Istanbul  - Sudan's President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir has left for an African summit meeting in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Monday despite a threatened warrant for his arrest in relation to actions by his government in the Darfur region of Sudan, Turkish media reported.

The summit to take place starting Tuesday is also to be attended by various African heads of state and government along with Turkish representatives to discuss widening of cooperation.

Vienna  - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed to green-light a military monitoring mission to Georgia Monday, a Finnish diplomat said, incidating that Russia does not want observers to be deployed immediately.

"We would like the deployment immediately of up to 100 monitors so that we can witness and observe the implementation of the ceasefire," said Ambassador Aleksi Harkonen, the envoy of the Finnish OSCE chairmanship.

Washington, Aug. 18: Washington has toughened its stance towards Russia as it sought to limit the damage to its prestige over the crisis in Georgia.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that Russia's reputation is now "in tatters", even as Russia continues to search for a fresh pretext to extend its occupation of Georgian territory.

Rice, who is heading to Brussels today for an emergency NATO summit, called on Russian President Medvedev to ensure that he carries out his latest promise to withdraw troops.

London, Aug. 18: The Situation in Pakistan is bothering everyone who has any interest or link with this region; and what worries people is that no one seems to be in control of the situation there, and no one knows future of the country.

The situation started getting from bad to worse with Pakistan's entry in the 'war on terror', which in view of many Pakistani experts was not Pakistan's war, and if anything Pakistani agencies had their own history and experience of promoting and exporting this business.

Washington  - US President George W Bush sought to reassure Georgia of Washington's steady support Saturday, while demanding that "Russia must act to end this crisis."

In his weekly radio address, Bush said it was vital that the US and other free nations would "ensure that an embattled democracy seeking to stand with us remains sovereign, secure, and undivided."

Warsaw  - The Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday criticized Germany and France for what he considered their pliability vis a vis Russia in the current crisis in the Caucasus.

Both Western European countries have had a "very typical" relationship with Russia, Kaczynski said in an interview published in the Rzeczpospolita daily.

This position by the two countries is due to "the historical experiences and interests of corporations" that are looking to make "big money" in Russia.