Syria conflict intensifies Images

In a conflict dragging on into its twentieth violent month, today was an especially deadly day in Syria, where rebels are fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad. A pair of car bombs exploded, one in Hama and one in Damascus, and both sides claimed wildly different casualty totals. Intense shelling of rebel positions served as counterpoint. But even an especially deadly day here makes it just one of many in the conflict that has claimed as many as 35,000 victims since it began with street protests on March 15, 2011. Over a quarter of a million refugees have fled to Syria's neighbors, and the UN puts the number of internally displaced at over a million. Gathered here are images from the last month in the Mediterranean country of 22 million. -- Lane Turner (37 photos total)

A rebel fighter signals victory after he fires a shoulder-fired missile toward a building where Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar Assad were hiding while they attempt to gain terrain against the rebels during heavy clashes in the Jedida district of Aleppo, Syria on November 4, 2012.. The uprising against Assad started with peaceful demonstrations in March last year, but has since morphed into a bloody civil war. Activists say more than 36,000 people have been killed in 19 months of fighting. (Narciso Contreras/Associated Press)

Battle for Aleppo intensifies Syrian conflict

With 200,000 fleeing Aleppo, fighting in Syria intensified in the 16-month long struggle opposing the rule of Bashar al-Assad. While fighting still grips Homs after a brutal siege, the conflict has moved north to finally include commercial hub Aleppo - largely spared until now - a city of over two million. Both the Syrian army and the rebel Free Syrian Army claim advances in the battle for Aleppo, which began in earnest over the weekend. More pockets of conflict rage in other locations within Syria as well. Gathered here are images made available in the last week from Syria, where independent news coverage has been limited and difficult. Some of the images are from third parties and transmitted without confirmation via international wire services as they were received. -- Lane Turner (32 photos total)

A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/GettyImages)

Hell And Horror of Pacific War

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan achieved a long series of military successes. In December 1941, Guam and Wake Island fell to the Japanese, followed in the first half of 1942 by the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma. Thailand remained officially neutral. Only in mid-1942 were Australian and New Zealander forces in New Guinea and British forces in India able to halt the Japanese advance. The turning point in the Pacific war came with the American naval victory in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The Japanese fleet sustained heavy losses and was turned back. In August 1942, American forces attacked the Japanese in the Solomon Islands, forcing a costly withdrawal of Japanese forces from the island of Guadalcanal in February 1943. Allied forces slowly gained naval and air supremacy in the Pacific, and moved methodically from island to island, conquering them and often sustaining significant casualties. The Japanese, however, successfully defended their positions on the Chinese mainland until 1945. The below collection focuses on The Pacific War hell and horror.

Nakba Day

Nakba Day (the Catastrophe) stands for the 15th of May 1948 on which 700.000 Palenstinians had to flee their homes in the war which saw the creation of the state of Israel. The keys being carried in the protests symbolize the houses which they had to leave behind and were taken by Israeli settlers. As you can see from the pictures Nakba Day is another political hot potato which always ends in violence and death.
All politics aside it is about time the two peoples in this conflict start looking to the future and stop living in the past. The Palenstinians need to give the Israelis the security they crave and the Israelis need to give the Palenstinians a free and decent life they deserve.

A Palestinian boy looks at an Israeli border police officer pointing his weapon during brief clashes between Palestinians stone throwers and Israeli security forces at Qalandiya checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Ramallah May 14, 2011. Palestinians will mark Nakba Day (catastrophe) on May 15 to commemorate the expulsion or fleeing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman