Weapons, ammunition shipments slowing to Syria’s moderate rebel factions

Disagreements among the countries backing the rebels in Syria have led to a drop in weapons shipments, leaving rebels vulnerable to a government military offensive. | 05/13/13 18:40:44 By - By David Enders

Turkey’s journalists say press freedom has declined under Erdogan’s rule

Veteran journalist Hasan Cemalwas forced out of his job in March for defending his newspaper’s decision to publish secret protocols that embarrassed Turkey’s ruling party. | 05/13/13 16:04:48 By - By Roy Gutman

Nawaz Sharif’s victory in Pakistan elections likely to change nature of U.S. relationship

The victory of Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections will usher in a new period in Pakistan’s relationship with the United States, with Secretary of State John Kerry likely to assume the lead role in relations long dominated by the Pentagon. | 05/13/13 14:29:14 By - By Tom Hussain

Pakistan's Sharif is set up for further conflict with military

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's overwhelming victory in weekend parliamentary elections returns to power a seasoned politician who historically has had rocky ties with Pakistan's powerful military and is viewed by many as soft on militants and extremist groups. | 05/13/13 04:33:20 By - By ALEX RODRIGUEZ

Bombs in Turkish border town kill dozens, intensify Turkish-Syrian tensions

A pair of car bombs killed at least 40 people and raised tensions between Turks and Syrians in this city on the Syrian-Turkish border that is a hub for refugees fleeing the fighting and rebels who use the area to resupply fighters inside Syria. | 05/11/13 14:40:56 By - By David Enders

Guatemala court gives 80-year term to ex-dictator Rios Montt

A three-judge panel Friday convicted former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt of genocide, saying his military regime used “extreme terror” in an effort to wipe out a Mayan minority ethnic group in the early 1980s. | 05/10/13 20:33:13 By - By Tim Johnson

In Mexico, ‘juniors’ and ‘ladies’ find scorn in social networks

Those who resent the powerful ruling class of this country have coined colorful slang phrases for the rich and entitled. The sons of the elite are called “juniors,” or worse “papaloys,” a Spanish language contraction of the words “papa” and “lords.” | 05/10/13 16:44:01 By - By Tim Johnson

Answers to key questions about Guantanamo detention center

Candidate Barack Obama pledged that he’d close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Easier said than done. As president, Obama has failed to shut down the facility he calls “expensive,” and “inefficient” and a “recruitment tool for terrorists.” | 05/09/13 18:05:01 By - By Michael Doyle and Carol Rosenberg

Yemeni minister, expecting high-level Guantanamo talks, leaves Washington in a huff

Yemen’s human rights minister breezed into Washington this week expecting the opportunity to lobby U.S. officials for the release from Guantanamo of Yemeni detainees, who make up more than half the population at the controversial U.S.-run prison that President Barack Obama has pledged to close. | 05/09/13 17:50:48 By - By Hannah Allam

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s likely next prime minister, pledges to curb attacks on India

With Pakistanis heading to the polls Saturday, the man who’s expected to be the country’s next prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has signaled his determination to seize control of policy toward longtime foe India from Pakistan’s overbearing military and prevent militants from staging attacks on India from Pakistani soil. | 05/09/13 15:18:31 By - By Tom Hussain

Son of ex-Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani kidnapped in bid to disrupt elections

Suspected militant extremists kidnapped the youngest son of Pakistan’s former prime minister Thursday in the central city of Multan, the latest in a series of attacks aimed at disrupting the campaign for the country’s general election Saturday. | 05/09/13 13:52:10 By - By Tom Hussain

Mexico, to attract U.S. retirees, may ease limits on landownership

Mexican legislators may soon lift a major impediment for foreigners who want to own a piece of Mexico’s Pacific or Caribbean coasts. For the first time in nearly a century, lawmakers are moving to allow non-Mexicans to buy coastal real estate and hold the deeds to it, without having to set up bank trusts or find silent Mexican partners. | 05/09/13 13:06:02 By - By Tim Johnson

Reputation remake: Tilt-rotor Osprey wins fans in Afghanistan

Almost four years after the MV-22 Osprey arrived in Afghanistan, trailing a reputation as dangerous and hard to maintain, the U.S. Marines Corps finally has had an opportunity to test the controversial hybrid aircraft in real war conditions. The reviews are startlingly positive. | 05/09/13 12:19:26 By - By Jay Price

In hearing on Benghazi attack, new facts are few but politics plentiful

A much anticipated congressional hearing Wednesday on the September 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya, produced no major revelations but plenty of partisan fireworks as Republicans renewed charges that the Obama administration had covered up details of what took place while Democrats retorted that politics is driving the GOP-run investigation. | 05/08/13 19:49:29 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

An encounter shows Kurdish guerrillas in no hurry to abandon Turkey’s mountains

On the first day of what was supposed to be the pullout of Kurdish guerrilla forces from Turkey, there was no sign Wednesday that any units had crossed the international border, and insurgents told McClatchy it could take up to three months for them to withdraw to northern Iraq. | 05/08/13 18:58:29 By - By Roy Gutman

Russians, U.S. agree to Syria talks, but anti-Assad opposition may refuse to participate

The United States and Russia agreed Tuesday to try to convene an international conference on ending Syria’s brutal civil war – possibly by the end of May – but the effort appeared to run into trouble within hours of its announcement with the key U.S.-backed opposition group reiterating that it won’t attend talks involving top Assad regime officials. | 05/07/13 20:20:57 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam

Mohammed Morsi reshuffles Egypt’s Cabinet; 3 posts go to Muslim Brotherhood

President Mohammed Morsi named nine new ministers to his government Tuesday, including three members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a move that his prime minister, Hesham Kandil, said was intended to re-energize efforts to reverse Egypt’s prolonged economic spiral. | 05/07/13 19:44:17 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Syrian rebel leader Salim Idriss admits difficulty of unifying fighters

The defected Syrian general whom the United States has tapped as its conduit for aid to the rebels has acknowledged in an interview with McClatchy that his movement is badly fragmented and lacks the military skill needed to topple the government of President Bashar Assad. | 05/07/13 17:16:55 By - By David Enders

Pakistan election campaign reflects new faith in democratic process

Pakistanis head to the polls Saturday to elect a new Parliament after five years of bitter disputes with the United States over bases for the Afghan Taliban, U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the covert operation that killed Osama bin Laden. But those topics have been largely ignored in the election campaign. | 05/06/13 15:48:21 By - By Tom Hussain

Drone cargo helicopters prove worth in Afghanistan, leading way to civilian uses

In the fast-growing world of unmanned aircraft, the K-MAX’s success is a significant step toward what’s expected to be a host of new military and civilian roles for cargo drones. Over the past 16 months, two drone helicopters that were sent to Afghanistan as an experiment have delivered 3.2 millions of pounds of cargo across Helmand and flown more than 1,000 missions. | 05/06/13 00:00:00 By -

Debate over Easter greetings roil Egypt’s sensitive religious tension

As Egypt prepares to celebrate Orthodox Easter this weekend, controversial comments by a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood have sparked debate over whether supporters of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who rose to prominence through the group, can wish their Christian countrymen “Happy Easter” without being considered un-Islamic. | 05/03/13 16:33:54 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Rate of killings in Syria peaks in April amid government counteroffensive

The pace of killing in Syria’s civil war reached a new high in April, with one human rights group counting an average of 196 deaths daily for the month. | 05/03/13 16:22:50 By - By David Enders

Pakistani prosecutor who charged Musharraf in Benazir Bhutto slaying is gunned down

A Pakistani state prosecutor leading a federal investigation into the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was gunned down by suspected terrorists Friday as he drove away from his residence in the heart of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. | 05/03/13 15:21:24 By - By Tom Hussain

Obama might accept immigration bill without help for same-sex couples

President Barack Obama said Friday he might accept a rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws even if it did not allow tens of thousands of same-sex couples to apply for legal status for their foreign-born partners. | 05/03/13 21:31:16 By - By Anita Kumar and Tim Johnson

Audit casts doubt on number of Afghan troops U.S. has trained

Since the United States first sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, a signature goal of the war has been to increase Afghan national security forces and give their members the skills to vanquish domestic terrorist groups and other security threats on their own. | 05/03/13 00:00:00 By - By Richard H.P. Sia

Yemen human rights minister in Washington to talk about Guantanamo detainees

With a weeks-long hunger strike focusing new attention on conditions at the United States’ controversial detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the minister of human rights for Yemen is due in Washington on Friday for talks she hopes will lead to the repatriation of at least some of the scores of Yemenis held at the island prison. | 05/02/13 19:46:17 By - By Adam Baron

