Russia and the US were facing their most serious diplomatic crisis of the Obama era last night after the Kremlin angrily denounced the arrest of 10 US-based Russian spies and said the FBI operation was an unsavoury cold war plot.

• June 30, 2010

A Chinese research vessel and ice-breaker is due to set sail this week for the Arctic, a region much coveted by Beijing for its wealth of scientific data and natural resources.

• June 30, 2010

Today, relations between Russia and the West focus mainly on the “reset,” as well as cooperation on modernization and Western investments in Russia.

• June 30, 2010

Lithuanian companies are seeking to expand to Belarus and make investments, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said in Minsk

• June 29, 2010

Turkey has closed its airspace to Israeli military aircraft, citing a raid on Gaza-bound aid ships last month by Israeli commandos which left eight Turks and a US-Turkish citizen dead.

• June 29, 2010

French company Total says it has stopped petrol deliveries to Iran, amid growing pressure over Iran's nuclear programme.

• June 29, 2010

US President Obama tells Chinese Premier Hu Jintao it must act on North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean ship.

• June 28, 2010

Russia proposes to involve Ukrainian enterprises in the disposal of ammunition, armaments and military equipment of the RF Black Sea Fleet, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told Russian journalists on Friday on the results of the 3rd meeting of the subcommittee on security matters of the Ukraine-Russia intergovernmental commission that was held in the seaside Partenit settlement

• June 28, 2010