Radioactive gases that could have come from North Korea's nuclear test in February have unexpectedly been detected, a global monitoring body said on Tuesday, possibly providing the first "smoking gun" evidence of the explosion.

• April 23, 2013

Russia warned the European Union on Monday not to lift an arms embargo that has prevented weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, despite British and French lobbying.

• April 22, 2013

Foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia Ahmet Davutoglu and Sergei Lavrov discussed the Syrian crisis at a meeting on Wednesday, Turkish TRT Haber TV channel reported.

• April 18, 2013

Belarus and Russia will stage a joint military exercise on Belarusian territory in September, allegedly to rehearse a defense against a Polish attack on the country.

• April 17, 2013

Iran has tested three new types of missiles, the deputy commander of the Ground Forces of Iran Kiyumers Haidari said, Iranian news agency FARS reported on Saturday.

• April 13, 2013

The United States will talk to North Korea, but only if the country gets serious about negotiating the end of its nuclear weapons program, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday during a visit to South Korea, a key U.S. ally.

• April 13, 2013

The only declassified sentence in a Defense Intelligence report raised concern that North Korea might have the ability to miniaturize its nuclear weapons. Other defense agencies disagree.

• April 12, 2013

In the aftermath of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Russia recognized Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, as a fully independent country. Then, Moscow funneled half a billion dollars into Russian air, naval and border defense bases in Abkhazia, an entity almost the size of Kosovo.

• April 11, 2013