MOSCOW (Reuters) – Any state which decides to impose sanctions on Russia over its military intervention in Georgia will suffer symmetric losses, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A dramatic fall in violence has breathed life into Baghdad’s once moribund property market, although the hunt for homes in Sunni and Shi’ite enclaves bodes ill for sectarian reconciliation in the Iraqi capital.

US defence secretary Robert Gates is in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on a previously unannounced visit.