Tragedies in Papua New Guinea are often followed by accusations of sorcery and unspeakable acts of violence. That cycle has become more brutal in recent years.

Tit-for-tat moves this week included the use of American-made ballistic missiles to strike inside Russia, and new nuclear threats from Moscow. Neither appear to have influenced the war on the ground.

The South African government said that nearly 900 people, many children, had fallen sick since September.

Israeli officials said they were trying to assassinate a senior Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah officials said none of the group’s leaders were at the site of the airstrike.

The clashes overnight between Sunni and Shiite tribes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province came a day after gunmen ambushed a convey of vehicles in the area.

While support for Vladimir V. Putin’s threats resounded in pro-war venues, some Russians reacted with worry, gallows humor and apathy to the suggestions of striking the West and using nuclear weapons.

After being abducted by an offshoot of Boko Haram in Nigeria six years ago, a Christian nurse describes her daring escape and how faith kept her alive.

The Lebanese militant group captured an advanced Israeli anti-tank missile in the 2006 war, and its ally, Iran, reverse-engineered it, Israeli officials say.

Laila Soueif, the British-born mother of the Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd El Fattah, is demanding the U.K. do more to secure his release.

With a tactic known as “resort politics,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party has been accused of using brute force to take over Indian state governments.