IRAQ

Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks, has fled to the Ecuadorean embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patrino said.

The State Department on Tuesday warned Iranian exile group Mujahideen-e Khalq, or MEK, to comply with its relocation from Iraq's Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya if it hopes to be removed from the United States' list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife.

There's concern among some U.S. lawmakers that recent national security leaks that allegedly originated in the White House may have, among other consequences, jeopardized the security of Americans conducting the operations.

President Obama is continuing to support Brett McGurk's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Iraq despite a burgeoning controversy over McGurk's alleged affair with a journalist.

In the latest blow to international efforts to stem the spiraling bloodshed in Syria, the United Nations has announced it is suspending its observer mission.

Caught in the middle of a bloody 15-month-long uprising are Syria's 2 million Christians, who are wary of leaving behind a repressive and totalitarian regime.

Josh Henderson talks about his meemaw.

The book ?Founding Myths? was particularly critical of what Garaudy viewed as excessive Jewish influence on U.S. foreign policy.

JetBlue is being sued by 10 passengers, claiming the airline was grossly negligent in allowing pilot Clayton Osbon, who had to be restrained after he burst through the cockpit screaming about religion and terrorism on a March 27 flight from New York to Las Vegas, to man the plane that day.

Most of the dead were Shia Muslim pilgrims who were assembling for a religious festival.

Iran also said Tuesday that it had begun the overhaul of one of the three Russian-made nuclear-powered submarines in its fleet despite Moscow rejecting Tehran's requests for help with the remodeling, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

Arizona Democrat Ron Barber was declared the winner in the nationally highlighted special election to fill Gabrielle Giffords' former seat in the House of Representatives, news reports said.

The U.S. singled out China on Monday in its effort to push the international community to place additional economic pressure on Iran.

Leaders of the world's 12-member crude oil cartel gather this week in Vienna to discuss and perhaps set a production ceiling for the group in what is expected to rubber stamp the current state of affairs. It is also expected to feature a fierce tug-of-war between Saudi Arabia, the cartel's dominant producer, and Iran.

A mortar round hit an anti-regime protest in a city in eastern Syria Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, a human rights watchdog group reported.

Children in Syria were tortured, executed and used as human shields by the forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime during military raids against rebels, a U.N. report released Monday said.

Crude oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose 40,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 31.75 million in May, a new survey has shown.

Saddam Hussein's personal secretary and distant cousin Abed Hamid Hmoud was executed on Thursday, according to the Iraqi Justice Ministry.

Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stood accused by opponents Thursday of a new massacre of scores of villagers, hours before the United Nations Security Council convenes again review the crisis.

Iran has finally admitted, though not officially, that its top military force is operating in Syria. But how are the elite soldiers of the Quds Force helping the Assad regime? And what will they do as the crisis develops?