Russia is offering a 10-million-dollar reward for information that leads to the killers of four embassy employees taken hostage and killed in Iraq. Local media reports say Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service, announced the offer Friday in Moscow. The four Russians were abducted in Baghdad in early June. On Sunday, their captors posted a video of their killing on the Internet. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to find and destroy the killers.
In other news, Romanian President Traian Basescu says Romania will not pull its troops out of Iraq. Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu proposed the withdrawal Thursday because of what he said was the human and financial cost of the deployment. But President Basescu said Friday that Romania's Supreme Defense Council rejected the move.