Afghan officials say Taliban insurgents have attacked a U.S.-run base in southern Afghanistan. A NATO spokesman said there were no coalition fatalities.
UN Security Council votes unanimously to end the NATO mission over Libya. The NTC says today they will prosecute the killers of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, if an investigation shows he died after his capture.
Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed five militants linked to a top Taliban commander in Pakistan's northwest tribal region. On the diplomatic front, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed her call for Pakistan to crack down on militant safe havens on its soil.
In Iraq, twin bombings in Baghdad have killed 18 people and wounded at least 36.
Syrian activists say security forces have killed four people in the country's south while supporters of President Bashar al-Assad held a big rally in the northwest.
Egypt and Israel have completed the release of 25 Egyptians for an Israeli-American man held in Egypt on allegations of spying.
Palestinians are still seeking full membership in UNESCO, Despite strong opposition from the United States
In Tunisia, the Islamist Ennahdha party has won the country's first free elections, taking 90 of 217 assembly seats – three times the number won by its nearest rival.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has named the country's interior minister as the new crown prince.
Details after the break.
Afghanistan
Afghan officials say Taliban insurgents have attacked a U.S.-run base in southern Afghanistan.
At least three armed militants fired shots at the base from a nearby building in Kandahar city on Thursday. The interior ministry said two of the attackers were later killed by security forces.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said the assault continued for several hours, with the attackers also firing rocket-propelled grenades at the base. The embassy said all U.S. State Department personnel were safe and accounted for.
A NATO spokesman said there were no coalition fatalities. At least one Afghan soldier and a civilian were reportedly wounded.
The Kandahar base is home to NATO troops and a provincial reconstruction team. Afghan officials say they were attending a meeting with NATO officials when the attack took place, but that none of those present was hurt.
A nearby road was blocked as security forces worked to defuse explosives found in vehicles parked near the base.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire and blasts for several hours.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.
Libya
The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to end the authorization of the NATO no-fly zone over Libya, which was established in March to protect civilians from forces loyal to then-dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The vote was held despite a request from Libya’s interim government to delay the action.
The new resolution terminates as of Monday, October 31 at 23:59 Libyan local time, the authorization in resolution 1973 allowing “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.
The earlier resolution also was agreed to unanimously by the council, but later, several members, including Russia, India and South Africa expressed concern that some countries were going beyond the mandate in enforcing it. They have since used it as their rationale for not supporting strong action on Syria or Yemen, where there also are violent anti-government crackdowns happening.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said all 15 council members knew exactly what they were authorizing during the negotiations on resolution 1973.
“We described thoroughly that this would entail active use of air power and air strikes to halt Gadhafi forces that were engaged in offensive actions against its people," she said. "There was no question that the members of the Security Council knew what they were voting for. Now, undoubtedly as this unfolded and occurred over the course of some months, there were those that found increasingly uncomfortable what it was they had agreed to. But to suggest somehow that they were misled is false.” .
In addition to terminating the no-fly zone, the new resolution drafted by Russia and Britain also expresses concerns about the proliferation of arms in Libya, reports of reprisal attacks, arbitrary detentions, and extra-judicial killings.
It also welcomes some positive developments, however, saying the council looks forward to the swift establishment of an inclusive, representative transitional government that respects the human rights and the fundamental freedoms of the Libyan people.
The resolution does not lift the arms embargo or other sanctions on Libya that were imposed earlier this year to deter Gadhafi from violence against his people.
Meanwhile, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said Thursday it will prosecute the killers of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, if an investigation shows he died after his capture.
NTC leaders have been under intense pressure to investigate the circumstances of Gadhafi's death last week after initially saying he was killed in crossfire after being pulled from a drainage pipe.
Video has raised the possibility he was shot and killed as provisional government forces stormed his hometown of Sirte. Witnesses have offered conflicting information as to how Gadhafi died.
Libya's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said Wednesday initial reports show no transitional fighters shot at Gadhafi after he was arrested. Dabbashi told the U.N. Security Council the ousted leader was bleeding from his abdomen and head when he was arrested, and that he died after arriving at a hospital in Misrata.
