Eurasia

Greece has been rocked by violence since December, when the fatal police shooting of a teenager triggered the worst riots in decades. Greek police fired teargas to disperse a group of about 150 hooded youths who damaged dozens of shops in the centre of Athens on Friday, police said. Greece …

Ingushetia has overtaken its neighbour Chechnya as the centre of violence along Russia’s turbulent south challenging the Kremlin. The man chosen to rein in Russia’s most violent insurgency says he will tackle the root of the problem by stamping out the official corruption driving young men into the arms of …

Greek and Turkish Cypriots started peace talks in September 2008, the latest bid to end a conflict. Business leaders of Greece, Turkey and the two communities on Cyprus on Thursday urged leaders of the divided island to reach a peace deal this year. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started peace talks …

Ukraine and Croatia are considering prospects for suspending visa regulations over the 2009 summer season. Ukraine’s Ambassador Markiyan Lubkivskyi discussed the issue with Croatian Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko. 

MOSCOW – Russia’s budget expenditures could grow by 600 billion rubles ($17 billion) to 9.6 trillion ($275 billion) this year, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Friday. He added it was only a preliminary figure and that it would be confirmed following a Cabinet session. The official said …

MOSCOW -Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday he was happy to have the government’s economic policies criticized, while telling regional deputies to be “extremely” attentive to social problems. In comments that contrasted with the tough image of his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Medvedev stressed the need for open debate …

BRUSSELS, – European Union ceasefire monitors may soon be the only observer mission in Georgia yet still have no access to breakaway regions and face continued hostility, the mission’s head warned on Thursday. The official, Hansjoerg Haber, said observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were …

Armenian National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan met Thursday with Georgian Ambassador Revaz Gachechiladze, who is completing his mission in the republic. The Armenian Speaker thanked Ambassador Gachechiladze for his contribution to the development of the Armenian-Georgian cooperation. The two discussed possibilities to strengthen interparliamentary ties and other issues of mutual …

ROME  – When police arrested two Romanians for the rape of an Italian teenager in Rome, Il Giornale, a paper owned by the family of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reported: “The Romanian beasts have been caught.” Three weeks later, prosecutors admitted the “beasts” could not be guilty — DNA tests …

Bulgaria’s Ministries Council granted authorization Thursday to design and build a waste treatment facility in the “Sadinata” site, near the village of Yana, in Sofia’s “Kremikovtzi” district. The “Integrated System of Facilities for Treatment of Household Waste from Sofia’s Municipality” will be built on nearly 333,000 square meters of lands …