AFGHANISTAN

Although U.S. President Barack Obama has never set foot there, China cast a long shadow in the Pacific region where he grew up.

Pakistani soldiers secured a fort captured from militants in the northwest of the country on Thursday and consolidated their positions on peaks around another insurgent base, the military said.

The United Nations said on Thursday it would evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilize the country.

An Afghan policeman killed five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Afghanistan and the Taliban said he was one of their fighters who had infiltrated the force.

Technocrats and some existing ministers will be included among Afghan President Hamid Karzai's new government within the next three weeks, a spokesman said on Wednesday, but his main rival ruled out taking any part.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to urge the United States to take bold action to combat global warming in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, a month before a U.N. climate summit.

A suspected Taliban suicide bomb killed at least 35 people in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Monday, officials said, as the government announced a reward for the capture, dead or alive, of the group's leaders.

China lashed out at the United States on Monday after the Obama administration sent six Uighur Chinese detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay to the Pacific island nation of Palau.

Afghanistan's election commission declared Hamid Karzai elected as president on Monday after it called off a runoff following the withdrawal of his only rival.

Japan is preparing new aid for Afghanistan of up to $5 billion (3 billion pounds) to be used to help former Taliban fighters find jobs and build roads, a big increase from previous commitments, the Nikkei newspaper said on Saturday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's election rival Abdullah Abdullah will announce on Sunday whether he will take part in next week's disputed run-off vote, his campaign said after speculation mounted he will pull out.

Afghan election officials on Friday defended plans to open more polling centers for next week's presidential run-off despite fears not enough is being done to prevent a repeat of the fraud which marred the first round.

The mission was simple.

U.S. military chiefs plan to present recommendations on troop strength and strategy in Afghanistan to President Barack Obama on Friday as White House deliberations reach an end stage, Pentagon officials said.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives released a healthcare reform bill on Thursday that includes a government-run insurance plan and imposes a tax on the wealthiest Americans to help pay for it.

India is withdrawing about 15,000 soldiers from Jammu and Kashmir, a military official said Thursday, in a move aimed at boosting prospects of peace talks with the disputed region's separatist groups.

Afghanistan laid out plans for the November 7 run-off presidential vote on Thursday in an announcement criticized as insufficient to prevent fraud, a day after a Taliban attack on U.N. staff reinforced concerns about security.

President Barack Obama saw first hand the human cost of the Afghanistan war as he welcomed home on Thursday 18 soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed in Afghanistan this week.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen hopes to secure Russian help in equipping and training Afghan security forces during a visit to Moscow in December, an alliance spokesman said on Wednesday.

The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been getting regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing current and former U.S. officials.

The suede, camel-colored, military issue boots of the suicide bomber looked brand new. He had the face of a young man, no older than 19.