The United States has said diplomats can return to its embassy in Tajikistan, seventeen months after they were withdrawn because of fears of attacks from Islamic extremists. The diplomats were withdrawn following American missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan. But the State Department said it would not re-open a fully operational embassy in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, and consular affairs would continue to be handled by its embassy in Kazakhstan.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service