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NATO is preparing for what many are calling one of the alliance’s most important summits in many years. When member leaders meet later this week in Wales, they are expected to take strong actions to form a new force that can act swiftly to handle what many see as Russian aggression.

"We need to make our budgetary procedure simpler and faster: currently there is too much bureaucracy, and money given too late for humanitarian actions is wasted money", urged Foreign Affairs Committee chair Elmar Brok (EPP, DE) in Tuesday’s committee debate on international crises in the EU’s neighbourhood. The committee is to debate the crises in Iraq, Gaza, Syria, Libya and Ukraine in meetings this week.

United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change Mary Robinson Mary Robinson briefs journalists (September 2013).

Pakistan's parliament is holding an emergency session to rally political support for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is refusing to resign despite weeks of opposition protests.

Rights group Amnesty International says Islamic State militants in northern Iraq have carried out "ethnic cleansing on a historic scale" in a bid to wipe out non-Arabs and non-Sunni Muslims.

“A direct military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia might well see the situation spiral completely out of control. The parties to the conflict and the international community must do everything in their power to prevent this from happening,” the EP president said, addressing heads of state and government at the start of the special meeting of the European Council on Saturday 30 August dedicated to appointing candidates for top EU jobs.

Members of an ethnic Yezidi family sleep in the shade in Shekhadi village, Iraq, after fleeing Sinjar.

Protesters carrying sticks and stones clashed anew with police in Pakistan's capital Monday.

The prime minister of the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, who fled what he called an attempted coup, is in South Africa to discuss recent unrest in his country.

An observation post of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights, Syria.