If the number of protesters on the streets of Tehran has thinned in recent days — a result of the bloody crackdown by police and militia that continued in parts of the capital on June 24 — there's little sign of a letup in Iran's overseas offensive. British passport holders "had a role" in the violent clashes sparked by Iran's disputed election on June 12, Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei told the Fars news agency on June 24. Foreign ...

For a man who has a reputation for being blunt and confrontational, Avigdor Lieberman has kept uncharacteristically silent since taking over in March as Israel's Foreign Minister. His boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had reportedly asked him to muzzle his hawkish views for fear of riling the Obama Administration. But in his first major interview, which he gave to TIME, the burly Foreign Minister, who says he shrugs off "political correctness," came out swinging. He lambasted the West for ...

The handful of squat and humble warehouses that comprises Dubai's unofficial creative district bears little resemblance to the emirate's legendary multi-billion dollar skyline. But in just three years, around 30 galleries and cultural institutions have set up in this dusty neighborhood. In the process, they have helped inspire private and governmental initiatives designed to alter the perception that Dubai is nothing but a characterless, globalized marketplace of vulgar shopping malls and exploited workers. The swell of creativity — in ...

With protests flaring on the streets of Iran, Tehran has singled out one foreign power for particular criticism -- and it's not the one you might expect. There has been criticism of the United States, known in Iran as "the Great Satan" since the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago, but it's the United Kingdom that Iran's supreme leader has accused of treachery. Iran expelled two British diplomats this week and recalled its ambassador from London after the United Kingdom kicked ...

If there was any doubt as to the character of the state that threatens to emerge in Somalia should Islamist rebels overthrow the embattled government, it was dispelled on June 22, when a militia court sentenced four men accused of stealing three mobile phones and two AK-47s to the amputation of their right hands and left legs. The sentence, whose execution was postponed after the al-Shabaab court decided the hot weather might cause the four men to ...

President Obama has decided to send a U.S. ambassador back to Syria, a dramatic sign of reconciliation between the two countries, senior administration officials tell CNN. The announcement is expected to be made this week. "It's in our interests to have an ambassador in Syria, a senior administration official told CNN Tuesday night. "We have been having more and more discussions, and we need to have someone there to engage." The official said that the decision was not in any ...

If the street protests roiling Iran since its disputed election have created a problem for the leadership in Tehran, imagine the dilemma it raises for Iran's allies elsewhere in the Middle East. Hizballah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was quick out of the blocks to congratulate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when the authorities announced his re-election, calling the result "a great hope to all the Mujahedeen and Resistance who are fighting against the forces of oppression and occupation." But since ...

Returning home one spring five years ago from a secret visit to Beijing in his armored, fully wired train car, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il got an unnerving, firsthand demonstration of the potential downside of technology. A huge explosion ripped through the Ryongchon border station, and some officials initially thought it was an assassination attempt triggered by a cell phone. As it turned out, the fireball was more likely the result of two trains' colliding nearby, possibly as ...

Iran's revolution has now run through a full cycle. A gruesomely captivating video of a young woman — laid out on a Tehran street after apparently being shot, blood pouring from her mouth and then across her face — swept Twitter, Facebook and other websites this weekend. The woman rapidly became a symbol of Iran's escalating crisis, from a political confrontation to far more ominous physical clashes. Some sites refer to her as "Neda," Farsi for the voice or the ...

Demonstrators gathered in major cities in France, the United States and Germany on Saturday to condemn Iran's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tehran. The rallies ranged from tens of thousands of Iranian exiles and supporters who crammed a Paris, France-area convention center to the hundreds of demonstrators who braved a downpour in Washington to march to the White House. In Hamburg, Germany, protesters marched against the announced result of last week's Iranian election, which had President ...