A high turnout is predicted for the Republicans’ Iowa caucus, which looks set to go to presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Ron Paul or Rick Santorum.
Boarding an airplane has never been safer in the US but there are still some countries where flying is risky, including Russia, the DRC and Somalia.
Republican presidential hopefuls will go head to head for the first time at Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses in the fight for the GOP ticket to take on Obama.
Iran has test-fired a new long-range missile during naval exercises, after threatening to halt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Will markets begin 2012 with a bang or a whimper? <b>Matt Quigley</b> looks at the economic week ahead.
Mitt Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential ticket boosted as the head of rival Michelle Bachmann’s Iowa campaign walks out on her.
Egyptian security forces have stormed the offices of pro-democracy groups that they say are fomenting protests with the help of foreign funding.
President Barack Obama’s job approval rating climbed steadily this month as he fought Republicans over the extension of a payroll tax cut.
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/ 26 December 2011
The last week of the year is typically economically uneventful, with the exception of a potential credit downgrade to France, the story is the same.
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/ 24 December 2011
The US Central Intelligence Agency has suspended drone missile strikes on gatherings of low-ranking militants in Pakistan.
Piers Morgan’ testimony before a British panel looking into media ethics was big news in the UK, but made little splash in the US.
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/ 20 December 2011
The Republican presidential race has been thrown wide open two weeks before the first votes in the battle for the party’s nomination.
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/ 19 December 2011
Barack Obama faces a new battle after Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected a tax deal already approved by the Senate.
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/ 19 December 2011
The person in charge of the computer network that Bradley Manning used to leak US secrets to WikiLeaks has been singled out in the soldier’s trial.
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/ 19 December 2011
With a fix to the eurozone crisis "technically, politically beyond reach", China’s economy slowing and SA struggling, markets remain deeply unsettled.
As the last American soldiers finally leave Iraq, the United States state department assumes control of a complex and risky operation.
Nato has ended its training mission in Iraq. Hopes for an extension deal collapsed as Baghdad refused to grant the troops immunity from prosecution.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has urged international donors not to let concerns for gay rights affect the country’s need for developmental aid.
South Sudan is due to lay out its economic plans at a US-backed conference aimed at uplifting the country and setting it on the path to development.
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/ 14 December 2011
Studies of Borneo orangutans overeating during lush seasons have given scientists a better understanding of obesity in human beings.
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/ 13 December 2011
Beneath the detritus and shacks constructed on al-Sadah is buried what might be one of the largest unopened mass graves in Iraq’s capital.
The US says it will freeze $700-million in aid to Pakistan until it moves to fight the spread of fertiliser-based explosives to Afghanistan.
Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich is under fire for describing Palestinians as an "invented" people who were taught to kill at school
Gambia’s Fatou Bensouda will be elected the ICC’s chief prosecutor as the hunt for war criminals and genocidal masterminds becomes more political.
A gunman has ambushed and killed a campus cop and was later found dead at Virginia Tech, the site of one of the worst shooting rampages in US history.
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/ 8 December 2011
An unknown gunman has shot and killed two people at Virginia Tech in the US and the campus has been put under lockdown.
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/ 8 December 2011
The number of journalists that have been arrested in the world has hit a 15-year high, with independent journalists bearing the brunt of this.
Ban Ki-moon has called on nations to expedite the launch of a Green Climate Fund, as SA’s Trevor Manuel adds his voice to the call for carbon pricing.
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/ 7 December 2011
Amnesty International says the US continued to provide Egypt with ammunition, even as security forces held a violent crackdown on state dissenters.
Twelve heads of state and 130 ministers are set to attend the high level segment of the COP17 conference to broker a new climate deal.
China says it will commit to a binding agreement on climate change, even as calls grow for the US to stop hindering negotiations and leave the talks.
The UN climate talks enter their second week amid a tangled high-level stand-off and violent clashes between protesters and official COP17 volunteers.