This is how Mexico confines U.S. Marine veteran in its prison

U.S. Marine veteran Jon Hammar spends most of his day on a bunk bed in a dingy Mexican prison, and at times his ankle is restrained by a handcuff locked to a bed. | 12/17/12 15:11:55 By - By Tim Johnson

Watching Newtown from afar, China wrestles with its own tragedy

Not long after Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults Friday at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the news swept through Chinese media and websites. The state Xinhua newswire ran an editorial headlined, “Innocent blood demands no delay for U.S. gun control.” | 12/17/12 13:25:46 By - By Tom Lasseter

Syrians sounding alarm over growing food shortages

With bread scarce in major cities and towns, infant formula in extremely short supply and fuel costs skyrocketing, civilians in war-ravaged Syria face an acute food crisis that might end in starvation for many, according to activists from around the country of 22 million. | 12/14/12 19:02:11 By - By Paul Raymond and Roy Gutman

Syrian rebels say Americans, Britons helped train them in Jordan

Weeks before the Obama administration and other Western nations recognized a new Syrian opposition coalition as “the legitimate representative” of the Syrian people, Syrian rebels were receiving training in the use of light and heavy weapons with the backing of the Jordanian, British and U.S. governments, participants in the training have told McClatchy. | 12/14/12 18:10:45 By - By David Enders

Egypt scrambles to prepares for Saturday vote on new constitution

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s decision to rush a referendum on a new constitution already has polarized the country. Now the balloting itself appears likely to heighten those divisions. | 12/13/12 18:28:03 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Fear spurs new drive for talks with Afghan Taliban

For the last decade, the United States and Afghanistan have viewed Pakistan as part of the problem as they worked to subdue the Afghan insurgency. Yet suddenly the three countries are working together for an Afghan peace, with Pakistan handling one of the trickiest aspects of the effort: bringing the Taliban to the talks. | 12/13/12 17:30:57 By - By Saeed Shah

Pakistan, Afghanistan moving ahead on peace plan that cuts U.S. peace role

Afghanistan and Pakistan are moving ahead quickly with a new Afghan government plan that envisions peace with the Taliban by 2015, holding a summit in Turkey and working with the United States and Britain on streamlining the U.N. terrorist blacklisting system so that Afghan insurgents can be given safe passage for direct negotiations with Kabul. | 12/12/12 20:00:35 By - By Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay

Head of new U.S.-backed Syrian coalition endorses al Qaida-linked rebel faction

Right after the United States formalized its backing of a new Syrian opposition group Wednesday, the mutual unease underpinning the partnership surfaced as the group’s leader openly criticized the United States for declaring the rebel movement’s Nusra Front a terrorist group linked to al Qaida in Iraq. | 12/12/12 19:32:52 By - By David Enders and Hannah Allam

Successful North Korean missile launch triggers security concerns

Just shy of eight months after a very public and humiliating failure, the successful long-range missile launch Wednesday by Kim Jong Un’s North Korean ballistic-missile program gave the world a reason to re-evaluate the threat from his rogue nation. | 12/12/12 18:52:48 By - By Matthew Schofield

John McAfee heads to Florida after Guatemala deports him

Guatemala on Wednesday put antivirus pioneer John McAfee aboard an airliner bound for Miami, deporting the former software tycoon to his native United States rather than to Belize, which he fled amid an inquiry into the murder of a fellow American. | 12/12/12 18:42:15 By - By Tim Johnson

North Korea sends object into space with surprise launch of multi-stage rocket

North Korea caught the world by surprise on Wednesday morning with the launch of a long-range rocket that it said had successfully put a satellite in orbit, a move that the West views as part of a military program aimed at one day being able to deliver a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile. | 12/12/12 00:11:21 By - By Tom Lasseter

Lawmakers assail Mexico, Obama administration over jailed U.S. Marine veteran

Florida’s senior U.S. senator Tuesday exhorted Mexico to release an imprisoned Marine Corps veteran of campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan who is being held in a Matamoros prison, declaring that “enough is enough.” | 12/11/12 19:50:14 By - By Tim Johnson

Obama backs new Syria coalition but maybe too late to stop al Qaida advance

In late 2011, U.S. officials say, battle-hardened commanders of al Qaida’s Iraq branch slipped into Syria to rally jihadists around the fight to unseat President Bashar Assad, espousing a militant Islamism that worried pro-democracy activists. | 12/11/12 19:42:10 By - By Hannah Allam

Few expect vote on constitution to calm Egypt’s turmoil

Whether Egypt’s constitutional referendum happens this weekend as scheduled or not, two weeks of political turmoil and divisiveness, and an opposition that’s vowed to continue its protests, have all but extinguished hope that passing a permanent document will bring Egyptians what they say they want most: stability. | 12/11/12 18:37:42 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Nusra Front rebel group fighting in Syria is al Qaida in Iraq, U.S. says

The State Department said Monday that the Syrian rebel movement's Nusra Front is just another name for al Qaida in Iraq, an acknowledgment that the uprising to topple President Bashar Assad is led in part by foreign Islamist extremists who fought U.S. troops for years in the bloody Iraq war. | 12/10/12 19:28:22 By - By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay

After 6 months, rebels gaining ground at Damascus; Islamists lead fighting

A new rebel offensive around the Syrian capital has demonstrated the insurgents’ strengths after six months of combat in the Damascus region. But from afar it’s hard to gauge how close the rebels are to penetrating the central city or to capturing and holding new ground. | 12/10/12 15:21:12 By - By David Enders

China sacks many officials in Chongqing, but man’s corruption claim unresolved

In the past year, much would seem to have changed in Chongqing, the mega-city that’s been the epicenter of China’s recent round of political intrigue. The city’s Communist Party boss was fired, his wife convicted of murder, his police chief sentenced to jail and a local bureaucrat removed after a sex tape surfaced. Still, for Hu Cheng, whose struggle over local corruption led him to attempt suicide 13 months ago, nothing has changed. | 12/10/12 14:26:48 By - By Tom Lasseter

Division within Egypt’s opposition over upcoming vote could hand Morsi a win

While opponents to a constitutional referendum called by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have successfully mobilized protests that have drawn thousands to demonstrations at the presidential palace in the past week, they have yet to agree on how to approach next weekend’s vote, divided over whether to keep pushing for a delay, boycott or urge Egyptians to vote the proposed constitution down. | 12/08/12 19:17:27 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Afghanistan peace plan would increase Pakistan’s role

The Afghan government is pursuing an ambitious new peace initiative in which Pakistan would replace the United States in arranging direct talks between the warring sides and the Taliban would be granted government posts that effectively could cede to them political control of their southern and eastern strongholds. | 12/08/12 17:38:58 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Experts skeptical Syria is preparing to use its chemical arsenal

With concern over the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons stockpile reaching a fever pitch this week, international experts are cautioning against alarmism, saying there’s no confirmation that the Syrians are mixing weapons components or loading them into delivery systems, as some U.S. news organizations have reported. | 12/08/12 15:37:10 By - By Matt Schofield and Hannah Allam

In Egypt’s battle over Morsi’s powers, no criminal charges and no winners

Adel Amer, 44, said he was one of those who beat protesters at a fierce and ultimately deadly standoff Wednesday in front of Egypt’s presidential palace between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi. | 12/07/12 17:28:25 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Morsi’s Mubarak moment? President inflames opponents with speech

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Thursday blamed two weeks of political turmoil that have engulfed his nation on “paid elements,” and he refused to make any concessions to his opponents in a late-night televised speech that for some was reminiscent of one of toppled leader Hosni Mubarak’s last public presentations. | 12/06/12 20:09:07 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Visit to Kismayo, Somalia, shows al Shabab militants still roam countryside

On the four-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past. | 12/06/12 16:12:14 By - By Mohammed Yusuf and Alan Boswell

