Globe Trot: Explosive start threatens to derail fragile Syrian peace talks

SYRIA: Delegates have gathered outside Geneva for strategic talks on ending Syria’s civil war, but sharp differences—particularly between the United States and Russia—may doom them from the start.

A Christian man near Homs was beheaded by armed jihadists earlier this month.

A new report shows the government of President Bashar al-Assad linked to "systematic torture and killing,” according to a team of war crimes prosecutors and investigators.

With close to one-third of Syria’s population in some way displaced, a couple in Beirut are providing a welcome place for Syrians to rebuild their lives.

TUNISIA, where Arab Spring revolutions began in 2010, is close to passing a new constitution that rejects Islam as the “main source of law,” but makes it the duty of the state to “protect the sacred.”

IRAN: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has amassed a business empire worth $95 million—or about 30 times the value of the allegedly opulent Shah of Iran he and other clerics deposed in 1979. The fortune helps to explain why Khamenei has held onto power for 24 years and become more powerful than the Islamic republic’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini.

ENGLAND: What’s happening to save Britain’s red phone booths …

CANADA: Is our northern neighbor Israel’s new best friend?

WE'RE FOLLOWING: the state of emergency in Thailand, unrest in Ukraine, deployments to Central African Republic, the ongoing siege by al-Qaeda in Fallujah, and more.