Eurasia Press & News

BAKU (Reuters) – Authorities in Azerbaijan said turnout was high on Wednesday in a presidential election boycotted by the opposition and almost certain to return Ilham Aliyev for a second term in the oil-producing state.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction has rejected a request by Hamas rivals to meet separately ahead of multi-factional reconciliation talks next month in Cairo, Fatah officials said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three men go on trial on Wednesday for involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist and Kremlin critic.Politkovskaya, whose reports on Russia’s breakaway Chechnya region detailing rights abuses angered the Kremlin, was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment in 2006.

Iraqi leaders are examining a new draft deal under which US troops would remain in the country after the UN mandate expires later this year, officials say.

A signing ceremony has been held in Damascus establishing diplomatic relations for the first time between Syria and Lebanon.

TEHRAN (FNA)- US officials must end the practice of pointing to Iranian interference every time the Washington strategy for Iraq falters, Iranian officials said Tuesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran said its engineers trained in Russia are ready to begin work at the country’s first nuclear power plant.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran Tuesday shortened the length of its mandatory military service by up to two months.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to gradually cut from the next Iranian year the amount of heavily-subsidized gasoline motorists can buy and completely eliminate subsidies by 2011, an Iranian official said in comments published on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to build a Persian Pipeline for shipping its natural gas to Europe that would be independent of the EU-backed Nabucco project, a senior Iranian official said on Monday.