Khaled Meshaal’s visit to Gaza another sign of Hamas’ rise

When Khaled Meshaal crosses into the Gaza Strip at noon on Friday it will be the Hamas leader’s first trip to the coastal territory. It also will be a symbol of how far the Palestinian Islamist movement, which both Israel and the United States have branded a terrorist organization, has come since its inception in 1987. | 12/06/12 15:41:40 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Latest hell for ex-U.S. Marine: Chained to bed in Mexican jail

The two veterans devised a plan: They’d buy a used motor home, load on the surfboards and drive from the Miami area to Costa Rica to find “someplace to be left alone, someplace far off the grid.” They made it to only the Mexican border. | 12/06/12 14:22:57 By - By Tim Johnson

Clashes over vote on new Egypt constitution leave 5 dead

Supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi clashed in fierce battles outside the presidential palace Wednesday, pelting each other with rocks, throwing Molotov cocktails and tear gas canisters and chasing one another around the compound in a melee that left five dead and more than 697 people injured. | 12/05/12 18:37:18 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Long-exiled South Yemen leader Beidh defends his calls for secession

Ali Salem al Beidh was one of the chief architects of the agreement that united the northern Yemen Arab Republic with the southern People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen to create the country that exists today. | 12/05/12 16:44:50 By - By Adam Baron

Even moderate Palestinians agree Hamas is winning leadership battle

The U.N. recognition of Palestine as a nonmember observer state should have been one of the Palestinian Authority government’s greatest achievements. But hours after the historic vote last week, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad publically concluded, “Hamas delivered. . . . Hamas has won.” | 12/05/12 16:20:14 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.S. might name Syrian rebel Nusra Front a foreign terrorist group

In an apparent bid to isolate Islamist extremists and bolster a new Western-backed Syrian opposition alliance, the United States is moving to declare one of the most effective Syrian rebel groups a foreign terrorist organization because of its alleged ties to al Qaida. | 12/04/12 20:08:35 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam

Israel vows to pursue settlement plans despite international anger

Unshaken by rising international criticism, Israeli officials confirmed Tuesday that they plan to proceed with two new settlement construction projects, including development in a highly contentious area outside Jerusalem known as E1. | 12/04/12 15:44:59 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Anti-Morsi protesters besiege palaces as Egyptian constitution crisis worsens

Protesters stormed onto the grounds of the Egyptian presidential palace Tuesday in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over President Mohammed Morsi’s decision to give himself absolute judicial power and set a quick referendum on a controversial new constitution. | 12/04/12 19:08:32 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Obama warns Syria about using chemical weapons, threatens ‘consequences’

President Barack Obama warned the embattled leader of war-torn Syria on Monday not to use chemical weapons against rebels fighting to topple his regime, as the United States voiced rising concern that he may be preparing to do so and consulted with regional allies on a range of responses. | 12/03/12 19:50:18 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam

For one Syrian activist, second thoughts on the armed rebellion

Hasaka is still controlled by the Syrian government, but even from the window of a taxi it’s obvious the people here have not been spared from the country’s civil war. | 12/03/12 15:14:11 By - By David Enders

Colombia's narco-sub 'museum' gives a peek into drug trafficking tactics

Stacked along one edge of the Bahía Málaga naval base is what authorities call “the museum” — a long row of impounded vehicles that chart the evolution of the drug trafficking industry. There are the lumbering fishing boats that used to run marijuana in the 1970s and 1980s, Miami Vice-era “go-fast” boats, and an entire fleet of manned and unmanned semisubmersibles. | 12/03/12 07:06:02 By - Jim Wyss

Al Qaida-linked group Syria rebels once denied now key to anti-Assad victories

When the group Jabhat al Nusra first claimed responsibility for car and suicide bombings in Damascus that killed dozens last January, many of Syria’s revolutionaries claimed that the organization was a creation of the Syrian government, designed to discredit those who opposed the regime of President Bashar Assad and to hide the regime’s own brutal tactics. | 12/02/12 16:32:30 By - By David Enders

Egypt court, citing threats, cancels session on key issue in standoff with Morsi

Egypt’s highest court indefinitely postponed a highly anticipated ruling Sunday, leaving the nation’s upcoming referendum on the new constitution in a state of uncertainty and putting off for now a direct confrontation with President Mohammed Morsi over his claim of judicial immunity. | 12/02/12 16:46:57 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Egypt’s new constitution short of the specifics of government, long on loopholes

The draft constitution that Egyptians will vote on Dec. 15 is supposed to usher in the kind democratic reform that protesters demanded nearly two years ago in protests that led to the fall of then President Hosni Mubarak. Yet the rushed document is peppered with caveats and does little to clarify what role government should have in a democratically ruled Egypt. | 12/01/12 16:35:20 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Raucous day in Mexico as Pena Nieto takes over a bruised, bloodied nation

Enrique Pena Nieto assumed the presidency of Mexico Saturday amid high hopes that his muscular, once-autocratic political party, which governed this country for most of the 20th Century, will heal a bruised, bloodied nation and rev the economy. | 12/01/12 15:57:14 By - By Tim Johnson

Morsi declares Dec. 15 vote on Egypt constitution as Muslim Brotherhood rallies show of its strength

Activating its powerful clout and organization, the Muslim Brotherhood turned out vsat crowds across Egypt Saturday in support of President Mohammed Morsi, a show of strength that suggested the challenges facing those who accuse the president of granting himself dictatorial powers one day ahead of a critical court decision. | 12/01/12 16:49:56 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

Chris Stevens felt risks at U.S. consulate were worth it, says judge who visited Libya

. Three months before U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens died when suspected Islamist militants stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, in Libya under the auspices of the American Bar Association to advise on rebuilding the country’s justice system, paid a courtesy call to the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. | 11/30/12 18:34:00 By - By Hannah Allam

Israelis decry Germany’s abstention on U.N. Palestine vote

Israeli officials had long known that they would be on the losing end of the U.N. General Assembly’s vote on whether to grant Palestine official status as a non-member observer state. Palestinian officials months ago had announced that they’d gathered enough votes to win the declaration. | 11/30/12 17:48:49 By - By Sheera Frenkel

In Syrian towns rebels control, demonstrators sometimes target them

Wael Nasrallah has organized more than 100 demonstrations in the past 20 months. On Friday, he led another one in Qalat al Mudiq, a city of about 30,000 in central Syria. | 11/30/12 16:11:29 By - By David Enders

U.N. accepts Palestine as observer state by lopsided margin; U.S., 8 others opposed

Over staunch U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to name Palestine a non-member observer state, a symbolic victory for the stateless Palestinians and a political boost for their embattled president, Mahmoud Abbas. | 11/29/12 19:36:45 By - By Hannah Allam and Sheera Frenkel

All eyes on Egypt’s military as Morsi, judges battle for power

There is only one intact Egyptian institution capable of stopping a constitutional crisis that threatens to drive the nation into legal limbo and force its citizens to vote on a rushed constitution, and so far, the Egyptian military is showing no signs of getting involved. | 11/29/12 19:35:49 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Cuban dissidents say attacks show government’s anxiety

Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz says the secret police harassed him for the first time in 20 years, and dissident Guillermo Fariñas says they hit him, in what the two men called yet another sign of the government’s growing nervousness over the opposition. | 11/29/12 19:09:40 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Military action against al Qaida-linked extremists in Mali unlikely for months

Six months after al Qaida-affiliated militants took control of Timbuktu in northern Mali, evidence is mounting that plans for an international effort to prevent the desert region from becoming a new terrorist haven are facing steep challenges and that no military operation against the extremists is likely for a year or more. | 11/29/12 18:38:54 By - By Alan Boswell

Anti-Shiite violence rises in Pakistan as Islam’s sectarian divide moves beyond the Middle East

More members of Pakistan’s Shiite Muslim religious minority were killed by Sunni Muslim extremists this year than in any previous year, a development that could further destabilize this key U.S. ally and draw it into the widening Shiite-Sunni conflict that up to now has been manifest primarily in Middle Eastern countries. | 11/29/12 17:14:14 By - By Saeed Shah

Syrian rebels’ arsenal now includes heavy weapons

Rebels who have laid siege to a Syrian army base near Mayadeen in southeastern Syria have made mortar attacks a regular part of their routine. | 11/29/12 15:46:05 By - By David Enders