In other news, a lawyer representing former Libyan prime minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi said he has been freed by a Tunisian court.
Mahmoudi fled to Tunisia after Gadhafi's regime collapsed in August, and was recently arrested while trying to cross into Algeria. He went on a hunger strike to protest his possible extradition to Libya.
Pakistan
Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed five militants linked to a top Taliban commander in Pakistan's northwest tribal region.
The officials said the unmanned aircraft fired missiles Thursday at a vehicle in the town of Azam Warsak in South Waziristan, killing the younger brother of Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir.
Four other militants were also killed, including another relative of Nazir. Pakistani security officials say at least two other militants were wounded in the drone strike.
Nazir is believed to be one of the most powerful militant commanders in Pakistan's tribal region. His Taliban fighters are said to cross the border to attack U.S. and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
Hours later on Thursday, a second drone strike was reported in the tribal region.
Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. unmanned aircraft fired missiles at a compound in North Waziristan, killing at least four militants along the Afghan border. The identities of those killed were not immediately known.
In June, missile strikes killed 15 militants believed to be allied with Maulvi Nazir, and in May his followers threatened to carry out revenge attacks against Pakistan and the United States for the U.S. killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Nazir's group is reportedly not opposed to the Pakistani state and has struck deals with the government during past military offensives against other Taliban factions in South Waziristan.
The United States does not publicly acknowledge the use of drone strikes against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan's northwest. Pakistani officials have protested the attacks as a violation of the country's sovereignty.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed her call for Pakistan to crack down on militant safe havens on its soil.
Clinton said that during last week's trip to Pakistan she urged leaders to act against the militant Haqqani network, explaining that trying to distinguish between so-called “good terrorists and bad terrorists is ultimately self-defeating and dangerous.” The secretary made the comments during a congressional hearing in Washington on Thursday.
U.S. officials have accused Pakistan's military spy agency of providing support to the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network, which has launched attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
A top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that cross-border communications with Pakistan's military have improved after severely deteriorating following the U.S. raid which killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2.
But Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti also told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday that there have been instances in which Pakistani paramilitary forces “looked the other way” when insurgents fired across the border at U.S. and Afghan troops.
In other violence Thursday, intelligence officials say a roadside bomb killed two Pakistani soldiers in the Shakai area of South Waziristan.
And in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say a bomb exploded in a popular market Thursday, wounding at least seven people.
Iraq
Iraqi police say twin bombings in Baghdad have killed 18 people and wounded at least 36.
Police say the explosions Thursday took place a few minutes apart in a Shi'ite neighborhood of the Iraqi capital. The second bomb exploded when rescue workers were on the scene to treat victims of the first blast.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but militants still regularly carry out bombings and shootings.
Many recent attacks have targeted Iraqi police forces.
Syria
Syrian activists say security forces have killed four people in the country's south while supporters of President Bashar al-Assad held a big rally in the northwest.
Activists say security forces carried out raids and arrests in Daraa province Thursday. They say those killed included a boy under the age of 15.
At least 26 people were killed Wednesday during military operations across Syria, including 12 civilians in the rebellious city of Homs and 11 soldiers in the central Hama region.
Meanwhile, supporters of Assad held a massive rally in the coastal city of Latakia Thursday. The crowd chanted and waved Syrian flags.
Tens of thousands of government supporters held a similar demonstration in the capital, Damascus, a day earlier, as Assad met with an Arab League delegation seeking to end months of violence during the government crackdown on dissent.
The 22-member Arab League is trying to facilitate a dialogue between Syria's government and the opposition's newly formed Syrian National Council. But activists say talks are "impossible" to consider, given the security crackdown.
Syrian state media quoted the head of the delegation, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabr al-Thani, as saying the talks were "cordial and frank." He said Arab officials will meet again with Assad October 30.
The Syrian president has been facing growing international condemnation for his crackdown. The United Nations says the death toll has topped 3,000 during seven months of anti-government protests.
Egypt and Israel
Egypt and Israel have completed the release of 25 Egyptians for an Israeli-American man held in Egypt on allegations of spying.
