World News

Many Iranians were upbeat when Hassan Rouhani was elected last year. But much of that optimism has faded due to the nuclear talks that are dragging and a bleak economic outlook.

Hipsters in Beirut have a problem. Their long, lustrous beards are getting them mistaken for Islamist extremists and drawing unwanted scrutiny from the security forces.

Nazila Fathi covered Iran for The New York Times until she feared her arrest was imminent. She then fled her homeland. Her new book, The Lonely War, tells of the challenges of reporting on Iran.

Three months after the war between Israel and Hamas ended, reconstruction has barely started. Many people still live in half-bombed houses. But there are a few bright spots and a bit of innovation.

Many of the 5,000 Yazidi hostages in Iraq are women who are being raped. Those who return to their deeply conservative community face new trauma: shame, invasive "virginity tests," possible pregnancy.