Eurasia News

Afghanistan and the USA have signed a long-delayed agreement to allow international forces to stay in the country beyond 2014. In a low-key ceremony at the presidential palace, the Afghan national security adviser and the US ambassador signed the bilateral security agreement in the presence of the new Afghan president, …

Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif agreed Thursday on measures to resume the stalled negotiations, aimed at resolving the political crisis.

Egypt opened an investigation into deposed president Mohamed Morsi for delivering “documents relevant to national security” to Qatar. Morsi is already facing the death penalty in several trials and his supporters have been the target of a bloody crackdown by the authorities that has left more than 1 400 dead …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Thursday that the European Union will discuss further sanctions against Russia on its special summit in Brussels on Saturday, according to a statement of the German

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed Russia for the violence in eastern Ukraine, threatening “more costs” for Moscow. The president told reporters at the White House that he spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the phone about the situation in Ukraine, as Kiev and the West were accusing …

Ukraine’s president called an emergency meeting of the nation’s security council and canceled a foreign trip on Thursday, declaring that “Russian forces have entered Ukraine,” as concerns grew about the opening of a new front in the conflict. President Petro Poroshenko summoned the council as the strategic southeastern Ukraine town …

Turkey’s outgoing premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan was today sworn in as president as opponents who accuse him of authoritarianism after more than a decade in power walked out of the ceremony. Erdogan, 60, took the oath in Ankara to begin a five-year mandate in which he has vowed to build …

Two columns of Russian tanks and military vehicles fired Grad missiles at a border post in southeastern Ukraine, then rolled into the country today as Ukraine’s overmatched border guards fled, a top Ukrainian official said. The comments by Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council, and other …

A town in east Ukraine came under shellfire by pro-Russian rebels today, amid fears that they are launching a counter-offensive on government-held parts of the region. In response to outgoing fire early today, rebel forces lobbed at least 10 shells at the government-held town of Novoazovsk. 

Iraqi warplanes have begun targeting jihadists besieging the Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli amid growing fears for the safety of thousands of residents short of food and water and facing a “massacre”. With some 12,000 Turkmen trapped in the northern town, US President Barack Obama is “nearing a decision” to authorise strikes …