As Russia deployed additional troops to the Abkhazian conflict zone, Tbilisi has tossed around war rhetoric about Abkhazia. Georgia asserts that Russia has stationed dozens of armor and artillery systems in the territory of Abkhazia and posted 200 land troops in Ochamchire.
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Russian official suspected of $43 mln fraud
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, detained by police last week, is suspected of attempting to embezzle more than $43 million in state funds, prosecutors said on Monday.
Read More »Olmert acts to bolster Abbas before meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought wide Arab support on Monday for a U.S.-led peace conference by agreeing to release 441 Palestinian prisoners and reaffirming a pledge not to build new Jewish settlements.
Read More »Blocked Lebanon deal angers France’s Kouchner
France’s foreign minister blamed unnamed parties on Monday for blocking a deal between feuding Lebanese leaders to agree on a compromise candidate for president, two days before a key parliamentary vote.
Read More »Key ministers stay in new Georgian government
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili reshuffled his cabinet on Monday but left economic portfolios unchanged in pursuit of stability following a wave of street protests.
Read More »Musharraf going to Saudi, Sharif denies plan to meet
Exiled Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday he would not meet President Pervez Musharraf, the army general who deposed him eight years ago, when Musharraf visits Saudi Arabia this week.
Read More »Jordanian Islamists seek to win Palestinian vote
Behind a poster of Jerusalem’s Muslim shrines, Islamist activist Omar Zaib tells a crowd of refugees at a Jordanian election rally that Israel is doomed — if not by this generation of jihadists then the next.
Read More »Kidnapped Iraqi reporter freed, says no ransom paid
An Iraqi TV journalist who was kidnapped last week in a busy Baghdad neighborhood said he was released unharmed before dawn on Monday.
Read More »Balkans to splinter if Kosovo breaks away: Serbia
Serbia is warning the West ahead of a new round of talks on its breakaway Kosovo province that a declaration of independence by the Albanian majority would lead to new secessionist moves in the Balkans.
Read More »Video raises fears of al Qaeda expansion to Maldives
A propaganda video shot inside a radical Maldives mosque and posted on the Internet has raised fears that al Qaeda is gaining a foothold in the Indian Ocean tourist paradise.
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