Eurasia

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates demanded a $35 million ransom on Saturday for a Ukrainian ship they had seized which was carrying 33 tanks and other military supplies to Kenya, a maritime official said.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces killed 30 militants loyal to al Qaeda and Taliban in the latest fighting in a strategically important tribal region on the Afghan border, officials said on Saturday.

Turkish warplanes have attacked suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.The raids, late on Thursday, hit areas in the Qandil mountains. A spokesman for the PKK rebels said one of its members and two civilians were wounded.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has reached a framework for pricing gas imports from Turkmenistan following a supply dispute last winter, with a senior official in Tehran saying the deal will be finalized once Ramadan ends next week.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russia is seeking to forge closer ties with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and has invited the cartel’s members to a meeting in Moscow next month, Iran’s OPEC Governor said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Azerbaijan Republic is sticking to plans to reduce oil exports to the EU and increase shipments to Iran, as the South Caucasus country home to another Russia-influenced frozen conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh seeks to spread the risk.

TANG KHATTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani forces have killed up to 1,000 Islamist militants in fighting in the strategically important northwestern region of Bajaur this month, an army commander said on Friday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates have seized a Ukrainian ship carrying more than 30 tanks to Kenya and Russia said on Friday it was sending a warship to combat piracy in the region.

The President of the former Soviet state Belarus insists this weekend’s elections will be fair and democratic, despite growing scepticism. Advance voting has begun, and the Minsk hardman, President Alexander Lukashenko, who recently fell out of favour in Moscow, must balance the demands of the Kremlin with the promises of …

Russia is to beef up its nuclear arsenal in the next 12 years, including building its own missile shield in space and commissioning more atomic submarines.