Afghan spy chief Asadullah Khalid back in U.S. for medical care

Khalid’s absence – and the scramble to succeed him, should he not be able to return – is likely to hamstring progress on a wide range of issues in which the Afghan intelligence agency and its chief play huge roles, from conflict with Pakistan over border security and Taliban havens in that country to the nascent peace process with the Taliban, which is considered crucial to U.S. plans to withdraw. | 05/02/13 17:09:17 By - By Jay Price and Jonathan S. Landay

Obama, Mexico’s leader link trade to immigration

President Barack Obama won the strong support of Mexico’s new president Thursday to control the flow of migrants and strengthen border security, measures that may give momentum to a pending overhaul of U.S. immigration laws before Congress. | 05/02/13 20:44:22 By - By Tim Johnson

Afghan spy chief quietly returns to US for medical treatment

Afghan spy chief quietly returns to US for treatment of wounds from assassination attempt amid rising tensions with Pakistan. | 05/02/13 11:16:27 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Jay Price

Helmand has become almost dull for Marines, with Afghans now leading combat

For years, U.S. Marines have fought and died in Helmand, a hot, dusty province in Afghanistan’s south that’s earned a bloody place in corps lore, right beside the likes of Anbar province in Iraq. It’s been by far the deadliest province for the U.S-led coalition. But the days of heavy combat and casualties in Helmand are over, at least for conventional American troops. And soon that might be true across Afghanistan. | 05/01/13 16:19:20 By - By Jay Price

Mexico seizes father-in-law of Sinaloa drug cartel chief on eve of Obama visit

Authorities on Tuesday captured the father-in-law of the powerful chief of the Sinaloa Cartel, chalking up a victory against crime in a week in which President Barack Obama is to travel to Mexico. | 04/30/13 22:09:01 By - By Tim Johnson

New accusation on chemical weapons in Syria underscores Obama’s line that we don’t know much

Even as President Barack Obama insisted Tuesday that the United States knows very little about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, dueling reports surfaced of a new chemical attack in a town near the Turkish border, demonstrating how complex the issue can be. | 04/30/13 19:23:23 By - By Matthew Schofield, Paul Raymond and Roy Gutman

Already unable to cope with refugees, Syria’s neighbors brace for more

Aarsal’s city hall now stays open seven days a week to accommodate the refugees camped in the building’s courtyard, waiting to be told where they might find shelter. | 04/30/13 17:59:25 By - By David Enders and Nabih Bulos

In Saudi Arabia, advocating peaceful change leads to lengthy prison terms for two dissidents

Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court, created five years ago to handle terrorism suspects, would seem a strange venue to try two of the country’s foremost human rights champions. The case against them reads not like a terror plot but a mission statement for a civil liberties group. | 04/30/13 17:45:31 By - By Roy Gutman

As combat role eases, aircraft crashes are biggest killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan

U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan remain at the lowest levels in recent years. The number so far this year, 33, is the lowest at this point since 2008. After air accidents, the next biggest cause of death was improvised bombs, which claimed at least eight service members. | 04/30/13 16:58:29 By - By Jay Price

Chinese phoenixes soar at D.C.’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

There’s nothing wimpy about Xu Bing’s phoenixes. Even the two fragile, broken clay models on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery here show the power of the mythical birds. | 04/30/13 13:07:38 By - Tish Wells

Syrian troops recapture villages near strategic city of Qusayr

A Syrian government offensive near the Lebanese border is being described as the fiercest fighting in months by villagers fleeing the violence, with troops loyal to President Bashar Assad seizing control of villages that had been rebel strongholds. | 04/29/13 18:30:41 By - By David Enders

Karachi is part of Pakistani Taliban plan to bring war to urban centers

A spate of Pakistani Taliban bomb attacks on candidates campaigning for Pakistan’s May 11 general election in the coastal city of Karachi has signaled what people close to al Qaida say is a strategic shift by the country’s militant insurgency from areas bordering Afghanistan to major urban centers. | 04/29/13 17:03:29 By - By Tom Hussain

As reports of chemical weapons abound, Obama urges caution on Syria

With lawmakers of both parties clamoring for some kind of larger U.S. role in Syria’s civil war, President Barack Obama sought Friday to slow a rush to judgment that regime forces have loosed chemical weapons on civilians, cautioning that “confirmation and strong evidence” of “this potential use” are still needed. | 04/26/13 19:29:29 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

GOP report: Emails show White House tried to shield State Department from Benghazi criticism

The State Department requested that key information be deleted from controversial talking points about the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. outposts in eastern Libya, not because of concern about revealing intelligence secrets but because the information revealed that the State Department had not responded properly to a growing extremist threat, Republican lawmakers charge in a report released Tuesday. | 04/23/13 19:37:21 By - By Hannah Allam

U.S., Israel spar over whether Syrian government has used chemical weapons

Israel’s top military intelligence analyst said Tuesday that the Syrian regime used lethal chemical weapons last month against opposition forces and criticized the international community for failing to act on evidence that “red lines” had been crossed in Syria. | 04/23/13 18:42:57 By - By Sheera Frenkel, David Enders and Hannah Allam

Senate hearing blasts Obama’s refusal to share details of drone program

Democratic and Republican senators joined a former deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday in urging the Obama administration to make public more information about its top-secret targeted killing program amid questions about the legality and effectiveness of hundreds of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere. | 04/23/13 19:18:38 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Crisis in political alliance imperils reform drive in Mexico

A vaunted three-party alliance that sustains President Enrique Pena Nieto’s drive to enact major changes in Mexico is severely fraying, casting a shadow over pending overhauls in tax collection, finance and energy production. | 04/23/13 16:58:03 By - By Tim Johnson

Assad forces retake towns near Damascus; Syria opposition group unveils new leader

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have overrun towns southwest of Damascus that had been dominated by anti-Assad forces for most of the past year, leaving at least 100 people dead. | 04/22/13 19:12:02 By - By David Enders and Roy Gutman

Florida Opa-locka field was once the site of secret CIA base

All that remains of the secret CIA base is a grassy field on the northeastern corner of Opa-locka Airport. But 60 years ago on that very spot was Building 67, a two-story barracks, that in 1953 and 1954 served as CIA field headquarters for the covert operation that overthrew leftist Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. | 04/22/13 13:13:43 By - Alfonso Chardy

U.S., allies agree on rules for sending military aid to Syrian rebels

In a move intended to trim support to Islamist extremists who now play a leading role in the Syrian uprising, the United States, Turkey and key Gulf allies this weekend agreed to funnel future military aid only through the internationally recognized Syrian rebel coalition. | 04/21/13 18:56:55 By - By Roy Gutman

In test of Pakistani democracy, Pervez Musharraf appears in court

Pervez Musharraf, the 69-year-old former president of Pakistan, surrendered to authorities Friday and was arraigned before a local magistrate on a range of charges that could send him to prison for years. He was the first of the country’s four former military dictators to appear before a civilian court. | 04/19/13 15:35:26 By - By Tom Hussain

Syrian opposition leader Moaz al Khatib calls on Nusra to renounce al Qaida

The leader of the primary U.S.-backed Syrian opposition group, who criticized the United States last year for designating the rebel Nusra Front a terrorist organization linked to al Qaida, now is urging Nusra’s fighters to break ties with al Qaida. | 04/18/13 18:23:29 By - By David Enders McClatchy Newspapers

Audit criticizes USAID on power project in Afghanistan

The U.S. goal of building a self-sufficient power network in Afghanistan is threatened by an expiring subsidy and poor project management by the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to a new federal audit. | 04/18/13 18:22:48 By - By Lindsay Wise

Poland’s new Jewish museum to celebrate life, not revisit the Holocaust

Poland’s newest museum stands in the heart of the former Warsaw ghetto, where 70 years ago Jews rebelled against their German oppressors. | 04/18/13 16:53:00 By - By Roy Gutman

Once Pakistan’s strongman, Pervez Musharraf holed up at farm in test of country’s democracy

From October 1999 to February 2008, Pervez Musharraf held unequaled power in Pakistan as the country’s dictatorial president and a key ally in the United States’ war on terror. President George W. Bush was considered a close personal friend. | 04/18/13 15:01:57 By - By Tom Hussain

