KABUL (Reuters) – A roadside bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday killing three soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition forces and a local contractor working with them, the U.S. military said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s military plans to station a total of 7,600 servicemen at bases in Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Tuesday.

WARSAW (Reuters) – Russia’s relations with Poland have rarely been easy but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Warsaw on Thursday amid particularly sharp disputes over missile defense and Moscow’s army offensive in Georgia.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) – Rival Lebanese leaders signed on Monday a reconciliation deal aimed at ending four months of sporadic sectarian fighting in a volatile northern city that had raised fears of a rise of Islamist militancy.

A court in the Egyptian town of Minya has jailed 14 people for their involvement in a plot to leak details of important high school exam papers.

Ukraine has been given a morale-boost at talks with senior European Union officials in Paris, but no pledge was offered for membership of the bloc.

From a tour of duty in Iraq, to a tour of duty in Afghanistan… The US president has announced changes in American troop deployments in both countries.

The fight against terrorism and militant violence has come under the spotlight at the swearing-in of Pakistan’s new president.

Moscow says its soldiers are likely to stay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for a long time, a day after agreeing to a deal to pull troops out of Georgia proper. 

TEHRAN (FNA)- A joint research satellite of Iran, China and Thailand was launched on a Chinese rocket yesterday aimed at boosting cooperation on natural disasters such as earthquakes, an Iranian minister said yesterday.