Eurasia Press & News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Monday there was no final security pact with Baghdad despite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s statement that a deal was reached to end foreign military presence by the end of 2011.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq and the United States have agreed that all U.S. troops will leave by the end of 2011, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday, but Washington said no final deal had been reached.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s parliament will call on Monday for President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s parliament unanimously approved resolutions on Monday calling for the recognition of two rebel regions of Georgia as independent states, a move likely to worsen already strained relations with the West.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The Pakistani Taliban have “the upper hand” and should be put on the list of banned organizations in Pakistan, said Asif Ali Zardari, who has been nominated by his party to be the country’s next president.

KARACHI (Reuters) – Gunmen in the Pakistani port city of Karachi set fire to two armored personnel carriers (APCs) bound for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, police said on Monday.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Militants attacked the home of a district government official in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on Monday, killing three members of his family and seven guards, police said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Authorities in northwest Pakistan are urgently seeking millions of dollars to help up to 300,000 people who have fled from fighting between government forces and militants.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia’s main east-west railway was reopened overnight following a fuel train explosion on the line west of the central town of Gori, Georgian Railways said on Monday.

In a move set to further strain tensions with the West, deputies in Russia’s Duma have backed Georgian separatists’ battle for independence.