The Syrian conflict encroached threateningly on Nato's eastern frontiers yesterday when Turkey shot down an Assad regime fighter jet it said had crossed into its territory.

Justine Tyerman meets some magicians in Turkey...

Built as a sanctuary to honour Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine and healing whose trademark snake and staff are the well-known international symbols of modern medicine today, the Asklepion's magnificent ruins are near the present-day Turkish city of Bergama.

Peace descends on a boisterous busload after a trip to an ancient healing centre in Turkey, writes Justine Tyerman.

Justine Tyerman looks for anything but authentic ... or traditional.

Andrew Potter uses a holiday to Turkey to take an app-y break from his smartphone and other electronic devices.

Horst Heinz Grimm explores a watery underground cathedral in Istanbul.

Ewan McDonald went on a family holiday. The riot police came along too.

Fiction becomes fact in Istanbul - a worldwide bestseller is turned into one of the world’s strangest literary museums.

The demonstrations in Brazil began after a small rise in bus fares triggered mass protests.

More than half a million people fled Syria's civil war last year, and the UN says that number could double by the end of 2013.

By vilifying young protesters as extremists, looters and terrorists and seeking to crush their challenge to his 10-year rule, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is gambling with his political future and his country's relations with Europe.

Thousands of protesters march through the streets of major cities of a European nation. They complain about the apparently autocratic style of their democratically elected leader who ignores what they claim are their concerns.

With her red cotton dress, white shoulder bag and flowing black hair, she has become the colour-coded emblem of Turkey's new people-power movement.

Editorial: For 90 years, the modern secular state forged by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire has, by and large, served Turkey well.

Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul became the scene of an angry, frenetic carnival.

Ewan McDonald writes from Istanbul, where tourists sought pleasure while the locals openly defied their leaders.

Liz Light enjoys life in the slow lane on a Turkish island.

Television weatherman Tamati Coffey's round the world trip took an unexpected bad turn when he was tear-gassed during a violent street riot in Turkey.

Ewan McDonald rambles on about a group of Aucklanders taking a walking holiday with a few differences.

Plans to hold a kick-boxing tournament at Gallipoli on the eve of Anzac Day have been slammed as "totally inappropriate" by the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association.

Istanbul is one of those cities that leaves everyone who’s been there hankering to go back. But if you’re about to make your first appearance, here are five things you won’t want to miss.

Here are some of the world's key doomsday destinations and other places marked by fear and fascination.