United Nations

'Time running out' as CO2 levels hit new high: United Nations

Geneva: Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have crossed a new threshold, the UN's weather agency saidon on Monday, highlighting the urgency of curbing manmade, climate-altering greenhouse...

United Nations warns Australia about asylum seeker boat push-backs

Asylum seeker boat

The UN refugee agency has warned that Australia could be breaking international law, amid reports that it pushed back to Indonesia boats carrying asylum-seekers.

Obama tells United Nations General Assembly he will pursue diplomacy on Iran and Syria

US President Barack Obama

Mark Landler President Obama said on Tuesday that Iran’s diplomatic overture in recent weeks could provide a foundation for an agreement on its nuclear program, but he warned that “conciliatory words will have to...

Main points of United Nations Syria resolution agreed, diplomats say


The world’s major powers have agreed on the main points of a UN Security Council resolution on destroying Syria’s chemical weapons.

United States, Russia agree on United Nations-Syria chemical arms measure


Ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday on a United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would demand Syria give up its chemical arms, but does...

Italy migrant boat disaster due to crackdown, says United Nations official

Migrant boat

The boat disaster that left 300 people feared dead off the Italian coast is the result of a repressive policy toward irregular immigrants, a United Nations official says.

Iraq tells UN that 'terrorist groups' have seized nuclear materials

Michelle Nichols ISIL insurgents in Iraq have seized nuclear materials used for scientific research at a university in the country's north, Iraq has told the United Nations in a letter appealing for help to "stave...

53 blindfolded bodies found in Iraq as political leaders bicker

Shiite volunteers from the Iraqi Ketaeb Hezbollah,  join the Iraqi army to fight against Sunni Jihadist militants of the Islamic State.

Raheem Salman and Isra' al-Rubei'i Iraqi security forces found 53 corpses, blindfolded and handcuffed, south of Baghdad on Wednesday as Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders traded accusations over an Islamist insurgency raging in the country's...

Anti-Assad rebel brigade defects to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

A Free Syrian Army fighter at the Handarat camp, Aleppo.

Mousab Al Hamadee and Roy Gutman A Syrian rebel brigade has defected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a sign that the extremist group continues to build strength after seizing vast territories in western Iraq and eastern...

25 killed as Israel prepares for ground assault

A Palestinian boy carries his belongings as he walks past the rubble of his family's house in Gaza City, which police said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday.

Ruth Pollard Aerial and naval bombardment of Gaza intensifies as Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

No way out, no way home

Syrian woman Lina kisses her two-year-old daughter outside her makeshift tent in Lebanon

Michael Gordon As the civil war in Syria enters its fourth year and the resulting displacement crisis becomes the worst in the world, women are bearing the awful brunt.

Imam of Mosul mosque executed before 'caliph' gave sermon

Footage released by supporters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant purports to show its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, preaching from the pulpit of the Nur al-Din Mosque in Mosul.

John Zarocostas The Islamic State's execution of 13 Sunni Muslim clerics was a move to silence moderate voices among Iraq's Sunnis, top UN expert on religious freedom says.

Iraq parliament delayed - again - as militants continue fight

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the funeral for Major General Negm Abdullah Ali.

Abigail Hauslohner Iraq's parliament has stalled for a second time, cancelling its planned Tuesday session to give the country's deeply divided political factions time to reach an agreement on an urgently needed new...

Iraqi prime minister to run for a third term

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to hold on to power.

Alissa J. Rubin BAGHDAD - Despite sharp criticism from almost every political party in Iraq and pressure from friendly foreign powers to step down, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced Friday that he would run...


Peter Greste in court in Cairo.


Kurds seek independence vote amid Iraq 'chaos'

Seeking independence vote ... The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Massud Barzani (centre) arrives for a session of the Kurdistan parliament in Arbil.

Isabel Coles and Prashant Rao The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament on Thursday to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence, signalling his impatience with Baghdad, which is fighting to repel...

Israeli extremists held over Palestinian boy's murder in East Jerusalem

Mohammed Abu Khedair was kidnapped and killed.

Isabel Kershner Israeli police have arrested six Israeli extremists in connection with the kidnap and murder of a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem.

'She had too much ABCD': the tale of one divorced Nigerian girl

Child bride: Maimuna Abdullahi didn't want to marry at 13.

Michelle Faul By the time she ran away, Maimuna bore the scars of a short but brutal marriage.

'Legal highs' off the bill at this year's Glastonbury

Fans wait for British band Elbow to perform on the Pyramid Stage on the first day of the Glastonbury Festival on Friday.

Paul Sandle Music fans were served up plenty of tunes and mood enhancement at this year's Glastonbury Festival, but organisers banned so-called "legal highs".

Iraqi army presses Tikrit assault as lawmakers scramble to fill posts

Iraqi military vehicles  on the outskirts of the city of Samarra.

Ahmed Rasheed Iraq's army sent tanks and armoured vehicles to try to dislodge insurgents from the northern city of Tikrit, the second day of a pushback against a Sunni militant takeover of large stretches of Iraq.