COMMENT: It is time to sober up. The superpowers are drunk on rhetoric, mistrust and posturing. They are dragging us all towards the brink.

Qatar Airways will start flying next year and is offering fares as low as $1455 from Auckland to Europe return.

Nick Jenkins discovers a friendly way to visit the turbulent Middle East.

Iraq has launched its biggest fight against Isis. PM Haider al-Abadi pledged to raise the Iraqi flag over Mosul once more.

A 22-year-old woman is to be hanged this week after being found guilty of killing the husband she says abused her.

Watch NZH Focus: A Kiwi face transplant surgeon has lead his team in transplanting two donor arms to a retired marine who lost all four limbs in Afghanistan.

A stalled free trade deal with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries will be completed, Trade Minister Todd McClay has announced.

On a clear afternoon last Monday a line of humanitarian aid trucks eased to a stop in front of a cluster of warehouses packed with aid supplies 24km outside the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Alison Stephenson realises why her luxury hotel was so cheap - it's 50C outside.

Graham Reid spends 24 hours in Dubai International's famously huge and busy terminals.

A Kiwi team is battling sweltering and dusty conditions in the Middle East.

Dubai's new rainforest hotel will make for a unique guest experience.

An Islamic State insider has revealed the never-before-told story of the shadowy meeting that spawned the bloodthirsty terror group.

In parts of the world right now, it feels like 60C. Experts fear it won't be long till the scorching heat threatens human survival.

Christopher Adams runs into an alarming situation in a Middle Eastern market.

US-backed Syrian fighters have found evidence that the Islamic State has rewritten school textbooks to promote its violent ideology.

Isis fighters shot down a Russian helicopter above Syria, killing both pilots on board.

Relatives of Marie Colvin, a Sunday Times journalist, have filed a lawsuit claiming that Syrian government officials killed her.

COMMENT: David Shearer's article last week, "Border decisions condemn countries to conflict", seems conflicted.

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.

Recovering in Turkey after a deadly air strike in Aleppo, all Abu Abdu Tebyiah could think about was the six children he had been forced to leave behind.

Putin's announcement that Russia will begin withdrawing the "main part" of its military from Syria is a surprise potential end to a six-month intervention.

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