The Iraqi government and the country's Kurds have reached an important agreement on oil revenues and plans to fight the Islamic State, boosting hopes that the group can eventually be defeated.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has announced that it will not cut production, a move that both threatens and strengthens national economies around the world.
In a reversal of one of Barack Obama's campaign promises, US soldiers will remain in Afghanistan and participate in battle in 2015.
The United States has announced it will provide more non-lethal aid to the Ukrainian Army as it tries to contain a Russian-backed separatist movement in Ukraine's east.
Pope Francis officially announced that he will make a trip to the United States sometime during 2015.
The Islamic Republic of Iran announced that they have completed the first successful flight of a military drone whose design was based off of a captured U.S. drone that crashed in Iran in 2011.
The White House has announced plans to send more than 1,000 troops to Iraq supplement the roughly 1,400 already in the country to advise the Iraqi military in its battle against the Islamic State.
According to a study conducted by the Global Carbon Project initiative and published in the Natural Geoscience Journal, in 2013 global greenhouse gas emissions rose by 2.3%, reaching a record high.
On Monday U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had a meeting with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, to evaluate Turkey's contribution to the coalition to fight the Islamic State.
The U.S. government has confirmed that airstrikes carried out recently in Somalia against al Shabaab targets have killed the leader of that group, which has kept Somalia in a state of fear and lawlessness for years.
The government of China has told the United States that it should reduce or stop surveillance flights altogether over territory China claims, if the United States seeks to repair its relationship with China.
The government of Qatar is using its close relationships with radical Islamist groups throughout the Middle East in an effort to free a number of U.S. citizens who are currently being held hostage.
The embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bid to retain power, despite the election of a replacement favorable to both Iraqi patrons Iran and the United States, seems to have come to an end.
A new report has said that the Kurdish militia known as the pesh merga refused to confront the Islamic State, choosing instead to flee and leave thousands of Yezidis at the mercy of IS.
President Barack Obama has suggested that the airstrikes and humanitarian aid drops he recently authorized in Iraq may go on for months.
