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Some are calling on President Barack Obama to intervene in Syria's civil war. Gary Bass, Princeton University professor and author of Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, talks about the political risks of humanitarian intervention.

Violent protests erupted in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia, fueled in part by reaction to the anti-Islam film that sparked violence in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. Religion plays a key role in these protests, but many observers also cite politics, internal power struggles and history.

About 1 million Muslim women live in America; 43 percent of them wear headscarves full time. But now, a generation of Muslim women is taking off the headscarf, or hijab. For many, their choice is an attempt to balance their private lives with a very public symbol of their religion.

President Obama has drawn an official end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq, but challenges lie ahead in a country that faces persistent insurgent violence and political turmoil.

As he ended the combat mission in Iraq, President Obama called on the American people to put the energies once devoted there into the fighting in Afghanistan and the rebuilding of the U.S. economy. But he also foreshadowed what analysts say will be a difficult and dangerous job of training Iraqi forces to maintain their country's security.

NPR's Neal Conan talks with Iraq veterans about how the media coverage and the national conversation around the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq resonates with their personal experiences.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was Ronald Reagan's nemesis throughout his presidency. Reagan called Gadhafi the "mad dog of the Middle East," and some thought the president was too fixated on the Libyan. Still, despite Reagan's efforts, Gadhafi clung to power.

In Mali, the French continue air strikes to stop the advance of armed Islamist rebels in the north. In Syria, the death toll continues to rise, and in Afghanistan, questions remain about the ongoing transition of power. In all three regions, opportunities for current or future U.S. involvement is uncertain.

But Libyan loyalists retaliated in counteroffensives across the capital as Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight on "until victory or martyrdom" and called on Libyans to free Tripoli from the "devils and traitors" who have overrun it.

Israel blames Iran for attacks in the capital cities of India, Georgia and Thailand, further escalating Israeli-Iranian tensions. Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl believes that Iranian leaders are exhibiting signs of desperation.