest flight in the world - more than 18 hours flight time between Doha and Auckland.

Ewan McDonald heads to the UAE to live the high life.

The terrorist group is making millions by funnelling dollars looted from banks into legitimate currency markets in the Middle East.

Isis militants killed dozens of people in two major attacks on Baghdad yesterday, bombing a market and assaulting security forces on the city's outskirts.

Across Syria's battered and blasted landscape, the relief was palpable as an unlikely truce actually took hold.

The serenity of Majdal Shams leaves Edna Heled at peace.

Up to 70,000 Syrians are heading for Turkey, threatening to send a new wave of refugees into Europe as Syria's civil war intensifies.

Isis is building an "army of the poor" in its new haven in Libya by recruiting foot soldiers from Africa's poorest nations, intelligence chiefs warn.

Qatar Airways to launch new route from Doha to Auckland that will become the longest flight in the world.

The Irish are descended from early Middle East farmers and from bronze metalworkers on the steppes around the Black Sea, scientists have found.

COMMENT: Russia's President has been taught a lesson with the shooting of a warplane over Turkish air space.

Mohammed Emwazi was killed by a missile fired from a Reaper drone over Raqqa in Syria.

One of the men impersonated a pregnant woman and was pushed in a wheelchair.

Having accepted that President Bashar al-Assad will stay in power for a "transitional period", the US is trying to persuade Russia and Iran to curb the worst excesses of their ally.

A sudden surge of population puts too much strain on the social and physical infrastructure of receiving countries, but it also severely diminishes the hope that the forsaken country can ever recover.

Fighting to protect the tyranny of Assad because of the fear of the evil of Isis would be pointless.

Nothing less than a multifaceted strategy is required to address both the political causes and the military symptoms of the rise of Isis, writes Robert Patman.

The generosity of Kiwis has helped that the plight of millions of refugees.

Rachel Smalley is drawn into the nightmare of two brothers who are separated en route to Germany.

Rachel Smalley comes face to face with the grim reality of life as a refugee in Turkey as she witnesses how families try to rebuild their lives.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are dead, millions are displaced or living as refugees, and 13.5 million people are relying on aid just to sustain their lives.