‘Grandmother of Afghanistan’ Nancy Hatch Dupree says it may be time to move on

Dupree came to Afghanistan in 1962 with her first husband, a U.S. diplomat. She’ll leave, if she can finally make herself do it, as a revered figure. During her decades here, she’s been ejected by the Russians, turned down a request for help from Osama bin Laden, guided countless relief efforts, aided refugees, advised journalists, politicians and the United Nations, and written five travel guides and hundreds of articles on topics including Afghan history, archaeology, women issues and libraries. | 04/18/13 14:55:30 By - By Jay Price

Environmentalists want feds to halt imports of Russian timber that endanger rare tigers

U.S. consumers who purchase hardwood floors and furniture products made with illegally cut Russian timber unwittingly may be damaging the last remaining habitat of the endangered and noble Amur tiger. | 04/16/13 19:34:03 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Kerry meets with parents of slain press officer Anne Smedinghoff on return from 10-day trip

Secretary of State John Kerry met Monday with the family of a 25-year-old Foreign Service officer who’d died in a suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan nine days earlier. | 04/15/13 19:41:06 By - By Hannah Allam and Mark Seibel

Salam Fayyad’s resignation as Palestinian premier seen as blow to peace plan

The resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad over the weekend has raised doubts about the stability of the Palestinian government and cast a shadow over the new U.S.-led diplomatic push to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. | 04/15/13 16:51:55 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Kerry: U.S. will talk directly to North Korea if it ends nuclear arms program

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that he was “not going to close the door” on the possibility of direct talks with North Korea, a move that would fit into his stated mission to find new approaches to long-festering foreign policy problems. | 04/14/13 16:44:07 By - By Hannah Allam

Kerry leaves China with no evident breakthrough on North Korea

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday wrapped up a whirlwind visit to China with pledges of a deeper partnership on energy, economic and environmental projects, but no real breakthrough on his top agenda item: North Korea. | 04/13/13 17:45:17 By - By Hannah Allam

In South Korea, John Kerry tries to cool tension over North Korea threats

The fever pitch surrounding North Korea’s threats of hostile action began to ease Friday, as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in South Korea to push a diplomatic track that would include China to defuse the tension. | 04/12/13 17:08:49 By - By Hannah Allam and Tom Lasseter

North Korean saber rattling dominates Kerry’s visit to Asia

Secretary of State John Kerry arrives Friday in a tense Asia, where he’ll urge China to deliver a “tough message” to North Korea and reassure allies that the Obama administration stands behind them as anxiety rises over Pyongyang’s saber rattling. | 04/11/13 19:49:15 By - By Hannah Allam

On North Korea, Obama says US 'will take all neccessary steps to protect its people'

Obama's remarks came as he met in the Oval Office with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. | 04/11/13 16:48:10 By - Lesley Clark

Yemenis hopeful about impact of new military decrees

The slew of decrees that Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued Wednesday evening were the most significant steps he’s taken toward reshaping the country’s military since he took office last year, and many here cast them as a historic move. | 04/11/13 14:08:47 By - By Adam Baron

Syrian rebel group swears allegiance to al Qaida, complicating Western military aid

The jihadist group at the forefront of Syrian rebel gains on Wednesday pledged allegiance to al Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri, underscoring the bind U.S. and Western European governments are in even as they move toward broader military support for moderate elements of the Syrian opposition. | 04/10/13 17:49:28 By - By Hannah Allam

Witness: Anne Smedinghoff, other Americans killed in Afghan bombing were on foot, lost

A promising young U.S. Foreign Service officer, three American soldiers and a civilian government contractor who were killed Saturday in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan probably wouldn’t have been close to the blast if they hadn’t gotten lost while walking to the school where they were to participate in a book-donation ceremony, according to an Afghan television reporter who was with them and was wounded in the attack. | 04/10/13 16:51:53 By - By Jay Price and Rezwan Natiq

Nusra Front members in Syria have never masked al Qaida ties

I was recently abducted by a group of rebels in northern Syria. I was strip-searched and held, handcuffed and blindfolded, for six hours along with three Syrian men before we were let go. Our captors suspected me – an American journalist – of being a spy. | 04/10/13 15:23:16 By - By David Enders

John Kerry: Israel, Palestinians to push West Bank economy as step to peace

Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian officials had agreed on a plan to boost the dismal economy of the West Bank, the first concrete measure to emerge from an ambitious new U.S.-led push to restart peace talks after a four-year deadlock. | 04/09/13 18:58:32 By - By Hannah Allam and Sheera Frenkel

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng calls on U.S. to act against human rights abuses

Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese dissident who escaped from house arrest in April 2012, testified in person before Congress for the first time Thursday about China’s human rights violations. | 04/09/13 19:00:52 By - By Emma Kantrowitz

U.S. secret: CIA collaborated with Pakistan spy agency in drone war

Even as its civilian leaders publicly decried U.S. drone attacks as breaches of sovereignty and international law, Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency secretly worked for years with the CIA on strikes that killed Pakistani insurgent leaders and scores of suspected lower-level fighters, according to classified U.S. intelligence reports. | 04/09/13 16:13:52 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Obama’s drone war kills ‘others,’ not just al Qaida leaders

Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show. | 04/09/13 23:18:54 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Margaret Thatcher’s sharp tongue behind her ‘Iron Lady’ reputation

She had a clear vision and a blunt way of expressing it, and for 11 years as British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher wasn’t afraid to dispense tart advice to successive U.S. presidents. | 04/09/13 18:55:56 By - By Roy Gutman

State Department’s Anne Smedinghoff had left Kabul for book donation event

The young U.S. State Department official who was killed Saturday in a suicide truck bombing in southern Afghanistan had been escorting Afghan journalists from Kabul who were planning to cover American officials donating books to a school, colleagues said in interviews Monday. | 04/08/13 17:50:54 By - By Jay Price

Despite U.S. concerns, little prevents Islamists from joining Syria fight

For all the Obama administration’s vocal concern about Islamist extremists fighting in Syria, neither U.S. officials nor regional allies have taken significant action to stem the flow of jihadists to rebel ranks. | 04/08/13 16:52:36 By - By Hannah Allam and David Enders

Kerry confirms start of ‘quiet strategy’ to revive Mideast peace talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the “festering absence of peace” between Israelis and Palestinians only fuels extremism and that the time is right for renewed efforts toward resolving the decades-old conflict. | 04/08/13 16:44:09 By - By Hannah Allam and Sheera Frenkel

Kerry pushes for Turkish role in peace talks, but Israelis, Palestinians say ‘no’

Amid fears that a U.S.-backed reconciliation between Israel and Turkey might unravel, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Turkish leaders Sunday that it was vital for peace in the region that the two close U.S. allies get their relations “back on track in its full measure.” | 04/07/13 18:11:35 By - By Roy Gutman and Hannah Allam

5 Americans killed in Taliban suicide blast; separate attack killed 6th, NATO says

Five Americans were killed when a bomb targeted a convoy in southern Afghanistan on Saturday in the deadliest single combat incident for U.S. citizens this year. | 04/06/13 17:17:54 By - By Jay Price and Rezwan Natiq

Obama, Kerry dust off old Arab peace proposal in push to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Obama administration is exploring whether a long-abandoned initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia 11 years ago could become the basis for a regional peace agreement between Israel and its neighbors, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials. | 04/06/13 10:45:35 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Yemen begins push to get citizens out of Guantanamo detention

Abdulrahman al Shabati, his parents say, never had any connection to al Qaida. Instead, they insist, his decade-long detention at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is little more than a case of terrible luck. | 04/05/13 19:16:37 By - By Adam Baron

Beyoncé and Jay-Z stroll in Havana, Cuba

Dozens of Cubans crowded around R&B diva Beyoncé and husband-rapper Jay-Z as they toured Old Havana on Thursday after celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary with island staples like daiquiris, and rice and black beans. | 04/05/13 13:40:30 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Can Cyprus’ economic crisis end long division between Turkish north and Greek south?

When Cyprus’ banking system imploded last month, dooming the country to economic contraction and years of depression, Turkish Cypriots who dominate the northern part of the island had a distinctly more upbeat reaction than the Greek Cypriots who dominate the south. | 04/04/13 17:26:32 By - By Roy Gutman

For China’s pig farmers, carcasses in river a sign of government’s dysfunction

The pig farmer was not in a good mood. Standing in front of barns that hold more than 500 pigs, the man with muck-splattered boots said he’s been losing money as the price of pork falls and the cost of feed and other supplies climb. | 04/04/13 15:24:24 By - By Tom Lasseter

Do North Korea’s threats mask power struggle behind the scenes?

