UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to launch a major push for disarmament talks covering everything from nuclear and cyber war to small arms, braving certain US resistance to such bold initiatives, officials and experts told Reuters. Guterres aims to forestall a new nuclear arms race and get the big powers back into negotiations after two […]

Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters in Russia on Wednesday that he will visit Tehran on April 8-9, 2018 to enhance parliamentary relations between the two countries. Duma Speaker told reporters that Iran and Russia have effective parliamentary relations, for that reason he would travel to Iran after the presidential elections in the Republic of Azerbaijan, ITAR-TASS quoted Volodin as saying. […]

US Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday Washington would soon unveil its “toughest sanctions ever” on North Korea, adding that the regime in Pyongyang would not be allowed to “hijack” the upcoming Olympics. Speaking in Japan before attending the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in South Korea, Pence pledged that Washington would “intensify its […]

Rescue workers pulled survivors and bodies from buildings tilting precariously in the Taiwanese city of Hualien Wednesday after an overnight earthquake killed at least six people, injured more than 200 and left dozens missing. Emergency responders were focusing on a 12-storey apartment block and a nearby hotel, both of which were leaning dangerously with their […]

Iraqi forces are preparing for an operation to consolidate control of an area near the Iran border to be used for the transit of Iraqi oil, two officials said, highlighting concern about mountainous terrain where two armed groups are active. The operation to secure the Hamrin mountain range could start this week, the sources were […]

The Russian Central Elections Commission (CEC) registered on Tuesday incumbent President Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, said the commission’s head Ella Pamfilova. The commission said in a live broadcast that Putin’s headquarters had collected 314,837 signatures for his support, more than the 300,000 threshold needed for the registration. It has […]

Germans are deeply concerned about the prolongation of the process of forming a coalition government between the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Social Party. In a recent poll conducted in Germany, 71 percent of German citizens consider the delay in forming a coalition government incomprehensible, while about 28 percent have considered the process normal. […]

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, stressed that there is no alternative to the settlement of Syria’s crisis on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254. “The Syrian National Dialogue Congress recently held in Russia’s Sochi has given a serious positive impetus to the United Nations-led Geneva […]

US Vice President Mike Pence, who will be leading the US delegation to the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, isn’t ruling out a possible meeting with North Korean officials. However, the top official reiterated his message to the North, saying that it “must once and for all abandon its nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile ambitions.” Commenting […]

India test-fired its surface-to-surface nuclear capable Agni-I (A) ballistic missile off Abdul Kalam Island in its eastern state of Odisha Tuesday, local media reported. The home-grown ballistic missile was test fired at 8:30 a.m. local time (0300 GMT). Local media said the test was conducted by the strategic force command of Indian army as part […]