While a tentative ceasefire keeps Yemen's capital Sana'a in a relative state of tranquility, denizens of the city are aware that the longer political uncertainty drags on, the greater the risk of war becomes. This fear became apparent when the news reached Sana'a last Wednesday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had had successful surgery in neighboring Saudi Arabia, where he had been whisked to after being severely injured in an attack on his residence. Chaos erupted in the ...

If you want to humble an empire it makes sense to maim its cathedrals. They are symbols of its faith, and when they crumple and burn, it tells us we are not so powerful and we can't be safe. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, planted at the base of Manhattan island with the Statue of Liberty as their sentry, and the Pentagon, a squat, concrete fort on the banks of the Potomac, are the sanctuaries of money ...

Cambodian and Thai troops squared-off for the fourth consecutive day on Monday, the latest in a series of deadly clashes over small but symbolically valued sections of territory along the Southeast Asian countries' shared border. The flashpoints are two ancient temples known in Cambodia as Ta Krabey and Ta Moan, which lie 160 kilometers west of Preah Vihear, a cliff-top temple that is the focal point of the wider border dispute. At least twelve soldiers have been ...

HOW THEY START... Wildfires result from a confluence of fuel, dryness and some kind of trigger. Each factor contributes to the severity of the blaze --Fuel means flammable solids--grass, pine needles, undergrowth, smaller trees--that, with oxygen, feed the fire --Dryness can be caused by short-term weather patterns with low humidity or by a lengthy drought that parches the landscape --Triggers can be as natural as a lightning strike, as innocent as a campfire or as sinister as an arsonist FUEL ...

There are more reasons than mere theology why Evangelical Christian leaders are raising Cain over the message now being wholesaled by the Rev. Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church, featured in TIME's current cover story, "What If There's No Hell?" Bell's I'm-O.K.-you're-O.K., we're-not-going-to-hell-today spin is not merely a refutation of a basic belief. If this piece of theological reordering takes hold, it's the Evangelicals' business plan that's going to hell. Fire and brimstone has been ...

You might think passengers taking off or landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport would feel unsettled seeing a supersonic Concorde jet mounted on a steel frame alongside the runway, with its needle-like beak pointed upward in take-off position. After all, just such a Concorde plane crashed in a ball of fire nearly 10 years ago, less than two miles from where the mounted jet now stands. It was an event that doomed the world's fastest-ever passenger ...

Death on the job was a routine hazard for American workers a century ago. About 100 workers, on average, died every day as mines collapsed, ships sank, trains crashed and factories burned. Nearly all of them are long forgotten. But not the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Events marking the 100th anniversary of that disaster in New York City have been planned across the country at public gatherings, panel discussions, art exhibitions and concerts. I used to stop on ...

If you're like most computer users, your PC or Mac is loaded with a gazillion family photos and other prized documents. Some of you may be sleeping peacefully believing that the external hard drive you picked up at Costco is backing up your data every night, but have you ever checked to see if it's configured correctly? What's really going on inside that black box? And what would happen if your house caught fire? One high-tech — and ...

How soon we forget. Surely the tragic deaths of 14 American service members and civilians in helicopter crashes serves to underscore why Afghanistan matters. For all the debate happening away from the battlefield, here are a couple of important questions:Ban said he was assured by Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had instructed his Interior Ministry to strengthen security, and he said the United Nations would do likewise -- in Kabul as ...

Weapons fire and explosions ripped through central Kabul on Wednesday morning.