Nuclear envoys from South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed on Wednesday to closely cooperate on North Korean nuclear issues, foreign ministry officials here said.

• October 17, 2012

General William M. Fraser III, current Commander of United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), arrived in Turkmenistan for consultations, the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan reported.

• October 17, 2012

Kazakhstan has announced the signing of a new regional agreement on the transit of goods. Kazakh Ambassador to Azerbaijan Serik Primbetov has stated that Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey are preparing an agreement on the transit of goods by rail via the being built route of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.

• October 17, 2012

Visiting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday said that her government had changed its policy and was willing to start negotiations on selling uranium to India.

• October 16, 2012

Two North Korean government officials told a top U.S. official dealing with North Korea that the hermitic Stalinist state would not continue on its path to denuclearization, as promised in 2005, until the United States ends what it sees as America's hostile policy to the DPRK.

• October 16, 2012

Turkmen and Russian Presidents Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation at the initiative of the Russian side, the Turkmen government said on Tuesday.

• October 16, 2012

Russia today made very clear to India its unhappiness over two key bilateral issues-- Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) 3 and 4 and investments by its telecom company Sistema in the country, saying rules of the game should never be reconsidered till it is over.

• October 15, 2012

European Union governments plan to ratchet up sanctions pressure against Iran over its nuclear programme on Monday, approving new measures against Tehran’s banking sector, industry and shipping.

• October 15, 2012