Iran's supreme leader has stopped the country's parliament from grilling the president over the nation's plummeting currency and economic crisis, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded that the parliament drop its plan to grill President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying such a session would benefit Iran's enemies.

Bahrain's leaders pushed back against criticism by a leading rights group Wednesday that the Gulf state has failed to follow through with promised political and security reforms in the wake of the kingdom's anti-government uprising.

Authorities cited a series of measures taken since an independent report on the crisis came out last November, including giving more oversight to parliament.

Officials say Turkey has requested deployment of NATO's Patriot air defense missiles over concerns about Syria's civil war.

Turkish officials have become increasingly concerned about the civil war spilling over the border. A statement from the Turkish government said the request has been made in the "face of risks from the ongoing crisis in Syria."

One Direction's "Take Me Home" is the taking the boys to the top of the charts — and to new heights.

The group's sophomore album has sold 540,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the year's third-highest debut behind Taylor Swift's "Red," which sold 1.2 million units its first week earlier this month, and Mumford & Sons' "Babel," which sold more than 600,000 albums in September in its debut week.

The Church of England has much explaining to do following its failure to vote to allow women to serve as bishops, its leader said Wednesday — and politicians from the prime minister downward are already demanding action or answers.

One legislator even suggested there might be an issue under anti-discrimination laws.

Spanish prosecutors have asked a judge to set bail at €8.2 million ($10.5 million) for the king's son-in-law and his former business partner before their possible trial in a corruption case troubling the monarchy for the past two years.

Inaki Urdangarin hasn't been charged with a crime, but is a suspect in a case in which he and his partner allegedly funneled about €5 million in public money their nonprofit foundation received for conferences between 2004 and 2006 to other companies they controlled.

The continued inability of Europe to agree on Greece's next batch of bailout cash weighed on markets Wednesday, a day when much of Wall Street will be packing up early for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Greece's partners in the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro once again failed to agree a strategy that would have allowed them to release more money for the debt-crippled country. Though officials say a deal is close — the finance ministers reconvene on Monday — a few thorny issues still need to be ironed out.

Everyone's drawing lines in the sand, but the leaders are so far apart they might as well be on different beaches.

The European Union heads into a critical summit Thursday to hammer out a €1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) budget through 2020 — and it promises to be one of its most bitter fights in years.

Didier Drogba has asked FIFA for special permission to move on loan from his Chinese club despite being outside the official transfer window.

FIFA said Wednesday it is considering the former Chelsea forward's request for an exemption from international rules.

A South Korean man has received a suspended 10-month prison term for retweeting North Korean propaganda posts.

The Suwon District Court cited the National Security Law in its ruling Wednesday against Park Jeong-geun. The law prohibits praising and glorifying North Korea. Park could have received seven years in prison.