Eurasia

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.

A number of people have been killed in a car explosion near a Russian base in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia. Initial information about the blast in the regional capital of Tskhinvali came from a South Ossetian news agency.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran hopes that Azerbaijan and Armenia will express their opinion soon about Iran’s proposals on mediation in the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a senior Iranian diplomat said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran rejected the Bahraini foreign minister’s call for a new regional grouping which would include Israel as well as Arab states, Iran and Turkey.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – NATO launched an airstrike near the Afghan border with Pakistan on Friday, but there was no intrusion into Pakistani territory, a Pakistani military spokesman said, contradicting accounts by intelligence officials in the region.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Kamov, one of Russia’s largest helicopter producers, is hoping to sign an agreement by the end of the year to export Ka-226T utility helicopters to Iran, the company’s director said on Friday.

Russia has spared Ukraine from a steep price rise in gas for the time being despite a row over arms sales to Georgia.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Moscow said that the involvement of Georgia by the United States into a military operation against Iran will pose an additional threat to Russia’s national security.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Representatives of Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and representatives of international companies convened in the port of Astrakhan, Russia on Thursday to attend the first Intergovernmental Economic Conference of the Caspian littoral states.