Russian ally Kyrgyzstan sets U.S. air base closure deadline
BISHKEK (Reuters) – Kyrgyzstan on Thursday gave the United States until July next year to shut its airforce base at Manas, a staging post for U.S. troops and supplies in the Afghanistan conflict but now deemed unnecessary as foreign forces pull out.
Ugandan opposition politician detained over rally charge
KAMPALA (Reuters) – Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested on Thursday for holding an unsanctioned rally and seeking to incite violence, police said, the latest move in what critics say is a campaign to silence dissent against the preside…
West presses Albania to bury ghost of elections past
TIRANA (Reuters) – Albania’s prime minister for the past eight years, Sali Berisha faces the fight of his political life on Sunday when the NATO member state holds an election watched closely by the West less for the result than the conduct.
Security tight as Iraqis vote in Sunni-dominated provinces
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An Iraqi electoral official was killed in a roadside bombing on Thursday, police said, as two Sunni Muslim-dominated provinces went to the polls under tight security.
India may have to wait to join sensitive nuclear export body
VIENNA (Reuters) – Some states still appear to be skeptical about letting nuclear-armed India into an influential body regulating sensitive atomic trade, diplomats said on Thursday, suggesting Indian membership may not be imminent.
Palestinian children tortured, used as shields by Israel: U.N.
GENEVA (Reuters) – A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields.
Pope blames speculation, corruption for ‘scandalous’ food crisis
ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Thursday that financial speculation and corruption were keeping millions of people in hunger and the financial crisis could not be used as an alibi for failing to help the poor.
Insight: Pakistan influence on Taliban commanders helped Afghan breakthrough
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s powerful military has played a central role in convincing Afghanistan’s Taliban rebels to hold talks with the United States, U.S. and Pakistani officials said, a shift from widely held views in Washington that it was ob…
Egypt court orders Mubarak PM Nazif freed
CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian court ordered the release of former prime minister Ahmed Nazif on Thursday, because of a limit on pretrial detention in a corruption case for which he had been held since the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Somali Islamists threaten more carnage after attack on U.N. base
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalia’s Islamist al Shabaab rebel group threatened to keep attacking “disbelievers” without respite, a day after launching a deadly assault against the United Nations in the capital Mogadishu.
