Emerging Threats

The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council of influential Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is one of the leading parties that brought the country to the brink of civil war.

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi said Wednesday a presidential council accepted the Sunni Iraq Accordance Front nomination for Iraqi Parliament speaker.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Sri Lanka's secretary of defense said Tuesday terrorism must be confronted and crushed to ensure a safe country for future generations.

COLON, Panama, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- New nuclear threat detection technologies are currently operating in Panama after a recent agreement with the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration.

MOGADISHU, Somalia, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The ongoing instability in Somalia is the result of a vacuum of leadership in the country, according to a top United Nations official.

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Operations for foreign security contractors in Iraq will be eyed by top industry executives as the U.N. mandate for international forces expires at midnight.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An investigation is under way in Afghanistan after Australian troops were involved in a shooting incident Tuesday that resulted in the death of an Afghan man.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A joint operation of the United Nations and the Haitian National Police busted a major drug smuggling operation in the country.

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A museum depicting the atrocities and other crimes committed during the Saddam Hussein era in Iraq is scheduled to open in the Green Zone next year.

PARIS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran issued an official condemnation of the Israeli air assault on the Gaza Strip.

PARIS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama's first year of engagement with the rest of a watchful world will be defined by the economic crisis, by the calendar and by chance. As former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan observed, when asked to explain the main influences on his years in power: "Events, dear boy, events."

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- One of the few remaining stockpiles of VX nerve agent has been safely destroyed, according to the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- As the security situation on the ground in Afghanistan has intensified, a unit of U.S. Air Force reservists has performed more than 1,100 rescue missions.

ERBIL, Iraq, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq Tuesday issued a statement expressing its concern for the violence and loss of life in the Gaza Strip conflict.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- More than 1 million truck drivers have been approved to transport hazardous material in the United States, the Transportation Security Administration says.