World News

The number of people uprooted from their homes by war and persecution in 2014 was larger than in any year since detailed record-keeping began, according to a comprehensive report released early Thursday by the U.N. refugee agency that will add to the evidence of a global exodus unlike any in modern times.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army has used chemical weapons at least 29 times in the past year, according to testimony delivered Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

A quick and successful offensive by Kurdish fighters and allied rebels in a northern Syrian town has boosted a U.S.-backed effort to choke off Islamic State’s supply routes and offered a template for regaining territory from the extremist group.

Russia announced Tuesday that it will expand its nuclear arsenal, sparking concerns about a renewed arms race as old Cold War rivals Moscow and Washington plan to increase their military capacity amid rising tensions over Ukraine.

North Korea has been hit by what it describes as its worst drought in a century, which could worsen chronic food shortages in a country where the United Nations says almost a third of children under five are stunted because of poor nutrition.

Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have “grave consequences for all of us”.

The presidents of Russia and Turkey have met and discussed a proposal for a pipeline that would carry natural gas from Russia to Turkey.

The Pentagon is “poised” to station heavy weapons for up to 5,000 American troops in several Eastern European and Baltic countries to deter Russian aggression.

A senior U.S. diplomat, on a visit Thursday to Ukraine, has slammed what she called Russian “aggression” in the country.

The chief UN nuclear inspector said Monday that Iran has already committed to letting his experts see Iranian military sites and Iranian atomic scientists despite an alleged ban by Tehran, deepening a confrontation over how much openness Iran must accept under any nuclear deal.

The United States is expected to announce on Wednesday plans for a new military base in Iraq’s Anbar province and the deployment of around 400 additional trainers to help Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State.

President Obama’s GOP salesmen are telling fellow House members that fast-track trade promotion authority (TPA) will “constrain the president” to do what Congress wants when he negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sounds reassuring, but there’s one problem: It’s just not true.

Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq.

U.S. and NATO partners are escalating their presence of military aircraft, people and ships in Europe for the next two weeks in military exercises that have taken on greater symbolic significance due to the continued Russian advances in East Ukraine.

Speaking at a news conference at the G-7 conference in Germany on Monday, President Obama said “we don’t yet have a complete strategy” to combat the Islamic State.

Iran must cooperate with a stalled UN probe of suspicions that it worked on atomic arms if the country wants a nuclear deal that will see removal of sanctions, the European Union said Monday.

Islamic State fighters are advancing in southern Syria and are now located within several dozen kilometers of the border with Israel in the Golan Heights.

The Obama administration is weighing a range of aggressive responses to Russia’s alleged violation of a Cold War-era nuclear treaty, including deploying land-based missiles in Europe that could pre-emptively destroy the Russian weapons.

Since airstrikes began roughly nine months ago, more than 10,000 jihadists have been killed as part of a U.S.-led coalition.

Iran is continuing to develop missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons despite an interim agreement on its nuclear programs, according to a Pentagon report.