The deaths of nine civilians, including a child, in a U.S. airstrike south of Baghdad have raised fresh concerns about the military's ability to distinguish friend from foe in a campaign to uproot insurgents from Sunni areas on the capital's doorstep. ...more

February 5, 2008

Kenya's opposition leader Sunday called for international peacekeepers to help restore calm in a country once considered one of the most stable on the continent, as weeks of violence linked to the disputed presidential election gathered frightening momentum. ...more

February 4, 2008

To Vietnam veterans, the 1968 military operation known as the Tet Offensive was as pivotal in the war as D-Day was in World War II. ...more

February 3, 2008

In a daring ambush, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb Monday and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in increasingly lawless Mosul. Five U.S. soldiers were killed in the blast - even as Iraqi troops entered the northern city to challenge al-Qaida in Iraq. ...more

January 29, 2008

Floors creak and doors slam. Hidden passages lead to secret compartments. Ratty old dolls show up out of nowhere. ...more

January 10, 2008

Hundreds of mourners visited the tomb of Saddam Hussein on Sunday to light candles and recite the Quran in memory of the ousted dictator who was hanged a year ago. ...more

December 31, 2007

Three car bombs exploded in quick succession Wednesday at the main market of a southern Shiite city, killing at least 41 people and wounding 150 others, police and local government officials said. It was the deadliest attack against Iraqi civilians in four months. ...more

December 13, 2007

Three young black men break into a white man's home in rural Northern California. The homeowner shoots two of them to death - but it's the surviving black man who is charged with murder. ...more

November 16, 2007

Violent deaths of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians appear to have fallen sharply in Iraq in October, according to the latest Associated Press tally. ...more

November 1, 2007

'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,' by Junot Diaz (Riverhead, $25) ...more

October 14, 2007