SUKHUMI, Georgia – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged half a billion dollars to defend the breakaway region of Abkhazia yesterday during a surprise visit which Georgia said escalated tensions in the Caucasus.
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KIEV – Russian leaders are stuck in an imperial past and seem to relish bullying and threatening their neighbors, a senior Ukrainian official said yesterday, responding to a tirade from Moscow the previous day.
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KUWAIT – Detained members of an al Qaeda-linked group planned to attack Kuwait’s Shuaiba oil refinery during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, a security official said yesterday.
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KABUL – When Afghans defy Taliban threats of bloodshed to stage an election on Aug. 20, their charming but care-worn president Hamid Karzai will not be the only leader with his future on the line.
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BEIJING – Australia said yesterday that charges against four staff from Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto appeared to have been downgraded after China formally arrested the men but left aside accusations they stole state secrets.
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JERUSALEM – Israel under right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not resume Turkish-mediated peace talks with Syria, insisting that any new negotiations be direct, a senior Israeli government official said yesterday.
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TEHRAN – The speaker of Iran’s parliament yesterday rejected as “baseless” an opposition leader’s accusation that moderates had been raped in jail following their detention in unrest linked to June’s disputed presidential poll.
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GENEVA – Pakistan, accused by some powers of blocking progress in the world’s top disarmament forum, insisted yesterday that it wants an end to nuclear weaponry and is playing an active role to bring this about.
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JAKARTA – A suspect shot dead in Indonesia last weekend was not Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top and he is still at large, police said yesterday, dashing hopes for a breakthrough in a hunt for the mastermind of a string of attacks.
