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

Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs were among about 30 militants killed in a missile attack on a suspected al-Qaida hideout in north-west Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials said today.

Gunfire erupted as hundreds of protesters marched in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk today and at least two people were reported killed in the oil-rich metropolis.

The death toll from Turkey’s prison hunger strike has reached 23 after a former inmate died after a six-month fast to protest a new maximum security prison system.