Eurasia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Georgia’s breakaway region Abkhazia said on Saturday Tbilisi had planned to take the area over by military force earlier this year but failed in its mission, Russian agencies reported.

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf hit back at calls for his resignation on Friday, saying he was needed to help political parties avoid an economic meltdown and tackle a militant threat gripping the country. “We cannot address the problems of terrorism and extremism and the economic crisis if …

YEREVAN (Reuters) – Thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Armenian capital on Friday and vowed to hold a month-long series of protests to demand the resignation of President Serzh Sarksyan and new elections. The opposition accuses the authorities of ballot-stuffing and intimidation in the February 19 election which official …

MINSK (Reuters) – About 50 people were wounded early on Friday by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts into a crowd at an open-air concert in Belarus’s capital attended by long-time ruler President Alexander Lukashenko, officials said. Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state with an iron grip …

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Al Qaeda-linked militants have abducted two Pakistani journalists who the militants accused of snooping on their members and positions near the Afghan border. The militants detained freelance reporter Pir Zubair Shah and photographer Akhtar Soomro in Ziarat village in the Mohmand region late on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia urged Georgia on Friday to guarantee with a legal document that its armed forces would not use force in its breakaway regions, after clashes between soldiers and separatists killed two people in South Ossetia. Moscow demanded a peace pact after the mobilization of reservists by the …

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, with Japan recording its worst losing streak in 43 years, as climbing oil and food prices exacerbated stagflation fears, increasing the risk investors will capitulate and knock the market even lower.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Nine people were killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in Russia’s far north, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said. “The helicopter crashed as it was coming into land and nine people were killed,” said a spokesman.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A blast killed two people in an apartment building early on Wednesday in Sochi, the southern Russian city set to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, police and emergency services said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Red and white banners along Nile bridges and Cairo streets this month were Egypt’s latest effort to curb an increasingly pressing problem: a population growing faster than the economy can support.