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| EU to hold special Libya summit March 11 - diplomats Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:41 AM PST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will hold a special summit on Libya and North Africa in Brussels on March 11, EU diplomats said on Tuesday. Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, is in the process of calling leaders to finalise invitations and is expected to formally announce the date later on Tuesday. The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is handling preparations for the meeting, which will deal with the humanitarian and political response to the situation in Libya, where the uprising against leader Muammar Gaddafi is closing in on the capital Tripoli. Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| Georgia rejects Russian accusation of bombing link Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:41 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Georgia dismissed Russian suggestions on Tuesday that it was behind a suicide bombing that killed 37 people at Moscow's busiest airport in January. Russian lawmaker Alexander Torshin, a member of Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, gave no evidence to support his claim, in an interview with Russia's official newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
"Although I understand that my words may inspire lurid passions and misunderstandings, in my view it was Georgia and its ruling regime," said Torshin, a deputy speaker of the Kremlin-controlled upper house of parliament. Islamist militants from Russia's mostly Muslim North Caucasus region have already claimed responsibility for the bombing at Domodedovo airport, and investigators have said the attacker was from the North Caucasus. "Such absurd statements from our neighbour have become a tradition," Georgian presidential spokeswoman Manana Manjgaladze told journalists in Tbilisi. "Georgia has always condemned any manifestation of terrorism." Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in August 2008 over two breakaway territories backed by Russia, and tensions persist. Russia's leaders are fierce critics of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose efforts to bring his country into NATO were widely seen as a factor leading to the war. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last month that Georgia was a potential threat to the 2014 Winter Olympics, which Russia is hosting in Sochi, up the Black Sea coast from Georgia. Parts of Russia's North Caucasus border on Georgia, which Moscow has accused of aiding insurgents in the region in the past. The National Anti-Terrorism Committee is a body charged with coordinating anti-terror efforts between Russian agencies. (Reporting by Thomas Grove in Moscow and Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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