Eurasia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fire-brand Socialist, will sign arms and energy deals during a visit to Moscow which started on Tuesday, moves likely to further strain ties between Russia and the United States.

KABUL (Reuters) – Two French aid workers kidnapped in central Afghanistan last week are being held by a commander of a former armed faction, a Western radio broadcaster said on Tuesday.

KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships have killed 15 Taliban militants and captured 60 in an operation that began mid-week in a troubled northwestern town, the military said on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan is committed to supporting the U.S.-led global coalition fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban but will not allow allied foreign forces to operate on its territory, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Ten members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in clashes with Turkish military forces in southeastern Turkey late on Friday, security sources said on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Eighty-three percent of Pakistanis want President Pervez Musharraf to be removed and judges he sacked restored, according to a survey released by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute on Thursday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Germany and Italy next week to encourage European investment in Iraq, the government’s spokesman said on Thursday.

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – A bomb planted on a bicycle wounded 11 people, including five paramilitary soldiers, in a southwest Pakistani town where separatist rebels have long been active.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani chided Afghanistan’s president on Wednesday over his remarks accusing Pakistan of a spate of terrorist attacks, saying he wants a stable government in Kabul.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish soldiers have killed 11 Kurdish guerrillas in an operation in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari, Turkey’s military said on Wednesday.