The brothers fit what European anti-terrorism investigators call a disturbing but now-familiar profile. They were young Belgian nationals of Moroccan descent, both with extensive criminal records involving violent crime and guns. But neither had been previously linked to terrorism, Belgium's chief...
Every day after school, 15-year-old Inamul, usually clad in flip-flops, spends an hour or two wandering the giant landfill near his house. Ignoring the stench and the colonies of rats, he collects plastic bottles, cheap jewelry, glass, bits of wood and anything else that he can resell to a scrap...
Earthquakes dwell deep in the Japanese imagination. No country may be better prepared for a major earthquake than Japan. Seismic standards for construction are among the strictest in the world. From a young age, Japanese learn to dive under desks to protect themselves in a quake. The nation has...
It was oddly tranquil up there on the roof of an obliterated commercial center in the Old City of Homs, once ground zero of Syria’s sanguinary conflict. A panorama of ruin spread in all directions, the ghost of a vibrant community, blown apart in body and spirit. Empty streets sliced through rubble...
The deadly attacks on Brussels brought swift condemnation across the Middle East, but some countries seized the moment to criticize the West for adhering to policies that they said had planted the seeds for such acts of terrorism. Syria’s embattled government, locked in a five-year fight against...
Among those injured in Tuesday's terror attacks in Brussels were several Americans, including a group of Mormon missionaries and a U.S. serviceman and his family. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the three explosions, which left dozens dead and scores more injured. Here is what is known...
Brussels is on lockdown after a series of terrorist attacks struck the city Tuesday morning: one at a metro stop near the headquarters of the European Union and two at the airport. At least 31 people are dead and dozens more are injured. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for...
Just days after a suspect in last year’s Paris attacks was taken into custody, another set of coordinated assaults was launched on a city that serves as the de facto capital of Europe.Explosions at Brussels’ two main transit hubs Tuesday left at least 30 people dead and scores injured, and police...
President Obama ended his historic trip to Cuba with a challenge to its communist leaders Tuesday, pressing them to keep pace with the changes he set in motion for a new era in the relationship between the neighboring nations.More than half a century after revolution in Cuba put the two countries...
With sirens wailing, heavily armed soldiers patrolling street corners, rail stations closed and tight controls in place at border crossings, this country felt gripped in a state of war. Yet at an impromptu candlelight vigil in Brussel's city center, there was a surreal state of serenity as thousands...
From his perch up near the rafters, Jose Aballi Azahares took it all in: the packed stadium, the giant cameras, the leaders of two countries – sworn enemies until recently – sitting side by side behind home base. But Aballi wasn’t watching the presidents, Barack Obama and Raul Castro, who attended...
Pandurang Naik scales the equivalent of several mid-rise buildings in an average workday, only without a staircase or ladder. He picks coconuts from the palm trees that dot India's western coastal state of Goa. Clad in shorts and a dirty tank top, Naik, 64, examines each roughly 50-foot tree meticulously...
Wrapped in a fur coat against the biting wind, Ascension Mendieta steadies herself on the dirt-caked arm of an archaeologist. He guides her along a stone wall pockmarked by bullets, shuffling gingerly over gravel and frost, past chest-high piles of earth on the edge of a cemetery. She slips beyond...
Ibrahim Amiri was finishing a hamburger one day in 2011 when a headline in the newspaper wrapping caught his eye. He had to read it a second time to make sure he wasn't dreaming. But it was true: Neil Armstrong, one of his lifelong heroes, and two other Apollo astronauts were visiting Afghanistan...
When Ehsan Kaveh was studying for his medical school exams in the Iranian capital, the stress was getting to both him and his wife, Rima, an IT specialist. But a family friend, a veterinarian, thought he had a solution — a snow-white Persian cat named Eli. "He said 'Try keeping this cat for two...
Five years ago, Tahrir Square became the watchword for change in the Middle East. On Monday, it echoed with the voices of the status quo. Hundreds of people gathered in the square on an unusually cold and rainy day to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising that led to the ouster of autocratic...
It's winter in Mumbai, which means the Queen's Necklace, the nickname for the sea-hugging boulevard whose street lamps evoke a string of pearls, is lighted more gaudily than usual. Along a half-mile stretch of the thoroughfare sits a succession of private clubs known as gymkhanas, where generations...