A senior U.N. team is embarking on a new attempt to restart its probe into suspicions that Iran secretly worked on nuclear arms.
Thousands of Iraqi demonstrators massed in a Sunni-dominated province west of Baghdad Wednesday, determined to keep up the pressure on a Shiite-led government that many accuse of trying to marginalize them.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated Sunday in Iraq's western Sunni heartland following the arrest of bodyguards assigned to the finance minister, briefly blocking the main highway linking Baghdad with neighboring Jordan and Syria.
A government airstrike on a bakery in a rebel-held town in central Syria killed more than 60 people Sunday, activists said, casting a pall over a visit by the international envoy tasked with negotiating an end to the country's civil war.
Iraq's finance minister on Thursday accused a "militia force" of kidnapping members of his staff, saying he holds the prime minister personally responsible for their safety.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. urged rival Iraqi politicians on Sunday to end months of delays and select new leaders for their wobbly democracy, predicting a peaceful transition of power even as suicide bombers struck government centers in two major cities.
Iraqi Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi said he is calling on Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and Egypt to write off billions of dollars in debts incurred during former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.
