KABUL, May 13 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, backing Kabul’s peace plan to reconcile with Taliban-led
insurgents, urged Afghanistan on Friday to shake off outside
“coercion”, while at the same time seeking to boost India’s
waning influence.

Singh’s strong words to a session of the Afghan parliament
come at the end of a two-day visit to Kabul aimed at renewing
Indian ties with Afghanistan, where New Delhi has been jockeying
for influence to counter historical rival Pakistan.

KABUL (Reuters) – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on a visit to Afghanistan on Thursday, said India strongly supported a plan by Kabul to reconcile with Taliban-led insurgents, New Delhi’s first public backing of the plan.

India was rattled when the United States and NATO agreed earlier this year to a plan by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reintegrate Taliban fighters and reconcile with their leaders after nearly 10 years of fighting.

KABUL, May 12 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, on a visit to Afghanistan on Thursday, said India
strongly supported a plan by Kabul to reconcile with Taliban-led
insurgents, New Delhi’s first public backing of the plan.

India was rattled when the United States and NATO agreed
earlier this year to a plan by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to
reintegrate Taliban fighters and reconcile with their leaders
after nearly 10 years of fighting.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian security forces killed at least 10 suspected militants on Friday in clashes in the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency, federal authorities said.

Russia’s National Anti-terrorist Committee said the dead included insurgent group leaders behind several attacks in the Kabardino-Balkaria province over the past year.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia urged Syria Thursday to punish those responsible for deadly violence during a crackdown on anti-government protests but said an international investigation sought by the United States was not necessary.

The U.N. Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session on Syria Friday at Washington’s request and is due to consider a draft resolution submitted by the U.S. delegation.

MOSCOW, April 26 (Reuters) – Luxury goods sales in Japan
are improving and likely to recover to levels seen before last
month’s earthquake and nuclear crisis, the Chief Executive of
French luxury house Christian Dior SA (DIOR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) told Reuters on
Tuesday.

“My first concern is the situation with the people. Thank
God that, despite what happened, things (sales) are improving
now,” Sidney Toledano said on the fringes of an exhibit of Dior
dresses and shoes in Moscow.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Luxury boutiques are popping up across the country again, the capital’s streets are gridlocked with Bentleys and top designers are steadily trickling back in.

Russia’s luxury market may be worth only half of what it was pre-financial crisis, but its thirst for excess is making somewhat of a comeback, though uncertainty over its ability to grow lingers.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s style gurus have turned to the motherland for inspiration at the capital’s fashion weeks, celebrating ethnicities and returning to a pre-Soviet era of elegance.

Flowing felt coats, the bright blues and hot pinks of folkloric shawls and cloaks reminiscent of tsarist cavalrymen dominated doyen of fashion Slava Zaitsev’s show this week.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it would coordinate better with its partners on heroin raids in Afghanistan after rattling Kabul officials with an operation with Russia last year.

Over the past two years the former Cold War foes have been tackling heroin production in Afghanistan, which produces 90 percent of the global total, as Russia struggles to contain a crippling HIV/AIDS crisis.