International

KABUL, Afghanistan — America’s top military officer expressed concern Monday about the “growing level of collusion” between Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and al-Qaida and other militant groups taking refuge across the border in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON — Private security guards working for Blackwater USA participated in clandestine CIA raids against suspected insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, The New York Times reported Thursday.

OSLO, Norway — President Barack Obama evoked the cause of a ’just war’ on Thursday, accepting his Nobel Peace Prize just nine days after sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to battle in Afghanistan but promising to use the prestigious prize to “reach for the world that ought to be.”

BEIJING — Police in China have detained two gold miners accused of causing serious damage to one of the oldest sections of the Great Wall, state media said Thursday.
The Hohhot Kekao Mining Co. is suspected of destroying about 330 feet (100 metres) of the wall while prospecting for gold in Inner Mongolia, to the northwest of Beijing.

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama’s envoy on North Korea said Thursday that officials in Pyongyang agreed on the need to resume nuclear disarmament talks but did not say when they would return to the negotiating table.

CHICAGO — A Chicago man accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city of Mumbai before terrorist attacks there in 2008 that killed 166 people.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Some two dozen countries will send an estimated 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan next year, the chief of NATO said Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told her allied counterparts that an infusion of forces is crucial to turning the tide in the long war.

WASHINGTON — How much does the U.S. government really trust Canada? Maybe less than you think.
Espionage warnings from the Defence Department caused an international sensation a few years ago over reports of mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters, until they were debunked. The culprit turned out to be a commemorative quarter in Canada.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Bolstered by reinforcements from the United States, NATO forces in Afghanistan are set to embark on a critical push to retake the initiative from an insurgency that has paralyzed the country’s development.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama ends three months of exacting deliberations today to outline his new Afghan strategy—30,000 additional U.S. troops to beat back an emboldened Taliban insurgency and train local government troops, The Associated Press has learned.