NEW SITE (AFP) — Southern Sudan grieved Tuesday for the loss of ex-rebel leader John Garang who personified the region’s struggle against Khartoum before turning his sights on peace and negotiating a landmark deal to end Africa’s longest-running civil war. As mourners filed by a simple table where his body …

SAMARRA — When militant groups in Iraq kidnap those suspected of working with the US-led coalition, what follows is often a long detention, a harrowing trial by kangaroo court and swift execution. Ghaleb Saadun Al Duri, a 37-year-old contractor, is a rare survivor of such an ordeal. He spent two …

TEKOA, West Bank — As a combat soldier in an Israeli army engineers battalion, Avi Bieber had always volunteered for the toughest missions. But when the 19-year-old, US-born corporal was ordered to take part in pre-withdrawal operations in Gaza’s main settlement bloc, he refused, becoming a hero to many Jewish …