Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye endured beatings, torture, cramped spaces and hunger as a hostage of the Islamic State in Syria, topped off with the regular threat of beheading, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.

Russian officials investigating the assassination of their ambassador to Turkey have vowed that the killing would not disrupt efforts to repair the two countries' relationship.

Your letters, your views.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has denied reports that his government is targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure.

A Government TD has called for the immediate expulsion of Russia’s ambassador to Ireland over his country’s alleged involvement in “possible war crimes” in the Syrian city Aleppo.

Turkey's artillery has shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for the second consecutive day.

President Michael D Higgins has urged the country to call for policies that will bring an end to “poverty and violence” worldwide just a day after the picture of a war-ravaged five-year-old Syrian boy caused condemnation across the globe.

While the army’s failed power bid reinforced Erdogan’s power, success would have dealt a long-term blow to democracy in Turkey, writes Dani Rodrik

Turkey’s president is democratically-elected, but has been stripping power from politicians, media, judiciary, and the army. Friday’s coup will give him the pretext for a further clampdown, writes Howard Eissenstat

Russia and its military has proven prowess in learning lessons from its failures, writes Geoffrey Roberts

Support to Life is a Turkey-based international humanitarian aid agency active in emergency relief, recovery and disaster risk management projects.

A Syrian living in Clonakilty, and two volunteers, tell Louise McCarthy of their fears for the war-torn state

Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967.

Warplanes yesterday unleashed air strikes on the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus and near the rebel-held city of Aleppo, hours before a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia was due to go into effect at midnight.

Warplanes have unleashed air strikes on the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus and near the rebel-held city of Aleppo, hours before a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia was due to go into effect.

The tragedy of the Syrian civil war has reached new levels of barbarism over the last week as Bashar-al-Assad’s Russian ally launched air strikes against the civilian population in the rebel-held north of this devastated country.

The United States has imposed sanctions over Iran’s ballistic missile testing, even as President Barack Obama hailed the release of five Americans from Tehran’s custody and a nuclear deal he hopes will stand among his lasting foreign policy achievements.

Donald Trump is likely to lose to Ted Cruz in the race to be Republican presidential nominee, writes John Bruton

So, refugees will not arrive in Ireland before 2016. That’s great, isn’t it?

The same-sex marriage referendum, Ed Sheeran and miniature Guinness cakes were just some the most viewed and talked about videos and issues Irish people engaged with this year.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

In a striking shift, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are embarking on a tentative path toward closer ties and possible military cooperation, as the bitter rift over Ukraine gives way to common cause against the Islamic State group.

IF there is a lesson from the attacks on Paris last Friday, it is that Islamic State has become a truly global threat, more brutal than even al Qaeda, and with the arms, training and money to carry out its plans.

At least 43 people were killed and more than 240 wounded yesterday in two suicide bomb blasts claimed by Islamic State in a crowded residential district in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah.

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, a further sign of the rapid internationalisation of a civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake.

Up to 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war so far, and more than 11m Syrians have become refugees or displaced within Syria. That’s the equivalent of twice the population of Cork City killed and twice the population of all of Ireland homeless.

There are a growing number of forgers capitalising on refugees’ needs for civil documents such as birth certificates and passports. And they don’t come cheap, writes Tania Karas

President Bashar Assad has a “pivotal” role to play in the war on terrorism and in any political settlement to Syria’s devastating civil war, a senior Iranian official said.

One family’s desperate attempt to forge a new life for themselves in fleeing the Syrian civil war has focused world attention on the refugees’ plight by means of one extraordinarily powerful image, writes Caroline O’Doherty.

Greek opposition leaders made zero progress as they pressed on with trying to form a coalition yesterday, despite appeals from home and abroad for a rapid move to elections so the country can deal with its economic and humanitarian crises.

I stand accused by Dr Frank Giles (Letters, Irish Examiner, July 2) of blaming the recent Tunisian mass murders on Western foreign policy and military interventions.

The discovery by Iraqi forensic teams “of mass graves believed to contain some of the soldiers killed by Islamic State (IS) militants last year” (Irish Examiner, 7 April), is, I fear, merely the first in a cycle of IS atrocities as it retreats.

Critics believe Iran will use the deal to boost its economy while continuing to try to build a bomb, but the agreement may be the best global powers could get, writes Dan Perry