HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, with Japan recording its worst losing streak in 43 years, as climbing oil and food prices exacerbated stagflation fears, increasing the risk investors will capitulate and knock the market even lower.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Nine people were killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in Russia’s far north, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said. “The helicopter crashed as it was coming into land and nine people were killed,” said a spokesman.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A blast killed two people in an apartment building early on Wednesday in Sochi, the southern Russian city set to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, police and emergency services said.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of foreign troops on Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, police said. The attack happened on a road leading to Spin Boldak, a town near the border with Pakistan, said border police commander Abdul Razaq, adding he had no information about casualties …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel reopened its border crossings with Gaza on Wednesday and was expected to let in supplies of cement for the first time in a year, an Israeli official and a Palestinian official in the territory said.

KABUL (Reuters) – A helicopter belonging to U.S.-led coalition troops was shot down by small-arms fire south of the Afghan capital on Wednesday, but there were no serious injuries to the people on board, the U.S. military said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Red and white banners along Nile bridges and Cairo streets this month were Egypt’s latest effort to curb an increasingly pressing problem: a population growing faster than the economy can support.

LAGONISSI, Greece (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed hope of reaching a lasting peace accord with Israel before the end of the year, ahead of a meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish authorities detained at least 21 ultra-nationalists, including two prominent retired generals, on Tuesday in a widening police investigation into a suspected coup plot against the government.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military has begun withdrawing from Iraq the last of the five additional combat brigades that were deployed to the country in 2007, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday.