Eurasia Press & News

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that a confrontation between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf over the weekend was “something normal” and was resolved. It suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels.  

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A senior Saudi official urged French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday to respect Saudi Arabia’s conservative Islamic culture by visiting the country without his girlfriend, former supermodel Carla Bruni. 

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that there will be no retreat in Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.

Iran has attacked President Bush’s planned trip to the Middle East and says it has no plans to normalize relations with the United States. 

BAGHDAD – Two suicide bombers struck in a Sunni Arab district of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 14 people including the leader of a U.S.-backed neighborhood security patrol, police said.

LONDON – HarperCollins will rush out a book submitted by former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto just days before her December 27 assassination, it said on Monday.

BRUSSELS – NATO and the European Union welcomed on Monday the conduct of Georgia’s election in which incumbent President Mikhail Saakashvili claimed victory, but demanded that allegations of irregularities be cleared up fast.

PRISTINA, Serbia – Kosovo’s prime-minister designate Hashim Thaci sealed agreement on Monday on a governing coalition expected to lead the Albanian-majority province to independence from Serbia early this year.

BAIJI, Iraq – Firefighters have succeeded in bringing a blaze at Iraq’s largest oil refinery in Baiji under control, an engineer at the refinery said.

BAIJI, Iraq – Iraq’s largest oil refinery was continuing to operate on Monday despite a fire that destroyed its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) unit, an engineer at the facility told Reuters.