Amrutha Gayathri

David Lazar, the current rabbi of Stockholm's Jewish community and a U.S. immigrant, has won the Straight Person of the Year award instituted by a Swedish gay magazine.

Israel may have to consider ending the internal war within its government before launching an attack on Iran in the name of its alleged nuclear weapons program. Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak, who is believed to be pushing for military action against Iran, slammed President Shimon Peres, following newspaper reports which said that Peres is expected to tell U.S. President Barack Obama that he doesn't believe Israel should attack Iran soon.

Iran remains unfazed by widespread protests from the international community over the execution order against the Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani for renouncing Islam.

In an effort to spread false alarm, several Congress members were targeted with a biological attack warning through mail that containineda suspicious powder.

Contrary to the warmongering claims recently made by the Israeli and U.S. government officials, President Shimon Peres believes Israel should not attack Iran in near future, officials close to Peres said.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul has been on lockdown in the wake of widespread protests in multiple Afghan cities over disrespectful burning of Islamic scripture Koran, which the U.S. military said was caused inadvertently.

Here is a roundup of the recent military movements in the region involving Iran, U.S., Israel, NATO and Saudi Arabia.

Peter Tatchell, a prominent gay rights activist, has been in news for the past several days mostly because he said that the late singer Whitney Houston was secretly gay and that her marriage to Bobby Brown was a smokescreen.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has defended monitoring Muslim college students beyond the city limits to collect details including how many times they prayed.

In the wake of U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon's visit to Israel to discuss Iran's nuclear program with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a U.S. official has indicated that there is an increasing likelihood that Israel would initiate military action against Iran.

Hateful comments expressing relief that only Palestinians were killed in the school bus crash near Jerusalem Thursday appeared on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official Facebook page, following the incident.

In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the existing hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, American intelligence officials said it is unlikely that Iran will start military action against the U.S.

Using spyware technology that can intercept telephone text messages, Syrian government has resorted to applying blocks on text messages which contain politically sensitive terms such as revolution, or demonstration.

Ziv Koren, an Israeli photojournalist who worked for Israeli Defense Forces and the Government Press, has been caught in the midst of a heated controversy over the photograph of a naked Ethiopian woman he uploaded on his Facebook page recently.

In an interesting development, prominent gay rights activist Peter Tatchell has signed a letter criticizing Israel -- celebrated for its gay-friendliness -- for 'Pinkwashing' or trying to project an image of a progressive state in its policies towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.

We have been told that the war in Iraq is over, and were even shown metaphorical photographs of the last U.S. troops leaving Iraq with backpacks. However, Pentagon is asking nearly $3 billion for a war which it isn't even waging.

People in Uzbekistan have been forced to replace Valentine's Day with the birth anniversary of Moghul emperor Babur, which falls on the same day.

Emirati marriage counselor, author and ultra-conservative Muslim Widad Lootah has urged Muslim and Arab women to embrace love and love-making on the eve of Valentine's Day, it has been reported.

An allegedly 'sacrilegious' Saudi journalist, who was detained in Malaysia recently, has been deported to his home country over the weekend, according to reports.

Millions of Internet users in Iran have been denied access to popular social networking sites, including Facebook, and email services like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail for the past one week, an Iranian news agency has reported.

Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail, Egypt's presidential candidate and a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, has said that there is no room for personal freedom in Islam.

Malaysian police have arrested a 23-year-old Saudi journalist for allegedly posting a blasphemous tweet on the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad.

A Rabbi residing in New York, while reacting to an article written by a gay Jew on the religious gay reparative therapy, has claimed that homosexuality can be cured by means of chemical castration.

North Korea's Ryugyong hotel, described the worst building in the history of mankind, by Esquire magazine, is set to open partially for business this spring, 23 years behind the schedule, Yonhap news agency in Seoul reported.

For the Missionary Church of Kopimism, which holds the computer commands CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols, Internet is the altar, information is holy and copying is a sacrament.

After a U.S. appeals court rejected an injunction that Chevron Corp had won to avoid paying up $18 billion penalty to Ecuador over pollution to the country's Amazon region, the multinational energy giant has been accused of bringing in a secret panel of private lawyers to thwart the court judgments.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul is the only 2012 GOP presidential candidate who has not won a primary or caucus while he continues to win each and every online poll by huge margins.

Brazilian state of Bahia deployed soldiers to evict police from the state assembly who are on strike demanding better pay and conditions. Electricity supply to the state assembly was cut when the army tried to evict police officers and their families.

Responding to remarks made by India's finance minister snubbing financial aid from the UK, a British MP said that it would be unacceptable to give India any aid even if they were begging us for it.