MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday called Georgia a threat to stability in the South Caucasus, just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to visit Tbilisi. The Russian foreign ministry’s statement listed occasions when it said Georgian forces had stirred trouble with its two …

PRAGUE (Reuters) – The United States and the Czech Republic signed an agreement on Tuesday to build part of a U.S. missile defense shield in the central European state despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia. The U.S. and Czech foreign ministers toasted with champagne after signing the …

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Tuesday it would use military means if the United States deployed a missile defense shield close to Russia’s borders. “If the real deployment of an American strategic missile defense shield begins close to our borders, then we will be forced to react not with …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas leaders plan to hold talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on the future of a ceasefire with Israel that has been marred by violations since it began nearly three weeks ago. In the latest challenge to the Egyptian-brokered truce, militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel closed all but one of its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to a mortar attack 24 hours earlier, Israeli officials said. The Jewish state said one mortar shell was fired from Gaza on Monday and landed in southern Israel, causing no …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament will insist on vetting any security pact the government agrees with the United States and will likely veto the document if American troops are immune from Iraqi law, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday. Baghdad and Washington are negotiating the legal basis for U.S. troops …

DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates’ decision to forgive Baghdad’s debt and restore high-level ties reflects a Gulf Arab desire to counter Iran’s spreading influence, but not all will be so quick to warm to the new Iraq. Sunni Arab governments who once funded Iraq’s 1980-1988 war against Shi’ite …

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A U.S. deal with the Czech Republic on missile defense complicates European security and cancels out consultations with Moscow on the missile shield, media quoted a Russian foreign ministry source as saying.

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – The Shi’ite Mehdi Army militia is finished as a fighting force in Iraq’s oil rich Basra province and upcoming provincial elections should pass without violence, the province’s governor said on Tuesday. Mohammed al-Waeli said an Iraqi security offensive against the Mehdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada …

TBILISI (Reuters) – Moscow-backed separatists in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region detained four Georgian soldiers on Monday, raising tension a day before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Tbilisi. South Ossetia, and Georgia’s second breakaway region of Abkhazia, are a regular source of friction between the pro-Western government in …