Afghan official says Pakistan backing Taliban: An Afghan official

Afghan official says Pakistan backing Taliban: An Afghan official accused Pakistan on Monday of backing the re-emergence of the fundamentalist Taliban militia, and of involvement in the murder of two relatives of a provincial governor. A cousin and another relative of Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai were killed by suspected Taliban militants in the Pakistani border town of Chaman on Sunday, while his brother, Sharif Sherzai, was also injured. --Reuters

Pakistan convicts four over U.S. consulate bombing: A Pakistan anti-terrorism court convicted four men on Monday of organizing last year's suicide bomb attack on the U.S. consulate in the port city of Karachi, and handed death sentences to two of them. The other two were sentenced to life in jail, while a fifth was acquitted. Twelve Pakistanis were killed when suspected Islamic militants packed a vehicle with explosives and rammed it into the perimeter wall of the consulate on June 14. No foreigners or consulate staff were killed. -- Reuters

EU mulls post-war role, urges U.S. to "cool down": EU foreign ministers met on Monday for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein, seeking accord on how the divided bloc can come together in a possible role in post-war Iraq. But as the ministers sought to mend rifts within the EU over Iraq, continuing transatlantic tensions were underlined when EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged the U.S. to "cool down" its warnings to Syria. --AFP

Ruling party takes early lead in Nigeria election: Nigeria's ruling party made a solid showing in legislative elections, according to partial returns on Monday. Yet more than two dozen people were killed during weekend balloting, seen as an important test for democracy in Africa's most populous nation. President Olusegun Obasanjo's party won 69 seats in the House of Representatives in returns released by Monday morning. Two main opposition parties took 52. In the Senate, the ruling party took 22 seats compared to 10 for the opposition. In all, some 3,000 candidates campaigned for 360 seats in the House of Representatives and 109 in the Senate. --AP

Saudi Arabia calls meeting of Iraq's neighbors: Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of Iraq's neighbors at foreign minister level on Friday, the Saudi foreign minister said on Monday. Prince Saud al-Faisal said the meeting would attempt to respond to "the current circumstances in Iraq and their developments, which affect the Iraqi people in particular, and have repercussions on the region as a whole." The prince was speaking to reporters at Riyadh's airport after his return from a quick trip to Damascus, where he held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. --AP