Eurasia

In Turkey, thousands of people have gathered to pay their respects to 15 soldiers killed, according to military officials, by Kurdish fighters in the south-east of the country.

TBILISI (Reuters) – EU ceasefire monitors in Georgia reported the dismantling of a Russian checkpoint near breakaway South Ossetia on Sunday, saying it was the “first open sign” of a promised Russian troop pullback by October 10.

ASTANA (Reuters) – The United States is not trying to poach Russia’s allies in Central Asia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday during a visit to oil-rich Kazakhstan.

Russia’s navy is gearing up to pass through the straits of Gibraltar.The four warships – including the nuclear-powered Russian heavy cruiser Peter the Great – will stop off in Libya before heading to Venezuela.

DIWANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – The Polish military marked the end of its five-year partnership with U.S. forces in Iraq on Saturday and prepared to withdraw.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani villagers collected the corpses and body parts on Saturday of at least 20 people, including several suspected Arab militants as well as three children, killed by a U.S. missile strike overnight.

BRCKO, Bosnia (Reuters) – In the 1990s, Milorad Maglajcevic fought for Bosnia’s Serbs, whose wartime goal was to clear Muslims from areas they wanted for Serbs alone.

SARAJEVO (Reuters)SARAJEVO, October 4 (Reuters) – Bosnian police have arrested Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric, three months after he was acquitted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal of charges against Bosnian Serbs, a police source said Saturday.

KIEV (Reuters) – A methane explosion at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine Saturday killed six people, the country’s Emergencies Ministry said.The blast ripped through the Duvanna mine in the city of Sukhodolsk in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Fifteen Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdish PKK separatist rebels in southeast Turkey Saturday, CNN and other media said.