JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Mohammed Tariq was looking after his uncle's music shop one recent afternoon when two bearded men with turbans pulled up on a motorcycle to deliver an ominous warning.
“Where is your uncle?” one of the armed men demanded of the 14-year-old boy. “Tell him to shut down this shop. If he doesn't, [...]

JERUSALEM — Jewish settlers across the West Bank have vowed to begin construction in more than 60 locations, posing a direct challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he returned home from Thursday's first round of direct peace talks in Washington .
Settler spokesman Naftali Bennet said construction would begin immediately in settlements across [...]

CORRE COYOTE, Mexico — Times are good for the dope growers of the western Sierra Madre mountains. The army eradication squads that once hacked at the illicit marijuana fields have been diverted by the drug war that's raging elsewhere in Mexico .
The military's retreat has delighted farmers who are sowing and reaping marijuana. Cannabis [...]

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Spc. Joshua Joe drives a “Husky,” a giant vehicle built to find and withstand the blast of a roadside bomb, putting him in the front line of the U.S.-led coalition's battle against the Taliban's most effective weapon in Afghanistan .
Seventeen U.S. troops fell to improvised explosive devices in a five-day period [...]

WASHINGTON — Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday opened their first direct peace negotiations in 20 months, a long-shot attempt to end the Middle East conflict that host Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged is burdened by history and bitter disputes.
“We've been here before, and we know how difficult the road ahead will be,” [...]

WASHINGTON — The first Middle East peace talks in nearly two years got off to a quick start Thursday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreeing to meet again in two weeks and to commence work on the blueprint for a peace treaty.
Netanyahu and Abbas conferred alone for [...]

WASHINGTON — On the eve of the first direct talks in nearly two years between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas , President Barack Obama welcomed the leaders to the White House on Wednesday and urged them to “recognize this as a moment of opportunity that must be seized.”
Obama [...]

JERUSALEM — As President Barack Obama launched top level Middle East peace talks in Washington , Jewish settlers across the West Bank , enraged by the killing of four West Bank settlers, Wednesday held up signs, declaring: “Peace or no peace, we will build” and began breaking an official construction freeze that is essential [...]

WASHINGTON — As Mideast peace talks opened Wednesday at the White House , President Barack Obama condemned the Tuesday killing of four Israeli settlers by Palestinian Islamic militants and vowed, “This is not going to stop us.”
Standing outside the Oval Office with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after their private White House meeting, Obama [...]

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military Wednesday marked the end of its combat mission in Iraq amid a series of conflicting messages that underscored the mixed feelings many here, both American and Iraqi, have toward a seven-and-a-half-year effort that cost tens of thousands of lives but left the political outcome undecided.
“The problem with this war [...]