His soldier son toured Afghanistan with fighters in his crosshairs, but US traveller Oscar Wells has a different objective – sightseeing promoted by the Taliban’s fledgling tourism sector. Marvelling at the 15th century Blue Mosque in northern Mazar-i-Sharif, 65-year-old Wells is among a small but rising number of travellers visiting Afghanistan since the war’s end. Decades of conflict made tourism in Afghanistan extremely rare, and while most violence...

Panic descends in Haiti’s capital as police and gangs exchange fire overnight, while political leaders continue to debate the formation of a transition council. Violence has flared again in Haiti, with gangs engaging in running gun battles with police, as the effort to push forward with a political solution to the crisis drags on. Gangs launched an armed attack overnight on Monday, clashing with police in the capital,...