The US Department of State advises against all travel to the Central African Republic (CAR). 

Indiscriminate violence and looting followed the March 2013 overthrow of the government of CAR, and the new transitional government has been unable to provide for security. In the absence of basic law and order, criminality has sharply risen. 

Armed rebel groups, militias, bandits and poachers present real dangers throughout the country. Recently, there has been an upsurge in attacks...

Suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on Nov. 19, killing more than 20 people and injuring 140. Bombs were detonated at the front gate and in the main courtyard. On Nov. 22, the Lebanese army defused a bomb discovered in a car loaded with 250 pounds of explosives in the Bekaa Valley. Both incidents have been linked to members of Hezbollah based in Lebanon who are supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria.

The US Department of State reports that tens of thousands of US citizens safely visit Venezuela each year but points out that violent crime in Venezuela is pervasive, both in the capital, Caracas, and in the interior. 

According to the nongovernmental organization Venezuelan Violence Observatory, there were 21,692 homicides in Venezuela in 2012, amounting to a rate of 73 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, among the highest in the world. In Caracas, the homicide rate is even higher, at...