At least five people have been killed in a suspected US missile strike on a tribal district in north-west Pakistan, security officials have said.
The attack hit a suspected militant hide-out in North Waziristan, near the Afghanistan border, the officials said.
The strike comes two days after Taleban rebels in the area warned of reprisals if such attacks continued.

U.S. drones fired missiles into a Pakistani tribal region on Friday, killing 12 people, including five foreigners, in an area known as a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistani officials said the attack targeted a house in a remote village on the border between North and South Waziristan, where Mehsud, an ally of al Qaeda, has been bottled up by Pakistani forces since early this year.
“We have reports that 12 people were killed, including five foreigners,“ a paramilitary official told Reuters by telephone from the area.

European and Russian leaders sought common ground on Friday on tackling the global financial crisis despite divisions over Georgia and European concerns about security and energy supplies from Russia.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, heading the EU side at a one-day summit in the French resort of Nice, and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev will then fly directly to Washington to join the G20 meeting of top economies on the crisis.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli aircraft fired missiles at militants in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday and Palestinians sent rocket barrages flying into Israel, officials said, as newly resumed violence threatened to bury a five-month-old truce.
The renewed rocket fire from Gaza prompted Israel to seal its crossings with the territory, halting shipments of food aid and fuel.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy says he is concerned about Russia’s threat to deploy missiles near Poland and wants a summit on European security.
“We really must move forward… to remove sources of friction,” Mr Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Reporting from Beirut — U.S. officials Wednesday condemned Iran for test-firing a long-range surface-to-surface missile, which they called a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and a threat to other countries.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar earlier in the day announced the successful launch of a new class of two-stage, solid-fuel rockets called the Sejil. Iranians say the domestically manufactured weapon is more accurate than its liquid-fueled predecessors and has a range of 1,200 miles, which puts Israel and parts of Europe within striking distance.

BRUSSELS — The European Union said Monday that it would resume negotiations with Russia that it had halted following Russia’s invasion of Georgia, in a significant step toward normalizing ties with Moscow.
On Sept. 1, the European Union froze talks with Russia on a strategic partnership agreement until Russian troops withdrew to positions they held before Aug. 7, the day hostilities broke out in South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia. The decision was presented as a rare and bracing show of European unity.

MOSCOW – Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of the nation speech.
Medvedev also singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia’s war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish U.S. policies.

The Amur shipyard in Russia’s Far East said on Monday it had started sea trials of a newly built nuclear-powered attack submarine, which according to media reports may be leased to India.
The construction of the Akula II class Nerpa nuclear attack submarine started in 1991, but had been suspended for over a decade due to lack of funding. Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest of Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, (UPI) — Suspected drone missile attacks killed eight people in a theology school in a Taliban-stronghold village in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
CNN, quoting military sources, reported two missiles were fired from the drone during the Thursday attack in which six others were injured.