Eurasia

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s new government paid tribute to slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and asked President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday to spare thousands of prisoners held on death row.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German court on Thursday sentenced an Iraqi man to three years in jail for distributing messages by al Qaeda leaders on the Internet.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia warned on Thursday it might have to use force against Georgia if Russian peacekeepers were attacked again in its southern neighbor.

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed five militants on Thursday after four truck drivers were killed in an attack on a food convoy in the troubled northwest region, an official said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on investors in the liberalizing power sector not to stuff their “stomachs” with quick profits and pledged harsh treatment for those not respecting national and social interests.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s top court will hold its first hearings in early July in a case aimed at outlawing the ruling AK Party for Islamist activities, a court source said on Tuesday. A state prosecutor will give evidence to support his bid to close the governing party on July …

KIEV (Reuters) – NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Tuesday he would try to persuade all NATO members to back the idea of extending to Ukraine a Membership Action Plan (MAP), a step to joining the military alliance.

ANKARA (Reuters) – The Turkish military said on Tuesday it had opened fire on 21 Kurdish PKK fighters trying to enter Turkey from northern Iraq. The General Staff, in a statement on its Internet site, said its forces opened fire on the guerrillas late on Monday 3 km (2 miles) …

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Israel and Syria agreed this week to hold new rounds of indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey in July, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. Israel and Syria concluded a second round of indirect peace talks on Monday and agreed to continue the negotiations, though not face-to-face …

PRISTINA (Reuters) – The United Nations is expected to name Italian diplomat Lamberto Zannier this week as the new head of its Kosovo mission, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday. Zannier takes over from German diplomat Joachim Ruecker as part of a planned “reconfiguration” of the mission after Kosovo …