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BY: Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes | Los Angeles Times
Agreement to open Iran's hidden nuclear complex to inspection has reduced talk of military action and put diplomacy back on track -- at least for a while. But even as the U.S. tries to build international pressure, emerging details suggest it might already be too late for an armed strike.
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BY: Sara A. Carter | The Washington Times
Despite growing success targeting militants in Pakistan's northwest, the U.S. is refusing to share intelligence with Pakistan about al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leaders thought to be hiding in the southwest province of Baluchistan, three senior Pakistani officials say.
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BY: Vita Bekker | The National
George Mitchell, the top US envoy to the Middle East, held talks yesterday with senior Israeli officials on a renewal of peace negotiations as he wrapped up a regional tour that appeared to yield no breakthroughs.
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BY: James Hider | The London Times
The US has cancelled its biggest air-defence exercise with Israel after Turkey refused to allow Israeli aircraft to participate in the war games, due to begin out of Turkish air bases today.
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BY: Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy
As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al Qaida, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy.
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BY: Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler | The New York Times
Even as President Obama leads an intense debate over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, administration officials say the United States is falling far short of his goals to fight the country’s endemic corruption, create a functioning government and legal system and train a police force currently riddled with incompetence.
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BY: Lauren Gelfand | World Politics Review
Kenya's "window of opportunity to deliver reform is rapidly closing," former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned, putting the country at risk for a recurrence of the political violence that brought the East African powerhouse to its knees after disputed elections in 2007.
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BY: Jody Ray Bennet | ISN Security Watch
As the US attempts to strengthen military relations with key African states, private military and security companies eagerly await lucrative contracts.
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BY: Megan K. Stack | Los Angeles Times
The radically nationalist Jobbik party won 15% of the vote in elections for EU delegates. The popularity of party leader Gabor Vona, who has started a militia, hinges on hostility toward Gypsies.
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BY: Mark Landler | The New York Times
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to buck up a pair of stalwart American allies on Sunday, assuring the British that they still had a special relationship with the United States, and telling the Irish that she would help them keep Northern Ireland’s peace process on track.
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Der Spiegel
US troops boarded a German-owned freighter in early October and found eight containers full of ammunition, allegedly headed to Syria from Iran. The shipment is in violation of a UN weapons embargo and has become a source of chagrin in Berlin.
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BY: Andrew Rettman | EU Observer
Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed the Lisbon Treaty at a ceremony in Warsaw on Saturday (10 October). But Czech head of state Vaclav Klaus put a dampener on the occasion with attempts to revive World War II-era tensions from his castle in Prague.
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Los Angeles Times
Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark agreement Saturday to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed border after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute hurdle.
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BY: Lucian Kim | Bloomberg News
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrives in China today bidding to strengthen a relationship forged by Russian oil exports to Asia’s largest energy consumer.
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BY: Karin Bruillard | The Washington Post
Pakistani commandos stormed a building within the nation's army headquarters early Sunday, freeing 39 hostages and ending a 22-hour standoff with their armed Islamist captors that revealed deep vulnerabilities in Pakistan's defense systems.
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BY: Pavin Chachavalpongpun | Asia Sentinel
In Southeast Asia, some monarchies have successfully entrenched their rule alongside democracy. Some are potentially becoming the target of annihilation. At present, four of 10 Southeast Asian nations endure various kinds of monarchy, ranging from absolute to constitutional and ceremonial.
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BY: Animesh Roul | ISN Security Watch
The Maoist-Naxalite threat turns up the heat in India, with extremists on the rampage, attacking civilians and killing 17 police officers this month, and the government preparing for a major military offensive.
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BY: Khalid Qayum and James Rupert | Bloomberg News
A suspected suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan killed 41 people a day after the army ended a Taliban siege of its headquarters, taking the death toll from four days of attacks to more than 100.
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BY: Matthew Lee | Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday the Taliban siege of Pakistan's army headquarters showed extremists are a growing threat in the nuclear-armed American ally, but she contended they don't pose a risk to the country's atomic arsenal.
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BY: William Booth | The Washington Post
The men were confessed spies who operated the Wasp Network in Miami during the late 1990s, where they infiltrated Cuban American exile organizations that opposed the Castro regime, including the group Brothers to the Rescue, whose two planes were shot down by Cuban fighter jets over the Florida Straits.