Iran's top leader voiced mistrust on Saturday of U.S. efforts to reach a nuclear deal, even as Washington and its allies spoke of real progress and urged Tehran to take "difficult decisions".
The U.N. human rights investigator for North Korea said on Monday he would probe allegations of an estimated 20,000 North Koreans working in slave-like conditions abroad, mainly in China, Russia and the Middle East.
An Ohio man claiming sympathy with Islamic State militants and charged with plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol said in a television interview that he would have shot President Barack Obama in the head.
Saudi Arabia is pushing for Sunni Muslim Middle East countries to set aside differences over political Islam and focus on what it sees as more urgent threats from Iran and Islamic State.
The United States made some progress in talks with Iran on its nuclear program and managed to "sharpen up some of the tough issues", a senior U.S. official said on Monday, but both sides said much remained to be done.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott foreshadowed tighter immigration controls on Sunday when he released the first report into a siege last December in Sydney’s Lindt cafe, in which two hostages and the gunman were killed.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he wanted to debate the possibility of Japan's military rescuing Japanese citizens abroad, a day after Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a Japanese journalist.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday condemned as "unacceptable" the threat to the lives of two Japanese purportedly taken captive by Islamic State militants, and said the international community should not give in to terrorism.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned on Saturday that the world would suffer an "immeasurable loss" if terrorism spreads in the Middle East and pledged about $200 million in non-military assistance for countries battling Islamic State.
A policewoman was killed in a shootout in southern Paris on Thursday, triggering searches in the area as the manhunt widened for two brothers suspected of killing 12 people at a satirical magazine in an apparent Islamist militant strike.
Syrians have overtaken Afghans as the largest refugee population aside from Palestinians, fleeing to more than 100 countries to escape war in their homeland, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
For someone nearing 80, President Mahmoud Abbas still knows how to shake things up. But his decision last week to join the International Criminal Court is a high-risk move that may set back the ultimate goal: an independent Palestinian state.
Pope Francis on Thursday condemned the "brutal persecution" of minorities by Islamic State insurgents and said the joy of Christmas was marred by the suffering of children in the Middle East and around the world.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday nuclear talks with major powers were being conducted in a good atmosphere, "good steps" had been taken and more would follow.
Divisions among the veto-wielding powers of the U.N. Security Council are harming the world's children and sowing the seeds of future conflicts, the head of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
President Barack Obama on Friday nominated veteran defense expert Ashton Carter as his defense secretary, a job that will require him to tackle messy wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan and try to fend off potentially damaging budget cuts.
French lawmakers on Tuesday urged their government to recognize Palestine, a symbolic move that will not immediately affect France's diplomatic stance but demonstrates growing European impatience with a stalled peace process.
Pope Francis said on Sunday that equating Islam with violence was wrong and called on Muslim leaders to issue a global condemnation of terrorism to help dispel the stereotype.
China on Friday lashed out at Turkey for offering shelter to roughly 200 Uighurs from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang who were rescued from a human-smuggling camp in Thailand.
Iran said it would resist Western pressure to make what it considered to be excessive concessions in nuclear talks that started on Tuesday, highlighting obstacles that could prevent a historic deal being reached by a Nov. 24 deadline.
The European Union has no intention of imposing sanctions on Israel if it takes steps to block a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the EU's new foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday.
