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...

2 suicide bombings kill 19, wound 45 in western Iraq

RAMADI, IRAQ - Back-to-back suicide bombings Monday at a government compound in this western Iraqi city 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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Britain charges 9 suspected of planning attacks on U.S. Embassy, other targets

LONDON - Nine of 12 men arrested last week in Britain on suspicion of planning a terror attack against targets including the U.S. Embassy were charged Monday with conspiracy to set off explosions and testing potential bombs.

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 further strained the international coalition's uneasy relationship with the Afghan government.

Russian tactical nuclear weapons still an issue after START treaty ratification

What to do about Russia's overwhelming advantage in tactical nuclear weapons was among several tough issues for the Obama administration that emerged from the Senate debate on the strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Britain charges 9, says U.S. Embassy was terror target

LONDON - Nine of the 12 men arrested last week in Britain on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack against targets including the U.S. Embassy were charged Monday with conspiracy to set off explosions and testing potential bombs.

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.

Rapid growth in China's Hainan province worries residents, environmentalists

WANNING, CHINA - One year ago, China's ruling State Council laid out a plan to transform its southernmost province into an international tourism destination, or "the Hawaii of the East," as Hainan island was dubbed.

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.

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.