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Thousands of students and other protesters took to the streets of Iranian cities Monday, a repeat of nationwide demonstration's following last June's presidential election. The Iranian government reacted with force, sending thousands of riot police and street militia to crack down on the demonstrators. Reports from Iran say there were violent clashes between police and protesters, and the militia appears to have fired live rounds into the crowds.

David Coleman Headley was charged Monday with helping to plan the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. Headley is the Chicago man who was arrested in October in connection with a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammmed. This new charge makes Headley the first American implicated in the Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people.

Pakistan's Supreme Court began hearing challenges Monday to an amnesty that has protected the country's president and his allies from corruption charges. If the court declares the controversial amnesty to be unconstitutional, hundreds of cases ranging from graft to murder cold reopen.

The passage of Iraq's new election law in a down-to-the-wire session of parliament means that U.S. combat troops are a step closer to beginning their phased withdrawal from the country next year after Iraqi elections.

When President Obama unveiled his Afghanistan war strategy last week, he did not dwell on the challenge of getting the country's vast opiate production under control. The U.S. has spent billions on counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan with little success. Scholar Gretchen Peters says interdiction, not eradication, is the new strategy.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the disputed June 12 presidential election. Ahmadinejad's main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, also claimed victory. Massive protests followed, but they were eventually crushed by the government. Here, profiles of some of the key players in the post-election unrest.

Two synchronized, remote-controlled bombs ripped through the market in Lahore on Monday, igniting a massive fire and killing at least 34 people, authorities said. The attacks came hours after a suicide bomber killed 10 outside a courthouse in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Iran's pro-reform movement has been dealt a serious blow since the June 12 presidential elections. Thousands of people have been arrested and detained in a government crackdown to suppress the opposition. Bahman Kalbasi of the BBC's Persian Service offers his analysis of the state of the opposition movement in Iran.

Egyptian-born writer Mona Eltahawy urges Europeans to use the vote as an impetus to address long-simmering questions about how they treats immigrants. She also argues that Muslims must examine the bigoted policies of many of their own countries.

A 48-year-old Chicago man accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper has been charged with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city before terrorist attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people.

Nations to evaluate progress and set new goals

The first major protest in more than a month turns violent as security forces and pro-government militiamen confront thousands of opposition supporters demonstrating outside Tehran University and chanting "death to the dictator."

Last year, the wealthy city-state was still flying high, spending freely to fuel its ambition of becoming a business, financial and tourist capital of the Persian Gulf. Between all the oil wealth continuing to pour in and the royal family's deep coffers, few were worried about the massive debt being used to fund the development. Today, all of that has changed.

President Obama's trip to Capitol Hill to fight for health care legislation was only one lobbying effort by his administration over the weekend. Key cabinet members and military officers fanned out over the airwaves to sell the president's policy toward Afghanistan as well. They tried to make it clear that the pace of a U.S. troop withdrawal will depend on conditions on the ground.

Iraqi lawmakers have passed a long-awaited measure that clears the way for national elections to be held in late February. The White House hailed the move, in part because the election delay had threatened to complicate U.S. plans to start withdrawing American combat forces. The vote came after weeks of dispute that highlighted the country's ethnic and religious divisions.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits President Obama at the White House Monday. Turkey is building stronger ties with Iran and that has raised concerns in Washington. Also the prime minister heads a party with Islamist roots — a departure from decades of secular leadership in Turkey. That has some asking if the NATO member is titling East at the expense of the West.

In Iraq's dismal economy, the desperate search for jobs has fueled a new kind of scam. Con artists are telling young men that they can bribe their way into the Iraqi security forces. The would-be recruits pay up, and the scammers keep the money for themselves.

The transformation of Russia's military may be the most successful of President Dmitry Medvedev's programs, but it's also one of the most controversial. The huge project involves painful cuts and dismantling deep-vested interests that have thrived on bloated, Soviet-style armed forces.

The world's leaders are descending on Copenhagen for the long-awaited United Nations climate conference. NPR's Richard Harris fills in host Guy Raz on the gap between rich and poor nations, and why the last major climate treaty, worked out in Kyoto, Japan, didn't live up to its promise.

