International Glance
Work began in recent days to remove, bit by bit, the giant chimney protruding from the Chernobyl nuclear power station. It's one small part of a mammoth engineering project, now nearing completion, designed to slash the risk of another major release of radioactivity.
Massive and glittering in the weak winter sunshine, a half-built arch looms over Chernobyl's decaying industrial landscape of cooling towers and power lines.
Chernobyl's arch: Sealing off a radioactive sarcophagus
U.S. seeks Iran's help in finding missing American
The United States on Tuesday asked Iran for help in finding an American who has been missing there for more than six years, in a hint of the potential for a thaw between the two adversaries after a landmark deal on Tehran's nuclear program.
The White House called for Iran to cooperate in locating retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared during a business trip to Iran in March 2007.
Afghanistan considers reintroduction of public stoning for adulterers
Afghan government officials have proposed reintroducing public stoning as a punishment for adultery, Human Rights Watch said, even though the practice has been denounced both inside and outside the country as one of the most repugnant symbols of the Taliban regime.
The sentence for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country's penal code being managed by the ministry of justice.
Israeli couples say 'I don't' to Orthodox Jewish weddings
For most Israelis in the Jewish state, there is one legal way to get married - God's way.
Israeli law empowers only Orthodox rabbis to officiate at Jewish weddings, but popular opposition is growing to this restriction and to what some Israelis see as an Orthodox stranglehold on the most precious moments of their lives.
Some of Israel's most popular TV stars and models have come out this week in an advertisement supporting a new bill allowing civil marriage. A political storm is likely when it eventually comes up for a vote in parliament.
Report: Over 11,000 Syrian children killed in war, most by explosives
Explosive weapons, including bombs, killed seven in 10 of the more than 11,000 Syrian children under the age of 17 who have died in Syria’s brutal civil war, according to a report released on Sunday.
The Oxford Research Group, a London-based think tank, pooled data recorded by the United Nations and four Syrian human rights groups in order to calculate the causes of death of the 11,420 children aged 17 and under who have been killed during the Syrian war since it began in March 2011.
Most often, they were killed by explosives, but also from executions and torture. Since March 2011, 113,735 civilians and combatants have been killed in the Syrian conflict.
Egypt's president issues law regulating protests
Egypt's interim president issued a new law Sunday regulating protests, weeks after the much-anticipated bill stirred serious criticism from rights and political groups that say it will undermine freedoms and stifle all opposition.
Drafts of the bill have been widely debated since the military-backed government first floated it in October. Interim President Adly Mansour approved an amended version Sunday and it will be released later, presidential spokesman Ihab Badawi said.
The law comes 10 days after authorities lifted a three-monthlong emergency order that granted security forces sweeping powers.
Hamid Karzai refuses to sign US-Afghan security pact
A security pact with the US, which is critical to Afghanistan's ability to pay its soldiers and hold off the Taliban, is in limbo, after President Hamid Karzai shrugged off the recommendations of a national council that has approved the deal and said he would continue talks with Washington.
After a year of negotiations, the Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, of 2,500 delegates approved the agreement to keep US troops in the country after the current combat mission ends in 2014.
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