Reporting from Beirut — U.S. officials Wednesday condemned Iran for test-firing a long-range surface-to-surface missile, which they called a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and a threat to other countries.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar earlier in the day announced the successful launch of a new class of two-stage, solid-fuel rockets called the Sejil. Iranians say the domestically manufactured weapon is more accurate than its liquid-fueled predecessors and has a range of 1,200 miles, which puts Israel and parts of Europe within striking distance.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – Israeli, Palestinian and international negotiators pledged Sunday to continue peace talks launched last year by President Bush, even though the quest for peace will certainly outlast his administration.
But future talks will be held in an increasingly uncertain terrain, with the prospect of a hawk coming to power in Israel’s February parliamentary elections and deeply divided Palestinian factions controlling the West Bank and Gaza. It is also unclear how high Mideast peacemaking will figure on Barack Obama’s agenda.

(CNN) — An emergency summit got underway in east Africa Friday in an attempt to halt an escalation in fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Regional leaders and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are were meeting with seven African leaders in Nairobi, Kenya, in the latest diplomatic effort to tackle what aid agencies say is developing into a major humanitarian crisis.

Michael V. Hayden became the 18th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The UN special envoy to the Middle East on Saturday expressed alarm at Israel’s resumption of Palestinian house demolition in the occupied West Bank, warning it undermined peace efforts.
Robert Serry “is alarmed by the recent resumption of house demolitions in the West Bank after a freeze dating back to April this year,” his office said.

UNITED NATIONS | U.N. peacekeepers are spread too thinly through eastern Congo to protect civilians or quell the fighting between rebel and government forces, U.N. officials warned Thursday.
The assessment came while thousands of Congolese took advantage of a fragile day-old cease-fire to flee the regional capital of Goma in eastern Congo.

A UN spokeswoman has said peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have used helicopter gunships to attack fighters trying to take a village north of Goma.
Sylvie van den Wildenberg said on Monday that the troops had fired at rebel forces advancing on Kibumba – about 45km north of Goma.
The UN has maintained a 17,000-strong force – the largest in its peacekeeping operations – in Africa’s largest and mineral-rich country since armed conflict there started in 1998.

GOMA, Congo – The United Nations says rebels have fired rockets at two vehicles carrying peacekeepers during heavy fighting in Congo.
U.N. spokesman Col. Samba Tall says some soldiers were slightly injured and both vehicles were damaged in the attack on Sunday.

Ban Ki-moon is the current Secretary-General of the United Nations.