U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Thursday and acknowledged there was considerable skepticism that the two sides would resume peace negotiations.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang praised the Sino-Pakistan relationship to the hilt on Thursday, urging the “all-weather friends” to boost cooperation in business, trade, energy and infrastructure and build a long-vaunted economic corridor.

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has blasted the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers, declaring it impossible for them to do a worse job running the country, an Iranian pro-reform website reported Wednesday.

Rioters torched cars and attacked local police stations in 15 immigrant-populated Stockholm suburbs in a fourth night of riots on Thursday, shattering the world's image of Sweden as a peaceful and egalitarian nation.

Iran said Tuesday the moderate ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was among those barred from standing in next month's presidential election, provoking a sharp reaction from Washington.

Good, bad or ugly, the 2013 elections are over; and now testing times are ahead for the new incumbents. It is the third coming for Nawaz Sharif, a remarkable turn of fortune for a leader who was ousted from power by the military at gunpoint in 1999 and convicted on treason charges.

A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan and clashes in the volatile south left 11 police officers dead, officials said Tuesday.

New attacks in Iraq killed seven people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, officials said, after a bloody day that claimed more than 100 lives across the country.

Three members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group died of wounds sustained while fighting for control of a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border, activists said Tuesday, as the battle in the area raged for its third straight day.

Saudi authorities have arrested 10 more suspects in an alleged Iranian spy ring unveiled two months ago, an interior ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.