ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Twenty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led forces on Friday in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nuristan, an official said. The attack happened on a road in Want district while the noncombatants were traveling in two vehicles, the district chief, …

MINSK (Reuters) – About 50 people were wounded early on Friday by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts into a crowd at an open-air concert in Belarus’s capital attended by long-time ruler President Alexander Lukashenko, officials said. Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state with an iron grip …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel responded to Thursday’s rocket attack by again closing its border crossing with Gaza on Friday, dampening hopes among Gazans that a ceasefire between Hamas and the Jewish state might ease an Israeli-led blockade. A truce brokered by Egypt on June 19 calls on militants in the …

GAZA (Reuters) – Islamist Hamas said on Friday it was suspending indirect talks with Israel over a prisoner swap deal, citing Israeli violations of a declared truce in Gaza. Gaza’s Islamist leaders have accused Israel of dragging its feet in implementing the truce deal that includes a gradual increase of …

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Al Qaeda-linked militants have abducted two Pakistani journalists who the militants accused of snooping on their members and positions near the Afghan border. The militants detained freelance reporter Pir Zubair Shah and photographer Akhtar Soomro in Ziarat village in the Mohmand region late on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia urged Georgia on Friday to guarantee with a legal document that its armed forces would not use force in its breakaway regions, after clashes between soldiers and separatists killed two people in South Ossetia. Moscow demanded a peace pact after the mobilization of reservists by the …

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, with Japan recording its worst losing streak in 43 years, as climbing oil and food prices exacerbated stagflation fears, increasing the risk investors will capitulate and knock the market even lower.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Nine people were killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in Russia’s far north, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said. “The helicopter crashed as it was coming into land and nine people were killed,” said a spokesman.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A blast killed two people in an apartment building early on Wednesday in Sochi, the southern Russian city set to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, police and emergency services said.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of foreign troops on Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, police said. The attack happened on a road leading to Spin Boldak, a town near the border with Pakistan, said border police commander Abdul Razaq, adding he had no information about casualties …