Israel has begun expelling the latest group of activists detained for trying to break the Gaza blockade. Meanwhile, Israel's ambassador to the US has rejected a probe into an earlier deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.

• June 7, 2010

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived here today to express U.S. gratitude to this former Soviet republic on the western shore of the Caspian Sea for its contributions to the coalition’s efforts in Afghanistan.

• June 7, 2010

Iran hopes to finalise a deal this week for a much-delayed pipeline to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, an energy official said on Sunday.

• June 7, 2010

A year ago, the Kremlin issued a stark warning: that growing competition for control of global energy resources could spark wars on Russia's borders, including those in Central Asia.

• June 3, 2010

A year ago, the Kremlin issued a stark warning: that growing competition for control of global energy resources could spark wars on Russia's borders, including those in Central Asia.

• June 3, 2010

Few other places in the world have seen such a will to cooperate at the governmental level and, most impressively, also at the grass-roots level and in business than the Baltic Sea region.

• June 3, 2010

NATO soldiers marching in Red Square on V-E Day; Moscow agreeing on a compromise resolution of the 40-year-old sea-boundary dispute with Norway; the sight of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin kneeling at the memorial to the Polish officers murdered by Josef Stalin at Katyn: These are a few glimpses of what a European newspaper described as a kinder, gentler Russia. But three questions immediately arise: Is this real? Why the change? And how to respond to Russia's new foreign policy?

• June 3, 2010

Tariffs for gas will rise 15 percent in Russia in 2011, while thermal heating tariffs will rise 12 to 14 percent, Deputy Economy Development Minister Andrey Klepach said on May 31.

• June 3, 2010