Reuters

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's security forces clashed with ethnic Uzbeks on Monday in the south of the former Soviet republic, where up to 2,000 people were killed in a wave of bloodletting earlier this month.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A former Russian minister testified on Monday in the trial of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, becoming the first top Kremlin ally to appear in the case which is seen as a test of promised judicial reforms.

JALALABAD, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva pledged on Monday to press ahead with a referendum in six days' time for the sake of stability, as violence flared again in the Central Asian state.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's centrist presidential candidate Bronislaw Komorowski faces a tight run-off vote against his right-wing rival Jaroslaw Kaczynski on July 4 after beating him by only a few percentage points in a Sunday vote.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The detritus of occupation comes in all shapes and sizes.

KABUL (Reuters) - Fourteen suspected Taliban prisoners have been released in Afghanistan after their cases were reviewed as part of a peace deal that seeks to win over insurgent foot soldiers, an official said on Monday.

TEHRAN/VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has barred two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, increasing tension less than two weeks after Tehran was hit by new U.N. sanctions over its disputed atomic program.

NEW ORLEANS/LAFITTE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Oil services companies went to court on Monday seeking to overturn President Barack Obama's six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's surprise move to relax currency controls ahead of this weekend's G20 summit buoyed global markets and sent the yuan to a five-year peak on Monday, but caution returned as analysts questioned how far Beijing's new currency flexibility would go.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Support for new Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government fell ahead of an election next month as voters appeared divided over the premier's call to debate a future sales tax hike, surveys showed on Monday.

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has allocated 6 billion riyals ($1.6 billion) to build 6,000 houses for citizens who were displaced from areas bordering Yemen after a two-month conflict with Yemeni Shi'ite rebels.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - New Jersey politicians are due to battle on Monday over whether to slap a tax on millionaires or cut services for low-income senior citizens and the disabled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that targeted economic sanctions on Iran had "real potential" to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

When Portugal meet North Korea in Cape Town on Monday, it will be a rematch of perhaps the most remarkable game of any played at the World Cup finals. Reuters sports editor Paul Radford was at that extraordinary 1966 encounter between the two teams when the unknown Koreans took a shock 3-0 lead and threatened to turn the sport's established order on its head.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bill "The Comeback Kid" Clinton is trying to help fellow Democrats rebound from poor public opinion ratings and retain control of the U.S. Congress in November 2 elections.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's acting head of state, Bronislaw Komorowski, won most votes in an election on Sunday that was forced by the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash, but faces a runoff vote against Kaczynski's twin.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - Kyrgyz forces started removing barriers dividing the city of Osh on Sunday as the government extended a state of emergency in some regions where up to 2,000 people have been killed in ethnic clashes.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers detonated cars laden with explosives outside the Trade Bank of Iraq on Sunday, killing 26 people in the latest attack to raise concerns about the nation's stability after an inconclusive election.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Policymakers in the world's economies will closely monitor the Chinese yuan this week for signs that it is actually moving after Beijing announced it would make its exchange rate more flexible.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BP Plc CEO Tony Hayward watched a yacht race off the English coast on Saturday, sparking new controversy in the United States as his company struggles to plug its huge Gulf of Mexico oil leak.