World News

Sales in commercial real estate in the U.S. have soared over the past year. Asian nations, particularly China, are scooping up trophy properties and investing in some large, long-term development projects at a record pace.

From furry handcuffs to a toy bunny that a couple once shared, the Museum of Broken Relationships is filled with artifacts of romances that didn't quite work out.

The U.S. has provided more than $1.5 billion to Syria since the war began more than two years ago. Virtually all of it is has been spent on humanitarian aid and social programs, though that gets much less attention than the relatively small amount that goes to the Syrian rebels.

As people around the world live longer, many nations are having to find new ways to care for their aging populations. In China, a new law requires adult offspring to visit and look after their elderly parents. China's one-child policy complicates the issue further, and some dismiss the law as another attempt to legislate morality by a government that is riddled with corruption.

It's been 20 years since the Battle of Mogadishu, a mission gone wrong that cost 18 American lives. The operation and its aftermath left an opening for extremists, says journalist Mark Bowden, and made the U.S. more cautious about sending troops into foreign conflicts. Would the operation go differently today?

Single moms have faced a tough time in Mexico for generations. But as in the U.S., the number of households headed by a woman has been rising, and now accounts for a quarter of all families in Mexico.

In the central State of Mexico, authorities are trying a new approach to fight corruption: replacing notoriously crooked male traffic cops with women. But the state hasn't authorized the female force to issue tickets yet, and some question whether women will avoid bribery any more than men.

The special forces operations against terrorism targets in Libya and Somalia over the weekend came at a time when President Obama badly needed something to go his way. It's a reminder that counterterrorism is the unusual arena where Obama can decide on a course of action — and execute it.

Scientists who study the remote, rugged continent at the bottom of the world are on edge as funding for research there remains in jeopardy. It hasn't been decided yet if Antarctic operations for the research season will be allowed to continue.

A Kenyan intelligence official says that the "high-value terrorist leader" whose residence was targeted in a Navy SEAL raid was the senior al-Shabab leader Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, alias Ikrima. Ikrima is a Kenyan of Somali descent who boasts connections to both al-Shabab in Somalia and to a Kenyan jihadist group called al-Hijra.