Today, roughly one-quarter of the world’s population lives in conflict-affected and fragile states. Despite vast sums of money spent aiding such states over the last 50 years, armed conflict and...

A once-fearsome cyclone that was threatening Bangladesh and Myanmar dissipated quickly, causing some deaths but largely relieving authorities who had told more than 1 million people to leave...

    Flights in Greece were halted for four hours Thursday as the country's two largest labor unions staged work stoppages to protest austerity measures and a government decision to...

    Israeli police have temporarily barred Israeli Jews and tourists from entering the most hotly contested Jerusalem holy site after Palestinian demonstrations.   Spokesman...

The recent abductions of Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Paul Yazigi, reflect not only the increasing brutality of Syria’s civil war, but also the...

    Economic losses from disasters since 2000 are in the range of $2.5 trillion, a figure at least 50 percent higher than previous international estimates, according to a U.N. report...

    A U.S. abortion doctor was sentenced Wednesday to a third life term for killing an aborted baby that he described as so big it could "walk to the bus." The case has made...

Two doves celebrated their freedom with a soaring flight over St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, all thanks to Pope Francis.   As Francis toured the square in his open-topped popemobile at...

    Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza on Wednesday to mark the 65th anniversary of their mass displacement during the war that followed...

France's economy is in recession again.   The national statistics agency, Insee, said Wednesday that gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of the year. The agency...