The North Korean army warned the United States on Wednesday it has been cleared to wage nuclear war using “smaller, lighter and diversified weapons.” | 04/03/13 19:21:58 By - By Matthew Schofield and Tom Lasseter

U.S. Embassy in Cairo deletes Twitter post that angered Morsi supporters in Egypt

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo shut down its provocative Twitter account for more than two hours Wednesday, one day after posting a clip from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in which host Jon Stewart bashed the government of Mohammed Morsi for arresting a popular Egyptian satirist who’s often compared to Stewart. | 04/03/13 20:54:00 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

In deadliest attack this year, Taliban storm Afghan courthouse, kill at least 44

Taliban fighters wearing Afghan army uniforms stormed a provincial courthouse in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 90 in a complex attack that began with the explosion of a truck bomb followed by an assault in which the attackers took hostages and kicked off a gun battle with Afghan security forces that lasted until late afternoon. | 04/03/13 17:24:54 By - By Jay Price and Rezwan Natiq

In rebel-held Syria, some schools try to carry on

It’s unlikely the students and teachers at Taha Hussein High School will soon forget last year’s summer break. | 04/03/13 16:03:15 By - By David Enders

Chinese court sentences man to 3 years, 6 months for murder during Cultural Revolution

An 80-year-old man accused of killing a local doctor during China’s Cultural Revolution 45 years ago has been sentenced to three years and six months, a punishment the court said was appropriately light in part because the crime took place during “a special historical period.” | 04/02/13 13:30:29 By - By Tom Lasseter

March was deadliest month of Syrian war, as rebel deaths surged

March was the deadliest month so far in Syria’s two-year-old civil war, as rebels pressed their offensive throughout the country, seizing a provincial capital for the first time and launching attacks on other fronts. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 5,896 civilians and combatants died last month, surpassing the 5,400 deaths the observatory recorded in August, the previous high-water mark. The observatory recorded 3,893 deaths in February. | 04/01/13 16:29:59 By - By David Enders

As Syria’s war rages, villagers who’d fled to cities for better lives return

Until a few months ago, the village of Dweetchia was all but empty, one of hundreds of once-populated specks in northern and eastern Syria that had been abandoned over the last decade because of drought, environmental mismanagement and poverty, a modern exodus that led perhaps as many as a million Syrians to search for better lives elsewhere. The conditions that drove people from the villages haven’t changed, but Dweetchia is once again full of people. Many of its former residents have returned, joined by refugees seeking safety from the fighting that’s ravaged much of the country. | 04/01/13 00:00:00 By - By David Enders

Cyprus’ banks reopen, but ‘Russians’ might lose big

Banks reopened Thursday in crisis-stricken Cyprus after a 12-day closure, but not everyone joined the queues, as small enterprises all over the island appeared to be on the verge of going under and unable to meet payrolls. | 03/28/13 19:03:21 By - By Roy Gutman

Gulf Cartel’s power struggle holds Mexican city of Reynosa hostage

The sinister-looking men seem to be everywhere. They stand idly, walkie-talkies in hand, at key intersections or at the entrances to gated communities where their unseen masters live. They are the front line of the dark power struggle that’s roiling Reynosa, a Mexican border city just a short drive from the tranquillity of Texas. | 03/28/13 15:31:01 By - By Tim Johnson

As Egypt’s foreign currency reserves fall, black market in dollars thrives

In today’s moribund Egyptian economy, a man who calls himself Youssef has become a crucial component to keeping the wheels of commerce turning. He’s a black-market money dealer, selling dollars for Egyptian pounds at a markup. With the Egyptian government desperate to keep dollars in the country, banks are limited in how many they may let their clients have. People who need dollars are willing to pay Youssef more to get them. He’s become one of the few sources of unlimited capital in Egypt. | 03/28/13 14:05:11 By - By Amina Ismail

Iraqi oil: Once seen as U.S. boon, now it’s mostly China’s

Ten years after the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, the country’s oil industry is poised to boom and make the troubled nation the No.2 oil exporter in the world. But the nation that’s moving to take advantage of Iraq’s riches isn’t the United States. It’s China. | 03/27/13 15:31:53 By - By Sean Cockerham

Debunking the myth of King Arthur

The myth of King Arthur, his queen, Guinevere, and the knights of the Round Table is too ingrained in our collective psyche to be overthrown by mere facts questioning his very existence. But British academic Professor Guy Halsall tries anyway | 03/27/13 11:25:03 By - Tish Wells

In Cyprus financial crisis, even Orthodox Church likely to lose millions

Cyprus, a palm-fringed island in the Mediterranean Sea, has long held three distinctions. Now it has another: It’s the only place in the continuing euro currency crisis in which the government has agreed to force bank account holders to help pay for the rescue of debt-ridden banks. The cost for many savers and businesses would be staggering. | 03/26/13 18:25:18 By - By Roy Gutman

Islamists, secular rebels battle in Syria over Nusra Front’s call for Islamic state

Two Syrian rebel groups – one seeking an elected civil government, the other favoring the establishment of a religious state – are battling each other in the city of Tal Abyad, on the border with Turkey, in a sign of the tensions that are likely to rule this country if the government of President Bashar Assad falls. | 03/26/13 15:32:24 By - By David Enders

Brazil is in the market for immigrants — millions of them

While the United States wrangles over immigration policy, Brazil has already made up its mind about immigrants. It wants more — as many as 6 million more. | 03/26/13 15:15:26 By - Mimi Whitehead

As U.S. tightens rules on lead emissions, battery recycling has moved to Mexico

Mexico’s standard for lead emissions standards are 10 times less stringent than the United States’. Since 2004, that’s meant a fivefold increase in the number of spent car batteries being shipped to Mexico from the United States and a dwindling in U.S.-based smelting operations to just 14. | 03/26/13 16:49:36 By - By Tim Johnson

Obama’s Syria policy in shambles as Assad opposition squabbles

The Obama administration’s Syria policy was unraveling Monday after weekend developments left the Syrian Opposition Coalition and its military command in turmoil, with the status of its leader uncertain and its newly selected prime minister rejected by the group’s military wing. State Department officials said they still planned to work with the coalition, to which the United States has pledged $60 million, but analysts said the developments were one more sign that the Obama administration and its European allies had no workable Syria policy. | 03/25/13 19:26:26 By - By Hannah Allam

Ben Zygier, Israel’s Prisoner X, reportedly revealed IDs of 2 Mossad informants

Why Mossad agent Ben Zygier, who was known until earlier this year only as Prisoner X, was jailed had been a lingering mystery of the case. Zygier spent nearly a year in solitary confinement so intense that not even his jailers knew his real name before he died, allegedly a suicide. Israeli officials added to the mystery by banning journalists from reporting on the case after Zygier was found dead in his cell in December 2010. | 03/25/13 15:19:01 By - By Sheera Frenkel

In Raqqa, largest city held by Syrian rebels, Islamists provide electricity, bread, and order

The sounds of battle can still be heard nearby and residents remain fearful that the government will attack with airstrikes and missiles. But Abdul Hakim Mohamed, the vice president of the local civil council in the largest Syrian city so far to fall to rebel control is optimistic about the future, though what that future will be is uncertain. | 03/24/13 13:06:59 By - By David Enders

Turkey sees accords with Israel, Kurds as first step to greater regional role

After two major breakthroughs in less than a week – an accord to end a three-year squabble with Israel and a landmark step by a jailed Kurdish leader to settle a 30-year insurgency – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s star appears to be rising – and with it, Turkey’s role as a major regional power. | 03/23/13 18:37:27 By - By Roy Gutman

Obama plays tourist at end of Mideast trip

Content that he laid the groundwork for possible improvements in the Middle East, President Barack Obama played tourist Saturday, gazing at the wonder of the ancient city of Petra on his last stop of a four-day trip to the Mideast. | 03/23/13 16:20:32 By - By Lesley Clark

Obama vows to help Jordan take care of Syrian refugees

President Barack Obama on Friday pledged $200 million in new aid to Jordan to help it handle a flood of refugees seeking shelter from the raging civil war in neighboring Syria. | 03/22/13 18:41:43 By - By Lesley Clark

‘Sorry’ says Israel’s Netanyahu, opening way for diplomatic relations with Turkey

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized Friday to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ending a nearly three-year-long feud in a phone call brokered by President Barack Obama. | 03/22/13 18:22:45 By - By Sheera Frenkel, Hannah Allam and Roy Gutman

Turkish Kurds take big step toward ending insurgency

The scene could not have been imagined just two years ago. Before a million Turkish Kurds, many waving their own tricolor flag, and with millions more Turks following it live on national television, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish PKK insurgency called via written letter for an end to his 30-year insurgency. | 03/22/13 17:34:35 By - By Roy Gutman

