With its talk of "destroying" enemies and confronting "jihadi terrorists", France has adopted a language of war for its intervention in Mali that few expected from Socialist President Francois Hollande.
Rebels trying to break a months-long deadlock in their battle for Syria's second city Aleppo say they are cutting supply routes ahead of simultaneous assaults on regime bases.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Tehran early Wednesday to try resolve long-running differences with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
India is "warmongering" over deadly clashes in disputed Kashmir, Pakistan's foreign minister said Tuesday while calling for talks to end the new hostilities.
The first troops from a multinational African intervention force were expected in Mali Wednesday as French soldiers drove out to face Islamist fighters in the north, in their first operation.
Twin blasts ripped through university buildings in Syria's second city Aleppo on Tuesday killing at least 82 people and wounding scores more, on the first day of exams for students.
The US military will keep providing logistical support in villages as it hands over the security lead to Afghan forces this spring, Afghanistan's envoy to Washington said Monday.
Once cogs in a dynamic industrial engine that helped power Syria's economy, the factories in a sprawling zone in the heart of battle-ravaged Aleppo now stand largely silent, the workers mostly fled.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will appear before lawmakers on January 23 to be quizzed about the deadly attack on a US mission in Libya, just days before she steps aside as top US diplomat.
French forces intervening in Mali are facing a determined, experienced and well-armed foe and will not be able to quickly count on the backing of an organised African ground force.
The United States has chosen to play a cautious supporting role to France's military action against Islamist fighters in Mali, after Washington's own attempt to build up the African nation's army backfired badly.
Pakistani police fired tear gas and gunshots could be heard as a growing crowd of protesters converged on parliament Tuesday, throwing stones at security forces.
Tehran hosts the UN atomic agency for talks on Wednesday, marking the start of a new and perhaps last-ditch diplomatic push aimed at resolving the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme peacefully.
Tunisians marked the second anniversary on Monday of veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's flight into exile in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings but insecurity and social tensions persist.
Francois Hollande's decision to order French forces into battle in Mali represents a watershed moment for a president derided by his critics as a compulsive ditherer.
President Barack Obama on Friday said NATO troops would speed up a transfer of lead security responsibility to Afghan forces this spring, in a sign the pace of US troop withdrawals could quicken.
Somali Islamists claimed Saturday that a French commando unit had botched an attempt overnight to free a hostage in southern Somalia, leaving several dead.
