Bloomberg IS claimed responsibility for the killing of 39 people celebrating the New Year inside a fabled Istanbul nightclub, an act of terrorism that has become grimly familiar in Turkey as it fails to keep the violence in Syria from spilling into its cities. Shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, an assailant killed a police officer guarding the entrance …

  ABS, Yemen / AP As the first light of dawn trickles in through the hospital window, 19-year-old Mohammed Ali learns that his two-year-old cousin has died of hunger. But he has to remain strong for his little brother Mohannad, who could be next. He holds his brother’s hand as the five-year-old struggles to breathe, his skin stretched tight over tiny …

  BEIRUT / AP Hundreds of civilians fled a mountainous region outside the Syrian capital, where government forces were battling several insurgent groups, including an al-Qaida-linked outfit excluded from a recent nationwide cease-fire. The Syrian military said some 1,300 people fled the Barada Valley region since Saturday. The region has been the target of days of airstrikes and shelling despite the …