The latest: Lebanon Conference in Rome to Discuss Peacekeeper Deployment

24.07.2006
Lebanon Conference in Rome to Discuss Peacekeeper Deployment — Russian FM
An international conference on Lebanon, to be held in Rome July 26, will focus on deploying peacekeepers to the conflict zone, Russia’s foreign minister said Monday. “A great deal is still unclear: how the forces will be set up, who will send contingents and what mandate they will have,” Sergei Lavrov told a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin.

24.07.2006
U.S.-Foe Chavez Urges Belarus’ Lukashenko to Build “Fighting Team”
Venezuela’s firebrand leader Hugo Chavez has called for a “fighting team” with his Belarussian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko during his visit to the state dubbed “Europe’s last dictatorship” by Washington. Lukashenko responded with an offer to play ice hockey together.

24.07.2006
Venezuela’s Chavez Visits Russia, Belarus
Venezuela’s anti-U.S. leader Hugo Chavez has begun a major international tour with a visit to the isolated former Soviet nation of Belarus, whose authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is dubbed ’’Europe’s last dictator’’ by Washington.

24.07.2006
Tymoshenko’s Faction Leaves Parliament to Provoke New Election
Ukrainian lawmaker Yulia Tymoshenko led her opposition faction out of parliament yesterday amid a persistent political crisis, demanding the president dissolve the fractious legislature and call new elections to keep the new pro-Russian parliamentary majority from gaining power.

24.07.2006
Russia Needs $40M for HIV Vaccine Development Center — Official
A regional HIV vaccine development center will cost Russia’s federal budget some $40 million, the country’s chief doctor says.

24.07.2006
Man Severs Penis on $2000 Bet
For the first time in the history of Latvian medicine doctors have sewn a man’s penis back on, which he had cut off on a bet. Doctors from Gailezertz hospital told journalists that previously they had only sewn partly-amputated penises back on. But this time the penis was brought in a plastic package.

24.07.2006
China to Scrutinize Russia-U.S. Anti-Nuclear Initiative
China will carefully study the new U.S.- Russian initiative to combat nuclear terrorism, Chinese Foreign Ministry says.

24.07.2006
Georgian Militia Chief Vows to Oppose Tbilisi Authorities
The former presidential representative in the Kodori gorge has ruled out a compromise with the Georgian authorities whom he accused of planning to attack the gorge, the only part of Abkhazia not controlled by the separatists, to disarm members of a disbanded militia detachment commanded by Kvitsiani.

24.07.2006
Childhood Trekkie to Become World’s First Female Space Tourist — Report
Anousheh Ansari, who grew up in Tehran watching reruns of Star Trek, is set to become the world’s first female space tourist. The 39-year-old U.S. millionaire recently secured a flight in a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station, about 220 miles above Earth.

24.07.2006
2 Policemen Killed in South Russia Sweep Operation
Two Dagestani police officers were killed and another was wounded in a sweep operation in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district last night.