For the obsessive-compulsive bureaucrat, there is no more invigorating exercise than preparing for a state visit by a foreign leader to the White House.

• October 5, 2011

Britain’s Lloyd's Register, well known for its maritime interests, is reportedly close to signing a nuclear agreement with India.

• October 5, 2011

Turkey has decided that it will not renew for another five years a 25-year-old natural gas deal with Russia on the grounds that the energy-rich country’s supplier Gazprom has declined to discount the natural gas it sells to Turkey via the Russia-Turkey Western Pipeline, Today’s Zaman reported.

• October 3, 2011

France's energy giant EDF has refused a Russian offer to build a nuclear power plant, Lithuania's Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said after meeting his French counterpart Francois Fillon.

• October 3, 2011

The European Union is interested in attracting Kazakh investments to purchase Eurobonds and other debt instruments of European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) backed by the guarantees of eurozone states, Kazinform reported.

• October 1, 2011

The Russian Federation’s ambassador to Belarus Alekhandr Surikov told reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk that a draft Belarusian-Russian interstate agreement on the construction of a new 2,400 megawatt nuclear power plant for Belarus will be ready in October.

• October 1, 2011

A Russian-controlled company will soon start supplying 20 percent of the aviation fuel at the strategically vital U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, and it could eventually increase that share, officials said

• September 28, 2011

The European Union (EU) and Azerbaijani Finance Ministry launched a Twinning project "Support to the State Financial Control Service to improve financial controls". The project was presented in Baku on Wednesday.

• September 28, 2011