Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich gave no ground on Tuesday to protesters who want Kiev to move closer to the European Union, insisting his government needs to deepen trade ties with Russia instead.

• December 11, 2013

Japan will set up a new amphibious military unit and deploy unarmed surveillance drones in its southwest, where it faces a row with China over disputed islands, according to drafts of the nation's latest defense plans seen on Wednesday.

• December 11, 2013

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, speaking on television after more than two weeks of street unrest over his U-turn away from the European Union towards Russia, said on Tuesday there was no alternative to restoring trade relations with Moscow.

• December 10, 2013

Russia and Cuba have quietly signed an agreement to write off 90 percent of Cuba's $32 billion debt to the defunct Soviet Union, a deal that ends a 20-year squabble and opens the way for more investment and trade, Russian and European diplomats said.

• December 10, 2013

Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics during November 16-30th 2013
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst

Key Points:

• The AKP-Gulen Movement split hits the front pages and airwaves in Turkey.
• Once friendly outlets controlled by the Gulen Movement turn on Prime Minister Erdogan after a 2004 action plan is released describing AKP complicity with the military to undermine Gulen-owned companies.
• The Constitutional Commission fails on its mission having only agreed to half of the required articles.
• Contentious issues regarding citizenship, the Kurdish issue and a new presidential role remain unresolved.
• Turkey and the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq look set to sign a pipeline deal despite continued opposition from Baghdad.

• December 10, 2013

Call it the Brussels Consensus. A system of beliefs rooted in European Union treaties helps explain the growing gulf between policy elites and ordinary citizens that may cause a political earthquake in European Parliament elections next May.

• December 9, 2013

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich met Russia's Vladimir Putin on Friday to lay the grounds for a new "strategic partnership" to shore up Ukraine's creaking economy in defiance of protesters back home enraged by his U-turn away from Europe.

• December 7, 2013

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has invited euro zone officials to a meeting in Berlin on Friday in a bid to come closer to a solution on a planned European resolution mechanism to deal with troubled banks, a German newspaper said on Friday.

• December 6, 2013