Four Egyptian embassy staff were kidnapped in Libya's capital Tripoli on Saturday, a day after another Egyptian diplomat was seized there by gunmen, the Libyan government said, underlining persistent disorder two years after Muammar Gaddafi's fall. No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions, but they came soon after one militia group reported that its leader had been arrested in Egypt and had warned of a response.

How are sectarian politics affecting the lives of those in Lebanon? After a series of bombings fuelled by sectarian tensions, citizens have taken to social media, using the hashtag #NotAMartyr to express their frustration with Lebanon’s fragile state of security and politics. We'll continue that conversation and hear what some citizens have to say about shaping their nation’s future.

Townspeople gathered at dusk in the central square of this city of ranches and lemon groves, planning to pick a committee to support and oversee the activities of a recently arrived self-defense group here. The vigilantes gained acceptance when they recently ran off a cartel accused of everything from extracting extortion payments to making people it didn’t like in the community disappear.

Hell seems ever more liable to bust loose in western Mexico’s Michoacan state, with heavily armed civilians squaring off against feared meth-producing gangsters who’ve had the run of rural hamlets and towns for years. The self-defense militias, at least some of them accused of connivance with criminal rivals of the local Knights Templar gang, have been working to encircle the Templar-dominated city of Apatzingan since last summer.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Afghanistan is in disarray. The only way out of this miserable situation is for a miracle to happen. After all, philosopher David Hume told us that miracles are not logically impossible. The situation as bad as it seems can be reversed, however—only with a continued American military presence, financial assistance, and solid Afghan leadership will the country succeed.

While 2013 [was] an incredibly interesting year for Brazil, 2014 promises to be even more fascinating. Beyond the World Cup, which promises to occupy much of the year's headlines, here are some of the big issues to watch.

Two suicide bombings in as many days have raised concerns that separatist militants have begun a terrorist campaign in Russia that could stretch into the Winter Olympics in February. Russian authorities and the International Olympic Committee insisted the site of the games, protected by layers of security, is completely safe.