PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Suspected Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, authorities said Tuesday after a brazen attack near the Khyber Pass that underscored the militants’ grip across key mountain strongholds.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Pirates hijacked a Philippines chemical tanker with 23 crew near Somalia, bringing the total number of attacks in waters off the impoverished African nation this year to 83, a maritime official said Tuesday.
The tanker was heading to Asia when it was seized Monday in the Gulf of Aden by pirates armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.

PEREVI, Georgia: Dozens of Georgians crowded onto a rickety bus Monday, clambering over one another to flee this remote mountain village, which has become a flash point of mounting tensions on the boundary of South Ossetia.
They left behind a nearly deserted village, whose remaining residents are afraid to come out onto the streets for fear of attracting the attention of Ossetian soldiers patrolling the area. Russian troops continued to withdraw from the main checkpoint at the western edge of Perevi, leaving Ossetians in charge of a tense population.

Citizens in the Gaza Strip are bracing for more electricity blackouts after Israel cut off fuel shipments to the territory’s only power plant.
Israel has closed crossings into Gaza, making it likely that electricity would be completely cut off in the territory from about 1600 GMT, Palestinian officials said.
Israel’s defence ministry closed the crossings on Sunday after Palestinian fighters fired rockets into southern Israel. No one was hurt in the attack.

MOSCOW – The fire safety system on a brand-new Russian nuclear submarine accidentally turned on as the sub was being tested in the Sea of Japan, spewing a gas that suffocated 20 people and sent 21 others to the hospital, officials said Sunday.
The Russian Navy said the submarine itself was not damaged in Saturday’s accident and returned to its base on Russia’s Pacific coast under its own power Sunday. The accident also did not pose any radiation danger, the navy said.
Yet it was Russia’s worst naval accident since torpedo …

Russian investigators say they are trying to identify the woman they suspect launched a suicide attack on a minibus in the North Caucasus.
Twelve people were killed in Thursday’s attack in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. Officials believe one of them was a female suicide bomber.

MOSCOW – Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of the nation speech.
Medvedev also singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia’s war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish U.S. policies.

Armenian officials have expressed general satisfaction with the results of the November 2 meeting in Moscow involving the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, but many observers in Yerevan doubt that the summit will produce a breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. Most analysts cite a lack of specifics in the joint declaration signed by the three leaders as a sign that significant progress cannot occur quickly.

MOSCOW, (UPI) — Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Georgia has deployed troops along its border.
Representive Anvar Azimov said Georgia was engaging in military activities in areas bordering on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

The Antonov An-140 is a short-range turboprop airliner, first flown on September 17, 1997. Apart from the main production line in Kharkiv, Ukraine by KSAMC, aircraft are being produced in Russia and under licence by HESA in Iran as the IR.AN-140 or Iran-140. It can carry a maximum of 52 passengers.