Lost amid the election-year wrangling over the embassy attack in Benghazi, Libya, is a complex back story involving regional resentment against American private security contractors.

Mitt Romney’s campaign accused Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of trying “to mislead the American public” in remarks about the Benghazi episode during the debate.

Calls to extend the tours of security teams that were denied by the State Department largely concerned the embassy in Tripoli — not Benghazi, the site of a lethal attack.

Gunmen opened fire on Muslim worshipers on Sunday as they were leaving a mosque in northern Nigeria, killing at least 20 people, a local official said.

Ali Zidan, a former diplomat under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and then a member of the opposition, now faces the issue of what to do about the country’s militias.

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appeared on television to call for calm on Sunday, hours after being shot by soldiers in what he said was an accident.

Ali Zidan, a former diplomat under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and then a member of the opposition, now faces the issue of what to do about the country’s militias.

Gunmen opened fire on Muslim worshipers on Sunday as they were leaving a mosque in northern Nigeria, killing at least 20 people, a local official said.

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appeared on television to call for calm on Sunday, hours after being shot by soldiers in what he said was an accident.

The weak Libyan government faces the task of trying to rein in powerful militias while depending on them as the only armed forces, a conundrum that has trapped the country in a state of lawlessness.

The weak Libyan government faces the task of trying to rein in powerful militias while depending on them as the only armed forces, a conundrum that has trapped the country in a state of lawlessness.

Mitt Romney’s campaign accused Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of trying “to mislead the American public” in remarks about the Benghazi episode during the debate.