Obama charms Israel but chills Palestinians

Across Israel Friday, news stations aired a special live broadcast of President Barack Obama’s last day in the Jewish state with a headline summarizing his visit: “US President wins our hearts and minds.” | 03/22/13 19:16:07 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Remarks of President Barack Obama To the People of Israel

Shalom. It is an honor to be here with you in Jerusalem, and I am so grateful for the welcome that I have received from the people of Israel. I bring with me the support of the American people, and the friendship that binds us together. | 03/21/13 18:47:59 By -

Israel says chemical weapons used in Syrian conflict

Israeli officials said there was "compelling evidence" that chemical agents were used in an attack against civilians in northern Syria earlier this week, citing satellite imagery and reports from the ground. | 03/21/13 18:25:23 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Obama shifts tone on Israeli settlements

President Barack Obama shuttled between the West Bank and Jerusalem on Thursday, prodding Palestinians and Israelis to restart peace talks as he acknowledged decades of frustration but insisted it’s in both sides’ best interest. | 03/21/13 19:41:17 By - By Lesley Clark and Sheera Frenkel

UN refugee chief: Aid agencies overwhelmed as Syrian crisis worsens

With the dramatic increase in Syrian refugees outpacing international funding to deal with the crisis, some aid agencies could be paralyzed within weeks, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees warned Wednesday. | 03/20/13 16:49:31 By - By Hannah Allam

Think you know the facts about Iraq War? Think again.

A decade after the beginning of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, myths and distortions persist about how the conflict evolved into the current incarnation of Iraq as a fragile, highly sectarian state with a domestic political crisis that’s only exacerbated by volatile neighbors Syria and Iran. | 03/19/13 17:54:40 By - By Hannah Allam

Syrian opposition names U.S. citizen Ghassan Hitto to prime minister post

After two days of meetings that lasted into the wee hours of Tuesday, Syrian opposition leaders elected a prime minister to lead their interim opposition government. But questions remained about the prime minister’s responsibilities and whether a government in exile would have any real influence inside Syria. | 03/19/13 15:09:59 By - By David Enders

South Koreans worry about how to confront North Korea’s nuclear threat

After decades of agreements brokered and broken, North Korea today is a bigger nuclear threat than ever, and no one seems to have a solution for what is, by all accounts, an increasingly tense situation. One resident of Seoul likened it to his years living in Japan: People there feared earthquakes, but there was nothing to do but go on living. | 03/19/13 13:39:07 By - By Tom Lasseter

Iraq changed U.S. military tactics – think quick and small

Ten years ago, the United States massed a traditional military force behind sand-berm walls separating Kuwait from Iraq. | 03/19/13 17:09:52 By - By Matthew Schofield

253,000 U.S. guns smuggled to Mexico annually, study finds

Some 2.2 percent of all U.S. gun sales are made to smuggling rings that take firearms to Mexico, a scale of illegal trafficking that’s “much higher than widely assumed,” an academic study released Monday found. | 03/18/13 18:44:10 By - By Tim Johnson

Cyclical nature of Afghan fighting may mask deeper trends, experts warn

NATO troops have followed an annual rhythm in the Afghan War, referred to by Pentagon officials, the soldiers on the ground and journalists alike as the “fighting season.” Generally, they describe it as beginning and ending with the warmer months. The lull is ascribed to snowbound mountain passes. But that common wisdom isn’t exactly true, and may have distorted the real picture of how the war has evolved, one counterinsurgency expert says. He thinks the Taliban have begun hoarding their fighters over the warm months, biding their time until the Americans leave. | 03/18/13 15:32:21 By - By Jay Price

Blogger Yoani Sánchez remembers Cuba's Black Spring detentions

Renowned Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez ended her three-day participation in a technology and information seminar in New York remembering the impact of the Black Spring, a wave of massive detentions that took place in Cuba a decade ago. | 03/18/13 06:53:44 By - Juan Carlos Chavez

In historic first, Pakistan’s civilian government completes its term without a coup

Pakistan’s Parliament completed its term Saturday and the coalition government was dissolved, the first time in the country’s history that a democratically elected government has served its full five years in office. | 03/16/13 17:18:34 By - By Saeed Shah

Priest details arrest during Argentine dirty war but doesn’t comment on Pope Francis’ role

A Jesuit priest whose kidnapping by the Argentine military in 1976 has raised the issue of what role newly named Pope Francis played in that country’s so-called “dirty war” said Friday that he was “reconciled to the events” and wished the pope well, but he did not explicitly absolve the pope of involvement in his detention. | 03/15/13 20:44:55 By - By Daniel Politi

U.S. to add missile interceptors to counter North Korean saber-rattling

Responding to a new level of belligerence from North Korea, the United States will place more missile interceptors in Alaska to respond to a nuclear threat that’s advancing faster than anticipated, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday. His announcement comes as North Korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric, threatening to attack the U.S. and taking a more aggressive tone toward South Korea. Fourteen new ground-based interceptors will be placed mostly in a reopened missile field at Fort Greely, bringing the number of U.S. interceptors in the area to 44. Hagel said the $1 billion program should be ready by 2017. | 03/15/13 18:19:05 By - By Matthew Schofield

Americans expect little from Obama’s Middle East trip

Few Americans expect much progress on Middle East peace during President Barack Obama’s trip to Israel and the West Bank, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. | 03/15/13 18:14:14 By - By Lesley Clark

Islamist rebels consolidating hold in three northeast Syrian provinces

Rebels from Syria’s Islamist factions now control large parts of three contiguous provinces in north and eastern Syria, and they are working to install civil administrations there in line with their ambitions of establishing an Islamic state after the fall of President Bashar Assad. | 03/15/13 17:51:00 By - By David Enders

Translation of statement from Father Franz Jalics SJ

Statement by Father Franz Jalics SJ: I lived in Buenos Aires since 1957. In 1974, moved by the inner desire to live the Gospel and enhance visibility of the abject poverty, and with the permission of Archbishop Aramburu and the then Provincial, P. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, I moved to a favela, a slum of the city, together with a fellow brother. While living there, we continued to teach at the university. | 03/15/13 17:40:39 By - Translation by C. Himmelreich

10 years after Iraq invasion, Sunnis who backed Saddam chafe under Shiite rule

A decade after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq is still a broken country. Its government is democratically elected, but nearly everyone sees it as dysfunctional, and many observers wonder whether the country can hold together and function as a normal state. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is widely criticized for what critics call his manipulation of the political process, though they concede that at least some of the problems he faces were inherited from the U.S. occupation. | 03/15/13 17:07:16 By - By Roy Gutman

Jesuits excited by one of their own as pope

Newly installed Pope Francis is already breaking the mold. | 03/15/13 06:49:04 By -

Greek ship owner disputes U.S. claim he’s helping Iran skirt oil sanctions

The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a Greek ship owner and his business partners, alleging they are helping Iran skirt global sanctions on sales of its oil. | 03/15/13 06:48:43 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Middle East in turmoil 10 years after Iraq invasion that officials said would bring peace

Ten years later, the era that the U.S.-led invasion ushered in looks anything but simple. After tens of thousands of deaths, not just of Americans, but also of Iraqis – many, if not most, at the hands of other Iraqis – that country is still in turmoil. American troops are gone and a democratically elected government rules. But bombings and massacres continue, and the country remains mired in sectarian feuding. Elsewhere, conflict reigns – in some cases, coincidentally, with anniversaries that fall also around this weekend. | 03/15/13 16:22:59 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Religious parties left out of new Israeli government as Netanyahu forced to compromise

For the first time in years, Israel’s new government will not include representatives from the country’s ultra-Orthodox religious parties, a condition Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to on Thursday in order to form a coalition that will allow him to be sworn in for a third term. | 03/14/13 17:34:01 By - By Sheera Frenkel

UN predicts huge expansion of wealth in developing world that will shift power

The middle class is growing – just not in the United States or Europe – but in the far reaches of the globe, a change that very likely will move power away from the world’s current centers of prosperity, a United Nations study released Thursday concludes. | 03/14/13 16:29:53 By - By Tim Johnson

U.S. pledge to help Iraqis who aided occupation largely unfulfilled

Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and set off a sectarian war that continues to this day, thousands of Iraqis are eligible for resettlement to the U.S. because they risked their lives to help the war effort as interpreters, cultural advisers and other support staff. But of the allotment of about 25,000 “special immigrant visas,” just 4,669 cases have been approved since 2008, and the program is scheduled to end in September. | 03/14/13 13:48:12 By - By Hannah Allam

