Moscow / AFP Russia’s ruling United Russia party has won a record number of seats in parliamentary polls that could pave the way for President Vladimir Putin to glide to a fourth term in 2018 elections. With more than 98.3 percent of the ballots counted, United Russia had garnered 54.2 percent of the votes for parties, giving it a …

  Kandahar / AFP A US air raid has killed eight Afghan policemen in the country’s volatile south, officials said on Monday, in the first apparent “friendly fire” incident since American forces were granted greater powers to strike at insurgents. The incident occurred on Sunday in the Tali area of Uruzgan province, where the Taliban recently attempted to overrun the capital …

  Zagreb / AFP A former Serb paramilitary commander, extradited from Australia last year, will go on trial in Croatia on Tuesday charged with the torture and murder of civilians and prisoners of war in the 1990s. Dragan Vasiljkovic — or ‘Captain Dragan’ — was handed over by Canberra after almost a decade-long legal battle, becoming the first suspected war criminal …