OTTAWA – Canada’s minority Conservative government, bowing to a key opposition demand, said on Thursday its military mission in southern Afghanistan would end in 2011 and would not be extended.

ISLAMABAD  – Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif joined a protest by lawyers on Thursday and vowed that judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf would be reinstated if his party came to power.

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anointed successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has the support of 70.4 percent of the voters and will easily win the presidential election in 10 days’ time, a poll on Thursday said.