MOSCOW

Russian officials back plan for Ukrainian rebel elections

Russian officials are throwing their support behind Ukrainian separatist rebels’ planned elections for their own parliaments after warnings from Ukrainian leaders in Kiev that no power in the world will recognize the proclaimed independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.”

“It is necessary to create conditions for the elections rather than to dissuade people from them,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich. He was responding to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin’s appeal Thursday for the Kremlin to dissuade its eastern Ukraine proxies from going through with the vote.

MOSCOW

Gorbachev leaves hospital after acute diabetes flare-up

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and architect of reforms that led to the downfall of that country’s one-party rule, was released from the hospital Friday after an “aggravation” of his acute diabetes, but he told Russian media he remains in a struggle against deteriorating health.

The 83-year-old former Communist Party leader was rushed to a Moscow hospital Thursday after a weeklong decline and spent the night.

Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in shepherding Eastern Europe out of totalitarian rule and the reforms that helped bring down the Iron Curtain.

BERLIN

Kidnapped German freed in Afghanistan 2 years later

A German aid worker who was kidnapped in Pakistan more than two years ago has been freed in Afghanistan, the German government and his employer said Friday.

German aid group Welthungerhilfe confirmed the release of employee Bernd Muehlenbeck, who was kidnapped in Multan in January 2012, along with an Italian colleague.

LAGOS, Nigeria

President threatens to sue website for listing his wealth

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is threatening to sue a website that listed him as one of Africa’s richest presidents, worth $100 million.

RichestLifestyle.com responded Friday by withdrawing Jonathan’s name from its list of nine African leaders ranging in supposed wealth from President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola at $20 billion to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe at $10 million.

A statement condemned the “attempt to unjustifiably portray the president as a corrupt leader and incite public disaffection against him.”

The statement demanded a retraction and apology.

– From news service reports