Eurasia

President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy is expected to arrive in Bucharest on Monday, to meet the head of the Romanian state Traian Basescu. The meeting will take place at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace. This is Rompuy’s first visit to Bucharest since taking over.

Romanian President Traian Basescu is to visit Chisinau at the end of the month, said Moldovan Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca. This will be Basescu’s first visit to Moldova since Vladimir Voronin stepped down. The president’s schedule will be rich in events, but it is still under development, said Iurie Leanca. …

Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych is leading with 36.86% in the Ukrainian presidential elections, after half of the ballots has been counted, the country’s Central Election Commission said on Monday.

The Name dispute must be solved in order Macedonia to join NATO, NATO Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen said at the meeting with Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski in Brussels. Rasmussen urged for name settlement and expressed hope to see Macedonia as NATO member state very soon. Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola …

Presidential candidate and Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko has said that on January 17 Ukraine is selecting its future and the country will start a new way. “Today we’re not only voting for candidates, but also Ukraine is selecting its future for decades,” Tymoshenko said after casting her ballot at a …

Georgian-Russian relations were not discussed during yesterday’s meeting of foreign ministers of Georgia Grigol Vashadze and Switzerland Micheline Calmy-Rey.

Situation along the Bulgarian –Greek border is so far calm. This is what head of Smolyan Border Police Regional Directorate Commissary Todor Georgiev said. Although all checkpoints work normally and there are no lines of waiting vehicles, Commissary Georgiev warns people to restrict from travelling to Greece. The reason is …

Ukraine votes for a president on Sunday in an election marked by widespread disillusionment among ordinary people but one which will prove crucial to its relations with Russia and its place in Europe.

Greek officials are bracing for a European Union grilling next week over faulty national statistics as the country awaits approval of a national crisis plan on its debt-hit economy. European finance ministers on Tuesday are to tell Athens to clean up its accounting practices and improve the administration of key …

Cypriot President Dimitri Christofias started an official visit to Greece Saturday. Christofias was received by his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias at the Athens Presidential Mansion. Christofias, who is also the leader of the Greek Cypriot community, briefed Papoulias on his talks last week with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat …