Syria

It was a decision that appalled and angered Syrian opposition groups and international medical organizations. On May 28 Syria was appointed to the World Health Organization's Executive Board.

The dictator's choice of voting location sent "a message telling the opposition that we are celebrating through your demise," one Syrian analyst tells NPR.

Denmark says security in Syria has improved enough for some refugees to go back. "The words 'to send us back to Syria' means to destroy our lives," says a Syrian whose residence permit was revoked.

The case of a woman who reportedly married ISIS fighters and is now stuck in Turkey with her young children has become the subject of a diplomatic dispute between Australia and New Zealand.

The conflict has not only pitted the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad against a band of rebels, but drawn the U.S., Iran, Russia and Turkey, among others, into a complex proxy war.

The couple received PCR tests after experiencing minor symptoms consistent with the virus, according to an official statement. Both are in "good health and in a stable condition," it said.

The Thursday strikes targeted Iranian-backed groups in eastern Syria in response to rocket attacks against Americans in Iraq.

Eyad al-Gharib was convicted for sending protesters to a prison where they were tortured, in the first criminal trial against Syrians who served in President Bashar Assad's government.

The traveler tells the story of his two months held in Syria's notorious prisons, and how his family got a Lebanese official to help secure his release.

That's the situation in Syria, where bread shortages are now widespread — and the queues for daily rations stretch on and on. The same goes for gasoline.

He was only 10 when the soldiers took away his father. Eventually the family fled to Jordan. But where would they go next? Their saga inspired a Pulitzer-winning graphic series in The New York Times.

After NPR reported claims of civilian deaths in the operation against the ISIS chief, Central Command says the men showed "hostile intent," but it found no weapons or signs they fired at U.S. forces.