''We are not blind, and I don't think we are stupid,'' US Secretary of State John Kerry said in response to fierce Israeli criticism after the first round of talks about Iran's nuclear programme earlier this month failed to reach a deal.
A little over two years after the former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, was captured and killed by rebel militiamen outside the town of Sirte, the Libyan state is teetering on the brink of collapse.
The big news of the week is that China's one-child policy is being relaxed.
''We've been telling the rest of the world we don't want what's happening to us to happen to everyone else,'' said Lucille L. Sering, the vice-chairwoman of the Philippines' Climate Commission, as the country struggled to cope with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.
What will the Middle East look like after Iran and the great powers that are negotiating over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) - sign a deal that ends the confrontation?
Can it really be as easy as that? Get Rwanda to stop supporting the rebels in eastern Congo, pay the soldiers of the Congolese army on time, send in a United Nations force that actually has orders to shoot, and presto!
The Curse of Mars also applies to Asian countries.
''My work here is done,'' said the masked man, as he mounted his horse and rode away.
Politicians and government officials rarely tell outright lies; the cost of being caught out in a lie is too high.
''That prize should have been given to me,'' joked Syria's President Bashar al-Assad shortly after the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 11.
Short term beats long term most of the time, even when people understand where their long-term self-interest really lies.
''I don't know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done,'' said Malta's Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat.
Surprise of the week: the club of African presidents (aka the African Union) has held a special meeting and declared that African presidents should be immune from prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes while they are in office.
The media spotlight on the Arab world shifts focus almost every month: counterrevolution in Egypt, civil war in Syria, an American raid in Libya ... It rarely stays on Iraq for long, because the violence there has been going on so long that it has become part of the scenery. But just be patient a little longer.
A salient feature of American ''exceptionalism'' is the belief that the United States can never be ordinary. If it is not the best, then it must be the worst. If it is not destined to dominate the world forever, then it is doomed to decline and decay.
When Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, arrived home from the United Nations General Assembly meeting last Friday, demonstrators at Teheran airport threw eggs, shoes and stones.
Two governments did bold, brave things last week.
Campaign strategist James Carville coined the phrase ''It's the economy, stupid'' to focus the attention of campaign workers on the one key issue that would get Bill Clinton elected president in the 1992 US election.
It was already looking likely President Bashar al-Assad's regime would survive - it has had the upper hand militarily in the Syrian civil war for at least six months now - but the events of the past two weeks have made it virtually certain.
It's not a question of whether ''Mutti'' (Mum) will still be in power after the German election this Sunday.