The U.S. Navy again has accused Iranian patrol boats of harassing an American warship in the Persian Gulf, this time with a Revolutionary Guard vessel nearly causing a collision with the USS Firebolt. Why does this keep happening?

Saeed Beg and his family live in a two-room mud house with no electricity or running water, no bathroom, no kitchen and no furniture apart from a few threadbare rugs and a couple of thin mattresses.

With his mother, wife and five children aged from 8 months to 14 years sitting alongside, he describes life in the Sarkand valley of Afghanistan's far northeastern Wakhan corridor as "very difficult." As he talks, the face of a child laying kindling on the roof to dry appears in the pentagonal hole in the ceiling — typical of the homes of Ismaili Muslims, supported by five pillars. The hole lets in the fading evening light, and when Beg's wife Azalma sets a fire, the smoke curls up toward the velvety-blue, starlit sky.

In the heart of the Syrian city of Homs, workers clear rubble and clean the blackened walls of the war-ravaged old market in a bid to restore its former glory.

The Group of 20 summit opens Sunday in the scenic city of Hangzhou, providing China's image-sensitive rulers an opportunity to showcase the country's emergence as a global powerhouse.

The government has spruced up the city, best known for its island-dotted West Lake, shut down thousands of factories to ensure telegenic blue skies, and rolled out restrictive security precautions.

One year since Germany controversially opened its arms to Syrians fleeing war, the EU has tightened the borders of "Fortress Europe" but remains deeply divided over how to share the refugee burden.

With his fate still uncertain just hours after the launch of the July 15 coup, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received his first call of support from a foreign leader.

On the other end of the line was Qatar's emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, giving his unequivocal backing for the embattled leader, Erdogan told Turkish media.

War-torn South Sudan's slide into chaos resumed last month with fresh fighting in the capital Juba that forced rebel leader turned vice president and peace deal signatory Riek Machar to flee.

Yazan, a four-year-old who has never known anything but deprivation, has finally discovered the joy of ice cream after being evacuated from the besieged town of Daraya near the capital of war-torn Syria.

In the buildup to a long-awaited offensive on the city of Mosul, Kurdish forces are seizing new territory in northern Iraq that they say will become part of their autonomous region. The moves are further straining relations between the Kurds and the Baghdad government and Shiite militias, all ostensibly allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Just east of Mosul, Kurdish engineering teams on a recent day were laying down a 3-meter wide, 20-kilometer long trench and 2-meter high berms, marking the new front line after recapturing the village of Qarqashah and neighboring hamlets from IS earlier this month.

Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011 with peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government but has evolved into a complex war involving jihadist groups and regional and international powers.