LEBANON/ISRAEL BORDER (Reuters) – Hezbollah handed the bodies of two Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross on Wednesday to be exchanged for Lebanese prisoners held by Israel in a deal viewed as a triumph by the Lebanese Shi’ite guerrilla group.

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – A bomb planted on a bicycle wounded 11 people, including five paramilitary soldiers, in a southwest Pakistani town where separatist rebels have long been active.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani chided Afghanistan’s president on Wednesday over his remarks accusing Pakistan of a spate of terrorist attacks, saying he wants a stable government in Kabul.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish soldiers have killed 11 Kurdish guerrillas in an operation in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari, Turkey’s military said on Wednesday.

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Drought-stricken Cyprus is unable to distribute a shipment of water from Greece directly to households because it smells bad, authorities said Wednesday.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday that charred remains found in a pit belonged to Tsar Nicholas II’s only son and his daughter, exactly 90 years after the Bolsheviks shocked the world by murdering the last Tsar.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will robustly defend its interests abroad, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday in a speech that made clear he would not soften the assertive policies that irked the West under his predecessor.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – On wooded hillsides where Georgian and separatist troops eye each other through the sights of their guns, the smallest spark could set off a war. Last week the detention of four Georgian soldiers in the breakaway South Ossetia region quickly escalated into a crisis. Georgia threatened an …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers killed 23 people and wounded 68 at a recruitment centre for the Iraqi army north of Baghdad on Tuesday, an Iraqi security source said, just days after the government promised a crackdown in the area.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Unknown gunmen kidnapped two Turkish nationals working on construction project in western Afghanistan on Monday, a senior police official said. Kidnapping has become a lucrative business in Afghanistan, where dozens of locals and foreigners have been abducted by criminals or Taliban-linked militants.