Eurasia

Thanks to the transport and energy projects jointly implemented by Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Caspian Sea region will gain a strategic significance in the world, Turkish president Abdullah Gul said at the international forum dedicated to transport and communication held in Istanbul on Thursday.

US President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin were Thursday set to argue out their differences on the Syria crisis over dinner at the G20 in Russia as world leaders sought to overcome a deep chasm over a US-led push for military action.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Wednesday pledged to unite Mali as he was sworn in to lead the deeply-divided west African nation’s emergence from months of political crisis and conflict.

Egypt’s interior minister escaped an assassination attempt yesterday when a suspected car bomb struck his convoy in a Cairo neighborhood, in the first attack on a senior government official since the country’s Islamist president was toppled in a coup two months ago.

Turkish army deployed additional troops and weapons along the Syrian border on Wednesday amid fears of a potential military intervention led by the United States. Reinforcements from Turkey’s military command in Gaziantep province

The number of the Syrians forced to leave their native country and seek shelter in refugee camps in Turkey has exceeded 200,000 people. Taking into account the people living outside these camps the figure is over half a million.

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, after meeting his Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov in Skopje on Wednesday, encouraged both Macedonia and Greece to find mutual solution on the name issue. “The mechanisms in Europe work on consensus. A mutual solution has to be found and we will support whatever Greece

Serb representatives decided to participate in forthcoming Nov. 3 municipal election in Kosovo, as they respected midnight deadline of Wednesday Sept. 4 to submit certification request at the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kosovo.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić received on Thursday the credentials of newly appointed Egyptian Ambassador to Belgrade Menha Mahrous Bakhoum. He used the opportunity to urge the Egypt’s interim government to reconsider the country’s decision to recognize Kosovo.

Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selaković and his Bosnian counterpart Barisa Čolak on Thursday in Belgrade signed an agreement on extradition. It concerns the two countries’ citizens charged with and convicted for criminal acts of organized crime, corruption, money laundry and other grave crimes.