World News

Having trouble wrapping your head around southern Europe's staggering unemployment problem? This week, Ikea advertised for 400 jobs in a new megastore on Spain's Mediterranean coast. It got more than 20,000 online applicants in 48 hours, before the retailer's computer servers crashed.

The polio outbreak in Syria has spread to four cities, and new cases are suspected each day. But U.N. agencies responsible for combating the outbreak can work only with the Syrian government. This limitation has hobbled vaccination efforts in rebel-held regions, where the virus was first detected.

In 2000, Auliya Atrafi paid thousands of dollars and risked his life to escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. He spent 12 years in England, but recently returned to his homeland, where he is trying to readjust to — and change — life in a conservative society.

Every year, as a gift to the American people, the Norwegian Embassy decorates the Christmas tree at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station. This year's tree is decorated with 700 reflective ornaments featuring the man from the painting The Scream by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. This month marks the 150th anniversary of Munch's birth.

Colombia's economy has been growing, and wages have been rising. That's good for the country as a whole, but it may wind up driving away the T-shirt industry.

The recent deal between Iran and six world powers grabbed the headlines. But Iran is also working with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will be carrying out a long-delayed inspection on an Iranian nuclear reactor in the coming days.

The U.S. is participating in a historic diplomatic push to curb Iran's nuclear program. Some argue that the inroads on the nuclear issue may persuade Iran — which supports Hezbollah and the Syrian regime — to play a more constructive role in the region on other issues. But that's far from certain.

A fifth century Byzantine monastery in Turkey is finally slated for renovation. But the government wants to turn it into a mosque. It's just one of several conversions of historically Christian sites that the government is considering, a move the country's dwindling number of Greeks decry.

Prominent athletes, high school students and young girls have all been punished, and in some cases arrested, for expressing solidarity with protesters who were killed by Egypt's security forces.

In a spate of robberies in Rio de Janeiro, young boys — some only 10 years old — descend on tourist beach areas, robbing and harassing people. The attacks come despite anti-crime efforts in the run-up to the World Cup and Olympics. It's a phenomenon that had not been widely seen since the country's crime-ridden 1990s.