SEOUL – North Korea, whose relations with South Korea have  turned increasingly bitter, said yesterday it had agreed to  reopen its border with its neighbour and allow tourism and  family reunions to resume.
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KABUL – Exiled Uzbek leader General Abdul Rashid Dostum,  whose supporters could swing this week’s presidential election,  returned to Afghanistan yesterday after being given a  government all-clear.
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PARIS – Iran has freed on bail a French teaching assistant  charged with spying, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said in  a statement yesterday.
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MOSUL, Iraq – A series of huge bombings in northern Iraq  have triggered fiery accusations of blame between Arabs and  Kurds, escalating a dispute over land and oil that has played  into the hands of a resurgent al Qaeda.
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YANGON – U.S. senator Jim Webb said yesterday he had asked  Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and let her  take part in politics during talks that secured the release of  an American jailed for visiting her.
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MINNA, Nigeria – Police in the western Nigerian state of  Niger have raided an Islamic community and detained hundreds of  its members, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed  almost 800 in the remote northeast.
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ISLAMABAD – U.S. and Pakistani officials meeting yesterday  said they were heartened by signs of a rift between Pakistani  Taliban factions after the apparent death of militant leader  Baitullah Mehsud.
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CARACAS – Venezuela said yesterday it is renegotiating an  oil deal which gives favorable terms to poor Caribbean and  Central American countries and is an integral part of President  Hugo Chavez’s foreign policy.