• David Goldman / AP

    Staff Sgt. Rulberto Qjendismiranda, 20, of Seaside, Calif, with the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion 27th Infantry Regiment based in Hawaii, looks at a photo of his son Marziano, 11 months, on his mobile phone aboard a military transport flight Monday, July 11, out of Forward Operating Base Fenty in Kunar province, Afghanistan.

    U.S. Army soldier looks at a picture from home during a military transport flight

    By Jim Seida

    I wonder how long it's been since Staff Sgt. Qjendismiranda has seen his son.

    More South and Central Asia coverage here.

  • Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

    A police officer shows a M-26 hand grenade found mixed in a box of tomatoes, during a presentation to the press at the police station in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia, on May 19. The Colombian Police seized thirty M-26 hand grenades which were hidden in three boxes of tomatoes that allegedly belonged to the criminal gangs.

    Colombian Police seize hand grenades found in boxes of tomatoes

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  • Pro-Ouattara troops mass for "final assault" in Ivory Coast

    Emmanuel Braun / Reuters

    Forces loyal to Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara gather outside the capital Abidjan, April 3. Fighters loyal to Ivory Coast presidential rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Ouattara held onto positions around the main city Abidjan on Sunday, a day that saw less fighting than the previous three. Soldiers of Ivory Coast's rival leaders battled for the presidential palace, military bases and state TV in the main city Abidjan on Saturday, in a conflict becoming so brutal that it killed 800 people in one town alone. Advancing soldiers backing Alassane Ouattara, who U.N.-certified results show won a Nov. 28 presidential election, met stiff resistance from fighters remaining loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down.

    Fighters backing democratically elected leader Alassane Ouattara entered Abidjan by the truckload Monday afternoon as part of a final offensive to take the last piece of the West African country still largely controlled by Gbagbo.

    Emmanuel Braun / Reuters

    A fighter loyal to Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara displays traditional hunters' charms as forces gather outside the capital Abidjan, April 3.

    A convoy of several dozen vehicles containing heavily armed pro-Ouattara troops and outfitted with mounted machine guns entered Ivory Coast's main city at midday, the first elements of a large force that had massed on the northern outskirts for what they called a "final assault," according to a Reuters eyewitness.

    Emmanuel Braun / Reuters

    Forces loyal to Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara prepare to head to the frontline in the capital Abidjan, April 2.

     Heavy machine gun fire and a few explosions could be heard minutes after they entered the city limits.  Read full story here.

  • Seattle man desperate to contact friends and students in Japan

    Photo courtesy Ben Erickson

    Benjamin Erickson (top center) poses with Ms. Fujiwara's Second Grade class at the Ninohe City Nisatai Elementary-Junior High in Ninohe, Japan, where he worked as a language teacher from 2006 to 2008. Now, living in Seattle, Erickson hasn't been able to contact his students or friends from Ninohe since Friday's earthquake struck Sendai, only 130 miles to the south of Ninohe.

    Seattle resident Benjamin Erickson used to teach English to students at a school in Ninohe, Japan, only 130 miles from the devastating quake. Now he desperately wants to hear from them.

  • Jens Schlueter / AP

    A rescuer inspects the area of a train crash, while silhouettes of casualties are seen in the snow, in Hordorf near Oschersleben, eastern Germany, Sunday morning, Jan 30, 2011. According to German news agency Dapd, the head-on train crash killed 10 people and injured more than 20 people on Saturday evening. A passenger and a cargo train crashed head-on near Hordorf village, close to Saxony-Anhalt's state capital Magdeburg, and several train cars derailed and overturned, a spokesman for the district's firefighters said.

    Train crash in Germany kills at least ten

    By Jim Seida

    This is a very thoughtful picture. I feel this photograph is more powerful than it would be if it actually showed the bodies of those killed in the crash. Read the story here.

  • Abd Raouf / AP

    Southern Sudanese women sit in buses preparing to head to southern Sudan, at a staging area 20 miles south of Khartoum, Sudan, Oct. 28, 2010. Hundreds of southern Sudanese began heading south from the capital Khartoum Thursday, ahead of a key referendum over the future of the country in January.

    Going home in Sudan

    msnbc.com story: Southern Sudanese head south ahead of key vote

    KHARTOUM, Sudan — Hundreds of southern Sudanese headed south from the capital Khartoum on Thursday ahead of a key referendum over whether the south will secede from Africa's largest country.

    Men, women and children crammed into buses piled high with luggage that left from a staging area 20 miles south of Khartoum in the latest large scale return of southern refugees from the north.