Negotiations on an Iran sanctions resolution were postponed unexpectedly early today as Russia exploded at the US for raising the plight of a Belarusian opposition leader in the United Nations Security Council.

UKRAINIANS voted in a parliamentary election yesterday that could tip the divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution protests helped set it on a Westward course.

The EU called on its European partners today to protest at Belarusian violence against demonstrators and the detention of opposition leader Alexander Kozulin.