Amira Karroum was beautiful and accomplished, but also lonely: an easy mark for the Islamic State recruiter who lured her to a barbaric death.

New Zealand believes it has found a good middle ground for a Security Council resolution demanding an end to attacks that may kill civilians in Syria - days after Russia vetoed a similar text.

In a series of recent tweets All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams has highlighted the plight of children in some of the world's most troubled spots.

A Syrian man suspected of planning a bomb attack in Germany on behalf of Isis (Islamic State) was arrested after being captured by fellow Syrians.

The call came last January when Tammam Tamim was at home with his family.

New Zealand has accused Syria of telling "blatant lies" about the delivery of humanitarian aid to its own people.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called for the Syrian and Russian governments to face a war-crimes investigation over attacks on civilians in Syria.

COMMENT: Rachel Stewart, winner of the 'Opinion Writer of the Year' award at 2016 Canon Media Awards, has joined the Herald. Here is her first column.

John Key has signalled a rapid and unexpected rise in interest rates and "something big that happens internationally" as the biggest threats to the NZ economy.

A Syrian rescue worker has been filmed breaking down in tears as he heroically pulled a 30-day-old baby girl from the rubble of a

There is no electricity in the rebel-held portion of eastern Aleppo, and the warplanes flying overhead target any light piercing the blackness below.

The cat man of Aleppo aka Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel has rescued more than 100 stray and abandoned cats in warstricken Syria. Many of

The two largest hospitals in the Syrian city of Aleppo have been bombed, knocking them out of service and worsening an already dire medical crisis.

As Syrian regime troops begin a massive Aleppo ground offensive, doctors are having to operate on kids without anaesthetic after being overwhelmed by patients.

Dozens of civilians were killed in Aleppo as Russian and Syrian regime bombers pounded city with a wave of air strikes on unprecedented scale.

A humanitarian catastrophe is looming in Aleppo after two days of Russian and Syrian government airstrikes left two million people without running water.

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.

A 6-year-old boy's letter to Barack Obama asking him to send a Syrian refugee child to come and live with his family has gone viral.

John Key said will be blood on the hands of everybody including the Security Council and major participants in the Syria crisis if they could not find a resolution.

John Kerry has called for an immediate halt to airstrikes in Syria in an impassioned speech to the UN Security Council chaired by Prime Minister John Key.

Many New Zealanders might wonder why we bother with the UN, until they hear Key lament the council's performance on Syria in his speech.

The bar of depravity is sinking lower, says Ban Ki Moon in blistering attack on Syrian Government.

John Key's session chairing UN Security Council on Syria crisis has a heightened significance after the bombing of a UN convoy delivering aid near Aleppo.

COMMENT: John Key is set to land in the centre of a diplomatic crisis between the US and Russia during leaders' week at the UN over the truce in Syria.

The Russian President will cheer the Syrian agreement as a victory over US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The father of the young Syrian boy pictured washed up on a Turkish beach has accused the world of turning its back on Syria as people continue to die.

Before he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, all 3-year-old Alan Kurdi knew was war. But for a moment his tragic death seemed not to be pointless. Warning - graphic.

Clashes between Syrian rebels and Kurdish-aligned forces, both backed by the United States, have intensified in northern Syria.

Turkish tanks and attack aircraft have clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, just hours after hopes were raised about a new general ceasefire.

New Zealand hopes of a breakthrough in Syria during its Presidency of the Security Council next month will be a tough ask if a debate in the Security Council on Monday was anything to go by.