Bergoglio’s elevation to Pope Francis recalls his deep role in Argentina’s politics

The elevation Wednesday of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the Roman Catholic Church’s 266th pope and the first from Latin America brought cheers across South America but also served as a reminder of the church’s role during the region’s dark days of dictatorship in the latter half of the 20th century. | 03/13/13 22:53:12 By - By Daniel Politi, Vinod Sreeharsha and Kevin G. Hall

Obama nominates first U.S. envoy to Libya since deadly Benghazi attacks

A veteran diplomat who’s served in Syria, Kuwait and Turkey will return to the Middle East as the new U.S. ambassador to Libya, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday. | 03/13/13 18:15:01 By - By Hannah Allam

Obama officials offer OAS panel no new date for closing Guantanamo

For the first time since President Barack Obama was re-elected, administration officials this week formally answered questions about human rights violations at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for suspected terrorists, but they avoided offering any timeframe for closing the facility. | 03/13/13 14:45:12 By - By Emma Kantrowitz

Afghan witnesses visit base to prepare for Staff Sgt. Bales' court-martial

Six Afghan civilians who plan to testify at the court-martial for Kandahar massacre suspect Staff Sgt. Robert Bales traveled to Joint Base Lewis-McChord last week to prepare for the trial. | 03/13/13 07:23:18 By - Adam Ashton

Afghanistan moves to salvage ancient Buddhist city – and its economy

It had the potential to be another Afghanistan Buddha disaster, recalling the Taliban’s destruction of two ancient statues that had stood for centuries in the country’s west: A buried Buddhist city lost to time was about to be obliterated by what promised to be one of the largest copper mines in the world. Now, however, thanks to delays in construction of the mine and a hefty influx of cash from the World Bank, the Mes Aynak complex is an archaeological triumph – though bittersweet. | 03/12/13 13:40:24 By - By Jay Price

Mexico moves to open up telecom industry long dominated by monopolies

Leaders of Mexico’s three major political parties launched a sweeping proposal Monday to break open the highly monopolistic telecommunications sector, calling for new laws that would create competition to the established companies that now control the nation’s broadcast and cable television, Internet access, and fixed line and cellular telephones. | 03/11/13 19:09:06 By - By Tim Johnson

Poised yet savage, blogger Yoani Sanchez takes on Cuba’s sclerotic Castro regime

The shouts could be heard easily inside the hotel where Yoani Sanchez was appearing over the weekend. “Down with Yoani!” they resonated from a small clique of pro-Castro protesters who’d gathered outside. | 03/11/13 16:19:55 By - By Tim Johnson

Washington state engineers reflect on Fukushima nuclear disaster response

Two years ago today, Richland engineers were about to start a marathon effort to quickly design the details of a system that would keep radioactively contaminated water from flowing from damaged Fukushima reactors into the Pacific Ocean. | 03/11/13 15:11:28 By - Annette Cary

North Korea ends armistice that halted Korean War, leaving world to wonder what’s next

North Korea on Monday canceled the armistice agreement that nearly 60 years ago brought a cease-fire to the Korean War, leaving a world of analysts wondering how far the secretive police state will go to show its displeasure with South Korea and its American ally, which still has 28,500 troops based here. | 03/11/13 14:58:15 By - By Tom Lasseter

Cyrus Cylinder on display through April at D.C.’s Sackler Gallery

It’s about the size of an American football and made of clay. It’s chipped, cracked and is even missing a chunk. But the Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most important pieces of pottery in history. On loan from the British Museum, it is on display in a small two-room exhibit at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., through April 28. | 03/11/13 11:32:25 By - Tish Wells

Hugo Chavez's final resting site draws mixed reviews in Venezuela

On a hilltop, high above the Venezuelan capital, rises a 113-year-old structure called Cuartel de la Montaña or Mountain Barracks. | 03/11/13 06:54:56 By - Alfonso Chardy

As U.S. troops prepare to leave, they rush to teach Afghans to hunt for roadside bombs

Improvised bombs have killed more American troops in Afghanistan than anything else since the war here began 11 years ago, and they’ll remain a favored insurgent weapon against Afghan soldiers, police and civilians after U.S. forces end their combat mission next year. | 03/11/13 00:00:00 By - By Jay Price

Cubans evade censorship by exchanging computer memory sticks, blogger says

Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez on Saturday told newspaper publishers from around the Western Hemisphere that “nothing is changing” in Cuba’s ossified political system and that “the situation of press freedom in my country is calamitous.” | 03/09/13 17:31:55 By - By Tim Johnson

Egyptian court confirms 21 death sentences in soccer riot, hands down 5 life terms

An Egyptian court issued split verdicts Saturday in the deadliest soccer riot in this country’s history, confirming death sentences for 21 fans accused of planning the violence, giving life terms to five others, and sentencing to long prison stretches two senior police commanders. | 03/09/13 15:03:31 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Ex-world leaders: Time for U.S. to rethink drug policy as states ease marijuana laws

Three former heads of state are urging the United States to engage in a serious discussion of drug legalization, saying its counternarcotics policies are becoming untenable in the wake of voter approval last fall of measures that legalized the recreational use of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado. | 03/08/13 17:16:14 By - By Tim Johnson

Terrorism still plagues Pakistan as civilian government nears end of its term

Five years after democratic rule was restored in Pakistan, the country is still without a policy to confront its huge terrorism problem, leaving this nuclear-armed country vulnerable to ever more punishing bloodshed. | 03/08/13 15:40:29 By - By Saeed Shah

Egypt’s silent soccer stadiums show the depth of country’s troubles

It was the kind of game that used to lock Egyptians in 90 minutes of suspense. Cairo’s Zamalek team was up against Suez’s PetroJet. Zamalek’s Ahmed Gaafar scored the last of three goals in that shutout game, after the ball bounced off PetroJet’s goalie. Gaafar kissed the ground as the television announcer roared a loud “Goal!” | 03/08/13 12:51:41 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

State Department withdraws honor for Egyptian activist over anti-American, anti-Semitic tweets

The State Department on Thursday backed off its decision to honor a young woman for her bravery in the Egyptian uprising after it emerged that she’d quoted Adolf Hitler on Jews, celebrated a suicide bombing and posted anti-American commentary on her Twitter account. | 03/07/13 19:01:34 By - By Hannah Allam

UN officials hopeful Syrian rebels will soon release peacekeepers held in Golan Heights

Syrian rebels have divided kidnapped U.N. peacekeepers into smaller groups and are keeping those groups in separate locations, a move that would make a rescue effort more difficult, according to a video released Thursday. | 03/07/13 18:34:52 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Thousands file past Hugo Chavez's coffin

Followers of President Hugo Chávez on Thursday began filing past the late leader’s coffin at the Military Academy, where it was to lie in state for three days, while more foreign leaders considered allies announced plans to attend funeral services. | 03/07/13 12:48:43 By - Alfonso Chardy

Reporter remembers Hugo Chavez as steeped in Latin American culture, history

Hugo Chavez wasn’t the caricature of a strong-armed buffoon that his critics painted. His knowledge of Latin American culture and history was deep and appreciated even by his detractors across the Americas and the hemisphere. | 03/06/13 18:38:24 By - By Kevin G. Hall

Syrian rebels seize 20 peacekeepers in Golan Heights, demand UN take tougher stand on Assad

Syrian rebels on Wednesday took 20 United Nations peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights, demanding that the U.N. and the United States do more to force Syrian President Bashar Assad to withdraw his troops from a village in the area in return for the hostages’ release. | 03/06/13 18:01:29 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Many in Latin America fear Hugo Chavez’s death will end Venezuela’s Santa role

Some 17 countries gained benefits under Hugo Chavez’s Petrocaribe program, under which Venezuela sent about 10 percent of its crude oil production to member states under generous terms. It permitted them to repay in part in goods or services – sugar, beans, rice – rather than in cash. Many now wonder about the program’s future. | 03/06/13 19:41:47 By - By Tim Johnson and Vinod Sreeharsha

Murder trial raises questions of Mao’s role in China’s Cultural Revolution

Kidnapped by a local militia in 1967, a time when Red Guard factions terrorized much of the nation, Hong Yunke was accused of being a spy and a landlord, and was executed. When reports surfaced that a man had stood trial just last month on charges of murdering Hong, some Chinese wondered aloud about the fairness of punishing an elderly man when the leader responsible for fanning the flames of the Cultural Revolution _ Mao Zedong _ is still officially revered. | 03/06/13 13:05:00 By - By Tom Lasseter

