Our Great City

Al Qaeda in Iraq seeks out vengeful widows and social rejects. A jail in Diyala holds suspected recruiters.

From the jail cell she was sharing with her mother, sister and 1-year-old son, the young widow watched with a sardonic expression as the boy weaved unsteadily toward a visiting American soldier and lifted his arms to be carried.

Two elderly Chinese women who applied to hold a protest during the Olympics were ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday.

Hua Guofeng, one of the last of the early generation of Communist revolutionaries who was named briefly to succeed Chairman Mao Tse-tung, died Wednesday, Chinese state media reported. Hua, who is credited with putting China on the path to reform by removing the Gang of Four, was 87.

Moscow plans to set up 18 checkpoints, some in Georgia proper, a Kremlin official says. The plan appears to violate the terms of a cease-fire.

Russia plans to establish a long-term presence in Georgia and one of its breakaway republics by adding 18 checkpoints, including at least eight within undisputed Georgian territory outside the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia, a ranking Russian military official told reporters Wednesday.

Passengers phoned relatives about an aborted takeoff. At least 153 are killed.

It was a troubled flight from the beginning. One attempt at takeoff was aborted. Departure was delayed by more than an hour. Passengers, many of them parents traveling with their young children, were grumpy and hot, eager to get on with it, to start their holidays in the alluring Canary Islands.

Poland agrees to house 10 U.S. interceptor missiles, a program that has angered Russia.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a missile defense deal with Poland on Wednesday and predicted that future presidents would not undo the controversial program.

Two blasts rock Bouira, in the eastern Kabylie region, a day after an attack at a police recruitment center in another town killed more than 40.

Two car bombs struck Wednesday near a hotel and a military compound in Algeria, killing at least 11 people and wounding 31 others, the Algerian Interior Ministry said. The blasts came a day after a deadly attack on prospective recruits at a police academy.

Human rights groups say extrajudicial killings by the army and police have risen, with at least 329 last year. Officials acknowledge problems and point to efforts to train troops.

The number of civilians killed by the Colombian armed forces has soared, activist groups allege, with many of the abuses committed by army units that had been vetted by the State Department.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Naheed Arshad, her bright green head scarf framing dull, brown eyes, had just endured nine months in prison on a charge of adultery.

BOLIN, China, Aug. 20 -- The glittering new buildings that China has so proudly displayed during the Beijing Olympics were largely the work of men like Zou Xianping. Zou, 39, left this little village in 2006 to weld steel for $280 a month in the high-rises going up along the capital's fashionable...

GORI, Georgia, Aug. 21 -- Russian troops remained in Gori early this morning, despite movements yesterday that seemed to indicate they would leave. But their presence seemed lighter than it had since the occupation began.

If anyone in the Washington area should be jubilant about the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf this week, it is Asif A. Shah, a District lawyer and impassioned acolyte of democracy in his homeland, who has been circulating petitions and letters for more than a year calling on...

ORLANDO, Aug. 20 -- President Bush reiterated his demand that Russia remove its forces from Georgia in a speech here Wednesday, stating that the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of the former Soviet republic and that "the United States will work with our allies to ensure...

WARSAW, Aug. 20 -- The United States and Poland signed an agreement here Wednesday to place parts of a U.S. missile defense system on Polish territory, finalizing a long-negotiated deal in the face of Russian warnings that Poland would become a potential target for attack.

Hua Guofeng, an obscure functionary who briefly served as the handpicked successor to Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong, died Aug. 20 in the Chinese capital. He was reportedly 87, and no cause of death was released.

BEIJING, Aug. 20 -- Two elderly women could face a year of "reeducation through labor" because they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics, according to one of the would-be protesters.

BERLIN, Aug. 20 -- Synchronized bombings killed 12 people in Algeria on Wednesday, a day after a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed car into a police academy, killing 48. It was believed to be the deadliest stretch of violence to strike the North African country since its civil war in the...

BERLIN, Aug. 20 -- A Spanish passenger jet aborted its takeoff, skidded off the runway and burst into flames at the Madrid airport Wednesday. Although there were conflicting reports on the number of casualties, rescue officials put the death toll at more than 140, making it Europe's worst airplan...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday that French troops would stick it out in Afghanistan despite an exceptionally deadly attack and frustration at home about the war.

The director of 'Princess Wencheng' hopes audiences will take away the message that Tibet has always been part of China.

In a bid to show the world that it is peace-loving in its dealings with Tibet, Beijing will present a Tibetan-Chinese opera beginning Thursday as part of its Olympic spotlight on Chinese culture.