MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian oil executive detained in Libya since last year has been freed, his employers LUKOIL said on Thursday, hours before Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was due to host the country’s prime minister.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – NATO members must send more troops to southern Afghanistan, where Canada and a few other nations are bearing the brunt of combat against Taliban militants, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay said on Wednesday.

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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian security forces arrested 15 Hamas activists, including four university lecturers, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in the latest sweep by Fatah against the Islamist group, witnesses said.

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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A growing number of Pakistani militants who earlier operated only inside Pakistan and Kashmir are joining the intensifying insurgency against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops wounded three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in a clash with protesters at the funeral of a 10-year-old boy killed a day earlier, Palestinian medics 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.