Ammar Hammood was shopping at the market when he got word that his 9-year-old son, Haidar, had been shot by a sniper while playing near his house in the northwestern Syrian town of Fuah. Hammood pushed his way out of the market, so panicked he could barely see. “When I got to the hospital, I found...
As flames leaped high in the battered northern Syrian city of Aleppo, hopes faded anew on Thursday for any revival of Syria’s broken cease-fire. In a week meant to showcase the diplomatic drive to shore up the truce, rush humanitarian aid to the country’s hardest-hit areas, isolate and target...
Amid a fresh round of bloodletting in Syria, Secretary of State John F. Kerry called Wednesday for the grounding of all aircraft in key opposition-held areas of the country in an attempt to shore up a shattered cease-fire and rush humanitarian aid to those in the direst need. Speaking at a public...
Iraqi forces being trained by the U.S.-led coalition to recapture Mosul from Islamic State will be ready next month, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday. “We assessed today the Iraqis will have in early October all the forces marshaled, trained, fielded...
The United Nations suspended humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria after an attack killed 21 civilians unloading supplies west of embattled Aleppo at the end of the weeklong cease-fire, officials said Tuesday. The attack Monday night struck 18 of 31 trucks in an aid convoy in rural Urem al-Kubra,...
Vladimir Putin is the man to watch on the global stage these days, the assertive Russian president who casts himself as a peacemaker even as he plays a troublemaker. From cyberspace to the Middle East, he has reset large parts of the international agenda and kept the White House and its allies...
The historic global climate accord reached last December in Paris is moving rapidly toward enactment, with 60 countries — representing 48% of all greenhouse gas emissions — having formally approved it as of Wednesday. To become law, the accord must be approved by at least 55 nations and those nations...
After eight years of tense meetings, awkward public encounters and disagreement over key issues, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are aiming to leave the impression that the relationship between their nations is on an even keel, much as they found it when they both...
The Philippine president’s staunchest critic, Sen. Leila De Lima, was stripped of a key post Tuesday, in what she says is an act of political retribution. And with a hearing now opened into allegations that she took bribes from drug dealers, observers say De Lima could ultimately end up behind...
Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank early Tuesday after he tried to stab a soldier, the latest in a recent surge in attacks, officials said. Troops opened fire because the 16-year-old posed an “immediate threat” to a soldier stationed at a checkpoint set up at...
It’s 3 a.m. on a Friday, and while most denizens of Baghdad are either winding down the night or ensconced in bed, Hatem Taai and his bleary-eyed crew have just begun their work day. They assemble in a dingy alley off of Baghdad’s posh Karrada Street. The staffers’ bulky frames, bulging muscles...
A group of passengers have taken refuge in the last safe place, the front car of a train that is barreling through the hinterlands of South Korea, as a mob of zombies seethes just beyond the door. As the last few passengers who haven’t succumbed to the zombie horde beg to be let in, those inside...
Ten years ago, a young man turned up at a Pretoria athletic field and trotted around the track a few times with casual ease. This must be the man I was waiting for. His name was Oscar Pistorius, and he was running on carbon fiber blades. I had an appointment for an interview about his efforts to...
A Van Gogh still life hangs in a budget hotel room. An abstract, black and gray composition brightens a corporate office. A Paris street scene gathers dust in a kitschy bar. The artist behind any of these may well have been Xie Chunti, a 31-year-old resident of the Dafen Oil Painting Village, a...
The mercury surged toward 104 degrees at noon. Intensity drained from the busy streets. Pedestrians sought refuge at sidewalk juice stalls, where vendors ordered extra ice. Yet as the town of Siliguri in eastern India baked, its 66-year-old mayor remained unperturbed. Asok Bhattacharya walked into...
The streets are packed with people young and old in Dodgers jerseys or Raiders jackets — L.A. Raiders, that is. Some wear white socks pulled up high under Dickies shorts. There are shaved heads, tattoos celebrating Chicano culture, bright white Puma sneakers and flannel shirts, with just the top...