The mammoth An-124 plunged to the ground 20 seconds after takeoff from Irkutsk, damaging four apartment buildings, an orphanage and a school, witnesses said. The devastating effects of the El Nino weather pattern on both sides of the Pacific Ocean are troubling enough. Around the corner from Odessa's grand portside staircase, twin pipes gush a greenish-brown soup of untreated sewage into the harbor. Nearby beaches are almost permanently closed to swimming and fishing.
Scientists consider the once-teeming sea one of the world's most threatened ecosystems.
An ambitious U.S.-backed plan to train African troops as peacekeepers met with broad skepticism on the continent last year. Some of Washington's closest European allies are ignoring its pleas not to do business with Iran. And Arab states that once bought the U.S. portrayal of Tehran as a bogeyman are sitting down with the Islamic Republic's mullahs this week. Whenever she speaks her son's name, Nimeh Abu Sisseh's careworn face becomes a portrait of grief, in all its starkness and simplicity. Every day, ever since that day.