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Stories from Joshua Hammer

In a once strife-torn Belfast neighborhood (where murals today dramatize a message of hope), reconciliation is taking hold. Even so, says Father Aidan Troy, formerly of a Belfast parish, progress must be nurtured day by day: "Peace is a delicate plant."

In Northern Ireland, Getting Past the Troubles

A decade after Protestants and Catholics agreed on a peace treaty, both sides are adjusting to a hopeful new reality

Scaffolding covers the reconstructed golden dome. With help from the U.N. and the Iraqi prime minister's office, workers are rebuilding the sacred Shiite site.

Samarra Rises

In Iraq, the restoration of the shattered Mosque of the Golden Dome brings together Sunnis and Shiites in an unlikely alliance

Beirut, from an apartment damaged by Hezbollah shelling. As sectarian tensions flared this past May, hostilities escalated. The renewal of violence dashed hopes that Lebanon could soon become -- once again -- "a freewheeling place where everybody could live his own life.”

Precarious Lebanon

For decades, this tiny Mediterranean nation of four million has segued between two identities

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Inside Cape Town

Tourists are flocking to the city, but a former resident explains how the legacy of apartheid lingers

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Trials of a Primatologist

How did a renowned scientist who has done groundbreaking research in Brazil run afoul of authorities there?

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A Prayer for the Ganges

Across India, environmentalists battle a tide of troubles to clean up a river revered as the source of life

A boy peeks through a doorway that serves as the main entrance of a house.

Save the Casbah

In Algiers, preservationists race to rescue the storied quarter. But is it too late?

Although Brazil protected indigenous territories in the 1980s, many miners and loggers ignore Native boundaries; they see cultural mapping as a threat.

Rain Forest Rebel

In the Amazon, researchers documenting the ways of native peoples join forces with a chief to stop illegal developers from destroying the wilderness

In San Sebastián (where condos dot the beach), a real-estate boom reflects a region betting on long-term stability.

Peace at Last?

Though political tensions linger, terrorists agreed to a cease-fire this past March. Will it mean peace at last?

Preservationists (including Allimam Achahi, far left, and Abdel Kader Haidara) are trying to rescue the city's rare manuscripts from centuries of neglect. "They must be protected," says Haidara.

The Treasures of Timbuktu

Scholars in the fabled African city, once a great center of learning and trade, are racing to save a still emerging cache of ancient manuscripts

A 30-foot-high communal meetinghouse, or mudheef, is constructed entirely of the region's ubiquitous marsh reeds, which, woven into majestic arches, support even its elegantly curved roof. "If you go back 4,000 years," one villager told the author, "you'll find exactly the same design."

Return to the Marsh

The effort to restore the Marsh Arabs’ traditional way of life in southern Iraq—virtually eradicated by Saddam Hussein —faces new threats

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The Dying of the Dead Sea

The ancient salt sea is the site of a looming environmental catastrophe

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