As Mexico’s Pena Nieto assumes presidency, stars align for him

When Enrique Pena Nieto assumes Mexico’s presidency this weekend, he’ll return the once-entrenched Institutional Revolutionary Party to power with a strong breeze at its back. | 11/29/12 14:48:15 By - By Tim Johnson

U.S. dilemma at UN – undermining Palestinian statehood may strengthen Hamas

On the eve of a Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition as a nonmember state – a move that’s expected to succeed despite strident U.S. opposition – the Obama administration’s policy conundrum over the Palestinians appears stark. | 11/28/12 19:37:11 By - By Hannah Allam

Family, neighbors of Yemeni killed by U.S. drone wonder why he wasn’t taken alive

The Nov. 7 drone strike that killed alleged al Qaida-linked operative Adnan al Qadhi outside Beit al Ahmar was just one of more than 50 American airstrikes believed to have taken place in Yemen so far this year. | 11/28/12 15:45:43 By - By Adam Baron

Kurds say they’ll stop Islamist rebels from moving along Syria’s border with Turkey

A tense truce between Syrian rebels and a Kurdish militia held Tuesday in the city of Ras al Ayn, fast against the border with Turkey. But neither side hid its disdain for the other, and both continued to hold prisoners in a standoff that suggests rebel hopes to push their control further east faces an all but certain challenge. | 11/27/12 19:07:35 By - By David Enders

Egyptians fill Tahrir Square in largest protest of President Mohammed Morsi

Tens of thousands of protesters poured into Tahrir Square on Tuesday night to contest what they believe is Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s illegal declaration that his decisions are exempt from judicial oversight, marking the largest protests ever against the newly elected president. | 11/27/12 19:02:08 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

For many Palestinians, Arafat exhumation recalls better days

When Yasser Arafat was buried in 2004, tens of thousands thronged his funeral amid a charged atmosphere in which many swore revenge for the death of the father of Palestinian nationalism On Tuesday, only a few were on hand as Arafat’s political heirs exhumed his body in a final effort to determine what killed the iconic Palestinian leader. | 11/27/12 18:07:45 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Aid groups warn of food crisis in Syria as winter nears, refugee numbers surge

The top U.S. aid official said Tuesday that Syria faces an immediate humanitarian emergency and that international plans to feed and support millions of destitute civilians have fallen short. | 11/27/12 17:59:53 By - By Roy Gutman

Arms shipment from Libya to Gaza seized as talks continue over details of Israel-Hamas cease-fire

With an end to weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip one of the key points of contention in the cease-fire agreement that last week ended hostilities between Hamas militants and Israel, Egyptian security forces arrested three people Tuesday after intercepting a large shipment of weapons smuggled into the Sinai Peninsula from Libya. | 11/27/12 17:23:41 By - By Mel Frykberg

Human rights claim likely to dog Mexico’s Felipe Calderon as he leaves presidency

President Felipe Calderon, who leaves office Saturday, is all but certain to find his post-presidency bedeviled by the need to defend his decision six years ago to deploy troops to fight drug cartels, a move that unleashed a frenzy of horrific violence that’s only now beginning to ease. | 11/27/12 15:53:57 By - By Tim Johnson

Egypt’s President Morsi emerges victorious from confrontation with country’s judges

After days of protests, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi announced Monday that a sweeping decree issued last week that exempted his decisions from challenges in court will remain in effect on issues pertaining to “sovereign matters,” a result that some were calling a compromise but that appeared to be a sweeping victory for the Islamist president. | 11/26/12 19:23:01 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Israel’s Ehud Barak retires, signaling tougher line on Iran

In a development that could lead to a hardening of Israel’s position on Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced Monday that he was resigning from political life, a surprise move that removed a moderate voice from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. | 11/26/12 16:58:24 By - By Sheera Frenkel

It’s a political firefight on Haitian radio

Every Saturday, on the Haitian radio version of CNN’s Crossfire, politicians, pundits, critics and want to-be kingmakers vie for a chance to lob accusations, cross verbal swords and debate Haiti’s future. Bickering politicians drop in unannounced, pro-government operatives fire off text messages defending the administration and everyone tries to avoid the shrapnel from the latest political bombshells. | 11/26/12 13:11:11 By - Jacqueline Charles

D.C. exhibit details history, complexities of the Arabian Peninsula

There’s more to Saudi Arabia than sand, oil and camels. The proof is at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., with the “Roads of Arabia” exhibit, on display until Feb. 23, 2013. | 11/26/12 10:53:22 By - Tish Wells

U.N. envoy to Middle East acknowledges 'quiet engagements' with Hamas

The United Nations envoy to the Middle East acknowledged in an interview with McClatchy Sunday that he has maintained quiet contacts with the Islamist group Hamas for “years,” despite the international community’s official policy to isolate the group. | 11/25/12 17:55:57 By - By Sheera Frenkel

As Colombia and FARC rebels edge toward peace, a former U.S. hostage recalls his captors

For more than five years, Marc Gonsalvez and two other Americans were marched through Colombia’s jungles as hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas. Now, as FARC and government negotiators meet in Cuba to hammer out a peace deal, Gonsalvez, 40, said he’s hoping for the best, but fears the intentions of his former captors. | 11/24/12 00:20:12 By - Jim Wyss

Turkey, Iraq exchange sharp rhetoric with Syria as backdrop

Turkish and Iraqi leaders exchanged sharp, rhetorical assaults Friday, each warning of growing instability in the other’s country, in the latest sign that tensions stoked by Syria’s civil war are spilling over into the region. | 11/23/12 16:57:12 By - By Roy Gutman

Mexican lawmaker sees fertile terrain for marijuana debate

Bills to legalize marijuana have come before Mexico’s Congress in the past, and sunk almost without debate. But lawmaker Fernando Belaunzaran Mendez thinks this time is different. | 11/23/12 14:08:01 By - By Tim Johnson

Future under new Chinese leadership remains murky

From the outside looking in, so far there’s only speculation about the Communist Party’s intentions since a party congress that ended last week. | 11/23/12 17:19:05 By - By Tom Lasseter

Truman grandson plants seeds of reconciliation

Clifton Truman Daniel, 55, became the first member of the Truman family to travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki when he visited in August. | 11/23/12 12:51:25 By - Brian Byrnes

Latin American ports ready for Panama Canal expansion

Standing atop a hulking crane at this country’s largest Pacific port, Alejandro Echeverri pointed out scurrying workers below reinforcing pylons, preparing the ground for an extended pier and tending to a dredging boat that has been deepening the harbor. | 11/23/12 06:53:49 By - Jim Wyss, Jacquenline Charles and Mimi Whitefield

Rebels flying black Islamist flag seize artillery base in Syria’s Deir al Zour province

After a siege that lasted nearly a month, Syrian government soldiers abandoned an artillery base in the town of Mayadin Thursday morning, handing anti-government rebels in southeastern Deir al Zour province a key victory that will allow them to move next to the airport near the provincial capital, one of the last positions the Syrian military controls in the province. | 11/22/12 16:50:58 By - By David Enders

A violent day in Gaza, then silence, then celebration

The cease-fire that went into effect Wednesday between Israel and Hamas did little to erase in immediate terms the physical destruction that had been visited upon this tiny coastal strip of land over the past eight days. | 11/21/12 17:56:07 By - By Mel Frykberg

Many Israelis denounce cease-fire accord, say job is unfinished

Few Palestinians or Israelis were willing to put much trust in the cease-fire deal their leaders reached on Wednesday, saying they remembered all too well the failed cease-fires of years past. | 11/21/12 15:45:37 By - By Sheera Frenkel

With Syria’s eastern oilfields in rebel hands, a brisk business in pirated crude grows

Syrian rebels have captured two of the three major oilfields in the country’s southeastern Deir al Zour province and are extracting oil that they say is helping to support their rebellion. | 11/21/12 15:10:04 By - By David Enders

