Eurasia Press & News

Russia’s scheduled presidential election will take place on March 2 next year, local media quoted the speaker of parliament’s upper house as saying on Friday.

The head of the Turkish state lottery was shot dead in his office by a former lottery employee on Friday, the state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin could run for re-election in next year’s presidential vote if he resigns early to get around a ban on serving three consecutive terms, a lobbyist close to the Kremlin has said.

Pakistan freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest shortly before a top U.S. diplomat began a visit on Friday aimed at persuading President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule.

One posed for a photo as she scrubbed a Palestinian corpse. Another stripped a man to his underwear and then beat him. A third helped cover up the abuse of a young boy.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the people of Gaza to oust his Islamist rivals who seized control of the territory in June, as he seeks a lasting peace with Israel.

 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will announce a freeze in West Bank settlement expansion as a gesture towards the Palestinians at a US peace meeting this month, a senior official said Thursday.

US forces said they had killed 25 suspected insurgents in operations targeting Al Qaeda fighters near the capital, but Sunni Arab tribal leaders accused them on Thursday of pro-US fighters.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on Lebanese leaders to hold a presidential election on time next week and said the successor to the pro-Syrian incumbent should enjoy broad support.

A Somali Islamist commander, thought to be Al Qaeda’s man in Mogadishu, has ordered his fighters to attack African Union (AU) peacekeepers in rare taped comments intended to bolster an anti-government insurgency.