The United Nations warned Monday that inspectors face a year-long mission of unprecedented danger in trying to destroy Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, as rebels launched a major offensive.
North Korea on Tuesday warned the United States of a "horrible disaster" and put its troops on alert over a massive joint naval drill involving a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier alongside South Korean and Japanese vessels.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso on Friday urged the United States to resolve political gridlock in Washington, warning of grim "consequences" for the global economy if it leads to a debt default.
The US Treasury warned Thursday of a disastrous outcome if Congress's refusal to raise the country's borrowing ceiling forces it to default on obligations.
Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad warned Monday that Western military strikes risked igniting a "regional war" in the "powder keg" of the Middle East, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro.
A senior Iranian official warned in Damascus on Sunday that US interests in the region would be at risk if Washington launched a military strike against his country's ally Syria.
Washington warned Syria it would face action over the "moral obscenity" of a gruesome chemical weapons attack, as UN inspectors braved sniper fire to gather evidence about the incident.
Brazil warned US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that failure to resolve the row over Washington's electronic spying could sow mistrust between the two countries.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday issued an official reprimand to the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos after a series of embarrassing rocket launch failures.
The UN sounded the alarm Saturday about the plight of women and children in Syria's Homs, urging all parties in the conflict to enable access to some 400,000 trapped civilians.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Sunday that Washington was "not trustworthy", after former US officials and lawmakers urged diplomacy with the Islamic republic's incoming president Hassan Rowhani.
Washington warned against travel to Egypt after an American was among three people killed during rival demonstrations for and against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Egypt's defence minister has warned that the army will intervene if violence breaks out in the country where opponents of President Mohamed Morsi are planning rallies against him this month.
US President Barack Obama issued a new warning to Syria Friday that using chemical weapons would be a "game changer" as he faced rising pressure at home and abroad to intervene in the civil war.
Mass muggings and attacks on Chinese tourists in Paris have spawned alarm and warnings of a decline in the number of free-spending visitors from the Asian giant who swarm to France.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye warned North Korea on Tuesday that its only "path to survival" lay in abandoning its nuclear and missile programmes.
Australia's weather went "on steroids" over a summer that saw an unprecedented heatwave, bushfires and floods, the climate chief said Monday, warning that global warming would only make things worse.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Iran on Sunday that Israel would never allow Iranian leaders to develop a nuclear weapon, as he addressed a powerful US-Israel lobby.