Israel, Hamas declare cease-fire, promise new talks on Gaza issues within 24 hours

With last-minute prodding from the United States, Israel and the militant group Hamas agreed Wednesday to a cease-fire, ending eight days of rocket fire and naval and sea bombardment and bringing to a successful end more than a week of halting Egyptian-led talks as the conflict in Gaza teetered on the brink of all-out war. | 11/21/12 17:41:53 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Sheera Frankel

U.S. warns Bahrain’s society ‘could break apart’

The strategic Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, scene of continuing protests since early last year by the majority Shiite Muslims against the Sunni minority monarchy, is on the verge of severe disruption, the State Department warned Tuesday. | 11/20/12 19:34:43 By - By Roy Gutman

Fall of Goma in eastern Congo raises fears of wider war

The Congolese army fled and United Nations peacekeepers watched paralyzed as Rwandan-linked rebels wrapped up a stunning five-day offensive Tuesday by strolling into one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most important cities, Goma, sending shock waves through troubled central Africa. | 11/20/12 18:54:24 By - By Alan Boswell

Mexico facing a diabetes 'disaster' as obesity levels soar

With each bite into a greasy taco and slurp of a sugary drink, Mexico hurtles toward what health experts predict will be a public health crisis from diabetes-related disease. | 11/20/12 17:04:59 By - By Tim Johnson

Hamas, Israel say cease-fire likely after week of bombs, rockets

Israel and the Islamist group Hamas inched closer Tuesday to agreeing to an Egyptian-negotiated cease-fire that would end a weeklong Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that’s killed at least 116 Palestinians and threatened to devolve into all-out war. Both sides suggested that the announcement of the cease-fire could come as soon as Wednesday. | 11/20/12 23:17:08 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Sheera Frenkel

U.S. approach to Gaza-Israel talks shows new reluctance to referee Mideast conflicts

The Obama administration’s hands-off approach to Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza is emblematic of what analysts see as an evolving diplomatic approach that’s easing the United States out of its longstanding role as chief referee for Middle Eastern conflicts. | 11/19/12 19:40:22 By - By Hannah Allam

Officials say Israel, Hamas nearing cease-fire deal; Gaza invasion off for now

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators appeared Monday to be homing in on an agreement on a cease-fire that would end Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed 101 Palestinians in the past six days, and head off what analysts had expected would be a far bloodier incursion by Israeli ground forces. | 11/19/12 19:15:25 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Nancy A. Youssef

Lower death toll is key difference between Israel’s two Gaza operations

Less then a mile from the Gaza border, Israeli reserve officer David Mozer sits with his soldiers and waits for news of impending war. | 11/19/12 17:27:06 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Obama to Myanmar: You gave us hope

Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Yangon on Monday, desperate for a glimpse of something no one had ever seen in their country before: a president of the United States. “O-bam-a!” the sarong-clad crowds chanted, waving and holding signs. “O-bam-a!” | 11/19/12 15:11:32 By - By Anita Kumar

Cubans lament dirty pasts of hundreds living safe in exile

Havana activist Elizardo Sánchez says he bears no ill will for the Caamaños, neighbors who collaborated with State Security agents to harass him for years. After all, he heads the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. | 11/19/12 12:02:43 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Obama lands in Myanmar, a first for a US president

President Barack Obama makes an historic visit to Myanmar Monday, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the Southeast Asia nation in the hopes his high profile presence encourages the government’s shift from military rule to fledgling democracy. | 11/18/12 22:38:20 By - By Anita Kumar

Petraeus: CIA secrets cut from public account after U.S. consulate attack

Former CIA Director David Petraeus told lawmakers Friday that the agency had secretly assessed that al Qaida-linked gunmen attacked the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, but that classified references to the terrorist group were cut from talking points on which U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice relied for television interviews. | 11/16/12 18:59:24 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Maria Recio

International court overturns war crimes convictions of two Croatian generals

An international court Friday acquitted two Croatian generals of war-crimes charges, sparking nationwide celebration in the small country where the recapture of territory from ethnic Serbs in 1995 has long been seen as an act of liberation, not a crime against humanity. | 11/16/12 18:02:18 By - By Roy Gutman

Israel finds Arab Spring has complicated its move against Hamas

In a small cafe not far from the border with Gaza, Israeli reserve soldiers sipped coffee Friday morning and mused about what they might face if they are ordered to invade the densely populated coastal strip that is governed by the Islamist groups Hamas. | 11/16/12 17:15:58 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Amina Ismail

Rebels in Syria waiting to see if new opposition umbrella group can deliver international aid

Rebels inside Syria have adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward a new organization created to lead the opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad, with the decision to embrace it largely contingent on whether the group delivers significant international aid for the rebellion. | 11/16/12 15:44:49 By - By David Enders

Rocket from Gaza lands near Jerusalem, opening new front

A rocket fired by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip exploded outside Jerusalem on Friday, opening a new front in fighting between Israel and radical Palestinians and increasing the danger that the conflict will spiral into total war. | 11/16/12 15:33:41 By - By Sheera Frenkel

All-out war feared as Israel moves troops toward Gaza, rockets land near Tel Aviv

Israeli tanks and troops moved toward the Gaza Strip on Thursday night in apparent preparation for a possible invasion of the crowded seaside enclave after a day of violence that included two militant rocket strikes on the southern suburbs of Tel Aviv, raising the likelihood that the region was on the brink of all-out war. | 11/15/12 18:57:55 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Rebels capture Ras al Ayn, 1st town to fall in Syria’s Kurdish region

Rebels who are fighting the Syrian government took control of a fourth border crossing with Turkey after killing or capturing the remaining government soldiers in the city of Ras al Ayn on Wednesday evening. | 11/15/12 16:53:01 By - By David Enders

Retirement looms for most of the men named to China’s new ruling elite

Faced with mounting social pressures and concerns about corruption in the ranks of the ruling class, the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday stacked its all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee with men who are nearing retirement. | 11/15/12 16:11:05 By - By Tom Lasseter

Xi Jinping takes helm in China; new Communist party ruling circle named

The Chinese Communist Party on Thursday unveiled its new top leadership with a procession of seven officials who walked across a red carpet before flashing cameras, finally drawing the curtain back after months of speculation about a group of the most powerful men on the globe. | 11/15/12 00:20:36 By - By Tom Lasseter

Obama says he won't embrace Syria's new opposition coalition yet

Unlike France, Saudi Arabia and several other U.S. allies in the Gulf, President Obama Wednesday held back from recognizing a new Syrian opposition group as the core of a government-in-exile, a caution that appeared to reflect concern over issues that have emerged since its formation on Sunday. | 11/14/12 20:56:25 By - By Roy Gutman

Kurds in disputed town on Turkish border ask Syrian rebels to withdraw

The two major Syrian Kurdish political factions have put aside their differences and called for rebels to leave the city of Ras al Ayn, where they’ve been battling troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad for the past week. | 11/14/12 18:07:13 By - By David Enders

‘The Watchers’ offers Elizabethan intrigue, history and espionage

If you’re looking for something that combines Elizabethan intrigue, history and espionage, try Stephen Alford’s “The Watchers.” | 11/14/12 15:02:25 By - Tish Wells

Israel launches massive attack on Gaza, kills key Hamas leader

Israeli aircraft and warships struck dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in the opening hours of what military officials in Jerusalem said could be a days-long military operation. The attacks left at least one senior Hamas leader dead and terrorized tens of thousands of Gaza residents in the strip’s densely populated urban centers. | 11/14/12 20:00:51 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.S. dilemma: How to avoid another Libya when Syrian regime falls

Rebel military leaders are frustrated with the U.S.’s hands-off approach to their movement. To be sure, some cash is flowing to the rebels, as are some small arms. But nobody, one opposition leader said, is helping to unify the rebels’ disparate military factions. | 11/14/12 01:12:36 By - By Roy Gutman

Slaying of 10-year-old boy at theater triggers anguish in Mexico City

The slaying of a 10-year-old boy at a movie theater to see the animated Disney film “Wreck-It Ralph” has caused a commotion in Mexico’s capital and cast a harsh light on the inaction of police and prosecutors. | 11/14/12 01:17:51 By - By Tim Johnson

