An isolated chain of resource-rich, Russian-held islands are at the center of an ongoing diplomatic dispute that recently has hurt relations between Japan and Russia.

• February 14, 2011

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake Jr. will leave on Monday for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to engage in bilateral consultations, the State Department said on Sunday.

• February 14, 2011

Crisis talks between Russia and Japan over four Pacific islands ended in acrimonious failure Friday when Tokyo reaffirmed its claim on the chain and Moscow accused its neighbour of extreme behaviour.

• February 12, 2011

Iranian ambassador to Kazakhstan Gurban Seyfi met with the Kazakh Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Gulsara Abdykalikova. At the meeting the ambassador expressed his country's willingness to send labor force to Kazakhstan, Iranian MEHR news agency reported.

• February 12, 2011

Lithuania hopes for Azerbaijan in solving problems with providing country with gas, the Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Irena Degutene said in Baku

• February 11, 2011

The EU's new partnerships with energy-rich Central Asian countries do not threaten Russian gas sales to Europe, the EU's energy commissioner says.

• February 11, 2011

On the last day of January, a crowd of 600 gathered in sub-zero temperatures on Moscow's Triumph Square and began to chant "Freedom! Freedom!" and call for the resignation of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

• February 11, 2011

The top diplomats of Russia and Japan will hold tense talks Friday amid a bitter war of words over a chain of disputed islands claimed by the Soviet army at the end of World War II.

• February 11, 2011