Gray is a dying town, its residents lament. Big businesses have moved away, taking jobs with them. Though it still lives up to its nickname "Gray la jolie," or "Gray the pretty," many stores now lie vacant, with fading "to rent" signs in their windows. But for one Syrian family, the...

(The Telegraph)- Sitting in her family’s new apartment in Turkey, Fatemah al-Abed still cannot believe they made it out of Aleppo alive.  She had feared government forces would wreak revenge on her and her daughter Bana, the seven-year-old girl whose tweets provided a window for...

Instead of bombs there were beats. Guitars took over for guns, and there were cheers, not screams. Still, Aleppo was never far from the minds of the band Musiqana and the crowd at its record-release concert in Berlin. “I didn’t know if I should cry or be happy,” said Syrian-born Samaa...

 Ahmad Alkhalaf has had a busy year. He attended Democratic President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address as a special guest of a congressman. He learned to bike and rollerblade, took martial arts and gymnastics classes and spent his summer playing soccer and swimming...