In a world of increasing conflict, one country stands out as a sad emblem of misery: Syria. The country’s 6-year-old civil war has sent 11 million people — half the population — fleeing their homes. Some 5 million people have left the country altogether. Those who remain face a nightmare of bombings,...
The establishment of an independent Kurdistan — a decades-old dream for many people here — was starting to take shape. In a nonbinding referendum held by the Kurds three weeks ago, more than 92% of voters favored breaking away from Iraq. But on Tuesday, the dream all but died. The Kurdish troops...
Screams of confusion, of fear, of joy: These are the reactions of civilians escaping the inferno of the Syrian city of Raqqah, once the Islamic State’s de facto Syrian capital and now the target of a furious coalition-backed campaign. The arrivals to a neighborhood held by the U.S.-supported Syrian...
Two weeks after Xi Jinping ascended to China’s most powerful post, he took his top lieutenants to a history museum. The seven men wore nearly identical black jackets. They stopped at an exhibit titled “The Road to Rejuvenation.” Surrounded by images of Japanese invaders and British traders, Xi...
Candidates loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won at least 17 of 23 governorships up for grabs in Sunday’s elections, according to the National Electoral Council, but opposition leaders immediately rejected the tally, citing exit polls that indicated their candidates won many states. ...
Hundreds of Somalis marched in the streets of Mogadishu on Sunday to protest a deadly blast that killed 276 people in a busy shopping district in the country’s deadliest single bomb attack. About 300 others were reported injured in the attack, Information Minister Abdirahman O. Osman said. It occurred...
Austria picked a new conservative leader on Sunday who triumphed by promising to take a hard line on the tens of thousands of refugees who have poured into the country from Syria and elsewhere. Sebastian Kurz, 31, who will become the youngest leader in the European Union, is expected to attempt...
The advertisements are scrawled in marker on brick walls and tree trunks, and affixed to telephone utility boxes, sidewalks and a road sign pointing the way to one of Iran’s leading hospitals. “Kidney for sale,” read the dozens of messages, accompanied by phone numbers and blood types, splashed...
If circumstances were normal in Venezuela, opposition candidates could expect to sweep to victory in Sunday’s gubernatorial elections, given overwhelming voter dissatisfaction over a collapsed economy and new revelations linking unpopular President Nicolas Maduro to the Odebrecht bribery scandal....
As Austrians head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government, one main issue dominates the political discourse: concern over migrants. Polls indicate that the Central European country’s new parliament is poised to tip to the far right as voters appear to be heeding the anti-immigrant message...
It was almost dawn in the northern Lebanese hamlet of Miziara when the killer made his way to the young woman’s bedroom. He threatened her with a knife, then bound her with cable ties and raped her before slipping a plastic bag over her head, suffocating her. He cleaned up the room and left. The...
President Trump on Friday announced new restrictions on Iran, calling it "a terrorist nation like few others," but he stopped short of scrapping the landmark nuclear deal that was the Obama administration's signature foreign policy achievement. Instead, the president urged Congress to consider...
President Trump on Friday announced steps to weaken the nuclear deal with Iran, which could potentially unravel one of the most important anti-proliferation agreements of the century. Trump declared that the agreement the Obama administration and five other world powers reached with Iran in 2015...
A man on a commuter minibus carried a virulent form of plague from central Madagascar to the capital before dying. He infected dozens of people, leading to panic.
The rain was relentless the night Cherwen Polo turned 38, transforming his slum into a slurry of mud and garbage. Water leaked through his corrugated tin roof. Inside, he and four friends had been celebrating for hours, drinking late into the night. There was a knock at the door. It was the police....
Amid fanfare and embraces, representatives of the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, after a decade at loggerheads, signed a preliminary agreement Thursday to reunify and share control and leadership of the Gaza Strip. The images of an exuberant Salah Aruri, deputy head of Hamas, and senior...
U.S. and Pakistani officials said Thursday that they had rescued an American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children from captivity by a militant network linked to the Taliban. Pakistani officials said their army and intelligence agencies conducted the rescue operation based...
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday ordered Catalonia’s separatist leaders to stop their push for independence by next week or face being deposed, and moved toward assuming control of the northeastern region. Rajoy sent Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, a letter telling him...