Ashish Kumar Sen

If history is any guide, sanctions imposed by the Obama administration on Russian officials, individuals and a bank as punishment for Russia ’s actions in Ukraine are unlikely to defuse a crisis that has been likened to the Cold War.

Four days after Israel ’s defense minister publicly accused the U.S. of showing weakness around the world, the Obama administration is still waiting for an apology.

The Obama administration on Friday expressed concern over Turkey’s decision to ban Twitter and urged the government in Ankara to lift the restrictions.

The Obama administration is seething at criticism from Israel ’s defense minister who this week accused the U.S. of showing “weakness” around the world.

SEALs’ tanker seizure highlights Libyan power wrangling over oil, power The daring, high-seas seizure of a rogue oil tanker by U.S. Navy SEALs off the coast of Cyprus this week has focused fresh attention on the power struggle that has turned Libya into a political time bomb more than two years after the ouster of strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Kerry warns of ‘very serious’ response to Crimea-Russia alliance The U.S. and its European allies ratcheted up the threat of economic sanctions and visa restrictions on Russia on Thursday if Moscow continues to escalate the crisis in Ukraine — as thousands of Russian troops conducted military maneuvers near the Ukrainian border.

John Kerry says any resumption of aid to Egypt would depend on reforms in Cairo Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday that the Obama administration will soon decide on whether to resume military aid to Egypt , including Apache helicopters key to counterterrorism operations in the lawless Sinai Peninsula that abuts Israel .

Reset? What reset? U.S.-Russia ties at worst since Cold War   Five years ago, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton playfully presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a red “reset button,” a symbol of the Obama administration ’s intention to improve ties that had hit a low point during the George W. Bush administration .

Minister sees breakthrough ‘in months’ for long-split Cyprus The top diplomat from the Turkish north of Cyprus said core differences with the Greek south could be resolved in a “matter of months,” putting the divided Mediterranean island’s reunification within reach for the first time in four decades.

Israelis had U.S. help in intercepting Iranian missile shipment to Palestine The State Department revealed Wednesday that even as the Obama administration was engaging in direct and very high-stakes nuclear negotiations with Iran , U.S. officials for months have been secretly collaborating with Israeli intelligence to track an illicit Iranian weapons shipment bound for Palestine .

Russia’s neighbors shiver amid Putin’s Cold War moves in Ukraine Moscow’s declaration that it intervened in Ukraine to protect Russian “citizens and compatriots” and would do so again has sent shock waves across former Soviet republics that have large, and often restive, ethnic Russian minorities.

Obama shoved to sidelines as Russia ignores U.S. threats of isolation President Obama warned Russia on Monday of possible U.S. sanctions over its military land grab in Ukraine , but Moscow brushed aside international threats, tightening its stranglehold on Crimea and calling audaciously for a national unity government in Kiev.

Spread of brutal Nigerian terrorist group alarms U.S.   Boko Haram , the al Qaeda -inspired African terrorist group fighting to establish an Islamic state rooted in Shariah law, is expanding its operations from northeastern Nigeria into neighboring Cameroon and Niger — much to the alarm of U.S. officials.

State Department’s annual report shows human rights at risk The past year has been a particularly bad one for human rights around the world, from a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria to a bloody crackdown by Egyptian security forces on demonstrators in Cairo to the collapse of a packed eight-story garment factory in Bangladesh , the State Department says in an annual report.

Sen. Bob Corker is worried Russia will invade Ukraine, Obama has no plan A top Republican senator is worried that Russia will use the political upheaval in Ukraine as an excuse to invade the former Soviet republic and that the Obama administration has no plan to counter that threat.

Proxy war between Iran, Saudi Arabia playing out in Syria Iranian support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad is producing a violent backlash against Tehran’s interests in the Middle East and fueling a proxy war with Saudi Arabia that threatens to further destabilize the region.

Georgia P.M. Garibashvili eyes NATO membership, while keeping Russia at bay Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili is determined to maintain his country’s embrace of the West by boosting economic ties with the European Union and eventually joining NATO , but he worries about pressure from Russia to bring the former Soviet republic into Moscow’s fold.  

U.S. expels 3 Venezuelan diplomats The Obama administration has ordered the expulsion of three Venezuelan diplomats from the U.S. after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month kicked out three U.S. diplomats whom he accused of fomenting unrest in the Latin American nation.

Syria war posing ‘existential’ threat to Lebanon: ambassador The war in Syria , which has displaced more than 9 million people and turned the region into a hotbed for terrorist activity, is posing an existential threat to Lebanon , the Middle Eastern nation’s top diplomat in Washington said Friday.

Clashes in Ukraine capital are a reaction to rampant corruption, domestic divisions The political upheaval that has bloodied the streets of Kiev this week is largely viewed in the Western media through a Cold War prism that pits the West against Russia , but the unrest in Ukraine has been many years in the making — a reaction to rampant corruption, lawlessness and deep domestic divisions within the country.