Photo Credit: Richard Pohle – Pool / GettyAfghan President Hamid Karzai turned down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama Sunday. A White House official issued a statement to the press pool attributing Karzai’s decision to the “short notice” of the request and the fact Obama’s surprise visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan was dedicated to meeting with U.S. troops ahead of the Memorial Day holiday.

“As we said, we weren’t planning for a bilateral meeting with President Karzai or a trip to the palace, as this trip is focused on thanking our troops,” the official said. “We did offer him the opportunity to come to Bagram, but we’re not surprised that it didn’t work on short notice.”

Karzai, who became president in late 2001 after U.S. troops helped topple the Taliban regime, has had a difficult relationship with America. In an interview with the Washington Post in March, he said the relationship between America and Afghanistan “has been at a low point for a long time.”

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Photo Credit: Adam JonesRussia plans to sign a contract with Iran this year to build two more nuclear reactors at its Bushehr power plant as part of a broader deal for up to eight reactors in the Islamic state, a source close to the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how this might affect six global powers’ talks with Iran addressing disputed aspects of its nuclear program. Iran has resisted demands for cuts in its uranium enrichment capacity, pointing to plans for a future network of nuclear power stations.

Western powers want any lasting agreement with Iran to put to rest suspicions that it could develop nuclear weapons-making ability through enrichment. Iran denies any such intent.

The talks ended last week with little progress; they are to resume in Vienna in June.

Russia, one of the six powers, built Iran’s only operating nuclear power reactor, at Bushehr.

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Photo Credit: AP / Sakchai LalitThailand’s army declared martial law before dawn Tuesday in a surprise announcement it said was aimed at keeping the country stable after six months of sometimes violent political unrest. The military, however, denied a coup d’etat was underway.

The move effectively places the army in charge of public security nationwide. It comes one day after the Southeast Asian country’s caretaker prime minister refused to step down and follows six months of anti-government demonstrations that have failed to oust the government.

Armed troops entered multiple private television stations in Bangkok to broadcast their message and surrounded the national police headquarters in the city center. Army jeeps mounted with a machine-guns diverted traffic on a major road in front of Central World, one of the country’s most luxurious shopping malls. But the vast metropolis of 10 million people appeared calm, and commuters could be seen driving and walking to work as usual.

An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, told The Associated Press “this is definitely not a coup. This is only to provide safety to the people and the people can still carry on their lives as normal.”

A ticker on Chanel 5, an army station, also denied the military was taking over and asked the public not to panic.

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Photo Credit: Fox News Dozens of gunmen wearing stolen police and military uniforms descended on the bank in Nigeria’s Yobe province, storming their way inside and forcing the manager at gunpoint to open the vault. As they fled, a security team chased after them, sending bullets flying over the northern town of Gashua.

When the dust settled following the brazen attack in April, 2013, five policemen and 20 gunmen had been killed and Boko Haram had netted $56,000. The attack, one of dozens carried out in the villages of Nigeria’s northern states of Yobe and Borno in recent years, provided one example of how Africa’s most notorious terror group funds its ruthless and bloody operations.

The organization, now believed to be holding nearly 300 Christian school girls it kidnapped a month ago in Chibok, is also into ransoming or selling women and children, and trafficking in drugs and weapons. The money that pours in goes to recruit more young men to fight, buy sophisticated weapons and sustain an army of terrorists who move through the rural hills of Northern Nigeria.

“It is a very well-funded organization, where it has so many sources of income including in Nigeria and that whole region,” Yan St-Pierre, CEO of the Counter-Terrorism Modern Security Consulting Group, told Voice of America.

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