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As al Qaeda’s core weakens, Iran has stepped up its support for terrorism all over the world, according to the State Department’s annual report to Congress on terrorism.

A new report from the State Department, released to the public Thursday, highlights Iranian-linked terror attacks and attempted attacks in India, Thailand, Georgia, and Kenya. A press release for the report goes so far as to say one of the “most noteworthy counterterrorism developments of 2012” is the “resurgence of Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism.”The emphasis on Iran from the State Department comes on the same day a New York City Federal Court sentenced a 58-year-old naturalized American citizen, Manssor Arbabsiar, to 25 years in prison for participating in an Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.

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So what if Dan Brown blurs the facts in ‘Inferno’? His latest Robert Langdon bestseller has tourists flocking to the Tuscan capital as recession grips Italy. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports.

Dante’s ancient footsteps have been easily traceable in Florence since his exile in 1302, but it has taken Dan Brown to ignite true Dante fever in the Tuscan capital.Who cares if Brown veers slightly off course in his interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy in his latest novel, Inferno? Art historians and literary academics might be up in arms, but blurring the facts into fiction has certainly not upset the Florentine purists who know Dante’s work the best.

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Teach in English? Quelle horreur! The French are in the midst of a battle royale over the government’s proposal for universities to allow English in the classroom. Andrew Roberts on France’s latest desperate and pointless efforts to protect their language.

The news that French teaching unions are preparing to strike rather than allow the use of the English language in French universities is yet further evidence that French has comprehensively lost the global struggle against English, and so the French are retreating into absurd linguistic nationalism in a protracted, yet probably doomed, rearguard action. We now see a ludicrous situation whereby French universities that want to increase the number of foreign students, and teach some lessons in English, are prevented from doing so, and visiting guest teachers from abroad who intend to speak in English are banned.

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And six others.

Weren’t the stricter policies about drone strikes announced just last week? A U.S. drone strike killed seven suspected militants in Pakistan on Wednesday—the first attack since President Obama’s speech last week that outlined the administration’s new policy to use drones only to prevent an imminent attack. According to Pakistani security officials, one of the strike's victims was Wali-ur-Rehman, the Pakistani Taliban's number two--who was slated to eventually become the leader of the Taliban's Pakistani faction. Two others were wounded in the attack in the village of Chasma in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan. Not only was Wednesday’s strike the first since Obama’s policy speech last week, but also the first since the May 11 election in Pakistan, where the drone strikes are incredibly unpopular.

Read it at Reuters

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Was the shooting of two U.S. embassy staffers at a nightclub another statistic in a crowded police blotter or a classic case of gringos gone wild in the tropics?

American diplomats are no strangers to adversity, but a foreign service post in Latin America does not generally rate as life-threatening duty. The shooting of two U.S. embassy staffers at a nightclub in the Venezuelan capital adds a new dimension to the job description.In a still-murky incident, the two officially unidentified embassy personnel were shot in an apparent altercation outside what the State Department is calling a “social spot” but which independent reports labeled as a strip club.

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Is the one who called for help.

The story of the Chinese baby rescued from a sewage pipe just got sadder. Apparently the newborn’s mother was present the whole time during the two-hour rescue but did not admit to having given birth to the baby boy until confronted by police. Police reportedly found blood-stained toilet paper and baby toys in the woman’s apartment in the building where the baby was discovered, China’s state-run media reported. The woman reportedly told police that she could not afford an abortion—and that she tried to save the baby when he slipped into the sewer line and she alerted the landlord. She said she wanted to raise him, despite the claim that his father has denied responsibility after a one-night stand.

Read it at Associated Press

Police say he was acting on “religiously ideology.”

The man suspected of stabbing a French soldier on the street in Paris has confessed, authorities said on Wednesday. Paris prosecutor Xavier Molins said the suspect, who goes only by Alexandre, was likely acting out of “religious ideology.” The suspect is reportedly a convert to Islam and had already been on the radar of authorities since he was caught praying on a public street in 2007.

Read it at Agence France-Presse

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Up to 90 held without charges.

Is Britain taking cues from the U.S. here or something? Please note: President Obama has vowed to shut down Guantánamo Bay, so please don’t start your own version. British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed that between 80 to 90 Afghans have been held for at least 14 months at an army base in Afghanistan—without being charged. Hammond defended the detentions at Camp Baston, saying the detainees are considered too dangerous to be released and “exceptional circumstances” allows them to be held. Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for the prisoners to be released into Afghanistan’s custody, but Britain has not handed over any prisoners since allegations last November that detainees were being abused.

Read it at BBC News

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A 15-year-old victim of a gruesome crime might finally be the last straw in Italy’s fight against femicide. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports.

Fifteen-year-old Fabiana Luzzi made a fatal mistake last Friday night when she told a 17-year-old suitor, known only as Davide M. in court documents, that she did not want to have sex with him. The two teens, who had reportedly been waffling on the edge of romance for quite some time, had wandered off into a forest on the edge of Corigliano Calabro in Calabria in southern Italy to do what teens do best—explore the oft-frustrated intrigue of young love.

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How the British press became the tool of brutal killers.