UNITED NATIONS

As the Non-Aligned Movement summit begins in Tehran, members aspire to become an organization of authority in matters of global peacekeeping.

Living on land annexed by Israel, but still close to Syria, Druze townspeople in the Golan Heights have put their chips on a tyrant they see as their defender from radical Islam. Some are rethinking that strategy.

The Zaatari camp in northern Jordan houses thousands of fugitives from the war next door -- they could become as many as 125,000, and a political problem for the kingdom. In the meantime, they are just glad they aren't in Syria anymore.

The South African government has decided that all consumer goods produced on the West Bank must be labeled as coming from the occupied Palestinian territories -- and Israel is very angry.

Lubbock County Judge Tom Head became the talk of the Internet on Thursday, warning of a civil war if President Barack Obama is re-elected. But he isn't the only Texas official to have made an outrageous statement. President George W. Bush and Rick Perry are loaded with some of their own.

He and Ina have a story that's both charming and important. It speaks to the power of love, to the human instinct to survive in the midst of horror, to the role of fate in determining who lives and who dies.

The Iranian regime has good reason to restrict young people's access to education, regardless of gender.

At present, the widest wealth gap is found in Guatemala, while Venezuela boasts the most equitable income distribution in the region.

Iran is about the only Middle Eastern nation that Assad can call an ally, as the Sunni Arab world has turned resolutely against the Damascus regime.

Meles Zenawi's death has great implications not only for Ethiopia, but for Western diplomacy across the African continent.

Russia and China have repeatedly rejected moves by the United Nations Security Council to pressure Bashar al-Assad.

With an estimated 650,000 homeless people in the United States and around 380,000 in Britain, experts said high levels of infection would not only cause yet more poverty and distress for those without homes, but could also become a wider problem.

The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Paulos, died on Wednesday aged 76.

Continued violence across Syria has made it almost impossible for the mission to remain.

The Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement on Thursday telling the UN not to pull out of Syria, as a UN departure would have "extremely negative consequences" for Syria. But Russian intentions in this case may not be entirely diplomatic.

The upcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran, quite ironically, has become a stage to gauge the member nations' stand on certain international issues, though the world's largest single political coalition doesn't promise support to any major power bloc.

In order to cooperate with North Korea, China must turn a blind eye to the many injustices that take place there every single day.

Four men, one German and three Iranian-Germans, have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of having supplied Iran with key parts for its heavy water reactor.

A prominent Shi'ite clan in Lebanon announced Wednesday it has kidnapped more than 20 Syrian nationals in retaliation for the alleged abduction in Damascus of one of their own by members of the Free Syrian Army. Meanwhile, a bomb was detonated in Damascus.

The Australian government is approaching a compromise on sweeping reforms to immigration policy that would set up controversial offshore detention centers and increase the number of refugees the country accepts annually.

Walcott’s accomplishments presents some good news for a country desperately in need of some.