Seventy-eight Taliban militants and at least 7 Pakistani soldiers are killed in a Pakistani army offensive in the Taliban stronghold of Waziristan. Around 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 militants, including some Uzbek and Arab fighters. Nearly 100,000 people have fled the region.

The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission finds that thousands of votes for Afghan President Hamid Karzai were fraudulent, leaving Karzai’s share of the vote in the disputed August election at only 48% — not enough to avoid a runoff.

Forty-two people are killed as Iran is hit by the country’s worst suicide bombings in years. Iranian officials claim that the attack was launched from Pakistan with American and British involvement.

Prosecutors accuse Sudanese rebel leader Bahr Idriss Abu Garda of planning an attack that killed 12 African Union peacekeepers in the first Darfur-related case to reach the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

No one will be awarded this year’s $5 million Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa because the selection committee could not find a suitable candidate.