Freed Israeli-American Ilan Grapel was flown from Cairo to Tel Aviv on Thursday shortly after Israel transferred the 25 Egyptians at the Taba border crossing to the Sinai. The Egyptians had been imprisoned in Israel for a variety of criminal offenses.
The U.S. State Department welcomed the release of Grapel and thanked the governments of Egypt and Israel for their roles in reuniting him with his family.
Grapel apparently entered Egypt in January. In June, Egyptian authorities accused him of being an agent for Israel's Mossad intelligence service.
Egypt said Grapel engaged in espionage and incitement activities in connection to the anti-government protests that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Israel denied the charges and said Grapel had no ties to Israeli or U.S. intelligence services.
Palestinians
Despite strong opposition from the United States, the Palestinians are seeking full membership in UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which is currently meeting in Paris. The move jeopardizes America’s funding for the organization.
It is Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, where millions of pilgrims and tourists visit the Church of the Nativity each year, built over the site tradition says is the birthplace of Christ.
Palestinians have asked UNESCO to make this a World Heritage site, but without a Palestinian state they say that can't happen.
So the Palestinians have asked UNESCO for full membership, following September’s request to be admitted to the United Nations.
Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative to the U.S., said “Part of that is to complement what we are doing at the United Nations and secondly, because we really want to preserve our own religious and cultural sites.”
UNESCO’s executive board gave initial approval to the Palestinian’s request, despite opposition from the United States.
“I think that they believe that this is a way to advance their cause. I think they are wrong," said Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute.“The problem is that peace is not going to come out of a bottle. It is not going to come out of a process at the U.N. It is going to come out of a negotiated agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians and this step is not on that road.”
UNESCO promotes education and arts in developing countries, such as Afghanistan.
Palestinian membership could trigger a cut off in U.S. contributions to UNESCO, more than $70 million per year, about 20 percent of its budget.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said “The problem here is that a move in UNESCO is not going to create a Palestinian state that is secure, living next to Israel in security, in self-determination and in mutual recognition.”
Twenty years of talks with Israel have failed to produce a Palestinian state.
PLO representative Maen Rashid Areikat said “Going to the U.N. is a diplomatic, political, nonviolent, legitimate effort on the part of the Palestinians to have the U.N. address Palestinian concerns and once and for all put an end to the Israeli occupation.”
The Palestinians hope full membership in UNESCO and recognition of the Church of the Nativity as a World Heritage site will bring them closer to becoming an independent state.
Tunisia
Tunisian authorities say the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party has won the country's first free elections, taking 90 of 217 assembly seats – three times the number won by its nearest rival.
Ennahdha secured more than 41 percent of the vote and will dominate Tunisia's constituent assembly, tasked with writing a new constitution, appointing a president and forming a caretaker government.
The center-left Congress for the Republic , a secular party founded by noted human rights activist Moncef Marzouki, placed second with 30 seats. The third-place Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties, or Ettakatol, won 21.
The two liberal groups have already begun talks on forming an interim unity government with Ennahdha, which was banned for decades.
Late Thursday, violent protests broke out in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid when hundreds of young people marched on Ennahdha's local headquarters after election officials invalidated the seats won by the rival Popular List party.
The town is the birthplace of the popular uprising that ousted longtime President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and ignited the Arab Spring protests that have transformed the region.
Ennahdha officials say the group intends to propose its secretary general, Hamadi Jebali, as the next head of Tunisia's government.
The party's candidates have cited as a model the secular, pluralist democracy in Turkey, where the ruling party also has an Islamist identity.
Election observers predict that women could capture nearly one-third of the seats in the constituent assembly, a far larger proportion than in any Arab country.
Tunisia's landmark election was widely considered free and fair. Sunday's vote came a little more than nine months after Tunisians overthrew Mr. Ben Ali.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has named the country's interior minister as the new crown prince.
Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud was named heir in a royal decree read out on state television Thursday.
He succeeds prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al Saud who died in New York on Saturday after undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness.
Prince Nayef will assume the Saudi throne upon the death of 87-year-old King Abdullah.
The 78-year-old prince has led the interior ministry since 1975 and is closely aligned with the country's conservative clerics.
All content based on VOA News reports.