July, 2008

• 10 July

  Hague tribunal should be phased out: Russia

  MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague was biased and its activities should be phased out as soon as possible. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the case of Bosnian Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric, whose conviction was overturned by the court, showed …

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• 9 July

  PKK kidnaps 3 German tourists in east Turkey: report

  ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Kurdish guerrillas have kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition in eastern Turkey, a local governor said on Wednesday. The three had established a camp on Mount Ararat in Agri province as part of a 13-member climbing team when they were seized by Kurdistan Workers Party …

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• 9 July

  U.N. lawyers say Bosnian-Serbs burned Muslims alive

  THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Bosnian Serb cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic were accused on Wednesday of imprisoning and burning alive some 140 Muslims and summarily shooting others in some of the cruelest ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian war. Both men face charges of murder, extermination and cruel treatment at the …

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• 9 July

  U.S. Marines “kill 400 Taliban” in Afghan operation

  KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. Marines have killed more than 400 Taliban since they began an operation to seize a district in southern Afghanistan in May, their commander said on Wednesday. A fighting force of some 2,200 U.S. Marines deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year to make up for shortfalls in …

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• 9 July

  Georgia says Russian jets violated its airspace

  TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia on Wednesday said four Russian air force jets had violated its airspace over a volatile Moscow-backed separatist region on Tuesday. Russia’s Defence Ministry was not immediately available to comment on the Georgian allegation.

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• 9 July

  Russia to consider retaliation over missile shield

  TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) – Russia will consider how to retaliate over a planned U.S. missile shield but wants to continue talks on the issue with Washington, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

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• 9 July

  Tiny Iraq navy to flex muscle as oil guardian

  UMM QASR, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s fledgling navy of battered patrol boats is bulking up for a greater role in protecting the country’s economic heart, its offshore oil terminals, officials said. Putting on muscle to protect the two terminals that account for 90 percent of Iraq’s revenues, the tiny navy …

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• 9 July

  Russia calls Georgia a risk to regional security

  MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday called Georgia a threat to stability in the South Caucasus, just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to visit Tbilisi. The Russian foreign ministry’s statement listed occasions when it said Georgian forces had stirred trouble with its two …

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• 8 July

  U.S. and Czechs sign missile deal prompting Moscow warning

  PRAGUE (Reuters) – The United States and the Czech Republic signed an agreement on Tuesday to build part of a U.S. missile defense shield in the central European state despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia. The U.S. and Czech foreign ministers toasted with champagne after signing the …

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• 8 July

  Russia says will use military means if U.S. deploys shield

  MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Tuesday it would use military means if the United States deployed a missile defense shield close to Russia’s borders. “If the real deployment of an American strategic missile defense shield begins close to our borders, then we will be forced to react not with …

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