Eurasia

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran began pumping natural gas to Turkey on Sunday after cutting supplies for three weeks.

MOSCOW – Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was barred on Sunday from running for president in a March election, a move he said was taken to block any real challenge to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s chosen candidate.

MOSCOW – Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Sunday denounced a decision to bar him from running in a March 2 election for president, saying it showed that Russia was sliding towards dictatorship.

NAZRAN, Russia – Russian riot police fired warning shots into the air and beat demonstrators who tried to rally on Saturday against alleged vote-rigging in the Muslim region of Ingushetia, a witness said.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Moscow hopes to have a rail connection with Iran, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin recently remarked in Yerevan.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev welcomed Iran’s call for holding an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

TEHRAN (FNA) Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said Thursday that he expects Iran to resume gas exports by next week, ending a two-week cut forced by cold weather and a consumption crunch in Turkey’s eastern neighbor.

MOSCOW – Liberal former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a Kremlin foe, should be barred from Russia’s presidential election because some of the signatures supporting his candidacy were forged, election officials said on Thursday.

ANKARA – Turkey’s Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and a key opposition party agreed on Thursday to cooperate to lift a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in universities, a move sure to anger the secular elite.

MOSCOW – Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, the head of Russia’s biggest opposition party, may decide not to run in the March 2 presidential election, Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying on Thursday.