Preparations for Hugo Chavez's state funeral underway in Venezuela

Supporters of fallen leader Hugo Chávez began to gather at the Military Hospital near downtown Caracas Wednesday morning, as they prepared to follow his funeral carriage on a winding farewell procession through the capital city. Chávez’s body will be taken to the Military Academy — an institution that defined his life — until his state funeral on Friday. | 03/06/13 12:37:11 By - Jim Wyss and Daniel Chang

Iraqis call for U.S. military aid after Nusra-linked assault on ‘innocent Syrians’

Top Iraqi officials called Tuesday for the United States to step up its promised delivery of major arms after an ambush well inside Iraq by suspected Islamist militants that left more than 50 Syrians and a dozen Iraqi troops dead. | 03/05/13 19:15:40 By - By Roy Gutman

Mexican families struggle to bring attention to those who’ve disappeared

Rogelio Elizondo’s son went to buy a used car in Nuevo Laredo two years ago. He never came back. In much of Mexico, Elizondo’s tragedy would remain the anguish of a solitary family in a country where the problem of ‘disappeared’ people is worse than anyplace else in the Western Hemisphere. But a slightly more positive story is unfolding. Elizondo joined with scores of other families looking into the cases of 298 missing persons in his state of Coahuila. The families raised a clamor. They met with the governor, who agreed to set up a special prosecutor’s office for the disappeared. And the fears of relatives melted somewhat as their ranks grew. | 03/05/13 18:45:32 By - By Tim Johnson

Guantánamo guard shot ‘non-lethal’ round at detainees

A guard in a watchtower shot a “non-lethal” round at detainees inside Guantánamo prison’s $744,000 soccer field for cooperative captives earlier this year in the latest disclosure of simmering unrest at the Pentagon outpost in southeast Cuba. | 03/05/13 18:46:03 By - Carol Rosenberg

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez dead at 58

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez survived four elections, a coup and a recall attempt as he became one of Latin America’s most charismatic, influential and controversial leaders. But on Tuesday, the socialist firebrand lost his long-running battle with cancer. He was 58. | 03/05/13 17:14:18 By - Jim Wyss

New bus service for Palestinians raises charges of racism

For more than a decade, Khaled Abdi and his uncle, Sami, have navigated the circuitous routes of the West Bank to get to low-paying construction jobs in central Israel. They’d wake at 3 a.m. to leave their homes near Nablus to catch one of Israel’s state-run buses, which also ferried Israeli settlers. | 03/04/13 17:36:43 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.S. consolidates Afghan bases with eye toward pulling out

At FOB Apache, U.S. military engineers are frantically finishing a second chow hall and a new, much bigger recreational building. Dozens of tents and rows of housing units are sprouting to prepare for an influx of troops who’ll raise the base’s population from several hundred to a few thousand. The building boom is a quirk of the planned pullout of more than half the U.S. and NATO forces this year. It’s one of the largest of the construction projects under way across Afghanistan, aimed at fine-tuning where troops and their equipment are based in preparation for their final departure next year. | 03/04/13 15:55:13 By - By Jay Price

If Mexico wants to launch anti-corruption crusade, there are plenty of officials to go after

The daughter of the boss of Mexico’s powerful oil workers union made a youthful indiscretion when she went to Europe last year: She posted photos of her lavish odyssey on Facebook. | 03/04/13 00:00:00 By - By Tim Johnson

Kerry tells Morsi that Egypt must change before U.S. will send more aid

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry vowed Sunday to provide $190 million to help Egypt’s government pay its bills, but said any additional money would require that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi move quickly to resolve the country’s differences with the International Monetary Fund, reform its security services and take steps to provide equal rights for women and religious minorities. | 03/03/13 16:04:22 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Rebel cooperation in Syrian town shows challenge of isolating Islamists

Sophisticated new weapons now in the hands of rebels in north-central Syria underscore how difficult it will be, once more lethal aid begins to arrive, to keep those weapons from Islamist extremists who’ve become key to rebel military advances throughout the country. | 03/03/13 13:55:24 By - By David Enders

U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan are at 5-year low

On the eve of the start of the final "fighting season" before the major pullout of American troops from Afghanistan begins, U.S. deaths have fallen to their lowest levels in five years. That decline is ever steeper for international forces: The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force suffered its fewest number of troops killed in December, January and February in seven years. | 03/01/13 15:20:54 By - By Jay Price

U.S. vow of non-lethal aid for Syrian rebels fails to satisfy Assad opposition

For the first time in the two-year push to topple President Bashar Assad, the United States said Thursday that it will send food and medicine directly to armed Syrian rebels. | 02/28/13 19:48:13 By - By Hannah Allam and David Enders

Arrest of Mexico teacher union boss Elba Esther Gordillo seen as a warning to foes of reform

Mexico’s political world rippled from the imprisonment of Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful 68-year-old “president for life” of the 1.5 million-member national teachers’ union, the largest such union in the hemisphere. | 02/27/13 17:05:05 By - By Tim Johnson

Once a curiosity, captured tanks are a growing part of Syrian rebels’ arsenal

Ankir Ankir normally drives a wheat harvester, but a battle in December found him piloting a tank, a skill he had learned 17 years ago as an 18-year-old conscript in the Syrian army. | 02/27/13 16:49:51 By - By David Enders

Mexico arrests Elba Esther Gordillo, powerful teachers union boss, on corruption charges

Mexican authorities Tuesday announced the arrest on corruption charges of Elba Esther Gordillo, the mighty head of the national teachers’ union, striking a blow against one of the country’s most despised, but also most powerful political figures. | 02/26/13 23:02:57 By - By Tim Johnson

Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman in North Korea; Obama administration shrugs

Former NBA superstar Dennis Rodman, known for his vivid hair colors and flamboyant fashion, seems to be reviving his bad-boy persona, arriving Tuesday in North Korea on a surprise trip to the pariah state. | 02/26/13 18:52:54 By - By Hannah Allam

Autopsy casts doubt over first Israeli version of how Palestinian prisoner died

On the evening of Feb. 18, Israeli authorities arrested Arafat Jaradat, 30, on suspicion that he had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers. Five days later, he was dead. Now his story has come to symbolize what many Palestinians and human rights groups say are the torturous interrogation methods used by Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet. | 02/26/13 18:26:24 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Even if Raul Castro steps down in 2018, U.S.-Cuba relations may not thaw

Cuban President Raul Castro’s announcement over the weekend that he’ll step down in 2018 after the five-year term he just began ends starts the countdown for U.S. officials contemplating a thaw in relations with the island nation. But analysts caution that so far the regime’s reforms amount to window dressing. | 02/25/13 19:32:38 By - By Hannah Allam

Syrian opposition leader Mouaz Khatib agrees to attend Rome meeting

After initially threatening a boycott, Syria’s opposition agreed Monday to attend a meeting on Thursday in Rome of the so-called Friends of Syria group of nations that support the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad. But the agreement came only after Secretary of State John Kerry personally called opposition leader Mouaz Khatib and urged him to come. | 02/25/13 17:33:14 By - By David Enders

Syrian government accused of targeting hospitals, health workers as war rages

The national hospital in Azaz lies in ruins; government aircraft bombed an entire wing. In nearby Aleppo, a barrel bomb forced the closing of the Dar al Shifa hospital. Those are just two examples of the toll on Syria’s hospitals in nearly two years of war. Half of them are now out of service, according to Syria’s government. International officials decry what they say is a government campaign against health care facilities and medical professionals that constitutes a war crime. | 02/25/13 15:44:49 By - By Roy Gutman and Paul Raymond

Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba’s new No. 2, respected as smart and personable

Miguel Diaz-Canel, who stands to become Cuba’s first post-Castro ruler, is respected as a smart manager and personable communicator who rode a bike on his rounds when he headed the Communist Party in the province of Villa Clara | 02/25/13 12:56:23 By - Juan A. Tamayo

For Egypt’s women, fear of rape now governs Cairo’s Tahrir Square

Tahrir Square is where Egyptians rose up against the regime of Hosni Mubarak two years ago. It was a very different time. That there were so few sexual assaults, many hoped, was a sign of a more progressive, democratic Egypt. But now every demonstration in Tahrir – and they happen weekly – seethes with likely sexual violence. Now women enter the square with trepidation. | 02/25/13 00:00:00 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Obama alerts Congress he's sent military personnel to Niger

President Obama says about 100 U.S. military personnel have been deployed to the African nation of Niger. | 02/22/13 20:20:39 By - Lesley Clark

