TBILISI – Several thousand Georgians paid their last respects on Thursday to the country’s richest man, Badri Patarkatsishvili, in a low key funeral ceremony which his most well-known business partner did not attend.

KABUL – Afghan police have killed 25 Taliban fighters including an insurgent commander in a clash in the south of the country, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

BAKU – Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has asked parliament to vote to withdraw the ex-Soviet country’s peacekeepers from Kosovo, an Azeri official said on Thursday.