In Kiev, Ukraine, street protests began in late November over the president’s decision to pull back from an agreement with the European Union and turn to Russia for financial assistance. In December, the numbers of demonstrators grew to hundreds of thousands.

On Dec. 17, the debt-ridden country signed a deal to sell $15 billion worth of Ukrainian bonds to Russia in exchange for a discount on natural gas. The deal done, the number of protesters dwindled, but on Dec. 29, after a popular...

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 15 and 20, gangs of young thieves swarmed the Ipanema and Arpoador beaches with clubs and grabbed jewelry, cell phones, beach bags and other items from sunbathing Brazilians and tourists. The dozens of hoodlums made several such arrastoes, or “big drags.”

This style of robbery, common in the 1990s, is difficult to stop because the thieves scatter over a wide area. Police are stepping up beach patrols.

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 34 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Eritrea, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Venezuela and Yemen...