Army says Bales should face death penalty for 'despicable' crimes; defense disagrees

An eight-day hearing for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales wrapped up Tuesday with an Army prosecutor saying Bales should face the death penalty for committing "the worst, most despicable crimes a human being can commit, murdering children in their own homes." | 11/14/12 06:38:11 By - Adam Ashton

Libyan officials acknowledge they’ve arrested no suspects in Benghazi consulate attack

Two months after the American ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in assaults on U.S. facilities here there have been no arrests of suspected attackers, and Libyan officials say it is unlikely any will be made anytime soon. | 11/13/12 17:47:39 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Chinese Communist Party may fear reform more than corruption

Even for a Chinese Communist Party known for its cognitive dissonance, a report delivered by General Secretary Hu Jintao last week was hard to reconcile. He warned that the state could collapse under the weight of corruption and lack of political integrity, but at the same time he signaled that reform should not be overly aggressive. | 11/13/12 14:51:32 By - By Tom Lasseter

Israel says Syrian rebels using borders to limit government’s ability to respond

Syrian rebels are using their country’s northern and southern borders as a strategic fighting position, forcing the Syrian military to limit its response to rebel gains in an effort to avoid triggering a confrontation with neighboring countries, an Israeli military officer said Tuesday. | 11/13/12 18:34:56 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Thousands flee to Turkey as Syrian rebels, military battle for 5th day in Ras al Ayn

More than 100,000 Syrians are housed in refugee camps in Turkey, and thousands more have fled there without officially registering with the Turkish government. Turks also have opened their homes to the refugees. | 11/12/12 19:08:55 By - By David Enders

Israel takes fire from Syria, Gaza; vows to ‘escalate’ if it continues

Israel’s military engaged on two fronts Monday, exchanging fire across its northern border with Syria and its southern border with Gaza as its leaders warned that the military was prepared to “escalate on all fronts.” | 11/12/12 18:08:08 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Sex scandal punches holes in the Petraeus aura

Gen. David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, has muddied the carefully crafted narrative of America’s most eminent “soldier-scholar statesman,” allowing unprecedented scrutiny of the policies of a man who was so venerated in Washington that one could be labeled unpatriotic simply for challenging his strategies. | 11/12/12 21:29:14 By - By Hannah Allam and Nancy A. Youssef

Libyans, diplomats: CIA’s Benghazi station a secret – and quickly repaired

Despite speculation to the contrary, no Libyan or non-American diplomats stationed in Benghazi say they knew of the existence or purpose of the CIA annex. | 11/12/12 17:58:48 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Witnesses differ with U.S. over when Libya consulate attack began

Witnesses in Benghazi, Libya, provide a chronology for the attack Sept. 11 on the U.S. consulate here that differs in significant ways from timelines released by U.S. officials in Washington, raising more questions about how the assault unfolded and the speed with which Americans at a nearby CIA annex responded to calls for help from the consulate. | 11/12/12 17:40:46 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

West Africa approves sending 3,300 troops to battle militants in Mali

Earlier this summer, Mali’s Islamist militant northern rebels abandoned their southernmost position, the town of Douentza, some 100 miles northeast up the road from Mopti, where the Malian army had retreated this spring after being routed out of the northern two-thirds of the country. | 11/12/12 17:10:53 By - By Alan Boswell

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales didn't act alone, attorneys suggest

Defense attorneys for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales mined contradictory statements from Afghan villagers over the past three nights to suggest that more than one American soldier could have been involved in a March massacre that claimed the lives of 16 Afghan civilians. | 11/12/12 14:22:30 By - Adam Ashton

Parents of missing journalist Austin Tice speak to press in Beirut

The parents of missing American journalist Austin Tice appealed for information about their son Monday at a news conference in Beirut. | 11/12/12 15:20:04 By - By Lindsay Wise

To some Mennonites in Mexico, Russia looks like Promised Land

It’s been nearly a century since pacifist Mennonites fled Russia for the plains of western Canada, immigrating later to northern Mexico to turn some of its arid high desert into model productive farms. | 11/12/12 00:00:00 By - By Tim Johnson

U.S. hails creation of new Syrian exile opposition group

Political opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad established a new organization Sunday and elected an activist Muslim cleric to lead it, a move that could open the spigot of international humanitarian aid to Syria. But questions remained on when and if a step-up of military aid will follow. | 11/11/12 19:34:38 By - By Roy Gutman

Female Kurdish militia leader widely reported as killed by Syrian rebels turns up alive

A female Syrian militia leader widely reported 10 days ago as killed by anti-government rebels has turned up alive and apparently well, according to a video posted on the Internet Sunday. | 11/11/12 16:37:30 By - By David Enders

Bales hearing: Afghan teenagers describe attack on their home

Seven Afghan witnesses testified from Afghanistan's Kandahar province in an extraordinary judicial hearing weighing evidence against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who allegedly murdered 16 Afghan civilians and wounded six more in a nighttime rampage March 11. | 11/10/12 15:46:46 By - Adam Ashton

Anti-Assad Syria National Council picks a Christian to be its new leader

Syria’s biggest political opposition bloc Friday elected a Christian, George Sabra, as president, a move Sabra said showed that the Muslim-majority nation will not allow its national uprising to descend into sectarian war. | 11/09/12 20:08:35 By - By Roy Gutman

Mexico charges police in August ambush that wounded 2 Americans

The Mexican Attorney General’s Office on Friday charged 14 federal police officers with first-degree attempted murder in the Aug. 24 ambush of a U.S. Embassy vehicle and offered new details that make it clear the police were on a mission of slaughter when they opened fire on the vehicle on a mountain road outside the Mexican capital. | 11/09/12 15:50:31 By - By Tim Johnson

Petraeus admits affair, quits as CIA director

“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Petraeus said in a statement sent to the CIA workforce. “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. This afternoon, the president graciously accepted my resignation. | 11/09/12 15:35:25 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam

Diplomats still in Benghazi say they had long questioned U.S. reliance on local militia

Even before the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, diplomats from other nations and Libyan security officials had questioned the wisdom of a U.S. decision to rely primarily on members of a local militia to protect its compound here. | 11/09/12 18:24:47 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

Chinese Communist Party blames Dalai Lama for Tibetan self-immolations

Chinese officials on Friday renewed their accusations that exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and those around him are responsible for instigating a wave of self-immolations in China. | 11/09/12 12:49:50 By - By Tom Lasseter

China’s Hu Jintao warns corruption could prove fatal to Communist Party

Ten years ago, there were hopes that Hu Jintao would bring reform to a Chinese Communist Party that had opened up the economy but maintained a hard-line, authoritarian style of governance. Now, with Hu stepping down as the nation’s president and the party’s general secretary, that central challenge remains. | 11/08/12 18:00:23 By - By Tom Lasseter

In 2nd term, Obama’s first foreign policy challenge will be replacing Hillary Clinton

Foreign policy wasn’t the issue that got President Barack Obama re-elected Tuesday, but with upheaval in the Middle East, a war to end in Afghanistan and strained relations with superpowers Russia and China, it’s sure to play an outsized role in shaping his legacy as he enters a hard-won second term. | 11/07/12 19:14:34 By - By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, Libyan official who led rebels during uprising, faces murder probe

The man who led Libya’s rebel movement at the height of U.S. and NATO involvement in last year’s uprising has been ordered to face questions over the assassination of the top rebel army general whose troops helped end Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. | 11/07/12 18:27:24 By - By Nancy A. Youssef

U.S. diplomat meets with Syrian opposition leaders Clinton blasted

A top U.S. diplomat met into the wee hours Wednesday with leaders of the Syrian National Council to discuss future coordination with them, just a week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had chastised them as being out of touch with the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad and said the United State no longer would recognize the council as a key player in the rebellion. | 11/07/12 18:21:09 By - By Roy Gutman

