Taiwan's government says it will allow the export of hundreds of strategic high-tech goods to China if exporters can prove that North Korea or Iran will not be their final destinations.

Belarus has blocked the transit of Russian oil through its territory to European countries including Germany and Poland, news reports said today, raising the stakes in a bitter energy dispute between Russia and the neighbouring former Soviet nation.

Switzerland has launched criminal proceedings against four people in connection with the UN oil-for-food programme, the Economics Ministry said today.