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However, top general in Moscow says troops will maintain 18 checkpoints in security zone around South Ossetia, which includes airport near Senaki.

Iraq's Health Ministry is leading a crackdown on expired and illegally imported medicines which have flooded the Iraqi market since the US-led invasion in 2003, a senior health official said on 19 August.

Iraq and the U.S. have reached a draft agreement on a proposed withdrawal timetable and other issues on the U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond 2008, CNN reported Friday.

Russia is claiming the right to increase the number of troops it has in and around South Ossetia, where it is also establishing additional checkpoints in response to what it says is a "continued Georgian threat."

Russia is ready to supply Syria with defensive weapons, the Russian foreign minister said on Thursday following a meeting between the two countries leaders in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The United States expects to help Georgia rebuild its military following the conflict with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia, a top U.S. general has said.

Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warned Wednesday NATO against filling the gap of losses of the Georgian military incurred in its conflict with Russia.

US agreements on deploying elements of its missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic provoke an arms race and do not provide for European security, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Even as Moscow says it has begun the promised pullback of its forces from inside Georgia, reports indicate Russian forces continue to occupy strategic positions around the country and show little sign of leaving.

Israel's Interior Minister warns Tel Aviv against attacking Tehran saying such an attack would be a 'megalomaniacal reckless' idea.

Poland has agreed to a U.S. proposal to host parts of a global anti-missile system despite strong protests from neighbouring Russia. Moscow is against the move and says it will further damage its already delicate relations with Washington.

Referring to the Zionist regime, President Ahmadinejad described it as the main cause of all corruption and wickedness in the contemporary era, adding that the Zionism is the most complicated political and social scheme which has ever taken place.

The United States and Poland have formally signed a deal to deploy American missiles in the east European nation. The United States says the missiles are needed to guard against attacks from rogue states like Iran; Russia says the deployment threatens its own security.

George Hussein Obama, located in Nairobi, has been interviewed by Vanity Fair Italy. He lives with less than a dollar per month and is ashamed to be Barack's brother.

In an Angelus address resonant in meaning the Holy Father said the rights of ethnic minorities caught up in the conflict between Russia and Georgia must be respected.