Eurasia Press & News

MINSK (Reuters) – Belarus, accused in the West of infringing fundamental rights, recalled its ambassador to the United States on Friday and urged the U.S. envoy to leave the ex-Soviet state.

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Kosovo’s independence is irreversible and Serbia is damaging its own interests by not accepting it, former U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said.

PRISTINA (Reuters) – The United States on Friday condemned Serb “provocations” in Kosovo and rejected Russian suggestions its Western-backed declaration of independence left the new country destined for partition.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday he would support an incoming coalition government that could potentially seek his resignation, so long as peace was maintained.

KARACHI (Reuters) – Islamists held demonstrations in Pakistan’s main cities on Friday to protest at the republication in Danish newspapers of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad that caused outrage across the Islamic world two years ago.

GAZA (Reuters) – A Palestinian guerrilla was shot and killed on Friday in the northern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel, a militant group said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia made a new appeal to Russia and Western countries on Friday to recognize its independence, three weeks after Kosovo’s secession from Serbia, Russian news agencies reported.

Following are security developments in Iraq at 6:00 a.m. EST on Friday.BAGHDAD – Police said the death toll from coordinated bombings in the Karrada district of central Baghdad on Thursday had risen to 68. Another 120 were wounded in the attack, which the U.S. military and Iraqi government blamed on …

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko issued a new denunciation of his prime minister on Friday over her stand on gas trade with Russia ahead of new talks to resolve long-running price and supply disputes.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel will discuss German concerns about Russia’s presidential vote during talks on Saturday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his newly elected successor Dmitry Medvedev.