BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italy plans to cut up to 300 troops from its 2,400-strong contingent in Afghanistan later this year, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said on Monday.

KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban will fight on till the last foreign soldier is driven out of Afghanistan, but their door is always open to talks with other Afghan opposition groups, the Islamist movement said on Monday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Church hopes a year dedicated to Saint Paul, born two millennia ago in Tarsus in today’s southern Turkey, will bring signs of more religious tolerance in the mostly Muslim but secularist country.