US affirms Russia ties amid spy row

The US secretary of state has indicated that allegations of a Russian spy ring operating in the US will not harm relations between the two countries.
Speaking in Ukraine on Friday, Hillary Clinton declined to comment directly on the investigation into the alleged spy ring but said: "We're committed to building a new and positive relation with Russia. We're looking toward the future."
Her comments came as US prosecutors claimed that two more suspects in the alleged spy ring have admitted to being Russian citizens living in the US under false identities.
The defendants known as Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills told the authorities after their arrest that their real names were Mikhail Kutzik and Natalia Pereverzeva, prosecutors said in a court filing on Friday.
The two were arrested in Arlington, Virginia, where they had been living as a married couple with two young children.
According to court documents, Zottoli had claimed to be a US citizen, married to Mills, a purported Canadian citizen.

The two were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, and along with a third defendant, Mikhail Semenko, were charged with being foreign agents.
All three remained jailed after waiving their right to a detention or bail hearing during brief appearances in federal court on Friday.
They were among 10 people arrested and charged this week. Six other defendants had already appeared in US courts, and one was granted bail that will include electronic monitoring and home detention.
In Friday's court filing, prosecutors said Zottoli and Mills had $100,000 in cash and phony passports and other identity documents stashed in safe deposit boxes.
Semenko, who was in the US on a work visa, is not alleged to have used a false identity. But prosecutors said the FBI found computer equipment "of the type capable of being used for ... clandestine communications" in his home and a second apartment that he recently leased.
Cyprus disappearance
Meanwhile in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, Loucas Louca, the justice minister, said it was unlikely that Christopher Metsos – the alleged 11th member of the spy ring – would be apprehended on the Mediterranean island because he was believed to have fled.

Metsos, 54, is wanted in the US on charges that he supplied money to the spy ring. He disappeared on Wednesday after a court in Cyprus – an island with close ties to Russia - freed him on bail.
Louca strongly defended Cypriot authorities' handling of the case, which left the government stung by rumours that it was complicit in Metsos' disappearance.
"If we wanted him [Metsos] to evade, as we have been accused, we wouldn't have tried as hard to arrest him in the first place," he said.
Russia's foreign ministry said that it had no reason to believe Metsos was in Russia.
"I do not have such information. You're knocking on the wrong door," Igor Lyakin-Frolov, a spokesman for the ministry, said

Source: WN

5 UK, US troops die in Afghanistan

KABUL, Aug 14: Attacks killed three British and two US soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the alliance force said Thursday, as thousands of troops pressed on with anti-insurgency operations ahead of next week''s vote, reports AFP.
The three British soldiers died on Thursday after they were hit by an explosion while on a foot patrol in the southern province of Helmand, Britain''s Ministry of Defence said.
It took the British death toll to 199 since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, it said.
The deaths were also announced by the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), which said separately that two US soldiers were killed in other incidents in the south on Wednesday and on Thursday.
One involved an explosion and the other was a "direct fire attack", it said.
The soldiers are the latest in a long line of mostly Western troops to die in the effort to defeat extremists in Afghanistan.
Around 30 international soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this month, according to the icasualties.org website which compiles a toll.
Last month was the deadliest for the troops since the 2001 US-led invasion, with 76 killed, the website says. Most deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices.
US Marines and British troops have been pressing major offensives in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar ahead of the landmark August 20 presidential and provincial council elections.
The aim is to secure these areas so that election workers can move in and voters can cast their ballots without fear of attack.
About 4,000 Marines deployed into insurgent strongholds in Helmand in early July and were able to retake areas held by the extremists. The Taliban have responded by planting bombs to hit the troops.
US and Afghan troops launched a new operation on Wednesday in northeastern Helmand. The province is one of the world''s main poppy-producing regions and a route for Taliban fighters crossing from Pakistan to join the insurgency.
Operation Eastern Resolve II deployed 400 US troops and 100 Afghan soldiers to a Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, said Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade in Afghanistan.

Source: newstoday-bd