Deborah Amos

A former Syrian intelligence officer faces war crimes charges in a landmark trial underway in Germany. He's charged with thousands of counts of torture that allegedly took place at a prison he ran.

For Dr. Antonio Dajer from New York, the coronavirus pandemic is not the first massive medical crisis spent in an emergency room. He was there for 9/11 and, before that, the AIDS epidemic.

In a first, Syrian witnesses and plaintiffs, some of whom survived torture in a Damascus prison, will see a former high-ranking Syrian official in court on charges of crimes against humanity.

Afghans who helped U.S. troops back home in Afghanistan have ended up in the New York area with their families, and they're helping fight the coronavirus.

Pluto and her human, Nancie Wight, have been churning out viral videos with lifestyle tips from their home in Montreal.

The country's foreign minister called the move possibly the largest peacetime repatriation in Canadian history.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday that Canada will now turn back asylum seekers attempting to enter the country outside official border points.

Protest organizers, lawyers and rights advocates tell NPR the authorities have adopted surveillance tactics, including allegedly invading chat groups to intimidate and investigate critics.

Syrian and Russian armed forces are advancing quickly on rebel areas, killing civilians and intensifying suffering as nearly 1 million refugees huddle in camps near Turkey. Little relief is in sight.

The stories come out in fragmented voice messages from Syria's Idlib province — people are leaving the area to escape the onslaught that's killed more than a thousand and displaced 1 million.

Syrians are fleeing fighting from the Syrian government and its Russian ally as troops push into the country's last rebel-held province. Satellite images give a sense of scale to that crisis.

Fighting has intensified in the last rebel-held province of Syria, endangering millions of civilians and raising tensions with Turkey.

"We are collecting from every person of goodwill," says a Roman Catholic priest who started a low-cost clinic. "We are not expecting a miracle. We hope to create a place where people feel respected."

Grover speaks Arabic in a new edition of Sesame Street — one aimed at helping refugee children cope with fear and displacement.

The Syrian military, backed by Russia, is advancing further into the last rebel-held province of Syria, threatening a catastrophe for the millions of people there.

The Lebanese economy is unraveling. A once-secure middle class is being hit hard as the poverty rate rises — prompting protests against political dysfunction and power cuts.

Anti-government protests in Lebanon are getting more violent, and a leadership void continues as the country's economy spirals.

Aid for millions of Syrians is at risk as Russia is trying to block it at the U.N. Security Council. It's part of Russia's alliance with the Syrian regime.

Thousands turned out for a funeral procession in Baghdad Saturday for Iran's slain military commander.

The Trump-ordered strike on a Baghdad airport killed Iran's top military leader. The move escalates what's already a tense and dangerous situation. Reaction to the general's death has been mixed.