US officials are looking for alternative ways of transporting soldiers and goods to Afghanistan after a decision by the Kyrgyz government to close a US base on its soil.
The Manas airbase near the capital Bishkek serves as an important supply route for US and Nato operations in Afghanistan.
It was set up by the United States in 2001 to support Operation Enduring Freedom – the US-led fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan.

Representatives of more than 100 countries are in Oslo, Norway Wednesday to sign a treaty banning cluster bombs.
Norway, which has led efforts to ban cluster bombs, was the first to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, production, and sale of the weapons.
Next came Laos and Lebanon, both of which have experienced the lingering lethal effects of the munitions.

GENEVA (AP) — Mediators succeeded Wednesday in getting direct talks going between Russia and Georgia, pressing the two neighbors to resolve security and refugee issues from their August war in the troubled Caucasus.
In all, eight parties met behind closed doors at the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva for the one-day talks and agreed to meet again next month, EU representative Pierre Morel said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — A Taliban spokesman said Monday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai did not have the authority to make a peace offering to its reclusive leader, Mullah Omar.
Karzai said over the weekend he would “go to any lengths” to provide protection to Mullah Omar if the militant leader agrees to enter peace talks.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousif told CNN that Karzai’s offer is meaningless because he has to rely on the British and the Americans to provide his own security.

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.

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.

Libya has paid $1.5bn into a US compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department says.
The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US.
The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has held talks with his political rival Saad al-Hariri, leader of Lebanon’s parliamentary majority, a statement issued by both sides has said.
The meeting on Sunday was the first between the two leaders since Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon and comes five months after Qatar mediated an end to an 18-month political conflict in Lebanon which had escalated into street battles.

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to resolve a border dispute peacefully “for the sake of our neighbourliness”.
Bilateral talks on the issue were held on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe summit (Asem) in Beijing.
The demarcation of land around Preah Vihear temple on the countries’ border has never been clearly settled.
Tensions have recently been rekindled, and last week erupted into open combat. Three Cambodian and one Thai soldier died in exchanges of fire.

Iraq has ruled out the possibility of signing any agreement with Britain before the finalization of a security deal with the United States.
“Al-Maliki told the British side that Iraq will discuss the matter after finalizing the agreement with the US,” Haydar al-Abadi, a Parliamentarian from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
Maliki has called for the withdrawal of British combat troops from the country after their UN mandate expires at the end of 2008.