Eurasia Press & News

TBILISI (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people protested in Georgia’s capital on Monday against President Mikheil Saakashvili, who they said had stolen victory for his ruling party in last week’s parliamentary election.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italy plans to cut up to 300 troops from its 2,400-strong contingent in Afghanistan later this year, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said on Monday.

KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban will fight on till the last foreign soldier is driven out of Afghanistan, but their door is always open to talks with other Afghan opposition groups, the Islamist movement said on Monday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Church hopes a year dedicated to Saint Paul, born two millennia ago in Tarsus in today’s southern Turkey, will bring signs of more religious tolerance in the mostly Muslim but secularist country.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Michel Suleiman as head of state on Sunday, reviving paralyzed state institutions after an 18-month standoff between a U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese President Michel Suleiman will appoint a prime minister on Wednesday to head a new cabinet that will be formed as part of an agreement to end 18 months of political conflict.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Serbia denied it was guilty of genocide during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia on Monday, opening its defense before the U.N.’s highest court against Croatian allegations of ethnic cleansing.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has released a man suspected of involvement in the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya because he was not directly involved in the shooting, his lawyer said on Monday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A court in Moscow suspended the main opposition website in the troubled south Russian region of Ingushetia on Monday while prosecutors investigate regional government’s accusations it spreads extremist material.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union ministers agreed on Monday to boost the size of the bloc’s police training mission in Afghanistan as part of efforts to improve security and reconstruction, officials said.