A gunman killed a police officer in a Virginia Tech parking lot Thursday and then apparently shot himself to death nearby in a baffling attack that shook up the campus nearly five years after it was the scene of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. Read More

Hundreds of Muslims prayed in a lower Manhattan park and marched to New York Police headquarters Friday to protest a decade of police infiltrating mosques and spying on Muslim neighborhoods. Bundled in winter clothes, men and women knelt as the call to prayer echoed off the cold stone of government buildings. Read More

Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied Friday in Cairo's Tahrir square with Islamists in the forefront to protest against what they say are attempts by the country's military rulers to designate themselves as the guardians of a new Egypt. It was one of the largest rallies in Egypt in recent months. Read More

France recalled its ambassador to Damascus on Wednesday as Syrian President Bashar Assad came under increasing pressure from home and abroad, with army defectors killing at least eight soldiers in a daring attack on the military. French Ambassador Eric Chevallier was ordered home in the wake of recent attacks against diplomatic missions and increasing violence stemming from Syria's 8-month-old uprising. Read More