Safe havens for Christian and other minorities in the Middle East should be a foreign policy priority for the EU and Ireland, writes Rónán Mullen

The Islamic State group has released at least 200 Yazidis after five months of captivity in Iraq, mostly elderly prisoners who may have been slowing the extremists down.

Islamic State insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used child soldiers in what may amount to systematic war crimes, the UN said.