Battle for Maaret al Numan reveals Syrian rebels’ weak spots

Hobbled by a lack of supplies and a confused chain of command, rebels here said they feared they might lose the strategic city without reinforcements and ammunition. That’s a reversal from a month ago, when at least five groups of fighters coordinated to attack Maaret al Numan from three sides and clear it of army and security forces. | 11/07/12 17:06:06 By - By David Enders

Israel worries about Netanyahu’s pro-Romney stand now that Obama’s won

Israeli leaders scrambled Wednesday to retract and reword their staunchly pro-Republican statements made during the U.S. presidential campaign, fearful of the fallout that might come with news that President Barack Obama had won a second term in office. | 11/07/12 16:43:20 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.S. votes to legalize pot may encourage Latin American challenges to drug war

Voters in Colorado and Washington state who approved the recreational use of marijuana Tuesday sent a salvo from the ballot box that will ricochet around Latin America, a region that’s faced decades of bloodshed from the U.S.-led war on drugs. | 11/07/12 16:05:49 By - By Tim Johnson

Deaths in Syria down from peak; army casualties outpacing rebels’

The death toll among rebels and civilians in Syria dropped 16 percent in October compared with August, the deadliest month of the conflict to date, though the number is still more than three times higher than it was in the last month of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire earlier this year, according to statistics that a Syrian human rights group compiled. | 11/06/12 16:34:43 By - By David Enders

China turns to police, cabdrivers to enforce orderly transition in power

As the United States ends its political season, China’s is beginning, and Beijing would like to keep things in order. That means red banner slogans strung along roadsides, flurries of propaganda-as-news and, of course, a police crackdown. | 11/06/12 15:15:28 By - By Tom Lasseter

Syrian workers now drawing hostility from Lebanese hosts

Syrians have long come to Lebanon in search of better job opportunities, but the sudden increase in their numbers as they flee the war in their homeland has exacerbated tensions with their Lebanese hosts. | 11/05/12 17:51:04 By - By David Enders

Pakistan general warns civilians not to ‘assume more than one’s due role’

Pakistan’s powerful military on Monday issued what analysts said was a warning to the country’s civilian institutions not to push their authority too far, after the country’s high court issued a series of rulings holding the armed forces to account for human rights abuses and political meddling. | 11/05/12 16:58:25 By - By Saeed Shah

Israeli report says Netanyahu, military were split over possible attack on Iran

Israel’s military leaders refused two years ago to put the country’s army on alert for immediate action against Iran, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Israel was not ready to take on Iran alone, according to a new documentary that aired here Monday. | 11/05/12 16:32:13 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Haiti fears food crisis in Hurricane Sandy's aftermath

Before Sandy dumped more than 20 inches of rain on Haiti, rural towns like Petit-Goâve were relatively prosperous, their crops of banana, pigeon peas and yam helping feed the island-nation’s southern peninsula. | 11/05/12 07:03:06 By - Jacqueline Charles

Power is about to change hands in China, but likely impact is unknown

If all goes according to plan, in about two weeks a small, secretive group comprising some of the world’s most powerful leaders will walk across a red carpet in downtown Beijing. The members of the Chinese Communist Party’s new politburo standing committee almost certainly will make their first public group appearance lined up and wearing uniformly dark suits, tepid smiles and dyed black hair. | 11/05/12 00:00:00 By - By Tom Lasseter

U.S. move to de-recognize Syrian opposition group baffles allies

The Obama administration’s decision to drop its recognition of the Syrian National Council as the leading Syrian opposition group and propose creating a new umbrella organization surprised and puzzled close U.S. allies, diplomats said Friday. | 11/02/12 18:39:49 By - By Roy Gutman

Mexico’s drug violence ebbing, leaving a new sense of optimism

Gradually but notably, the mood of Mexicans has brightened about their personal security and the broader war on crime, a shift in this country’s state of mind that coincides with a sharp reduction in bloodshed in once violent regions. | 11/02/12 16:21:13 By - By Tim Johnson

No matter who wins Tuesday’s election, U.S. likely to become entangled in Syria’s war

Despite Americans’ exhaustion with 11 years of foreign conflict, the victor in Tuesday’s presidential race may find it all but impossible to keep the United States from becoming more deeply entangled in the unfolding calamity of Syria’s sectarian civil war. | 11/01/12 19:59:43 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

U.S. says CIA sent security team to Benghazi consulate 25 minutes after attack, refuting claims of delay

A CIA security team rushed to the U.S. consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi less than 25 minutes after receiving the first call that the mission was under attack, while a second squad was dispatched by air from the capital, Tripoli, according to a timeline released on Thursday by U.S. intelligence officials. | 11/01/12 21:08:08 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Questions and some answers about attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Questions continue to swirl around the attack on the American consulate in Libya in September that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. | 11/01/12 19:30:16 By - By Matthew Schofield

Mali militant affiliated with al Qaida easy to track

A researcher on security in West Africa said the al Qaida-linked leadership in charge of northern Mali appeared unconcerned at the moment about being tracked. | 11/01/12 18:15:52 By - By Alan Boswell

Mitt Romney, Benjamin Netanyahu share donors as well as friendship

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have acknowledged a friendship that goes back decades, but the financial ties that also bind them became evident last month when the premier revealed his list of campaign donors. | 11/01/12 16:44:58 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Syrian opposition group tells U.S. to stay out of internal politics

A U.S. decision to de-recognize a Syrian exile umbrella group and to propose a new political forum – and even who should be on it – drew an angry response from opposition figures Thursday, who charged that Washington was trying to impose its will on them while passively watching the bombardment of cities and towns by the Assad regime. | 11/01/12 16:01:46 By - By Roy Gutman

Al Qaida-linked groups cement control in northern Mali as diplomats ponder intervention

Not long ago, this green oasis was a bustling tourist destination. Now it’s the would-be jumping off point for the world’s newest battle against Islamist extremism. | 10/31/12 15:58:54 By - By Alan Boswell

Mexico City’s new subway line expected to cut time, fare, pollution

For hundreds of thousands of Mexico City residents, daily life grew less arduous and less expensive Tuesday with the inauguration of a new subway line that reaches deep into poor districts of one of the world’s biggest metropolises. | 10/30/12 18:08:35 By - By Tim Johnson

Experts divided on number of Syrians in need of shelter, food

Syria’s humanitarian crisis is rapidly worsening and may be much larger than the United Nations. and major governments are describing it, according to diplomats and officials of U.N. organizations. | 10/29/12 16:16:27 By - By Roy Gutman

Neither side honors Syria cease-fire on last day

Fighting appeared to have returned to its former pace Monday on the final day of Syria’s four-day holiday cease-fire, underscoring the difficulties of finding a negotiated end to the country’s civil war. | 10/29/12 15:16:39 By - By David Enders

Dispute over village election highlights China’s Communist Party challenge

As the party readies for a once-a-decade changeover of national leadership, speculation has spread over whether and to what extent the new administration may introduce change. | 10/29/12 11:13:51 By - By Tom Lasseter

Hurricane Sandy leaves Cuba, Haiti struggling to recover

Even before Hurricane Sandy tore through Santiago de Cuba last week, a humble wood-frame church called San Pedrito was living on borrowed time with beams ravaged by termites and an ancient tin roof that let in the rain. | 10/29/12 07:10:14 By - Mimi Whitefield and Jacqueline Charles

New string of Tibetan self-immolations renews fiery protests of Chinese rule

Seven ethnic Tibetans in China set themselves on fire in a week’s time, bringing the number of self-immolations in defiance of Chinese government rule to about 60 since last year, according to announcements over the weekend by the Tibetan government in exile and an advocacy group. | 10/28/12 15:16:56 By - By Tom Lasseter

Holiday cease-fire imperfect, but slows Syria violence

A United Nations cease-fire that went into effect Friday morning in Syria was breached almost immediately, but people across the country reported less violence than usual. | 10/26/12 14:43:31 By - By David Enders

Syria-like violence seen as unlikely in a Lebanon that’s stable in its instability

