The start of the weeks-long process brings the controversial Bushehr plant another step closer to operation. Iran says the facility will generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity, but Western nations fear it is to be used to produce atomic weapons.

• October 27, 2010

When I gave my first public speech as secretary-general of NATO just over a year ago, I focused on the NATO-Russia relationship because I believe that it is crucial for global, not just European, security.

• October 26, 2010

In Tbilisi, memories of the bitter conflict with Russia in August 2008 are fresh, but everywhere too are signs that forces of change are pushing Georgia in new directions. Jonathan Wheatley takes the measure of a fluid political moment.

• October 23, 2010

When I gave my first public speech as Secretary General of NATO just over a year ago, I focused on the NATO-Russia relationship, because I believe it is crucial for global, not just European, security.

• October 22, 2010

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia announced Tuesday that he would attend next month’s summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Lisbon and left the door open to the possibility of Moscow cooperating with the alliance on a European missile defense shield.

• October 20, 2010

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's deputy Monday said that Iran would be willing to address the dispute over its nuclear programme in forthcoming talks, even though the Iranian leader has so far declined to discuss it with world powers.

• October 19, 2010

Russian troops have withdrawn from a Georgian town which they had occupied since a bitter war between the two countries in 2008.

• October 19, 2010

After Sunday's parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, five political parties now are deep in talks about forming a coalition government. During the campaign, several parties said the new government should close an American run base that supports NATO in Afghanistan.

• October 15, 2010