Eurasia

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran, Russia and Qatar, which together account for 60 percent of the world’s gas reserves, took their first serious steps toward forming an OPEC-style cartel for natural gas.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Kazakh Transport and Communication Minister Serik Akhmetov signed a cooperation protocol at the end of the 10th meeting of the Kazakh-Iranian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic, science and technical and cultural cooperation.

SILIVRI, Turkey (Reuters) – A shadowy right-wing group went on trial in Turkey on Monday on charges of trying to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – One protester died of gunshot wounds on Monday after clashes with police in eastern Turkey at a demonstration in support of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, hospital sources said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia accused Tbilisi on Monday of breaching a ceasefire deal by firing at its villages from an EU-monitored area, and said its forces would not hesitate to retaliate.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Libya may agree to buy more than $2 billion worth of Russian weapons during a visit by Muammar Gaddafi to Moscow this month, Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source in Russia’s arms industry.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A Pakistani judge has extended the detention of a young American man of Pakistani descent for two weeks after he was caught trying to enter a known al Qaeda and Taliban militant sanctuary on the Afghan border.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has condemned violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians harvesting their olives as a “dangerous escalation”.

A shadowy right-wing group has gone on trial in Istanbul, accused of trying to topple Turkey’s elected government. Spme 86 people, including retired army officers, politicians, lawyers and journalists are charged with membership of a group called Ergenekon, whose aim is said to be to foment unrest to force the …

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) – Two Russian soldiers were killed in an ambush in the Caucasus region of Ingushetia on Saturday, authorities said, and unofficial sources said the death toll could be much higher.