Lebanon’s politics are inextricably linked to Syria’s. Syria and Lebanon were one country until Lebanon gained independence in 1943, and Syria occupied Lebanon militarily from 1976 until 2005. | 10/26/12 13:36:38 By - By David Enders

China strips Bo Xilai of last official post, setting stage for his trial

China on Friday announced that it had stripped disgraced politician Bo Xilai of his final immunity against criminal prosecution, expelling him from the rubberstamp National People’s Congress and setting him up for almost certain trial and conviction. | 10/25/12 23:42:27 By - By Tom Lasseter

Egypt seizes Libyan weapons, suspects in further sign of spreading terrorist influence

Egyptian police have arrested five Libyans who allegedly are members of al Qaida, intercepted two truckloads of arms from Libya and killed a Libyan who police said is suspected of involvement in the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, adding new evidence that arms and extremists are leaching out of Libya into the wider region. | 10/25/12 18:53:00 By - By Mel Frykberg and Jonathan S. Landay

Syrian military, some rebels accept 4-day U.N. cease-fire

The Syrian military announced Thursday that it would abide by a United Nations-sponsored cease-fire during the four-day Eid al Adha holiday, the first such agreement since April. | 10/25/12 17:44:59 By - By David Enders

Israeli operations in Sudan aimed at disrupting Gaza arms trade, officials say

Israeli intelligence officials said Thursday that their military has been conducting operations inside Sudan for several years in an effort to disrupt weapons supplies and training for militants in the Gaza Strip – tacit acknowledgement that Israel was responsible for the bombing Wednesday of a weapons factory in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. | 10/25/12 16:07:53 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Anti-U.S. rebels’ triumph in northern Yemen brings peace to embattled region

Residents largely welcome the stability and discount the concerns elsewhere that the “state within a state” is ruled through violence and intimidation. | 10/25/12 15:51:13 By - By Adam Baron

Inside Turkey’s Kurdish insurgency: No sex, no swearing, no Quran

Volunteers who join the Kurdish insurgency against Turkey must abandon Islamic religious practice and must forego “emotional ties” to anyone outside the group, as well as swear words and sex, or face trial and prison, according to a Syrian-born Kurd who defected from the group to Turkey over the summer. | 10/25/12 15:47:25 By - By Roy Gutman

Latin America gets short shrift in US election

There's a running joke in Latin America that the region should be allowed to vote for the U.S. president because the outcome matters so much here. | 10/25/12 07:00:57 By - Jim Wyss

Hamas sends rocket barrage at Israel one day after Qatar’s emir visits Gaza

Hamas militants fired more than 70 rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday, one day after the emir of Qatar became the first head of state to visit Gaza since Hamas seized control there five years ago. | 10/24/12 18:00:13 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Republicans living in Israel plan push to win Jewish votes for Romney

A group of Americans who live in Israel are hoping that they can give the Republican Party in the United States a boost this week and influence the vote in key swing states. | 10/24/12 15:35:10 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Despite Germany’s economic boom, problems lie ahead

On a recent Friday afternoon at a downtown grocery store, just blocks from where there was once a very famous wall and not far from where Adolf Hitler killed himself, perhaps the most powerful woman on Earth waited in a recycling line with a sack of empty plastic bottles. | 10/24/12 15:09:32 By - By Matthew Schofield

Statue of Azerbaijan dictator brings distant conflict to Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park

The new, larger-than-life statue at one entrance to Mexico City’s iconic Chapultepec Park may be inert but it’s also proving politically radioactive. | 10/24/12 14:51:35 By - By Tim Johnson

Navy has become Mexico’s most important crime-fighting force

When a naval unit recently gunned down the leader of the feared Los Zetas crime group, the clash took place in the dusty town of Progreso, 70 miles from the Texas border and hundreds of miles from any ocean, indeed, far from any area where one would expect a modern navy to operate. | 10/23/12 11:54:28 By - By Tim Johnson

Gadhafi partisans in Libya express anger as Bani Walid siege continues

The siege of Bani Walid, the last major stronghold of supporters of deceased dictator Moammar Gadhafi, claimed the lives of at last two people on Monday, more than a year after Gadhafi was killed and nearly one year after Libya’s provisional government declared that the war to topple him had ended. | 10/22/12 17:10:14 By - By Mel Frykberg

Doctors in Egypt often won’t treat HIV-AIDS patients

Throughout Africa, the rate of HIV infection is being brought under control by concerted efforts. Similar efforts, however, are largely nonexistent in North Africa and the Middle East, and AIDS activists worry that the rise of a conservative Islamic government in Egypt will make matters worse. | 10/22/12 15:47:40 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Amina Ismail

As Romney, Obama debate foreign policy, few see easy answers in Middle East

President Barack Obama’s handling of the so-called Arab Spring is likely to crop up when he debates foreign policy Monday night with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But what the United States could have done differently as longtime allies were knocked from power in one country after another is far from clear, foreign policy analysts say. | 10/22/12 03:00:00 By - By Hannah Allam

Pope Benedict pledges respect for Native American culture at canonization of Kateri, 6 others

Tens of thousands of pilgrims, including Native Americans in tribal regalia, Hawaiians with leis and Bavarians in lederhosen, packed St. Peter’s Square on Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI canonized seven new saints, one a Mohawk who has long been an icon for Indians throughout the United States and Canada. | 10/21/12 16:53:38 By - By Roy Gutman

Church changes of rules played key role in sainthood for Kateri Tekakwitha

In the three-plus centuries since the death of Kateri Tekakwitha, Native Americans and many others often have pleaded with the Vatican to saint her. | 10/20/12 16:12:44 By - By Roy Gutman

For church, St. Kateri canonization is recognition of long-troubled relationship with Native peoples

The Roman Catholic Church, whose missions to convert the natives of North America to Christianity go back nearly four centuries, opens a new chapter in its relations with the indigenous peoples of the continent Sunday when it canonizes a 17th century Mohawk Indian as the first Native American saint. | 10/20/12 12:42:49 By - By Roy Gutman

U.S. joins Turkey, Iran in call for brief cease-fire in Syria’s civil war

The Obama administration on Friday threw its support behind a U.N.-led proposal for a brief cease-fire in Syria during a Muslim holiday next week, the first significant initiative put forth under a renewed diplomatic push. | 10/19/12 19:19:47 By - By Hannah Allam

Cease-fire imposed as rival Libyan forces square off outside Bani Walid

As Libya on Saturday marks one year since the capture and death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, a battle is brewing in and near the city of Bani Walid, where the Libyan army and militia from the city of Misrata are preparing to attack one of the last strongholds of Gadhafi supporters. | 10/19/12 17:49:22 By - By Mel Frykberg

On Mexico City’s flat roofs, tiny gardens help feed families, provide an urban respite

Climb to a rooftop and scan the horizon of this metropolis, and you’re likely to see nearby rooftops or balconies with vegetable gardens. | 10/19/12 12:20:18 By - Tim Johnson

Venezuelan doctor claims Fidel Castro suffered a stroke

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and his state of health is so precarious that he has trouble feeding, speaking and recognizing people, said a Venezuelan physician who assured El Nuevo Herald that he has access to firsthand sources and information. | 10/19/12 07:16:55 By - Juan Carlos Chavez

U.S. description of Benghazi attacks, at first cautious, changed after 3 days

In the first 48 hours after the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Libya, senior Obama administration officials strongly alluded to a terrorist assault and repeatedly declined to link it to an anti-Muslim video that drew protests elsewhere in the region, transcripts of briefings show. | 10/18/12 19:20:36 By - By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay

Declared ‘miracle’ by Catholic Church, Jake Finkbonner takes in stride his role in Kateri’s sainthood

The seventh-grader whose recovery from a deadly bacterial infection was deemed a miracle by the Roman Catholic Church, cementing the decision to name the first Native American saint, doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it at his parochial school in Bellingham, Wash. | 10/18/12 17:28:59 By - By Roy Gutman

