Opposition chief Juan Guaido stunned the world on January 23 when he declared himself acting president of Venezuela, plunging the crisis-hit country into new turmoil.

When you want results in a polarized Washington, sometimes it pays to simply leave the professionals alone to do their jobs.

That seems to especially be the case now in an era in which liberal House Democrats are sharing power in Washington with a GOP-led Senate and President Donald Trump.

The United States led the Western intervention in Afghanistan 17 years ago to rid Al-Qaeda of its sanctuaries following the 9/11 terror attacks.

The trial of 12 Catalan separatist leaders involved in a bid to secede from Spain starts on Tuesday.

From the return to Tehran of exiled revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to the fall of the shah's last government, Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution was over in 10 days.

More than a decade ago, university students in Venezuela burst onto the political scene by rekindling opposition to then leader Hugo Chavez with street protests that led to the socialist firebrand's only election defeat. 

President Donald Trump is the latest chief executive to deliver a State of the Union address at a time of turmoil.

But others may have had it even worse. Abraham Lincoln delivered a written report during the Civil War, Richard Nixon spoke while embroiled in the Watergate scandal and Bill Clinton gave one of his State of the Union speeches just weeks after he'd been impeached in the very same room.

Pope Francis's three-day trip to the United Arab Emirates Sunday marks the first time a pontiff has ever visited the conservative Muslim Arabian Peninsula, where over 2.6 million Catholics reside.

While the overwhelming majority of Catholics in the region are expatriates, according to the Apostolic Vicariates of southern and northern Arabia, the pope's journey to the birthplace of Islam is another milestone in his efforts to boost interreligious ties.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was an austere and charismatic cleric who became an icon of the 21st century for standing against the West and bringing down Iran's monarchy, but also for his revolutionary ideas about Islam’s role in politics.

With diplomatic ties between France and Italy increasingly tense, some observers have reached for marital metaphors to describe the breakdown in relations between two countries at the heart of the European Union.