BEIRUT — Two explosions struck compounds housing security services in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, reportedly killing 28 people and wounding 238 in the worst violence to hit the country’s relatively calm commercial capital since the uprising began last March.
NEW DELHI — Hundreds of people marched in New Delhi on Friday to protest an ambitious free-trade agreement being negotiated between India and the European Union that patient groups and health activists say could severely curtail India’s production and export of affordable drugs for millions living with HIV in developing countries.
ISLAMABAD — It’s never been easy being a sexual minority in Pakistan, but transgender citizens, known here as eunuchs or “hijras,” are getting a surprising amount of judicial protection and newfound civil rights.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected a last-ditch appeal by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani against an imminent contempt charge, prompting fears of further political instability in the strategically vital country.
KHAR NIKAH, Afghanistan — Inside a cold room surrounded by sand-filled Hesco barriers in the remote Gereshk Valley, British forces are teaching a group of young Afghan fighters how to protect their village from the Taliban.
CAIRO — There is no more potent symbol of Egypt’s economic fragility than the pocket bread that is a staple of life here.
Every day, the Egyptian government allocates 25-pound bags of subsidized flour to designated bakeries to produce the Frisbee-shaped loaves, which Egypt’s impoverished and working poor buy for about eight cents per 10 loaves. But sometimes, there is not enough to go around.
MEXICO CITY — The State Department advised Americans this week to defer “non-essential travel” to vast stretches of Mexico, warning that 14 of the country’s 31 states are so dangerous that visitors should avoid them if at all possible. For four other states, it counseled caution or extreme caution.
BEIJING — China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Thursday that Wang Lijun, vice mayor of the sprawling southwestern city of Chongqing, spent one day at the U.S. Consulate in nearby Chengdu and that he is now under official investigation in a bizarre episode with potential bearing on China’s upcoming leadership transition.
Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt one year ago, is getting a Navy vessel named in her honor.
The Navy said Friday that its newest Littoral Combat Ship, a small, agile surface vessel, will be known as the USS Gabrielle Giffords. The ship’s “sponsor” will be Roxanna Green, the mother of Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl who was killed in the Tucson shooting that wounded Giffords in January 2011.
On a bridge outside Berlin one gloomy morning 50 years ago Friday stood Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of a CIA spy plane that was shot down over the Russian Ural mountains. He had waited 21 months for this moment. He had survived a plane crash, weeks of harsh interrogation and the brutal conditions of a Soviet prison. He was on the threshold of freedom, and his heart was thumping heavily.
Al-Qaeda’s glossy online magazine, Inspire, hasn’t been seen since its creators were killed in a U.S. drone strike last fall, but the terrorist group’s loyalists aren’t the only ones lamenting its demise.
A report by House Republicans criticizes both the Bush and Obama administration for policies that led to the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who later reengaged in terrorism or the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Greece, old stereotypes about Germany are coming back with a vengeance.
A Greek newspaper upset over Angela Merkel’s handling of Greece’s debt crisis Thursday ran a Photoshopped image on its front page showing the chancellor in Nazi attire standing before a swastika.
In a note posted Thursday to his Facebook page, U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford shared satellite photos that showed the Syrian government is using artillery and mortars against residential neighborhoods in Homs.
A Madonna fan page from Tel Aviv has the world talking.
Artist Kobi Zvili created the page five days ago as an online plea to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to hold off on any plans to strike Iran until after Madonna performs in Tel Aviv on May 29.
The death of Kim Jong Il and ascension of his son Kim Jong Eun put a spotlight on secretive North Korea as it mourned its Dear Leader and welcomed another.
The changes in the country highlighted something else: indications that the reclusive country may be becoming more open to outsiders.
When Thomas Erdbrink, The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran, logs on to the Internet in Iran, he never knows whether Gmail and Google Reader, The Post or Facebook will open for him. Increasingly, this is the error message he sees instead of the page he was trying to reach:
The Pentagon will maintain bans on women serving in most ground combat units, defense officials said Thursday, despite pressure from lawmakers and female veterans who called the restrictions outdated after a decade of war.
