Eurasia

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan and NATO-led troops backed by air power killed more than 20 Taliban insurgents southwest of the capital Kabul, a provincial official said on Thursday.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas released on Thursday a cameraman working with Germany’s ARD news network in the Gaza Strip after a nearly weeklong detention, security sources said.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s highest court is expected to make a statement regarding a case to close the governing party on charges of Islamist activities on Wednesday, Turkish broadcaster NTV said.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Nine people were detained on Wednesday in connection with two bombs in Istanbul on Sunday that killed 17 people and injured 150, state-run news agency Anatolian reported.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Genocide, siege and massacre are for many people in Bosnia more than just words on Radovan Karadzic’s indictment. They represent years of suffering, dead friends and nightmares that will always haunt them.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The U.N. chief war crimes prosecutor pledged on Wednesday to conduct the genocide trial of Radovan Karadzic efficiently, learning from the unfinished trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnia’s top peace envoy Miroslav Lajcak lifted a travel ban for the family of Bosnian Serb former leader Radovan Karadzic, who was extradited to The Hague war crimes tribunal on Wednesday after 11 years on run.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled to Islamabad and confronted senior officials with evidence of ties between Pakistan’s spy agency and militants operating in that country’s tribal areas, the New York Times reported in Wednesday editions.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – War crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic will appear before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague for the first time on Thursday, the court said, and will be asked to enter a plea to the charges against him.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – More than 25 Taliban militants and five Pakistani soldiers have been killed in a fierce clash in the troubled Swat valley in the northwest, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.