‘Euphoria’ in Cuba as Raúl Castro loosens travel policy

The Cuban government’s bombshell decision to drop the widely hated exit permits required for citizens travelling abroad has unleashed “euphoria” on the island as well as concerns abroad over a possible mass exodus. | 10/17/12 18:42:19 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Celebration begins for first Native American to be sainted

The Roman Catholic Church began final preparations Wednesday for what will be a watershed event in the church’s relationship with Native American cultures, the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian who lived in the 17th century, who on Sunday will become the church’s first Native American saint. | 10/17/12 18:34:07 By - By Roy Gutman

Bashed by Obama and Romney at debate, China shows its patience is wearing thin

In the aftermath of a U.S. presidential debate that included blistering accusations about unfair Chinese economic practices, a commentary carried by China’s state Xinhua newswire on Wednesday warned that targeting its country’s products or currency would risk a trade war. | 10/17/12 13:42:03 By - By Tom Lasseter

New report on Gadhafi’s death accuses Libyan rebels of executing dozens

Rebels who ambushed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s convoy not only probably killed the strongman and his son after capture but also summarily executed more than 60 of his supporters in a nearby hotel, according to the most detailed examination to date of Gadhafi’s grisly last moments after he fell into the hands of U.S.-backed rebel forces one year ago Saturday. | 10/17/12 00:00:00 By - By Hannah Allam

Diplomats see Kurds, not Assad, as likely target of Turkish border buildup

Turkish tanks are deployed on hilltops overlooking Syria and additional combat aircraft have been moved to bases close to that war-torn country in an escalation that began Oct. 3, when a Syrian artillery round landed in the border town of Akcakale, killing five Turkish civilians. | 10/16/12 17:32:37 By - By Roy Gutman

Despite outrage over girl’s shooting, Pakistan still split over confronting Taliban

The horrific shooting of a teenage girl by the Pakistani Taliban to silence her campaign for schooling for girls has forced a battered Pakistan to consider how it can tackle violent extremism after years of equivocation and toleration, analysts and politicians say. | 10/16/12 15:55:19 By - By Saeed Shah

Pew report finds growing worry among Chinese about corruption and income gap

China’s citizens are increasingly concerned about official corruption and the widening gap between the very rich and nearly everyone else, even as a vast majority say they are better off economically than they were five years ago, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday. | 10/16/12 10:14:28 By - By Tom Lasseter

Police brutality still plaguing Egypt, human rights group says

Police brutality is as common under newly elected President Mohammed Morsi as it was under the regime of Hosni Mubarak, a new study of incidents has found, raising questions about whether the uprising that toppled Mubarak and gave rise to the first democratic elections in Egypt’s history has had any impact on the issue that triggered the anti-Mubarak revolt. | 10/15/12 18:31:27 By - By Amina Ismail and Nancy A. Youssef

The untold story of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis had just ended, with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s promise to President John F. Kennedy on Oct. 28 1962 that he was withdrawing his strategic nuclear weapons from the island. | 10/15/12 07:02:29 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Cuban court: Four years for driver in crash that killed Payá

Spanish politician Angel Carromero Barrios was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in the crash that killed Oswaldo Payá and fellow dissident Harold Cepero | 10/15/12 18:59:16 By - Mimi Whitefield

British say weapons they left at U.S. consulate in Benghazi are missing

When British diplomats abandoned their offices in Benghazi over the summer after the British ambassador’s motorcade was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, their security detail left its weapons and vehicles in the custody of the U.S. consulate in that eastern Libyan city. | 10/12/12 19:05:19 By - By Mel Frykberg

Scores injured as rival protests clash over Morsi in Cairo’s Tahrir Square

Thousands of protesters clashed violently with one another Friday in dueling demonstrations over the performance of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, and the group he once led, the Muslim Brotherhood. | 10/12/12 18:36:01 By - By Amina Ismail

Hezbollah drone may have been sent to monitor Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona

A drone aircraft that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week was apparently on a mission to take pictures of the Dimona nuclear research center in southern Israel, Israeli officials confirmed Friday. | 10/12/12 17:23:09 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Mo Yan, Nobel literature prize winner, not a dissident in China but still a controversial figure

Chinese novelist Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, an honor that brought acclaim for an author whose work traces the turbulent history of China through a surrealist lens but that also underlined the nation’s current political complexities. | 10/11/12 16:57:09 By - By Tom Lasseter

Turkey says cargo aboard Syria-bound plane violated rules, but won’t say what was found

Turkey on Thursday said cargo aboard a Syrian aircraft that was forced down over Turkey on a flight from Moscow to Damascus violated international rules about transporting munitions aboard civilian aircraft. | 10/11/12 17:36:34 By - By Roy Gutman

Protests over forced land evictions soaring in China, Amnesty International reports

The pace of forced property evictions in China has increased during the past three years, fueling social discontent and prompting at least 41 people to set themselves on fire in protest from 2009 to the end of 2011, according to a study published by Amnesty International on Thursday. | 10/11/12 08:45:15 By - By Tom Lasseter

Benghazi consulate attack couldn’t have been stopped, security official testifies

Higher walls and a half-dozen extra guards couldn’t have stopped the Sept. 11 assault by scores of attackers on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead, the State Department’s former security chief for Libya told Congress Wednesday at a hearing surcharged with election-year politics. | 10/10/12 19:50:17 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

With Mexican drug lord’s body missing, his grandiose mausoleum must wait

Even in death, drug lord Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano got no rest on Wednesday, his missing corpse the subject of a federal manhunt in northern Mexico and his elaborate mausoleum in this city locked and empty. | 10/10/12 18:52:28 By - By Tim Johnson

Pakistani Taliban call girl’s shooting ‘obligatory,’ saying she spread secular ideas

Doctors treating a 14-year-old girl shot in the head by Islamist militants because she dared to advocate schooling for girls said Wednesday that they hoped she would make a full recovery from her wounds after nightlong surgery to remove the bullet. | 10/10/12 17:42:32 By - By Saeed Shah

Venezuela's Chavez criticizes US over Syria policy

In his first press conference since winning reelection Sunday, President Hugo Chávez said he was willing to work with the opposition even as he doubles down on his socialist reforms. | 10/10/12 07:07:57 By - Jim Wyss

State Department rejected request for beefed-up security in Libya, official says

The State Department withdrew U.S. security personnel from Libya just weeks before suspected Islamist extremists killed the U.S. ambassador there despite warnings from the U.S. Embassy that the Libyan government couldn’t protect foreign diplomats, according to an email released Tuesday. | 10/09/12 19:06:32 By - By Jonathan S. Landay

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu calls early parliamentary elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called early parliamentary elections for this winter, roughly eight months ahead of schedule, a move many analysts said was likely to allow him to strengthen his coalition. | 10/09/12 18:59:26 By - By Sheera Frenkel

The Afghan war: Do the numbers add up to success?

The 33,000 U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan two years ago to stop Taliban advances are back home, with military officials claiming that the surge accomplished its objectives. | 10/09/12 18:26:09 By - By Matthew Schofield

Hunger stalks refugees despite oil deal between Sudan, South Sudan

On Aug. 13, Kuwa Hassan’s mother carried him to the German Emergency Doctors Hospital in a rebel-held area of Sudan. Four years old, Kuwa was feverish – suffering from diarrhea – and he weighed less than 16 pounds. He was barely alive. | 10/09/12 16:08:40 By - By Alan Boswell

Girl who defied Pakistani Taliban’s as 11-year-old shot in head for ‘promoting Western culture’

A 14-year-old girl who became a national heroine when she protested the Pakistani Taliban’s ban on education for girls in her home district was shot in the head Tuesday as she waited for a ride home from her beloved school, according to officials and witnesses. | 10/09/12 16:16:01 By - By Saeed Shah

Mexican navy says it’s killed top Zetas chief; gangsters snatch his body from funeral home

The brutal boss of the Los Zetas crime gang that has terrorized northern and central Mexico for years has met a fitting end, the Mexican navy said Tuesday: Slain in a gunfight with authorities on Sunday, then his body snatched by gunmen from the funeral home where it had been taken. | 10/09/12 17:16:40 By - By Tim Johnson