MOSCOW (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday he will use a visit to Russia to expand military ties with Moscow, whose arms sales to the Middle Eastern state have angered Israel and the United States.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces raided the office of a provincial governor and arrested the son of a leading Sunni Arab politician in separate incidents on Tuesday that could stoke sectarian and political tension.

ISSERS, Algeria (Reuters) – A bomb at an Algerian military academy killed 43 people and wounded 45 on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, one of the bloodiest incidents in years in the OPEC member state.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO agreed after U.S. pressure on Tuesday to freeze regular contacts with Russia until Moscow had withdrawn its troops from Georgia in line with a peace deal.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that by August 22 Russia will pull its troops in Georgia back to the positions set out in a French-brokered ceasefire agreement.

TBILISI (Reuters) – A roll of explosions at a Russian-occupied military base this week sent a clear Kremlin message to Georgia about the frailty of its infant military and its prospects for NATO membership.

PARIS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared to fly to Afghanistan on Tuesday after 10 French soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in a clash with Taliban insurgents, and declared France remained committed to its mission there.

KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 in a major battle in Afghanistan, the French president’s office said on Tuesday, the biggest single loss of foreign troops in combat there since 2001.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic has asked the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to replace the judges who are overseeing the preparatory stage of his trial for charges including genocide.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected suicide bomber killed 23 people in the compound of a hospital in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday as members of a religious minority were holding a protest, police said.