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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Libya to buy Russian jets
MOSCOW: Libya is planning to buy more than 20 Russian fighter jets in a billion-dollar arms deal with Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing a military-diplomatic source. “Libya is planning to buy 12 to 15 Su-35 multipurpose fighters, four Su-30s and six Yak-130 combat training planes from Russia,” the unnamed source was quoted as saying.
START talks
GENEVA: Russia and the United States on Monday resumed talks on renewing a key agreement on limiting their nuclear arsenals, their envoys in Geneva told AFP. “The session is resuming,” said a spokesman for the US mission, adding that the talks on the renewal of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which expires on December 5, will be hosted in turn by the United States and Russia. A Russian diplomat added that the first day of the latest round of negotiations is taking place at the US mission, and that the talks should last two weeks in all. Washington and Moscow agreed earlier this year to reach a new nuclear deal to succeed START, marking the first tangible step in the thaw in US-Russian relations heralded by President Obama’s administration.
EU reform
MINSK: Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko warned the European Union on Monday it would have to wait patiently to see a new leader in the former Soviet republic. Lukashenko, once dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by the United States, has ruled Belarussia in authoritarian fashion since 1994 and suggested he was in no rush to relinquish his hold on power.
Gitmo transfers
OSLO: Norway has ruled out taking in Guantanamo Bay detainees despite US attempts to transfer prisoners to other countries in order to close the prison, Norway’s foreign minister told a newspaper on Monday. “For the time being, it is out of the question,” Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told tabloid Verdens Gang.
Bosnian reform
SARAJEVO: Bosnia’s leaders should use the momentum of a serious Western engagement to agree reforms that will speed up the country’s integration into the EU and Nato, a senior US diplomat said. EU and US officials arrive in Sarajevo on Monday to resume talks with Bosnia’s politicians on ways to overcome a deadlock that is jeopardising stability in the country and wider region.
Caucasus unrest
MOSCOW: Four people were killed in two separate gun battles in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus while bombs went off in both the capital of a third region and under a gas pipeline, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.
Zimbabwe PM
HARARE: Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai headed on Monday to neighbouring South Africa with a plea for regional leaders to mediate over the standoff within his country’s unity government.
Greek govt
ATHENS: Greece’s incoming socialist government won the support of parliament on Monday to steer the country out of fiscal crisis, revive its ailing economy and fight corruption.
Strategic partner
BELGRADE, Serbia -Serbia’s prime minister said on Monday that an upcoming visit by Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev is “extremely important” for future relations between Belgrade and Moscow.
Ex-UK troops
MADRID: Several Spanish tuna trawlers based in the Seychelles are employing former British soldiers to protect themselves from pirates off the coast of Somalia, daily newspaper El Pais reported on Monday.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
