World Story of the Day

In her memoir, Mary Robinson speaks of her experience advocating for social causes and her personal convictions after growing up in a deeply Catholic family.

The military has to pack up more than 11 years worth of equipment and send it home. The number of containers to move is in the six figures, and some question whether everything can be shipped out by the end of 2014.

In the Islamic Republic, a woman is typically not allowed to sing solos in public unless she performs for an all-female audience and is accompanied by an all-female band. The Iranian singer known as Hani is pursuing her dream in Iraq.

Secular activists launched the uprising in Syria two years ago, but ultraconservative Muslims are becoming a more potent force as the war grinds on. The sides have little in common besides their opposition to President Bashar Assad's government.

Pope Benedict XVI leaves office this week, the second pope to resign voluntarily. The first was Celestine V, a hermit who quit in 1294, after a brief and disastrous stint. Some scholars say Dante damned Celestine as a coward in his Inferno. Yet his example, legally and spiritually, played a major role in Benedict's departure.

Text messages spreading false rumors helped spark postelection violence in 2007. This time, monitors will keep an eye on social media and will be in touch with government officials in a bid to prevent bloodshed.

U.S. counterterrorism efforts include choking off the flow of cash to extremists and urging friendly countries to help. But in places like the Nairobi neighborhood of Eastleigh, where Somali refugees have flocked, it's hard to distinguish between tainted money and honest cash.

Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri returned to his home country late last year, after spending eight years in Canada. The cleric has ignited a disgruntled electorate by taking on Pakistan's government, saying it has failed to curb militancy or fix the economy. His critics call him a demagogue who's more interested in the limelight.

Refugee numbers are swelling again in southern Turkey due to a heavy Syrian army offensive in central Syria. Humanitarian aid groups are becoming overwhelmed.

Japanese men aren't known for expressing their feelings. But at least a few are trying to do better by taking part in a high-volume display of romance: the annual love-your-wife shout-out.

The secretary of state ends her tenure Friday as a respected national figure with sky-high approval ratings. "I don't see myself getting back into politics," she says. But that hasn't slowed speculation about a 2016 presidential bid.

It's the entrepreneurs' dream: tapping into China's market of 1.3 billion people. That dream fueled the efforts of two Chinese-American MBAs to take the soft-pretzel franchise — a staple of U.S. shopping malls — to China. Cultural and financial barriers, however, led to a far more challenging reality.