BAKU (Reuters) – Authorities in Azerbaijan said turnout was high on Wednesday in a presidential election boycotted by the opposition and almost certain to return Ilham Aliyev for a second term in the oil-producing state.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction has rejected a request by Hamas rivals to meet separately ahead of multi-factional reconciliation talks next month in Cairo, Fatah officials said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three men go on trial on Wednesday for involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist and Kremlin critic.Politkovskaya, whose reports on Russia’s breakaway Chechnya region detailing rights abuses angered the Kremlin, was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment in 2006.