Greg Myre

Two years ago, the Arab Spring was a fountain of hope. Autocratic leaders whose rule was measured in decades were suddenly ousted, raising the possibility of political, economic and social change in a region that was lagging.

But with a coup in Egypt on Wednesday and Syria's civil war raging, ...

On Christmas Eve 1986, a South Africa prison commander responsible for watching over Nelson Mandela casually asked the world's most famous prisoner, "Mandela, would you like to see the city?"

Mandela was completely surprised, but agreed. The prison commander, Lt. Col. Gawie Marx, promptly put Mandela in his car for ...

One of the most remarkable days of Nelson Mandela's extraordinary life was Feb. 11, 1990, when he walked out of prison after 27 years behind bars. Greg Myre, the international editor of NPR.org, covered Mandela's release for The Associated Press and recounts that day.

The evening before his release ...

China appeared perfectly happy to let Edward Snowden slip away despite a U.S. request for his arrest. Russia appears to enjoy thumbing its nose at Washington as Snowden cools his heels at a Moscow airport. Ecuador is toying with the notion of granting him asylum.

Why ...

Ever since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the U.S. has been in search of moderate Iranian leaders who could steer the country away from its hostile standoff with America.

To cite one famous example, President Ronald Reagan's administration secretly sold weapons to Iran in the mid-1980s in the belief it could ...

Now that President Obama's administration says it's prepared to arm Syria's rebels, this raises a question relatively few people can answer: Who exactly are these guys?

The rebels have been fighting President Bashar Assad's regime for about two years, and more than 90,000 people have died in Syria's civil war. ...

Let's say you are an American facing prosecution and you want to escape the long arm of the American law. Where's the best place to go?

Iceland, perhaps, and we'll get to that in a moment.

Edward Snowden, who faces potential prosecution after declaring that he leaked details of a ...

Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. search for a coherent counterterrorism strategy has revolved around three basic questions:

1. How do we locate suspected terrorists?

2. Once located, how do we go after them?

3. If captured, what do we do with them?

In a major speech at ...

Here's the paradox with international news.

In our wired and rapidly shrinking world, there is no distant war, no isolated economic crisis and no social trend that observes national borders.

When a building collapses in Bangladesh, photos of the dead and grieving appear instantly. When a battle takes place in ...

As reporters in Jerusalem a decade ago, my wife, Jennifer Griffin, and I covered more than 100 suicide bombings over several blood-soaked years. The carnage defined our lives as we raced to blast sites, interviewed battered survivors in emergency rooms and tracked down the extremists behind the deadly attacks.

Our ...

U.S. security officials have been warning for years that one of their biggest challenges is detecting homegrown terrorists — extremists who grow up in America, or have lived here for years, know the customs, speak the language, blend in easily and can fly below the radar of law enforcement.

As ...

Kurdish rebels have been fighting for nearly three decades against Turkish forces in the southeast corner of that nation. But the most prominent rebel leader said from prison Thursday that it was time for a "new era" that includes an immediate cease-fire.

Abdullah Ocalan heads the Kurdistan Workers ...

Every American president since Harry Truman has wrestled with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to no avail. Yet they keep trying based on the notion that the Middle East will never be calm until there's peace between these protagonists.

But as President Obama heads to Israel and the West Bank, expectations could ...

The development comes at a time when the fighting has been intensifying and the rebels appear to be gaining momentum in the battle against President Bashar Assad.

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi won high praise for brokering the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But protesters in several Egyptian cities denounced him on Fr...

The Arab Spring and its aftermath have radically changed the dynamics in the Middle East, and this makes this round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting different from previous battles.

Back in the 1970s, U.S. drivers faced two separate oil crises that led to long lines at gas stations. Many Americans feared it would be a recurring nightmare, but gas lines have been rare over the past three decades.

The city is divided after months of fighting. In the latest attack, dozens were killed in suicide bombings that appear to be the work of rebels.

Syria gave the Hamas leader shelter for years. Now Syria has denounced him in withering terms, a sign of the changing alliances in the Middle East.

The case has been an embarrassment to the Vatican and the butler faces up to four years in prison on charges he stole documents pointing to corruption.