Eurasia

SUKHUMI/TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) – Residents in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia fired into the air, drank champagne and wept on Tuesday after Russia recognized them as independent states.

MOSABRUNI, Georgia (Reuters) – Russian forces pushed Georgian police out of a disputed village on the de facto South Ossetian border on Tuesday after a tense stand-off that underlined the fragility of their peace.

Russia has defied pressure from America and the West, and has recognised the independence of Georgia’s two breakaway regions. President Dimitry Medvedev said he had signed decrees accepting Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, and urged all other nations to do the same.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Officials said a Russian nuclear delegation was scheduled to arrive in Iran in September 2008 to discuss a final timetable for the 1,000 megawatt Bushehr power plant.

TEHRAN, Aug. 26 (ISNA)-Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that “extremism” in the region is the source of problems.Iran foreign minister’s remarks came at a meeting with the outgoing Pakistani ambassador Shafeqat Saeed.

TEHRAN, Aug. 26 (ISNA)-Iran’s president in a message expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in Kyrgyzstan air accident in which 42 Iranian nationals died.

TEHRAN, Aug. 26 (ISNA)-Ali Akbar Alizadeh, an Iranian theater director is to show his “Three Points” in the International Performing Art Festival of High Fest in Armenia.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Prospects for political stability in Pakistan faded on Tuesday, a day after a split in the ruling coalition, with a battle looming over who will become the next president of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani stocks fell over 4 percent on Tuesday to a new two-year low as investors sold blue chips such as OGDC on fears a break-up in the coalition government would raise political uncertainty.

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev convened security chiefs on Tuesday to consider a plea from parliament to recognize two separatist regions of Georgia as independent, a move Washington says would be unacceptable.