Eurasia

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian Vice-Speaker of State Duma Valery Vazev conferred on Tuesday with Head of Iran-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Group Mehdi Sanaei on expansion of parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGE) official announced that Iran plans to launch gas exports to Armenia in the very near future.

KARALETI, Georgia (Reuters) – Russian troops started pulling back from buffer zones outside South Ossetia on Wednesday, two months after Russia’s brief war with Georgia which increased tension with the West.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – An onshore associate of Somali pirates holding a Ukrainian ship with tanks and other weaponry on board said on Wednesday an $8 million ransom deal was in the offing which may enable the boat to be freed within days. “A boat will carry the money from Djibouti …

Egypt’s occasionally fragile sectarian ties have been shaken by the murder of a Muslim whose wife converted to Islam against her Christian family’s wishes.

The city of Evian is on the border between France and Switzerland. Security there has been tightened for the inaugural three-day meeting of the World Policy Conference which began on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on Russia to refrain from providing Iran and Syria with advanced missiles and weapons technology, and vowed to raise the issue during a visit to Moscow starting on Monday.

New York, Asharq Al-Awsat – Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit denied reports that the US intends to tie its aid to Egypt to respect for human rights and greater freedoms, saying that “in all the talks we had with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice we have not talked …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has asked Japan and NATO allies who have refused to send troops to Afghanistan to pay the estimated $17 billion needed to build up the Afghan army, according to U.S. defense officials.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO’s top operations commander hit out Monday at allies resisting his call for the alliance to use more aggressive tactics against Afghan drug production.