Talia RalphJune 19, 2013 15:18

Four servicemen were killed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, a day before representatives from the US and Taliban were due to meet in Qatar.

Syria's rebels: Are they losing the war?

Tracey SheltonJune 19, 2013 09:10

ISTANBUL, Turkey — After more than two years of bloody civil war the international community has failed to stop, Syria's rebel fighters are skeptical about US plans to send arms their way.

On Location Video: Damming the Tigris

Julia Harte and Anna OzbekJune 18, 2013 08:26

BASRA, Iraq — Jassim al-Asadi was born 56 years ago in a boat at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Back then, vast wetlands covered one-fifth of Iraq, sustaining a unique culture of marsh-dwelling Arabs that fish the waters and live among the reeds.

Quetta's all-female university closed indefinitely after attacks

Jill LangloisJune 17, 2013 12:31

The closure is seen as a safety precaution, as the Pakistani city has seen many attacks. In Saturday's first incident, a bomb on a university bus killed 14 women. Gunmen then killed 11 other women when they attacked the hospital treating those wounded in the initial attack.

Yasemin Irvin-EricksonJune 18, 2013 10:36

Turkey protests: Why the state portrays Turkish protesters as 'others'

Commentary: A cultural trait that enables Erdogan to create polar divisions within country.

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A man takes cover from water cannon during clashes with police at an anti-government protest in Ankara on June 16, 2013. (ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)

More than two weeks into the Gezi Park protests in Turkey, nearly 5,000 civilians have been injured, five killed, and thousands, including civilians, lawyers, and journalists, have been imprisoned.

Rebecca Lee SanchezJune 17, 2013 12:05

Mali detains child soldiers together with adults

As the U.N. releases 2012 Report of Children and Armed Conflict, Amnesty International condemns detention of child soldiers in adult facilities.

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February 26, 2013- Nine prisoners, comprising seven Malian, one Nigerois and one Mauritanian, are taken out of a jail at the gendarmerie in the northern Malian city of Gao to be transferred on a military flight to Bamako, where they are to be judged on charges of belonging to the main Islamist armed group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an Al-Qaeda offshoot. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)

An Amnesty International statement released Friday said Mali’s child soldiers are now being detained and tortured by Malian forces together with adult detainees.

In many cases, these children were forcefully recruited by armed groups to be used in the Tuareg rebellion, a conflict that began in northern Mali in January 2012, led by the National Movement for the Liberization of Azawad.

The detained children are as young as 13 and have been used to fight, man checkpoints and conduct patrols.

Is Syria Obama's Rwanda?

Jean MacKenzieJune 17, 2013 12:56Updated June 17, 2013 12:57

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — What does President Barack Obama see when he looks at the Syrian disaster? Is it Afghanistan, where the effort to assist the anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s ultimately gave strength and weapons to the Taliban? Perhaps he thinks of Iraq? Or is he afraid that history will condemn him for failure to protect civilians, as in Rwanda or Bosnia?

Hezbollah's military prowess gives boost to Syrian troops

Jeff NeumannJune 17, 2013 13:21

BEIRUT — Even as the Obama administration steps up lethal aid to Syria’s rebels, Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon say they are planning to assist the Syrian government in new military offensives to retake territory from the opposition.

Syrian civil war in June 2013

News DeskJune 14, 2013 15:04

The Syrian civil war has now stretched on for more than two years and killed a UN-estimated 93,000 people. June was an active month as Syrian soldiers retook the city of Qusayr from the rebels, and the US determined that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces used chemical weapons, thereby crossing President Barack Obama's "red line" for intervention. One part of this intervention may be supplying small arms to the rebels.

Andrew EruetiJune 15, 2013 10:59

Bangladesh must address land issues affecting indigenous people

Commentary: Denied rights to traditional lands, thousands of Pahari are homeless.

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Chakma children attend class July 27, 2008 in Rangamati in the Chittagong Hill Tracks region of Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hill Tracks is a tribal area of Bangladesh and was the scene of a guerrilla war from 1973 to 1997 between the Bangladeshi Army and tribal groups. (Spencer Platt/AFP/Getty Images)

It was 17 years ago this month –12 June 1996 – that plainclothes security personnel entered the house of Kalpana Chakma, blindfolded her along with her brothers and took her away. She has not been seen since. Chakma was an activist working for the rights of the Pahari indigenous people in Bangladesh’s southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts. In particular, she campaigned tirelessly for women’s rights, and is still a symbol for indigenous rights in the region. Every 12 June, Pahari women activists gather to commemorate her “disappearance” and call for an independent inquiry to find out what happened to her. Partly to commemorate Chakma’s case, Amnesty International this week released a report, Pushed to the Edge, which looks at the immense struggles facing the Pahari indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Bangladeshi authorities’ failure to address land rights in the region has not only left tens of thousands of Pahari homeless without access to their traditional lands, but also fueled tensions with Bengali settlers, which frequently erupt into violent clashes.