Cessation of hostilities, ceasefire or truce: these terms, all used in attempts to resolve the conflict in Syria, are similar and often used indiscriminately.

However, they have different legal and symbolic meanings.

Tit-for-tat executions on the streets of Dublin and threats to journalists have thrust gangland crime and a violent history to the forefront of Ireland's election campaign ahead of Friday's vote.

The war between two rival criminal gangs with roots in the north and south of the capital culminated with masked men with AK-47 rifles storming a boxing event earlier this month, in an audacious daylight assault that brought armed police patrols and checkpoints to the streets of Dublin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's apparent determination to seal a ceasefire in Syria shows Moscow is keen to cement its gains after saving Bashar Assad and forcing its way back to the heart of international diplomacy, analysts say.

When Moscow blindsided the West by launching a high-risk air campaign last September, Assad's army was crumbling and the Kremlin was being given the cold shoulder over the conflict in Ukraine.

Iranians go to the polls on Friday to elect a new 290-seat parliament and the powerful Assembly of Experts which supervises the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Here are some of the key electoral lists of conservative and reformist candidates:

One is a devout and cheery Saudi, the other a British convert overcome by doubt, the third a Syrian fascinated by the promise of 72 virgins: a new documentary unveils the shadowy world of Syria's would-be suicide bombers.

In a rare, in-depth look at the Al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, the 58-minute documentary "Dugma, the Button" reveals the convictions and doubts of those ready to become martyrs -- "the precision weaponry of the poor," in the words of the filmmaker, Norwegian journalist Pal Refsdal.

Major questions remain over whether a partial truce in Syria, announced by the United States and Russia, will take hold as announced on February 27.

What are its prospects and what should the world expect from the key players in the conflict?

Germany fears xenophobia is taking root in its former communist east, where Islamophobic movement PEGIDA was born and where two recent incidents involving anti-migrant mobs shocked the country.

The ugly scenes of 20 to 30 apparently drunken onlookers cheering as a would-be asylum seeker home went up in flames Sunday in the town of Bautzen in Saxony state prompted one politician to warn that the region risked becoming a "failed state".

Alaa Ammar fled Syria to escape not just civil war but also the threat of persecution as a gay man. Yet when he arrived in The Netherlands last spring, he did not find the safe haven he craved.

He and four other gay travelers had to face newly arrived asylum seekers at a migrant center in the remote northern town of Ter Apel.

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has in the past eight months defied his critics and proven his White House bid is not simply a surreal stunt. 

To the shock of the political world, the 69-year-old onetime reality TV star's nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate is now a genuine possibility.

Prime Minister David Cameron has cleared some key hurdles as he takes his first steps in what promises to be a bitter campaign ahead of an EU membership referendum in June, experts said.

Starting with a reform deal struck at a European Union summit on Friday, Cameron went on to secure the support of the overwhelming majority of his cabinet on Saturday.