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Deutsche Welle

European Union leaders are considering imposing sanctions on Russia over the Georgia crisis. Speaking in Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that sanctions were being considered ahead of Monday's emergency EU summit in Brussels. In a separate move, the Group of Seven rich nations has jointly condemned Russia's decision to recognise the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Western nations also said Russian troops still occupying parts of Georgia were violating a six-point EU-brokered peace plan. Meanwhile the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or SCO, has issued a joint statement that denounces the use of force and calls for respect for every country's territorial integrity. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had travelled to the SCO summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, hoping to garner international support over recent events in Georgia. The SCO includes Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states.

Russia has tested an inter-continental missile, further heightening tensions with the West. The missile test in northern Russia came barely a week after the United States completed an accord with Poland on basing an anti-missile shield in central Europe. Russia's security forces said the missile was designed to overcome anti-missile systems. Russia has also accused NATO of building up its naval fleet in the Black Sea, and said it was taking precautionary measures. NATO said there were five warships in the Black Sea, on exercises which were planned before Russia's military action in Georgia earlier this month.

Thousands of lawyers have blocked roads across Pakistan to press the government to reinstate judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf. It was Pakistan's lawyers who were at the forefront of opposition to Musharraf after the former army chief sacked then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges in March last year. The struggle to return the justices to their positions is also behind the collapse of the coalition government. Earlier this week, the country's second biggest party, headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said the other coalition partner, the Pakistan People's Party, had broken its promise to give the judges their jobs back.

Barack Obama has been officially nominated as the Democratic Party presidential candidate. The Democratic party convention in Denver, Colorado, made history by endorsing Barack Obama as the first African-American presidential candidate of a major US party. Meanwhile former US President Bill Clinton has forcefully endorsed Obama's bid for the White House, telling delegates that Obama was ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Senator Obama made a surprise appearance at the Convention following a rousing speech by his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has softened his stance against thousands of protesters who are still camped on the premises of government offices. Samak had ordered police to break up the rally at Government House on Wednesday but he said upon further consideration it would be too dangerous to do so. Some 10,000 supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy also defied a court order to leave and police have been unable to arrest nine of the PAD's leaders. They are demanding that Samak resign, accusing his administration of being an illegitimate proxy of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has used his first day back in parliament to stage a walkout with scores of opposition lawmakers. The walkout occurred during a debate on a proposed law that would make it mandatory for criminal suspects to provide DNA samples. Critics claim that the law is meant to bolster a new sodomy charge against Anwar - the government denies this. Anwar was sworn in as a federal legislator on Thursday after ten years of parliamentary absence following convictions for sodomy and corruption.

China and Iraq have signed a landmark three billion dollar deal to exploit oil in the Middle Eastern country. According to a statement from the Iraqi Embassy in Beijing, the deal was signed late on Wednesday by Chinese officials and Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. The agreement revives a 1997 contract that granted China exploration rights to the Al-Ahdab oil field in the province of Wassit, just south of Baghdad. The statement said the revised terms of the deal increase the anticipated output from the billion-barrel field to 110,000 barrels per day from the originally planned 90,000 barrels per day. It says the contract is to run for 20 years after production begins three years from now.

Malaysia has agreed to extend its peacekeeping mission in the southern Philippines by three months. Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said his country had acceded to a request by the Philippines to extend the peacekeepers' mandate to monitor a truce between Muslim rebels and the Philippine government. Malaysia has at least 12 peacekeepers on Mindanao island, where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is fighting government troops for self-rule. Their mandate was to expire on August 31, but with the latest extension they will remain in Mindanao until November 30.

The parliament of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate has commemorated the victims of the air-show disaster at the Ramstein Air Base in 1988. Survivors and family members gathered at the site of the disaster in remembrance of the 70 people killed. On August 28, 1988, two military jets from an Italian stunt flying team collided, causing a third plane to fall into the watching crowd in a ball of flames. Around 350 more people were injured in the accident.