Uzbekistan

President Abdullah Gül and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu held an unscheduled meeting on July 9 in order to talk about recent foreign policy developments, according to officials from the presidency. The issues on the agenda included the situation in Israel and Palestine, the Syrian crisis, and the Turkish nationals still held by militants of the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul.

Further negotiations on issues including geopolitics, technological standards and funding are needed for a high-speed railway China is planning between the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Eastern Europe, according to experts who were interviewed by China Daily.

Bosnia-Hercegovina's maiden appearance at a World Cup finals ended in disappointment as Peter Odemwingie's goal condemned them to a 1-0 defeat by African champions Nigeria in Cuiaba and ensured they could not qualify for the second round.
      
Nigeria's win, their first at a World Cup finals since 1998, leaves them as favourites to join Argentina in the second round.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski has vowed to intensify bilateral economic ties with Uzbekistan.

Oresharski visited the city of Samarkand on Wednesday at the end of his official visit to Vietnam, according to reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

LONDON - The Serbian tennis team will take on India in a play-off tie, trying to keep its spot in the Davis Cup World Group, the London draw decided on Tuesday.

The matches will take place from September 12-14, and India will play a host.

DUBAI - Serbia's best-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic opened his title defense at the ATP tournament in Dubai with a straight-sets victory over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan (6-3, 6-3).

In the second round on Wednesday, Djokovic will face world no. 51, Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, who defeated Adrian Ungur of Romania by 6-1, 6-3 on Monday.

DUBAI - Serbia's best-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic and Spain's Carlos Gomez-Herrera lost their first round match in the doubles competition of the ATP tournament in Dubai on Monday to the Polish-Czech pairing of Tomasz Bednarek/Lukas Dlouhi by 7-5, 1-6, 10-5.

Bednarek and Dlouhi will next face the winners of Lukas Rosol/Andreas Seppi - Mariusz FyrstenbergMarcin Matkowski.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Olympic champion in taekwondo Milica Mandic won the gold medal at the prestigious tournament in Luxor, Egypt.

By defeating Uzbekistan's Umida Abdullayeva, the Serbian athlete won the title in the category up to 73 kilogrammes at the G2 series tournament which brought her 20 new points on the world list, Taekwondo Club Galeb released.