Middle East

An Iraqi man prays in 2015 for his slain relative, at the site of a mass grave, believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers killed by Islamic State group militants when they overran Camp Speicher military base, in Tikrit, Iraq.

World News

Iraq Executes 36 Accused Of Slaying More Than A Thousand Iraqi Soldiers

1:46pm August 21, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

They were accused of carrying out the 2014 ISIS massacre of over a thousand Iraqi troops. The U.N. discouraged fast-tracking the executions, saying torture may have been used to extract confessions.

World News

At Least 50 Killed, 90 Wounded In Turkey Wedding Bombing

9:09am August 21, 2016

There's been another bloody attack in Turkey. Officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up at a wedding near the Syrian border. NPR's Peter Kenyon joins Rachel Martin with the latest.

People react after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey. Gaziantep province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack.

World News

Turkish Officials Say At Least 30 Killed, 94 Injured In Wedding Bombing

9:28pm August 20, 2016

by Colin Dwyer

The blast ripped through the celebration in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday. The Turkish deputy prime minister says the attack appears to have been the work of a suicide bomber.

A 5-year-old boy, identified in news reports as Omran Daqneesh, sits in an ambulance Wednesday after reportedly being pulled out of a building hit by an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria.

Health & Safety

The Little Boy In Aleppo: Can One Photo End A War?

8:41pm August 19, 2016

by Malaka Gharib

The photo of the rescued boy in Syria has inspired sympathy, outrage — and donations. But will it be forgotten tomorrow?

Yemenis inspect the damage in a room at a hospital operated by the Paris-based aid agency Doctors Without Borders in Abs, in the northern province of Hajjah, on Tuesday.

World News

Doctors Without Borders Evacuates Teams From Hospitals In North Yemen

1:20pm August 19, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

The group deemed six facilities "unsafe" after a hospital was hit by a Saudi-led- coalition airstrike and said it has lost confidence in the coalition's "ability to prevent such fatal attacks."

World News

Doctor In Battle-Ravaged Aleppo Reveals How Civilians Endure

8:01am August 19, 2016

by Noor Wazwaz

A viral video of an injured Syrian boy is a reminder that the war is in its 5th year. Renee Montagne talks to a woman believed to be the last female OB-GYN in eastern Aleppo about conditions there.

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World News

State Department: Iran Payment Used As 'Leverage' In Prisoner Swap

8:01am August 19, 2016

by Scott Horsley

State Department officials say a $400 million cash payment to Iran was contingent on its release of U.S. prisoners. The revelation is fueling critics who say the White House paid ransom to Iran.

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World News

A Wounded Child In Aleppo, Silent And Still, Shocks The World

7:23pm August 18, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

Opposition activists in Syria released a video showing a child in the back of an ambulance. The haunting image — of a quiet boy, covered in blood and dust — has captured global attention.

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World News

U.N. Calls For Ceasefire To Reach Besieged Areas In Syria

6:28pm August 18, 2016

by Michele Kelemen

While the image of dazed, bloodied young boy has refocused the world on the Syrian civil war, hopes for a ceasefire are dim as the U.S. and United Nations have little sway over Russian and Syrian bombers.

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Amnesty International interviewed former Saydnaya detainees and then used architectural and acoustic modeling to reconstruct the architecture of the prison. The interview techniques were developed by Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of Lond

World News

Amnesty International: Over 17,000 People Have Died In Syrian Detention Centers

3:37pm August 18, 2016

by Alison Meuse

A newly published report from the human rights group cites horrific conditions in detention facilities operated by Syria's state security branches.