Iranian-born composer Reza Vali, a Carnegie Mellon University music professor, will travel to Iran with the Carpe Diem String Quartet of Ohio for the Fajr International Music Festival in February 2016.

The U.S. military and Philippines armed forces kicked off their biggest joint exercises in 15 years on Monday, at a time of distress in Manila over China’s island-building program in the South China Sea.

Orlando Magic interim coach James Borrego will become a bit of an experimental gym rat when he visits Havana for a three-day trip that begins on Thursday. He doesn't speak much Spanish. He doesn't know much about Cuba. Never been, in fact. Not sure if he's ever experienced the taste sensation known as a mojito. But he knows basketball. And he knows about the power of sports to be able to bridge cultures and political ideologies.

With the United States and Iran currently negotiating a nuclear deal under which those sanctions would eventually be lifted, some American companies are now hoping for new business opportunities in a country that has long been off limits.

Although the Saudis like to emphasize their independence from U.S. policy, Western analysts say their actions thus far have not seriously challenged Western strategic interests in the region. The airstrikes in Yemen, for example, have not jeopardized the multinational nuclear talks.

When President Obama meets at the White House Monday with crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, he’ll be in conversation with a small, deep-pocketed Persian Gulf country that has mastered the art of public diplomacy to practically re-engineer Hollywood’s perception of Arab culture.

In 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu declared during a US congressional hearing that "there is no doubt" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the way to solve the Iraqi threat was by toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. Toppling the Saddam regime, Netanyahu predicted, would have tremendous positive regional consequences: The region's nations would rise up against their tyrannical rulers and the Iranian regime would be undermined or would collapse.As we all know, what ended up happening was different.

Gov. Cuomo heads to Cuba Monday on a trade mission that critics charge is aimed more at generating headlines than creating economic opportunities for New York. Cuomo will leave Monday morning and will spend just over a day on the island nation in what administration officials insist is an effort to open pathways for New York businesses.