2 suicide bombings kill 19, wound 45 in western Iraq

RAMADI, IRAQ - Back-to-back suicide bombings at a government compound in this western Iraqi city on Monday killed 19 and wounded 45, police said, in an attack that heaped tragedy on the families of victims of a similar recent bombing.

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Leaked U.S. cables discuss notorious Mexican drug lord and Panamanian president's request for wiretaps of political enemies

MEXICO CITY - The leader of the Mexican military told U.S. authorities last year that the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel moves among 10 to 15 known locations, but that capturing Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was "difficult" because the most wanted man in Mexico surrounds himself with hundreds of ar...

Russian oil tycoon Khodorkovsky convicted of embezzlement

MOSCOW - A Russian judge has convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Yukos oil tycoon, and his former business partner, Platon Lebedev, of embezzlement and money laundering in a politically charged trial that has provoked condemnation from the United States.

NATO, Afghan officials offer conflicting accounts of deadly raid in Kabul

KABUL - NATO commanders and Afghans on Monday provided starkly different accounts of a pre-dawn Christmas Day raid in Kabul that left two civilians dead and strained the international coalition's uneasy relationship with the Afghan government.

Russians drink up, refusing to feel the economic pain

MOSCOW - Their country still endures the sting of economic crisis, but long-suffering Russians have no intention of feeling the pain this holiday season. The over-the-top office party is back, sparkling wine sales are bubbling up and the streets are festooned with banners advertising furs and ex...

U.S. troops battle to hand off a valley resistant to Afghan governance

IN PECH VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN -- Earlier this year, Lt. Col. Joseph Ryan concluded that his 800-soldier battalion was locked in an endless war for an irrelevant valley.

Santos: 'Colombia can play a role . . . that coincides with the U.S. interest'

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who was inaugurated Aug. 7 and has taken his country by storm with a wide array of new initiatives, spoke to The Post's Juan Forero on Dec. 6 in New York and again on Dec. 10 in the Colombian capital, Bogota.

Santos is a new breed of diplomat at Colombia's helm

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - The fiery socialist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela used to deride Juan Manuel Santos as the No. 1 "little Yankee.'' Now, as Colombia's new president, Santos calls Chavez "my new best friend.''

Forest fire fuels review of Israel's tree-planting tradition

BEIT OREN, Israel - Among the charred trees and layers of ash in Israel's scorched Carmel National Park, a stone marker near a blackened stand of pines honors American Jewish donors who gave money to plant the trees.

Somalis are desperate for a new life, but refugees face a dangerous road

GALKAYO, SOMALIA -- Deka Mohamed Idou sat under a tree, exhausted after a grueling six-day journey. She touched her belly, yearning for her unborn child to kick.