Iran stepped out of the latest round of talks on its nuclear program  rejecting a key demand of negotiators and pledging to build two new power  plants.

In Pakistan, the country just jailed -- potentially for the rest of his life  -- the doctor who helped the CIA track Usama bin Laden. To boot, Pakistan also  wants $5,000 for every truck that crosses a still-closed supply route into  Afghanistan.

And in Syria, the establishment of a peace plan has been followed by weeks of  bloodshed, with a massacre of at least 32 children being the latest tragic  example.

The turmoil and the defiance are now fueling foreign policy criticism from  President Obama's political adversaries.