Firas and Zeina survived Beirut's port explosion unscathed but still sustained severe injuries -- not in the disaster itself but in the heavy-handed crackdown on the street protests that followed. Firas Hamdan, 33, a lawyer who was filming one demonstration, was hit in the heart by a lead...

Thousands of people fled their homes in northern California on Wednesday as hundreds of fast-moving wildfires spread across the region, burning houses and leading to the death of a helicopter pilot. In Vacaville -- a city of about 100,000 people located between the state capital Sacramento...

At least 45 migrants and refugees perished off Libya this week in the deadliest shipwreck there so far this year, the United Nations said Wednesday. The UN agencies for refugees and migration said in a statement that 37 survivors from Monday's shipwreck, who were rescued by fishermen, said...

The UN special envoy for Syria announced Wednesday that the 45-member committee charged with drafting a new constitution for the conflict-torn country will meet for the first time in nine months on Aug. 24. Geir Pedersen told the Security Council that convening the UN-facilitated,...