MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday that its air force had flown over Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia this week because it believed Tbilisi was preparing to attack the region. “The need arose to take urgent and active measures to prevent bloodshed and keep the situation within peaceful bounds,” Russia’s …

GAZA (Reuters) – Three Palestinian students hoping to take up prestigious scholarships to study in the United States despite an Israeli travel ban met U.S. consular officials on Thursday at the Israel-Gaza border for visa interviews.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Russia should help resolve tension over Georgia’s rebel regions instead of contributing to it, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday, and she urged an end to violence there. “It (Russia) needs to be a part of resolving the problem and solving the problem and not …

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague was biased and its activities should be phased out as soon as possible. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the case of Bosnian Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric, whose conviction was overturned by the court, showed …

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Kurdish guerrillas have kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition in eastern Turkey, a local governor said on Wednesday. The three had established a camp on Mount Ararat in Agri province as part of a 13-member climbing team when they were seized by Kurdistan Workers Party …

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Bosnian Serb cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic were accused on Wednesday of imprisoning and burning alive some 140 Muslims and summarily shooting others in some of the cruelest ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian war. Both men face charges of murder, extermination and cruel treatment at the …

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. Marines have killed more than 400 Taliban since they began an operation to seize a district in southern Afghanistan in May, their commander said on Wednesday. A fighting force of some 2,200 U.S. Marines deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year to make up for shortfalls in …

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia on Wednesday said four Russian air force jets had violated its airspace over a volatile Moscow-backed separatist region on Tuesday. Russia’s Defence Ministry was not immediately available to comment on the Georgian allegation.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) – Russia will consider how to retaliate over a planned U.S. missile shield but wants to continue talks on the issue with Washington, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

UMM QASR, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s fledgling navy of battered patrol boats is bulking up for a greater role in protecting the country’s economic heart, its offshore oil terminals, officials said. Putting on muscle to protect the two terminals that account for 90 percent of Iraq’s revenues, the tiny navy …