Loyalist groups stand accused of encouraging young people to riot. Research suggests paramilitary groups do continue to wield significant power in certain areas of Northern Ireland.
Anger in Beirut after two explosions on August 4 killed more than 200 people and injured more than 7,000.
Nabil Mounzer/EPA
Why the armed group, Hezbollah, doesn't want ongoing protests to upset the ruling coalition in Lebanon.
Lebanese protesters formed a 105-mile human chain connecting geographically and religiously diverse cities across the country, Oct. 27. 2019.
AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
Lebanon's 1989 peace deal ended a civil war by sharing political power between religious factions. That created a society profoundly divided by religion – something today's protesters hope to change.
Iraq beat the Islamic State. Now, its Shia government is jailing and even executing all suspected terrorists – most of them Sunni Muslims. The clampdown may inflame a centuries-old sectarian divide.
The newly nominated secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is a foreign policy hawk who opposes the Iran nuclear deal. Scrapping it could unleash a chain reaction of violence across the Middle East.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Trump's pick to lead the State Department believes Iran is 'intent on destroying America.' But ending the Iran nuclear deal could unleash a violent chain reaction, a Mideast scholar says.
John and Helen Haynes on their wedding day in 1962. John, a Protestant, was cut out of three wills after marrying Helen, a Catholic.
Siobhan McHugh
Marrying across Australia’s Catholic-Protestant divide.
Trust Me, I'm An Expert, CC BY-ND44.1 MB(download)
Until 1970s the Catholic-Protestant divide was deeply entrenched in Australia. On this episode of Trust Me, I'm An Expert, journalism academic Siobhan McHugh shares stories of those who married across it.
During his recent unannounced visit to Baghdad the US secretary of state John Kerry mentioned that “a new and inclusive Iraqi government has to be the engine of our global strategy” against Islamic State…