KIEV (Reuters) – A top Ukrainian security official on Saturday discounted any notion of a separatist rebellion in the sensitive Crimea as President Viktor Yushchenko proposed Kremlin talks on the issue of the Russian fleet based there.

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims poured into Iraq’s holy city of Kerbala on Saturday, defying bomb attacks across the country to attend a rite that has become an annual show of strength for the Shi’ite majority.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces have killed more than 90 militants during several days of fighting in the south of the country this week, the U.S. military and the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s ruling coalition has prepared impeachment charges against President Pervez Musharraf focusing on violation of the constitution and misconduct, a coalition official said on Saturday.

SOCHI/TBILISI (Reuters) – Russia signed a peace deal to end the conflict in Georgia on Saturday but said “extra security measures” were needed before a withdrawal could begin. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, working from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, added his signature to a French-led peace plan already endorsed …

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region has agreed to withdraw troops from a neighboring Iraqi province and hand over security in the area to forces of the central government, a Kurdish official said.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani artillery and helicopter gunships killed nine pro-Taliban militants in an assault on their hideouts in the restive northwestern Swat valley on Saturday, army officials said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran will launch its first satellite in the next few days, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The fire, which began at the National Golestan park in the Northern Khorasan province of Iran in the morning of 15 August, is still going on.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Unknown armed men kidnapped two Iranian businessmen in Afghanistan’s western Herat province and police have yet to locate them, police spokesman in western region Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said Saturday.