RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, lionized at home and abroad as a transnational leader steering his nation into regional leadership, enters the new year with a political crisis over a planned public probe into human-rights abuses under the old military regime.
ZURICH, Switzerland, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Swiss banks are worried the row over mosque minarets, banned in a referendum despite grave reservations from sections of the Swiss public, will lead to Muslim deposit holders taking their business to Turkey and even Germany, Swiss and Turkish media reported.
TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The dissident People's Mujahedin of Iran is responsible for the assassination of the nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, officials said.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. investigators examining a failed Christmas Day airline bombing are eying a radical U.S.-born Yemeni cleric, though analysts downplay his significance.
QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Indian intelligence officials are responsible for the unrest in Pakistan's southwest Baluchistan province, the Pakistani interior minister said.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Lebanese political leaders continued their debate over Hezbollah's right to maintain an armed resistance to deter an Israeli threat.
TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Iranian media reports are awash with rumors regarding whether opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi have fled Tehran.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- European leaders angered U.S. lawmakers with a decision to visit Tehran as Iran claims it received a request by U.S. Sen. John Kerry to visit the country.
ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Two former leaders of the outlawed pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, appeared before a Turkish court Thursday to answer official questions.
GAZA, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A year after Israeli forces devastated the Gaza Strip, relief workers and others say the overcrowded Palestinian territory, throttled by economic blockade, is being steadily infiltrated by militants inspired by al-Qaida who are getting ready to challenge Hamas for control.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Pakistani forces raided a private hospital in volatile South Waziristan on Thursday, killing four and arresting more than two dozen suspected militants.
BERLIN, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The U.S. military should use caution in Yemen or risk creating a recruitment opportunity for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, analysts said.
RAMADI, Iraq, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Doctors removed the left hand of the governor of Iraq's Anbar province because of injuries sustained in twin suicide attacks in Ramadi.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Schiphol airport is to introduce full body scans for all passengers traveling to the United States within three weeks, the Dutch home affairs minister said.
BANGKOK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A U.N. refugee agency wants answers from Thailand regarding the apparent forced repatriation of nearly 5,000 ethnic Hmong to Laos this week.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Afghan and international military forces seized several Taliban and Haqqani commanders during operations in the country's volatile south and east.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Lebanese military forces fired on Israeli jets flying over the southern part of the country in a possible sign of renewed border tensions.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The threat from al-Qaida may not be on the top of the list of priorities for the embattled government of Yemen, a scholar in Washington said.
TEHRAN, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The leaders of the Iranian opposition movement must be considered the enemies of God and face execution under national law, a conservative leader said.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Corruption and a weak central government in Kabul leave many Afghan villagers with no other choice than to work with the Taliban shadow government.
SANAA, Yemen, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Yemeni foreign minister said pledges of support fell short of what his country needs to take on the threat posed by al-Qaida.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross announced it visited three Afghan soldiers held by the Taliban for the first time since the current conflict began.
RAMADI, Iraq, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Violence in Iraq left the governor of Anbar province in a Baghdad hospital Wednesday when a suicide bomber struck the provincial capital Ramadi.
TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Amid mounting concern that Israel may unleash pre-emptive strikes against Iran to attack its nuclear facilities, some Israeli commentators are preaching restraint.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Pakistani air force incorporated an early warning aircraft into its aerial fleet as part of an effort to modernize the military force.
U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012 as former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her husband Mark Kelly (R) and Vice President Joe Biden look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on February 10, 2012. UPI/Pat Benic...
