Eurasia

Some 30 Russian tourists die in Israel bus crash

EILAT, Israel (Reuters) – A bus full of Russian tourists veered off a desert road in Israel and plunged down a ravine on Tuesday, killing up to 30 people and seriously injuring about a dozen more. The crash, near the Sinai Desert border to the north of the Red Sea …

Read More »

Greek PM vows to fight corruption after 11-day protest

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis pledged on Tuesday to tackle corruption after 11 days of violence triggered by the police killing of a teenager and fueled by public anger at scandals and a slowing economy. About 100 youths attacked a police station in Athens, setting fire to …

Read More »

India-Pakistan talks stalled after attacks

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Tentative peace talks between India and Pakistan have stalled after the Mumbai attacks, India said Tuesday, and can only resume if Islamabad takes more decisive action against militant groups on its soil. The talks, known as the composite dialogue, began in 2004 after the nuclear-armed neighbors …

Read More »

Serb Officers ‘Will Return to Kosovo’s Police’

osovo’s Interior Minister Zenun Pajaziti says Serb officers will return to Kosovo’s Police force now that the European Union law-and-order mission, EULEX, has deployed. Ethnic Serb police officers left their posts in protest against Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February of this year. However, Pajaziti believes that they will all …

Read More »

Ex-UN Kosovo Chief: EULEX ‘Not Neutral’

“The European Union is not neutral on Kosovo as 22 member states have made clear their position on Kosovo,” argues Soren Jessen Petersen, the former chief of UN Mission in Kosovo. “It is clear that Kosovo is independent and this fact cannot be changed. Kosovo is in the phase of …

Read More »

Serb Minister Ugljanin ‘Will Help Hometown’

Enis Imamovic, the spokesman for the Bosniak Ticket for European Sandzak, says party leader and minister without portfolio, Sulejman Ugljanin is a man of his word and will provide pledged aid to his home town. He told a press conference that Ugljanin would focus all his assistance on improving the …

Read More »

Greek police teargas youths in 2nd week of protests

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek police fired teargas at small groups of protesters who threw stones and firebombs in central Athens Monday in a second week of anti-government demonstrations since a policeman shot dead a teen-ager. Youths outside Athens’ main court and central police station clashed with riot police, while acts …

Read More »

Martynov Stresses Iran-Belarus Global Partnership

TEHRAN (FNA)- Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov described Iran as an important partner of his country in the region and the world, saying Minsk is ready to increase its all-out relations with Tehran. Martynov made the remarks in a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki who was …

Read More »

Russia Unlikely to Join OPEC

TEHRAN (FNA)- The vice chairman of Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said his country could not limit its output under OPEC-style quotas. “The mechanism of OPEC couldn’t be applicable straight-forwardly to the Russian Federation,” AFP quoted Alexander Medvedev as saying in a press conference in Paris on Friday. “We are …

Read More »

Iran, Belarus Move to Expand Ties

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Belarus agreed to establish a joint economic commission in a bid to further expand relations. The decision was made during a Thursday meeting in Minsk between Belarusian Prime Minister Sergey Sidorskiy and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who arrived in the Belarusian capital the same day …

Read More »