As the Obama administration nears a crucial decision on how rapidly to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan, high-ranking officials say that Al Qaeda’s original network in the region has been crippled, providing a rationale for an accelerated reduction of troops...

Six months after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree at the private digital arts college in California, 22-year-old Will Christiansen received his first student loan bill. The minimum monthly payment was $1,200.  Making just $45,000 per year as a graphic designer at an advertising company in New York City — and taking home about $2,800 a month after taxes — he panicked. “There was no way I could make a $1,200 payment and still pay rent,” he says. “I would simply have to defer until I found a better job.”...

That bar of soap you used once or twice during your last hotel stay might now be helping poor children fight disease.

Derreck Kayongo and his Atlanta-based Global Soap Project collect used hotel soap from across the United States. Instead of ending up in landfills, the soaps are cleaned and reprocessed for shipment to impoverished nations such as Haiti, Uganda, Kenya and Swaziland...

For the last seven years, Marianne Orum has owned a narrow store in a charming street in the heart of this Danish capital. A sign advertises “British and South African Food and Drink.” The shelves are lined with products familiar to most Americans, like Betty Crocker Pancake Mix, but also more exotic items...

When a technical glitch allowed a radio reporter to overhear President Barack Obama’s words at a private fundraiser, an eager White House press corps was crestfallen to learn the disciplined president was saying exactly the same thing in private as he does in public.

Joe Biden … well, not so much...

More than six weeks after bin Laden's death, Al Qaeda finally announces that his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is taking over. Bruce Riedel assesses the threat the terrorist group's new leader poses...

Several Saudi women boldly got behind the wheel Friday, including one who managed a 45-minute trip through the nation's capital, seeking to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom...

The worst nightmare for Vancouver is coming true.

Not only did the city's beloved Canucks lose in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, it was shut out 4-0. Now a scene reminiscent of 1994 has emerged, when the city rioted under similar circumstances, with random fires, flipped cars, pole climbing, and riot police...

Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to American officials...

When first exposed to the art of Ben Wilson, or to Mr. Wilson in the act of creating it, people tend to respond with some degree of puzzlement. “When I first saw one, I thought it was a fruit sticker,” said Matt Brasier, who was walking through this north London suburb the other day...