(Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Wednesday the last of five extra combat brigades deployed to Iraq last year would complete its departure next week. That will leave 140,000 troops in Iraq. Following are facts about the so-called surge:

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.