Iraqi lawmakers approved plans Sunday to hold parliamentary elections early next year that are seen as an important step toward political reconciliation and easing the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Just as in Iraq, the U.S. eventually will turn over provinces to local security forces, allowing the United States to bring the number of troops down steadily, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Pepe Lobo won last week's controversial presidential election in Honduras, but now he faces huge challenges. In addition to moving past the worst political crisis in the region in decades, Lobo will have to deal with a wide range of social and economic problems.

The headline on President Obama's Afghanistan plan unveiled last week was troop levels: 30,000 more Americans will be fighting there by next year. But Kalev Sepp says there's another vital shift — in the strategy those troops will pursue. Sepp, one of the gurus of America's counterinsurgency strategy, tells Guy Raz that the tactics in Afghanistan will differ from those used in Iraq. Sepp is a former Special Forces officer and, until earlier this year, a top official at the Pentagon in charge of counterterrorism. He now teaches at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

Guy Raz talks with Global Post reporter Jean MacKenzie about what the troop increase announced by President Obama this week will mean for civilians on the ground in Afghanistan. MacKenzie, who runs the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Kabul, says the news is being greeted with a great deal of skepticism in Afghanistan.

Ten percent of the electricity in the United States is generated using fuel made from dismantled Russian nuclear bombs, thanks to a 1993 agreement known as "Megatons to Megawatts." Guy Raz talks to Harvard professor Matthew Bunn about how the program began — and how its future is unclear.

Never thought a centuries-old root could finance your new car? Think again. These days, garlic is a better investment than gold in China. One of our producers, Zoe Chace, fills in Guy Raz on what the garlic bubble means for the Chinese economy.

A Russian scientist this week said Russia has fallen behind the U.S. in an arms race: the race to arm sea mammals, that is. It turns out, the U.S. military does employ teams of dolphins and sea lions to patrol for weapons and intruders.

Just two weeks after the the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment — known as "America's Battalion" — returned home from Afghanistan, family and friends joined them at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to honor 13 members who will never return.

A jury in Italy convicted American college student Amanda Knox of murdering her British roommate and sentenced her to 26 years in prison. Her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years.

The blast early Saturday was apparently caused by pyrotechnics at the club in the city of Perm. It was not immediately clear if the pyrotechnics were kept in storage at the club or being used as part of a show.

This week, President Obama announced plans to send some 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The Senate debated health care legislation and countries around the world prepared for the United Nations summit on climate change. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr about the news of the week.

Despite any number of ads and awareness campaigns launched by the government, advocacy groups and corporations that have turned "green" into a superlative, the number of Americans who believe climate change is a serious problem has been declining, according to a recent study by Pew Research. Host Scott Simon talks to Ed Maibach, director of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication, about the challenges of launching public awareness marketing campaigns about climate change.

An Italian jury has convicted American exchange student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend for the murder of her British roommate in 2007. The verdict stunned Knox and members of her family, who said the prosecution failed to prove its case. The trial has attracted wide media attention and pitted supporters of the American defendant against those of the prosecution. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Sylvia Poggioli about the verdict.

Andal Ampatuan Sr. and at least six other family members who have ruled impoverished Maguindanao province unopposed for years are the main suspects in the Nov. 23 attack on a political rival's convoy in which 57 people, including 30 journalists, were killed. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday put the town under martial law

An American student, who along with her former Italian boyfriend, was accused of killing her British roommate, has been found guilty of murder by a court in Italy. Amanda Knox was found guilty on all charges and received 26 years in prison.

The landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires Friday night. The U.S. and Russia are negotiating to replace the agreement, but the work is not done. One major issue is extending key verification measures. Both sides say they will abide by the treaty terms as the deadline passes.

The head of Guinea's military junta, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, was being flown to Morocco for medical treatment after being shot in the head by an aide. Analysts say this suggests splits the ruling junta and comes weeks after the massacre of 157 people at a sports stadium.

When President Obama gave his speech on Afghanistan Tuesday, he said the debate over the Iraq war was well-known and bore no repeating. Now, as the U.S. prepares to escalate its involvement in Afghanistan, have the lessons of Iraq been learned? Thomas Ricks, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Society, offers his insight.

The June 12 game will be the first official soccer match between the two countries since the Americans' 1-0 victory at the 1950 tournament in Brazil. The game could feature a matchup of Los Angeles Galaxy teammates Landon Donovan playing for the U.S. against England midfielder David Beckham.