YANGON
MYANMAR’S junta has allowed the party of Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen offices closed since 2003 as international anger grew on Thursday over new laws barring the opposition icon from elections this year.
The US slammed the legislation as a “mockery”, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed to Myanmar’s military regime to free Suu Kyi [...]

CAIRO
THERE should be no Israeli-Palestinian talks, direct or indirect, unless Israel halts plans to build 1,600 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, the Arab League said.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa told reporters that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had told him he would not take part in talks in the current circumstances.
“The Israeli measures must be [...]

ISLAMABAD
AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai told Pakistan on Thursday his country did not want to become a battle ground for proxy wars and welcomed an offer from Islamabad to help with peace efforts.
Karzai met Pakistani leaders on his first visit to the neighbouring country – viewed with deep suspicion by many Afghans – since winning controversial [...]

WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT Barack Obama plans “dramatic reductions” in the country’s nuclear arsenal, a senior US official said this week, but it remains unclear if he will opt for a radical break from past policy.
A review of nuclear strategy underway “will point to dramatic reductions in the stockpile, while maintaining a strong and reliable deterrent through the [...]

WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s administration moved to rein in America’s largest banks this week, sending Congress new rules blocking mega-mergers and barring investments seen as too risky.
With Obama’s presidency still dominated by the economic fallout from the banking crisis, the Treasury sent lawmakers proposed new rules that would prevent financial firms from becoming “too-big-to-fail.”
The rules would [...]