SEOUL – North Korea, whose relations with South Korea have turned increasingly bitter, said yesterday it had agreed to reopen its border with its neighbour and allow tourism and family reunions to resume.
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KABUL – Exiled Uzbek leader General Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose supporters could swing this week’s presidential election, returned to Afghanistan yesterday after being given a government all-clear.
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PARIS – Iran has freed on bail a French teaching assistant charged with spying, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said in a statement yesterday.
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MOSUL, Iraq – A series of huge bombings in northern Iraq have triggered fiery accusations of blame between Arabs and Kurds, escalating a dispute over land and oil that has played into the hands of a resurgent al Qaeda.
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YANGON – U.S. senator Jim Webb said yesterday he had asked Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and let her take part in politics during talks that secured the release of an American jailed for visiting her.
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MINNA, Nigeria – Police in the western Nigerian state of Niger have raided an Islamic community and detained hundreds of its members, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed almost 800 in the remote northeast.
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ISLAMABAD – U.S. and Pakistani officials meeting yesterday said they were heartened by signs of a rift between Pakistani Taliban factions after the apparent death of militant leader Baitullah Mehsud.
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CARACAS – Venezuela said yesterday it is renegotiating an oil deal which gives favorable terms to poor Caribbean and Central American countries and is an integral part of President Hugo Chavez’s foreign policy.
