MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia made no commitment at last week’s Group of Eight summit to back U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe so it cannot be accused of a U-turn, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Middle East envoy Tony Blair is preparing to travel to the Gaza Strip this week in what would be the highest-level visit by a Western official since Hamas took control a year ago, Palestinian and Western officials said.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Eighty-six people were indicted on charges of plotting the violent overthrow of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which is accused by militant secularists of Islamist subversion.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday Pakistani agents were behind the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul last week, the first time he has directly accused Pakistan of involvement in the suicide attack that killed 58 people.

(Reuters) – Iraq raised for the first time this week the prospect of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces as part of negotiations over a new security deal with Washington. Following are answers to questions about the issue:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Of the hundreds of tragic tales of children killed during decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ahmed Khatib’s must rank among the most remarkable. Khatib was shot dead in 2005 by Israeli soldiers who mistook him for a gunman in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Still grieving, …

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 6:30 a.m. EDT on Monday. HELMAND – U.S.-led coalition forces have killed 20 Taliban insurgents, many of them Pakistanis, in an air strike on Sunday night in Kajaki district of southern Helmand province, a provincial spokesman Dawud Ahmadi said on …

CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss genocide charges against Sudan’s president by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor, a senior Arab League official said on Monday.

HADARIM PRISON, Israel (Reuters) – Israel prepared on Monday for a prisoner swap with Hezbollah by moving four Lebanese guerrillas in its custody to a holding facility ahead of Wednesday’s U.N.-mediated exchange.

KUWAIT (Reuters) – The United States and other Western countries are dealing in a provocative way with Iran over its nuclear program and should respect its sovereignty, Kuwait’s parliament speaker said.