Immigration Minister confirms New Zealand will take a total of 750 Syrian refugees - 600 in an emergency intake over and above the usual annual quota of 750.

Church communities around New Zealand can host and settle an extra 1200 Syrian refugees, the Anglican and Catholic Church says.

The one-off intake will go "over and above" New Zealand's annual refugee quota, but will not number into the thousands, Prime Minister says.

Today the Herald restarts its campaign The Forgotten Millions to help refugees from the Syrian crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told fellow leaders that Europe has a duty to shelter refugees, rebuffing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Rachel Smalley is set to return to the Middle East this year as she continues to spread awareness and raise money for the growing refugee crisis.

The three US airlines say competition from rapidly-expanding Persian Gulf carriers has cut their passenger load to the Middle East and Asia by more than 20%.

Celebrated New Zealand author Charlotte Grimshaw follows Ramadan, starting in Dubai and ending on the West Bank.

Forts and watchtowers by the hundred in the sultanate of Oman point to a fierce past.

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.

World Vision chief executive Chris Clarke travelled with broadcaster Rachel Smalley to the Middle East to meet some of the millions affected by the Syrian conflict, and was struck by the number of fathers having to make impossible choices for their families.

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.

For refugees, possessions are few and far between but there is still plenty that they treasure. Photographer Jo Currie captured these precious fragments.

New images have emerged of three men accused of homosexuality and blasphemy being publicly beheaded at a traffic roundabout in northern Iraq.

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.