In the late summer of 2014, the international community watched helplessly as Islamic State (IS) unleashed widespread human rights abuses against civilians across Syria and Iraq, with little standing in…
New order: Iran’s annual military parade.
EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh
The mess in the Middle East is forcing states into actions that previously appeared unimaginable. Sworn enemies are suspending or at least compartmentalising grievances. The idea that an American secretary…
Man Haron Monis, the perpetrator of the Sydney hostage siege, appeared to be unaware of basic Islamic theology.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Man Haron Monis, the sole perpetrator of the Sydney hostage siege, is but one example of the recent development of a new form of Islamic extremist radicalisation. In recent years, Islamic extremism has…
In the age of social media, misinformation travels rapidly around the globe.
AAP
It has become one of the hallmarks of the news now. Whenever there is a dramatic event, social media instantly comes alive with comment and conjecture as facts vie for attention with fiction. Alongside…
It is hard to police ‘soft targets’ for violent, lone wolf actors without becoming an overpoliced state.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Sydney is slowly returning to normal after police brought an end to a 16-hour siege in a Martin Place cafe in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The perpetrator, Man Haron Monis, and two hostages, Katrina…
Dramatic moment as a hostage escaped.
EPA/Joel Garrett
The dramatic siege in Sydney’s Martin Place played out in front of a global audience through real-time reporting by mainstream news outlets abetted by social media. Australian media academic Julie Posetti…
US-run prisons were a recruiting office for Islamic State militants.
EPA/Reuters pool/Kevin Lamarque
The controversy over the CIA torture report has moved on to calls for the UK government to be open about its own involvement. The arguments have also been widened to include other elements of CIA activities…
An Israel F-15I takes to the skies.
EPA/Abir Sultan
News reports circulated last week that Israeli warplanes had bombed targets in Syria, leading to widespread fears of yet another knot in an already nightmarishly tangled conflict. This is not the first…
Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and Peshmerga on the border.
Rudaw News Agency
After overrunning Mosul in June 2014, Islamic State (IS) hastily and brutally occupied soft targets in poorly protected areas of ethnic minorities – the villages of Kurds, Christians, and Yezidis on the…
The printed word or waving flags, such as this ISIS banner, can only reach so many people.
EPA
On an overcast afternoon in London in May 2013, an off-duty soldier named Lee Rigby was murdered near his barracks in Woolwich, southeast London. Rigby’s killers were two young British men of Nigerian…
The scourge of Pyongyang? ICC chief proescutor Fasou Bensouda.
EPA/Peter de Jong
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has not showered itself in glory of late. Long beset by accusations of bias and ineffectiveness, and with cases looking shaky, the front line of international justice…
Safiya Hussien, the mother of missing 15-year-old schoolgirl Yusra Hussien, urges her daughter to come home.
Ben Birchall/PA
On the morning of September 24 2014, 15-year-old Yusra Hussien left for school near her home in Easton, Bristol. She then disappeared. News reports surfaced a few days later that Yusra and a 17-year-old…
Home and away: Theresa May’s domestic fears hinge on a foreign war.
John Stillwell/PA Wire
As she seeks to push through tough new terrorism legislation, Home Secretary Theresa May has reported an increased danger of terror attacks in the UK. But May’s claim that 40 terrorist plots have been…
Three Australian IS fighters may have been killed in the last month, including Mohammad Ali Baryalei.
AAP Image/YouTube
Estimates are that there are more than 60 Australian citizens in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) armies sweeping through Syria and Iraq. In a recent case, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald last…
David Cameron entering parliament on Friday.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Climate change, Tony Abbott’s encounters with Vladimir Putin, the looming G20 and much else have pushed to the sidelines another important development of this week – the indication from Barack Obama that…
Haram al-Sharif is a focus of rising tensions in Jerusalem.
EPA/Jim Hollander
The seven-week Gaza War ended inconclusively on August 26. Israel declared victory saying that Hamas was seriously weakened and had achieved none of its aims whereas Hamas claimed to have repelled Israel…
We’ve secretly got your back.
EPA/Alaa Al-Shemaree
The Shia militant group Hezbollah has suggested its fight against Islamic State has given it a common purpose with the West. In an interview with the BBC, Mohammed Fneish, a Lebanese Hezbollah minister…
From the Turkish side of the border, residents watch an attack on Islamic State positions in the Syrian town of Kobane.
EPA/Sedat Suna
As the Kurdish town of Kobane continues to defy Islamic State (IS) forces, many pundits have condemned Turkey’s unwillingness to help the People’s Protection Units (YPG) keep the forces of “evil” at bay…
As the battle against Islamic State fighters draws in viewers across the world, there has been some attention given to the men and women resisting them in northern Syria. The Syrian part of Kurdistan…
The start of a beautiful friendship? The US’s John Kerry and Iran’s Javad Zarif.
EPA/Carolyn Kaster/Pool
It’s a desperately sad historical irony: in 2003, the United States invaded Iraq because its secular dictator was allegedly about to supply Islamist terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. About three…