More troops sent to Georgian regions

MOSCOW - Russia dispatched extra peacekeeping troops to Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region yesterday to counter what it said were Georgian plans for an attack, prompting the European Union to accuse it of stoking tensions. The mounting crisis between the two ex-Soviet neighbors has alarmed Georgia's allies in the West, who see the former Soviet state in the Caucasus as a future NATO ally and a vital energy transit route. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said after talks in Luxembourg with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the Russian deployment was unwise. (Reuters)

NEW DELHI - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pushed to seal a $7.6 billion pipeline deal linking the world's second-largest gas reserves to growing South Asian economies, despite opposition from the United States. Ahmadinejad met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday in a brief trip that has already sparked diplomatic tension between New Delhi and Washington, which fears the pipeline will fund Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Iranian leader visited Pakistan on Monday before moving on to Sri Lanka and India. Islamabad and Tehran said they settled a host of issues over the pipeline project, which could be completed by 2012. (Reuters)

LONDON - Prince William flew into Afghanistan for a secret visit over the weekend to meet with British troops, a royal official said yesterday. William, 25, piloted a C-17 Globemaster transport plane on part of the flight to Kandahar in the country's troubled south Sunday, according to a spokesman for Clarence House, the official residence of William's father, Prince Charles. "Obviously, one day he's going to be head of the armed forces," the spokesman said, speaking anonymously in line with royal policy. (AP)