Backstory

Mauritanians are still wondering who fired a gun at their country’s president. What the latest whodunit tells us about the state of democracy in a strategic corner of West Africa.

What you need to know about Benghazi going into this week's congressional hearings.

Why this week's attacks on American embassies aren't the Iran hostage crisis all over again.

A closer look at the nuclear stockpiles of the world's two superpowers as the Cuban Missile Crisis began.

A deadly gun-running gamble just cost America's ATF chief his job. But the gun lobby gave him little choice but to try.

What Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, Haiti's pop star turned president, learned from a lifetime in music.

History repeats itself -- revolutions even more so.

How a notorious Malaysian wildlife smuggler was brought to justice -- and what it tells us about stopping the world's most profitable black market.

The incredible story of how Egypt's entrenched regime will stop at nothing to stifle the birth of a liberal opposition movement.

A reporter's guide to interviewing the Iranian president.

At a desperate moment in World War I, British elites appealed to what they saw as the monolithic, all-powerful forces of "international Jewry" to turn the tide of the conflict -- and promised them Palestine.

Saudi Arabia's Al-Waleed bin Talal is back in the spotlight for allegedly being one of the financiers behind the planned Islamic center in downtown Manhattan. Here are 10 things that you should know about the colorful royal.