Eurasia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU candidate Turkey must significantly step up reforms if it is to progress its troubled bid to join the 27-nation bloc, the European Commission is to tell the country, EU officials said on Friday.

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) – Armed men drove into Russia’s Ingushetia region and abducted up to 15 people including policemen from a checkpoint and a slot machine parlour, police and witnesses said Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia has outlawed investment in its breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions and imposed entry restrictions on foreigners, under legislation designed to isolate the two Russian-backed territories.

Turkey’s prime minister was involved in anti-secular activities, the country’s Constitutional Court has said.The court was explaining why it it imposed financial sanctions on the governing AK Party in July.

Fears that a lawyer representing several critics of Russia’s government may have been poisoned appear unfounded, French authorities say.

The Croation prime minister has pledged to mobilise the power of the state to combat terrorists and criminals after a bomb attack that killed a renowned investigative journalist and one of his colleagues.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Armenian Parliament Speaker Ovik Abramian on Thursday hailed Iran’s principled stance on regional issues.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Pakistan said they are willing to undertake bilaterally a stalled multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline even if India does not join the project.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s parliament has for the first time united to condemn terrorism, which members said posed a grave danger to stability, and has begun to “take ownership” of policy to tackle it, analysts said on Thursday.

VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuania’s main center-right opposition party, heading for victory in the second round of elections Sunday, is set to woo smaller liberal groups and a new party run by a TV star as its coalition partners.