24 January: The United Nations held six hours of "intensive" talks on Monday with the leaders of Cyprus as it began a new attempt to break a deadlock in peace talks. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a two-day meeting with the divided isla
There has been an emotional but mixed reaction to the decision of the French Senate making it an offence to deny that genocide was committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians during WW I.
24 January: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at nationalists who call for cutting off government funding to the Northern Caucasus as well as those who want to create regional separatist parties, saying their positions could lead to the collapse of
The Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia issue statement after their meeting in Sochi. Keeping the two leaders talking has been the immediate objective of the Russian President, and in that regard he has succeeded.
23 January: European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday are expected to agree to sanction Iran's central bank and announce an embargo on buying Iranian oil. On Sunday British and French ships joined a US carrier group in a flotilla
23 January: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed establishing a new state agency on national development and interethnic accord. Interethnic issues have been prominent in the headlines in the last year, after a series of murders following cl