The 9th annual Europe-China Forum, held at TownHall Europe in Brussels, put the accent of the debate on 'Convergence, divergence and the vital space between'. This joint initiative of Friends of Europe, a leading think tank based in the Belgian capital, and the Mission of China to the EU, brought together policymakers, people from business and leading scholars from both sides to discuss key issues of mutual interest. 

Israel is set to continue without a government and may be heading to new, third elections in just 12 months after Benny Gantz, rival of longtime Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Wednesday that he missed a deadline to form a government. Netanyahu, who is facing the possibility of imminent indictment on corruption charges, also failed to form a coalition following the hotly contested election in September.

Bosnia named Serb economist and former finance minister Zoran Tegeltija as prime minister on Tuesday after a compromise between its Serb, Croat and Muslim co-presidents on submitting annual reform plans to NATO was finally achieved, ending a 13-month deadlock between opponents and supporters of integration with the West.

The United States and European Union expressed solidarity on Monday with Georgia’s anti-government protesters who took to the streets after the ruling party backtracked on promises of electoral reforms, news wires reported. In the biggest anti-government protest in years, more than 20,000 demonstrators rallied on Sunday outside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi urging the government to resign and calling for new legislative elections.

Parliamentary polls in Belarus lacked respect for democracy and denied basic freedoms to voters and candidates, international vote observers said on Monday, after the opposition failed to win a single seat, news wires reported.

Russia will return three captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday and is moving them to a handover location agreed with Kiev, Crimea’s border guard service was cited as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday.

Belarus began voting on Sunday in parliamentary elections that will be closely watched by the West to see how much leeway President Alexander Lukashenko will allow opposition candidates while keeping his grip on power. Lukashenko, 65, has ruled the east European country with an iron fist for a quarter of a century, but has begun allowing some opposition in a bid to foster ties with the West as relations with Moscow sputter.

United States Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein on Saturday pressed Gulf Arab states to reconcile differences and unify military capabilities as tensions with Iran simmer.

One person was killed in the Iranian city of Sirjan during protests that erupted after President Hassan Rouhani’s government imposed gasoline rationing and price hikes of at least 50 percent, Iranian ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Ukraine’s security service said on Friday it had detained the deputy of Abu Omar al-Shishani, the man the Pentagon described as Islamic State’s “minister of war”, after he crossed into Ukraine on a fake passport last year.