Eurasia Press & News

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq wants an agreement authorizing the continued presence of U.S. troops on its soil to expire in three years, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Friday.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) – The White House on Thursday said the United States hoped an agreement extending the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2008 would be reached soon.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba and Russia have stirred memories of their Cold War alliance with recent talk of restoring “traditional” ties in what experts said was a warning to their old adversary, the United States.

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian flags hung from balconies, many cheered the army sent to fight Georgian troops and the town planned a hero’s welcome for the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Russia has announced its promised troop pullout from Georgia is complete. But Moscow’s definition of a withdrawal falls far short of what its critics are demanding. Russia says it will keep a permanent military presence in a large buffer zone bordering Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Tbilisi …

The Georgian government says it is looking for between one and two billion euros to rebuild after its 10-day border war with Russia. It has cost Tbilisi dear. It has seen Gori wrecked, the military port at Poti destroyed, and airbases and railway lines put out of action.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A senior Russian military official confirmed on Friday that Russia’s Defense Ministry had frozen some cooperation with the NATO military alliance and queried the merits of a U.S. Navy operation in the Black Sea.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S.-led coalition forces killed 30 militants, including a Taliban commander, in an air strike in west Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Friday, but Afghan officials said there were also civilian casualties.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Russia’s military campaign in Georgia has bolstered Georgians’ determination to join NATO, Eduard Shevardnadze, the man who helped end the Cold War and reconcile Moscow with the West, said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A World Bank team will travel to Georgia on Friday to assess economic damage caused by the conflict with Russia and to discuss reconstruction plans, a senior bank official said on Thursday.