For the past 11 months Col. David Paschal has back-slapped, noogied and high-fived his soldiers. He's been kissed on both cheeks by local Iraqis, and he's upbraided or atta-boyed his counterparts in the Iraqi army and police. He's sent his gunfighters after the ``bad guys.''
COLOMBIA
SAN JOSE DEL GUAVIARE, Colombia -- This remote ranching and jungle region 200 miles south of Bogotá is one of the historic heartlands of the Marxist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which continues to control large swaths of territory despite recent advances by the Colombian military.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Two weeks after a shaky Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, the accord is slowly unraveling as Hamas leaders in Gaza struggle to keep militants -- especially their Fatah rivals -- from firing the occasional rocket at Israel.
IRAQ
Iraqis no longer have to settle just for thick Turkish coffee, cardamom-laced tea, strawberry-flavored milk or bottled water to quench their summertime thirst. Beer and alcoholic beverages are readily available once again.
Ngoni Bothwell Naite never told his family that he'd become an activist. During Zimbabwe's bloody election season, when Naite volunteered to guard the home of an opposition politician who'd been targeted for kidnapping, his mother assumed that he was staying with friends.
IRAQ
The U.S. military in Iraq celebrated the Fourth of July with what it billed as ''the largest reenlistment ceremony ever held,'' with 1,215 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen taking the oath.
IRAQ
Iraq's foreign minister said Wednesday that the wide gap between Iraq and the United States over the future of U.S. forces in Iraq had narrowed after the American side had shown ''excellent flexibility'' on some key issues that had threatened to derail or postpone the accord.
ISRAEL
A Palestinian construction worker commandeered a construction vehicle and rampaged through central Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon, killing three people in what police later described as the spontaneous act of a lone attacker.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Colombia's FARC guerrillas suffered a devastating but likely nonfatal blowm, and President Alvaro Uribe may have strengthened his bid to win a third term in office when security forces rescued 15 hostages from a rebel jungle camp, analysts said Wednesday.
CHINA
Chinese and Tibetan envoys on Tuesday began their first formal talks since bloody protests swept Tibetan areas of western China three months ago, a dialogue that may affect the Olympic Games next month.
UNITED NATIONS
Iran's senior diplomat said Tuesday that Tehran was seriously considering a new offer from six world powers to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program, and he praised the package as ``constructive.''
PAKISTAN
Pakistan's fitful military operation against Islamist extremists pushed into its third day Monday, but there was no sign of overt combat -- and growing criticism of the army's failure to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaeda, which operate out of the country's lawless tribal belt.
ZIMBABWE
President Robert Mugabe was declared the overwhelming winner Sunday of an election marred by the murders of scores of political opponents, death threats against voters and widespread international condemnation.
CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki grew up in this village of lemon and date orchards about half an hour from the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala. He attended school in the area, according to his official biography, and members of his extended family keep elegant villas here.
ZIMBABWE
The bread lines were longer than the lines at polling stations on Election Day here, with apparently few people eager to vote in a race marked by violence and for which President Robert Mugabe was the lone candidate.
No matter what happens to America's offshore military prison, this much is clear: This Navy base will remain open for years to come, and so probably will the McDonald's, the Taco Bell and the golf course.
This was a sleepy Navy outpost before the U.S. began using it to hold prisoners in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks -- and it may soon become one again.
ZIMBABWE
Bowing to a government campaign of violence and intimidation, Zimbabweans voted Friday in a one-man election that's almost certain to hand another five-year term to President Robert Mugabe.
CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Outraged Iraqi officials demanded an investigation into an early morning U.S. military raid Friday near the birthplace of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, saying the operation violated the terms of the handover of Karbala province to Iraqi security forces.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan's government has dramatically stepped up security around the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar amid fears the city could fall to heavily armed Islamic militants who have now massed around its outskirts.
