NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers hailed a new era in ties between the nuclear-armed rivals on Wednesday and agreed to fight militancy and boost trade and travel, a step forward in reducing tension in the world’s most dangerous region.

The comments from Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, were unexpectedly positive and may be a small step toward improving regional stability, made more urgent with a U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan looming.

“This is indeed a new era of bilateral cooperation between the two countries,” Khar, Pakistan’s first female and youngest-ever foreign minister, told the media after two and a half hours of talks, standing next to Krishna.

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BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s powerful military accepted Monday a stunning election victory by the party of fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, adding to a new sense of stability in a country plagued by unrest since his ouster in a coup five years ago.

A day after the victory by the Puea Thai Party headed by Thaksin’s youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, the military agreed not to intervene or stop her from forming a government, according to the outgoing defense minister.

“I can assure that the military has no desire to stray out of its assigned roles,” said General Prawit Wongsuwan, a former army chief close to military leaders involved in the 2006 coup that removed Thaksin

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TOKYO (Reuters) – The utility at the heart of Japan’s nuclear crisis, Tokyo Electric Power Co, faced pressure Tuesday from heckling shareholders to shut all its reactors in a sign of growing Japanese opposition to nuclear energy.

Activist shareholders may struggle, however, to convince long-term institutional investors such as the biggest shareholder, Dai-ichi Life Insurance, to change their minds and vote for a resolution to abandon atomic energy.

Many shareholders at a rowdy annual general meeting in Tokyo heaped scorn on the utility’s executives over their handling of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in March and the company’s subsequent slide to near bankruptcy.

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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Monday a long-delayed government dominated by Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies, which is likely to cause alarm among Western powers at a time of regional turmoil.

Formed after five months of political stalemate, the new Lebanese leadership was welcomed by President Bashar al-Assad of neighboring Syria, another Hezbollah sponsor now beset by international censure of its crackdowns of anti-regime protests.

“This government is committed to maintaining strong, brotherly ties which bind Lebanon to all Arab countries, without exception,” Mikati said at the Baabda Presidential Palace.

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On Tuesday – just seven days after his country lifted 13 weeks of martial law – Bahrain’s Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, met separately with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington. A White House statement said the President supported al-Khalifa’s “ongoing efforts to initiate national dialogue” and that Bahrain’s stability “depends upon respect for the universal rights of the people of Bahrain, including the right to free speech and peaceful assembly.”

Coming after Obama lashed out at Bahrain’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in a speech on May 19, his support was a public about-face that looks to repair ties with a key Middle East ally. It also appeared to signal that America will stop its public criticism of Bahrain’s government even as it urges the Sunni-dominated regime to begin talks with opposition leaders. (See photos of protesters being routed from Pearl Square.)

The meetings represent “a shift in tone and indicate a softening of the U.S. stance towards Bahrain,” says Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Center, “and show that the U.S. simply isn’t serious about putting real sustained pressure on the regime right now.” The effect of Tuesday’s visit has been to put a band-aid on tensions between the two countries and is, Hamid says, “a green light” for Bahrain’s government to go about its business without criticism or interference from the U.S. That business includes both the country’s re-opening to international commerce scared off by the turmoil of the spring, and the final stages of a months-long violent crackdown on protesters, which this week saw security forces repeatedly attack Shi’a enclaves with rubber bullets and tear gas.

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