BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU candidate Turkey must significantly step up reforms if it is to progress its troubled bid to join the 27-nation bloc, the European Commission is to tell the country, EU officials said on Friday.

GENEVA (Reuters) – More than half of the Christians living in Mosul have fled the northern Iraqi city in the past two weeks, some going to Syria, after receiving death threats, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) – Armed men drove into Russia’s Ingushetia region and abducted up to 15 people including policemen from a checkpoint and a slot machine parlour, police and witnesses said Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia has outlawed investment in its breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions and imposed entry restrictions on foreigners, under legislation designed to isolate the two Russian-backed territories.

Turkey’s prime minister was involved in anti-secular activities, the country’s Constitutional Court has said.The court was explaining why it it imposed financial sanctions on the governing AK Party in July.

Fears that a lawyer representing several critics of Russia’s government may have been poisoned appear unfounded, French authorities say.

The Croation prime minister has pledged to mobilise the power of the state to combat terrorists and criminals after a bomb attack that killed a renowned investigative journalist and one of his colleagues.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Germany signed a contract for construction of a petrochemical plant in Imam Khomeini Port in Iran’s Khuzestan province.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Armenian Parliament Speaker Ovik Abramian on Thursday hailed Iran’s principled stance on regional issues.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran urged the international community to respect Iraqi interests, saying the pact the US wants Baghdad to sign encourages “modern savagery”.