Eurasia

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia – (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Russia on Monday to seek a lasting peace deal for Georgia that will persuade Russia to pull its troops out of positions deep inside the ex-Soviet state.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – Missiles fired by U.S. drones killed 13 people, including 7 foreign militants, on Monday in a Pakistani village where a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden is located, intelligence officials and witnesses said.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan has reopened supply lines to Western forces in Afghanistan, after the road through the Khyber Pass was blocked on Saturday, days after a raid by U.S. commandos on a Pakistani village, a minister said on Monday.

MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stopped short of recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Monday, leaving Nicaragua the only state to join Russia in recognizing them.

KABUL (Reuters) – A relative of Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani was among three people killed in a suspected U.S. drone attack in a Pakistani border village on Monday, but Haqqani and his militant son, Sirajuddin, were not present, a younger son said.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – At least three people were killed and up to 20 wounded when suspected U.S. drones fired missiles on Monday into a Pakistani village used by Taliban commander Jalauddin Haqqani, witnesses said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will demand Moscow complies with a month-old peace plan for Georgia or risk demaging relations with the EU when he meets his Russian counterpart for talks today.

Georgia will seek a ruling from the UN’s highest court in the Hague later today ordering Russia to stop what it is claimed are human rights violations against ethnic Georgians in the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Serbia’s main political opposition party is in disarray after the resignation of its leader.Tomislav Nikolic stood down after hard-line colleagues in the Serbian Radical Party refused to back his call for closer EU ties.

The European Union has moved to curb Russia’s influence over its border states after officials called for better relations with Belarus, a nation long seen as one of Moscow’s most enthusiastic supporters.