As the Syrian civil war got under way, a former electrician who calls himself Sheikh Omar built up a brigade of rebel fighters. In two years of struggle against President Bashar al-Assad, they came to number 2,000 men, he said, here in the northern city of Aleppo. Then, virtually overnight,...

    Alma Abdulrahman is lying gaunt and unable to move anything below her diaphragm in a hospital bed in Amman. Some bedsores have become so deep she's having surgery tomorrow. Screws hold together her upper vertebrae, and cigarette burns pock her right shoulder. Her voice fades...

Twin suicide bombs on a Shiite Muslim religious hall in north Baghdad on Tuesday killed 31 people and wounded 57 others, officials said, updating an earlier toll. The two attackers struck after midday prayers at the Habib ibn al-Mudhaher hussainiyah in the capital's Qahira...

What makes Ahmadinejad smile? What’s behind Ahmadinejad’s smile? How much does Ahmadinejad’s famed white jacket cost? Is Ahmadinejad preparing for the apocalypse? Is Ahmadinejad the George W. Bush of Iranian politics? During the past eight years of Iranian President Mahmoud...