WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Wednesday a brazen attack on the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy complex in Yemen bore “all the hallmarks” of al Qaeda but no final conclusions had been made on who was to blame.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A U.S. missile strike killed five militants in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, a Pakistani official said.Another official said the attack on a container loaded with ammunition and explosives was the result of better U.S.-Pakistani intelligence sharing and both countries had worked together on the attack.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – A fifth round of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel has been postponed at the request of the Jewish state, Syria’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed treaties with Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday that commit Moscow to defend the breakaway regions from any Georgian attack.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A visit to Georgia by senior NATO officials this week was anti-Russian and showed the alliance is driven by Cold War-style thinking, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

SANAA (Reuters) – No American embassy staff were hurt in a suspected car bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen on Wednesday, a source inside the heavily-fortified compound said.

KABUL (Reuters) – Under pressure over rising civilian deaths in Afghanistan, the U.S. defense chief said on Wednesday that the U.S. military needed to do more to prevent the killing of ordinary Afghans caught up in military operations.

KABUL (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed four soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition force and an Afghan national in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – France on Wednesday asked its European allies to relax restrictions on troop deployment and operations in Afghanistan just a month after losing 10 soldiers in a Taliban ambush.

KARACHI (Reuters) -The Pakistani rupee weakened on Wednesday due to import payments, weak economic fundamentals and concern over tension with the United States over U.S. military attacks on militants in Pakistan.