Israel closely watching what weapons are being sent to Syria’s rebels

Israel is closely monitoring the kinds of weapons that are being sent to Syrian rebel groups, and it’s consulted with U.S. officials about which weapons they consider too sophisticated to be passed to the groups that are battling to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Israeli officials with knowledge of the situation. | 02/22/13 17:22:10 By - By Sheera Frenkel

It’s still unclear why Israel’s Mossad jailed Prisoner X, Ben Zygier

The most commonly repeated story about why Israel’s Mossad spy agency nabbed one of its own and threw him into prison, where he hanged himself, is probably false or at least only part of the truth, according to people familiar with the way the Mossad operates. In the murky world of espionage, even what comes out in the news is subterfuge, they caution. | 02/22/13 16:28:15 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Another false alarm; search goes on for Mexican drug lord Chapo Guzman

Was it Elvis? How about D.B. Cooper? Or could it have been Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the world’s most wanted man? Supposed sightings of the fugitive Mexican drug boss are growing in frequency, adding to his legend. | 02/22/13 14:56:18 By - By Tim Johnson

Yoani Sanchez may be a dissident in Cuba, but she agrees U.S. embargo must go

Yoani Sanchez may be the world’s best known Cuban dissident. Her blog and Twitter feed criticizing the Cuban government have won her followers and plaudits throughout the United States and Europe, and her first trip outside of Cuba was widely anticipated after the government of Raul Castro liberalized travel rules. | 02/21/13 19:04:57 By - By Vinod Sreeharsha

Mexico’s war on crime now ranks among Latin America’s bloodiest conflicts

The revelation that as many as 27,000 people may have gone missing in Mexico in recent years renews attention to the huge human toll left by the war on crime that former President Felipe Calderon waged during his six years in office. | 02/21/13 18:08:51 By - By Tim Johnson

Trade, not Syria, dominates John Kerry’s first speech as secretary of state

In his first major speech as secretary of state, John Kerry on Wednesday didn’t mention Syria even once or delve deeply into other urgent world crises. Instead, he focused on defending his department’s budget and encouraging international trade, especially with Asia. | 02/20/13 16:51:46 By - By Hannah Allam

Mexico admits 27,000 missing; Human Rights Watch protests crisis of ‘disappeared’

Mexico said Wednesday that it had records of more than 27,000 cases of “disappeared people” that it would make public soon in an effort to clarify the circumstances under which they vanished. | 02/20/13 19:01:29 By - By Tim Johnson

Pro-Assad militia now key to Syrian government’s war strategy

A Syrian government militia that the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization is becoming increasingly important to the Syrian government’s strategy as it attempts to shore up its still-loyal but beleaguered military. | 02/19/13 18:10:13 By - By David Enders

U.S. Air Force crews deliver supplies to Mali

Air Force crews from Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord have been delivering troops and supplies to Mali for more than three weeks in support of an international mission against a North African al-Qaida group. | 02/19/13 16:51:15 By - Adam Ashton

U.S. firm blames Chinese army unit for hacking American businesses

A U.S. cyber-security firm has publicly accused the Chinese military of carrying out a series of Internet-based attacks on American and foreign companies in a one of the most detailed reports to date alleging such activity is officially condoned in China. | 02/19/13 18:07:23 By - By Tom Lasseter

U.N. numbers on Syrians in need of help far too low, survey suggests

The first detailed survey of the humanitarian crisis in northern Syria suggests that the United Nations has grossly underestimated the number of civilians in dire need of assistance, a situation that experts say plays down the scope of the catastrophe. | 02/18/13 17:39:14 By - By Roy Gutman

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez makes surprise trip home

Venezuelans began gathering around the military hospital in Caracas early Monday to welcome home President Hugo Chávez, the cancer-stricken leader who has spent more than two months incommunicado in a Cuban hospital. | 02/18/13 12:11:43 By - ANDREW ROSATI and JIM WYSS

McClatchy wins a Polk award for its coverage of Syria

McClatchy has won a prestigious George Polk Award for war reporting for its coverage of Syria’s civil war. The award, given by Long Island University, named McClatchy special correspondents David Enders and Austin Tice for their reporting from inside Syria, as well as European Bureau Chief Roy Gutman and Washington correspondents Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay for reporting from outside Syria. | 02/17/13 23:00:00 By -

Ben Zygier, Israel’s ‘Prisoner X,’ may have revealed how Mossad used foreign passports

In the space of three days, a two-year-old mystery about an unidentified prisoner who hanged himself in a high-security Israeli prison has become a scandal for Israel’s vaunted Mossad spy agency. Many here are predicting that it will cost some top officials their jobs. | 02/15/13 18:02:45 By - By Sheera Frenkel

As Afghan army gets cash to buy its own supplies, some worry about corruption

The Afghan army is one of the least corrupt parts of a society where more than two-thirds of the citizens think it’s fine for bureaucrats to take bribes. Now that reputation is getting its biggest test: access to more money. Billions of dollars more. | 02/15/13 16:25:38 By - By Jay Price

Thriving Afghan zoo’s plans to expand worry its champions

Despite being no larger than a U.S. high school campus, the Kabul Zoo has become one of the most popular leisure attractions in Afghanistan. Now Kabul’s mayor wants to make the zoo much larger, with more animals, more space and more crowd-pleasing species from places such as Africa. Those who helped revive the zoo say that might be a big mistake. | 02/15/13 15:43:24 By - By Jay Price

Maybe a boar isn’t an elephant, but in Afghanistan, it’s a rarity

"Exotic species" are different in Afghanistan. For example, the Kabul Zoo is home to what’s thought to be the nation’s only captive pig, really a massive boar. Pork is haram, or forbidden, in Islam, hence the lack of domestic swine. | 02/15/13 15:41:21 By - By Jay Price

Agencies warn Congress not to use humanitarian aid as tool against Syria’s Assad

Humanitarian groups are lobbying hard against a proposal by several U.S. senators that would turn over the delivery of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to a Syrian opposition council that’s criticized as too weak and too political to handle the responsibility. | 02/15/13 12:05:31 By - By Hannah Allam

To give or to keep? Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Mexico’s Carlos Slim follow different paths

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is famed for his philanthropy. Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican tycoon, is not. This week, they stood together at a research center here, drawing attention to their different approaches to giving their wealth away. | 02/14/13 17:28:12 By - By Tim Johnson

Casino in Puerto Vallarta another example of gaming industry’s clout in Mexico

When municipal inspectors slapped 13 seals on doors leading into the Casino Vallarta one afternoon a few months ago, they had good reason to shut the gaming house down. | 02/14/13 15:56:43 By - By Tim Johnson

100th Tibetan self-immolation reported in a protest China can’t stop

An account released on Wednesday of an ethnic Tibetan man in western China lighting himself on fire earlier this month, calling for the long life of the Dalai Lama before dying in the flames, marked the 100th reported self-immolation since 2009, a dramatic milestone in a series of fiery protests that Beijing has sought to crack down on but has not managed to stop. | 02/13/13 21:24:56 By - By Tom Lasseter

Israelis puzzle over mysterious death of Mossad’s ‘Prisoner X’

A handful of facts are known about Ben Zygier: He was born Sept. 12, 1976, in Australia, and he died in Israel on Dec. 15, 2010. He was involved in Jewish organizations, immigrated to Israel, married an Israeli and fathered children. He also was a member of Israel’s Mossad spy agency. What’s not known is why Israeli security agents detained him and sent him to solitary confinement. Nor is it known how, under 24-hour surveillance in a suicide-proof cell, he managed to hang himself. | 02/13/13 18:02:20 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Experts: U.S. must prepare for day North Korea can put a nuclear warhead on a rocket

Scientists and security experts studying North Korea’s nuclear test on Tuesday believe the rogue nation is closing in on being able to place a nuclear weapon atop a missile and loft it at another country. | 02/12/13 19:29:33 By - By Matthew Schofield and Jonathan S. Landay

U.N. condemns North Korea nuclear test, but it’s not clear what happens now

Hours after carrying out a nuclear test in defiance of international warnings not to, North Korea warned Tuesday that it will take new unspecified actions if the United States doesn’t curb its hostility toward the rogue nation. | 02/12/13 18:46:22 By - By Tom Lasseter and Hannah Allam

North Korea tests ‘miniaturized’ nuclear device; may be seeking warhead for ballistic missile

North Korea on Tuesday announced that it had conducted a nuclear test in what amounted to a sharp challenge of the U.N. Security Council, which warned the rogue nation last month of “significant action” if it undertook such a provocation. | 02/12/13 02:20:12 By - By Tom Lasseter and Jonathan S. Landay

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