The Brussels summit has ended without agreement on the 27-strong union's next seven-year budget. READ MORE

Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili may pay his next visit to Azerbaijan. READ MORE

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 in Tehran Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country has "a right" to the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent. But he insisted that it was not a step toward producing a bomb. READ MORE

Defence spending is declining across the Alliance due to the economic crisis. Yet freedom, security and stability do not come for free. In fact, investing in defence underpins the stability needed for sustainable economic growth. In an uncertain security environment, NATO must have the right forces and capabilities needed to deter and defend against any threat, as well as to play an influential role in international developments. Only in this way can it continue to protect its members’ vital security interests, as well as promote and defend the values that are at the core of our Alliance. READ MORE

A British court has ruled a former bank chairperson, who is on the run from authorities, should pay the bank $2.1 billion in compensation for damages in a fraud scheme. READ MORE

„We are fighting. You know that today nobody uses weapons or tanks in these latitudes. The struggle is for energy, through energy and via propaganda. Remember, when Lithuania started developing Visaginas nuclear power plant (NPP) project, immediately the two new nuclear power plant projects emerged in the neighborhood of Lithuania“, said Rokas Žilinskas, Chairman of the Parliamentary Nuclear Energy Commission during the conference „Lithuania-Belarus: Nuclear Neighborhood“. READ MORE

The visit of the Russian President in Bulgaria, which was planned on the first decade this month, has been postponed. Nevertheless, it is expected that Vladimir Putin shall visit Sofia right after Turkey. Yet instead of the Head of Russian State Bulgaria shall be visited by “Gazprom” Chairman Alexey Miller who shall proceed with signing of the series of final investment treaties with East European partners of Russia on the “South Stream”. READ MORE

On November 12, the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) elected Kazakhstan for the first time to the UN Human Rights Council, for the 2013–2015 term, with 183 of 193 member states voting affirmatively. Various international human rights groups openly lobbied against the election of several countries, including Kazakhstan, but their campaigns proved ineffective. Kazakhstan received the fifth highest vote total of the 20 candidates competing for the 18 available seats for this round. READ MORE

This week China’s ruling elite appoints new leaders for the next decade. The incoming president, Xi Jinping, and his colleagues face such fearsome challenges that, in their moment of victory, one almost sympathizes. Understanding their difficulties and calibrating U.S. policy accordingly will be among the biggest tests for the new Obama administration. For everybody’s sake, Beijing and Washington both need to do some rethinking. READ MORE

The Governments of Afghanistan and the U.S. officially launched their negotiations on a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will determine how many American military personnel stay in Afghanistan after 2014, according to the U.S. Department of State. READ MORE