With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressing confidence in the talks, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to hold regular meetings. [Links]

The Israeli prime minister believes that only someone like himself, with his hawkish credentials, has the will and support to produce lasting peace with the Palestinians. [Links]

Simon Wiesenthal, who ran a one-man Nazi-hunting operation, worked for Israel’s spy agency, a new biography claims. [Links]

Did the attack in northern Afghanistan hit a team of election campaign workers, including a parliamentary candidate, or a group connected with an Uzbek terrorist network? [Links]

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin announced Thursday that Russia’s ban on grain exports would be extended well into next year because of continued uncertainty over production. [Links]

The United States defense secretary made remarks about corruption and banking along with civilian casualties and troop withdrawal. [Links]

The International Monetary Fund will give Pakistan $450 million in emergency flood aid, providing some relief for a government overwhelmed by the disaster and facing renewed militant violence. [Links]

Thilo Sarrazin, a German banker and former government official who has been criticized as espousing racist views, has sparked new discussion about the country’s immigration policy. [Links]

Street markets remained closed early on Thursday and police mounted patrols after a suicide attack claimed 31 lives among a procession of Shiite Muslim worshippers. [Links]

One of the principal owners of the bank predicted a “revolution”in the financial system unless efforts were made to help stabilize the bank. [Links]

After years of not getting sucked into the messy civil war on land, Somalia’s pirate gangs are taking sides —both sides. [Links]

Migrants are apparently dying at the hands of a drug gang seeking money or possibly recruits, officials said, though no nobody knows for sure. [Links]

While many security operations in Afghanistan are joint ones between NATO and Afghan forces, in most of them, the phrase “Afghan-led”is little more than a polite fiction. This was an exception. [Links]

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates inaugurated the post-combat phase. [Links]

In her bid to break a parliamentary deadlock, Prime Minister Julia Gillard won the tentative support of a key independent legislator from Tasmania. [Links]

Swedish authorities said they reopened an investigation of rape allegations against Julian Assange. [Links]

Cardinal Godfried Danneels is distancing himself from his colleague and friend, Roger Vangheluwe, the former bishop of Bruges who is accused of abusing his own nephew. [Links]

The government is looking to curb cellphone spam, pornography and fraud schemes. [Links]

A European Commission report highlighted failings in France’s law and pointedly declined to endorse the government’s actions. [Links]

Ms. Day, whose photos of Ms. Moss in the 1990s took a startling detour from the glossy world of supermodels, helped usher in a new era in fashion photography. [Links]

Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a formal assurance from the Greens Party that it will support her bid for a further three-year term. [Links]

Protests against rising food prices turned deadly in the capital, Maputo, on Wednesday when the police opened fire on demonstrators. [Links]

The Dutch authorities said that they had freed two Yemeni men held on suspicion of terrorism after no evidence of wrongdoing or traces of explosives were found. [Links]

President Bronislaw Komorowski said Wednesday that the rising cost of the war in Afghanistan was hampering a program to modernize the military. [Links]

The body of a British spy, found dead in his apartment in London last month, had been padlocked into a gym bag and put in the bathtub, but how he died is not yet certain. [Links]

A German citizen has been arrested by United States troops in Afghanistan, the German Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. [Links]

Negotiations were continuing on the government’s offer to give more than a million public employees pay raises of 7.5 percent, double the inflation rate. [Links]

The Department of Defense has identified 1,246 American service members who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations. [Links]

A London paper listened in on the private messages of the rich and famous, including Britain’s Prince Harry and Prince William. [Links]

An easy-to-produce paste may help cure malnourishment around the world. But who owns the recipe? [Links]

In the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Army of the Imam Mahdi, death is not mourned. The men here have died as martyrs, and sacrifice is exalted. [Links]

Talking with Iraqi citizens about their growing frustrations as the United States brings an end to its combat mission. [Links]

Almost nine months ago, Anwar and her family came to the United States, taking part in a special visa program for Iraqis who risked their lives to help Americans in wartime. [Links]

In war, emotions run high. Adam Ferguson has found that can help as well as hinder, Eirini Vourloumis reports. [Links]

Ayman Oghanna vowed to quit photography if photos he took in Iraq didn't get out. They did; he didn't. [Links]

Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks, called Sweden's investigation of him for suspected sexual misconduct "some kind of legal circus." [Links]

Britain’s Channel 4 News has provided The Lede with a live stream of its televised debate among the candidates to be the next leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party. [Links]

Tony Blair's memoir contains some recollections that will make his old friends uncomfortable. [Links]

At 8 a.m. Wednesday the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued its latest advisory on Hurricane Earl, with this updated forecast of the path it could follow in the days ahead. [Links]

China has had an amazing 30-year sprint to wealth for many of its people. But the distribution of wealth is nowhere near equal. [Links]

As this society grows richer, its social fabric and mores have been changing drastically, and sexual choice and expression are arguably in the leading edge of this upheaval. [Links]