Gunmen kidnapped 13 Iraqi men on Wednesday after stopping four cars at a fake checkpoint in the town of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, a security source said.

Following are security developments in Iraq at 12 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

 One U.S. soldier was killed and 10 were wounded in combat operations in central Baghdad on Sunday, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian during a raid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian hospital workers said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants killed two policemen and destroyed a remote government office in central Afghanistan, as five Dutch troops were wounded in a clash in the country’s south, officials said Wednesday.

RUILI, China — Muslim in the South East Asian nation of Myanmar, presently under the international microscope, has for decades been silently suffering from discrimination and a catalogue of abuses.

A failure in the upcoming US-sponsored Middle East peace conference would have more dangerous repercussions than the botched Camp David summit in 2000, Fatah officials warned on Tuesday.

Close to 80 senators – including all those running for president -signed a letter calling for greater Arab support for the peace process ahead of the international conference the US is planning for November.

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan said Wednesday it may scale down a naval mission supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan to try to resolve a row with the opposition that helped bring down the previous government.

WASHINGTON – Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier called for more global “political will” Tuesday to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan, telling the United Nations that “no one country can do this alone.”