Eurasia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian newspaper said on Saturday security forces foiled an attempt by a sniper to kill President Vladimir Putin near the Kremlin this month. Itar-Tass news agency cited a security source denying the report.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO said on Saturday it was nearing a deal to use Russian land and airspace to supply its security forces in Afghanistan, but Western diplomats denied any trade-off with Moscow to keep Ukraine and Georgia out of NATO.

ANKARA (Reuters) – A state prosecutor asked Turkey’s top court on Friday to shut the ruling AK Party for anti-secular activities, intensifying tensions between the secular elite and the Islamist-rooted government.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – A Cambodian court sentenced a prominent Russian investor to 13 years in jail on Friday for the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl, the latest foreigner to be caught in the country’s drive to stop child sex tourism.

PRISTINA (Reuters) – U.N. authorities in Kosovo told Serbia on Wednesday to stop interfering in Serb areas of the new state, where a Serb boycott has fuelled speculation Belgrade is trying to partition the territory.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey plans to invest up to $12 billion in its impoverished, mainly Kurdish southeast region as part of efforts to drain support for separatist PKK rebels, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

WARSAW (Reuters) – NATO has not yet decided whether to allow the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia to join the military alliance, its Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Transportation Minister Mohammad Rahmati and the visiting president of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) explored avenues for consolidation of mutual trade ties in a meeting here on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Mohammed Nahavandian, the president of Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, said Tuesday Iran wants Turkish investors to make use of opportunities in its territories.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish lawmaker Muhsin Yazicioglu, chairman of Grand Unity Party (BBP), urged Iran on Sunday to share its experiences on nuclear energy with its “neighbors and brothers”.