World Highlights
• Nato agreed to take command of peacekeeping across all of insurgency-hit Afghanistan next month after the United States pledged to transfer an extra 12,000 troops to its force. Pentagon officials said the transfer of troops currently in Afghanistan's...
• Nato agreed to take command of peacekeeping across all of insurgency-hit Afghanistan next month after the United States pledged to transfer an extra 12,000 troops to its force. Pentagon officials said the transfer of troops currently in Afghanistan's eastern region would entail the biggest deployment of US troops under foreign command since World War II.
• European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he had failed to reach a deal with the chief Iranian negotiator on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, but said they would hold another round of talks soon. Several Western diplomats who were briefed on Mr Solana's talks with Mr Larijani said the Iranians were still refusing to commit to suspending their uranium enrichment programme and said Larijani appeared to be trying to drag out talks with Mr Solana.
• A quarter of a million Iraqis have fled sectarian violence and registered as refugees in the past seven months, new data showed, amid an upsurge in attacks that has accompanied the Ramadan holy month. Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq called for the kidnapping of Westerners to swap for a Muslim cleric jailed in the United States, according to an internet audio tape.
• President George W. Bush enjoyed a modest rise in public approval after his recent political offensive on Iraq and security, but voters still favour Democrats in the November 7 congressional election, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll. Six weeks before voters decide which party controls the US Congress, a majority thinks the country is on the wrong track and nearly three-quarters give the Republican-led Congress negative marks for its job performance.
• Russia recalled its ambassador from neighbouring Georgia and ordered the evacuation of some officials, escalating a crisis sparked by the detention of four Russian army officers on spying charges. Moscow also told its citizens not to travel to Georgia, raising the stakes in Russia's confrontation with the small mountainous state of five million people it ran in Soviet times.
• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas soon for a summit the international community believes could help revive peace talks. But Mr Olmert cautioned against expecting quick results, especially with the Islamist Hamas movement running the Palestinian government. Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel.