Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, has been detained by police on a charge of calling for an unsanctioned rally in relation to a planned nationwide protest on January 23 in support of the jailed Kremlin critic.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has concluded that Russia committed rights violations -- including torture and preventing people from returning to their homes -- after a five-day war with Georgia in 2008, a ruling the Caucasus nation immediately hailed as a victory.

Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov has replaced the leadership at a large industrial facility controlled by the clan of influential tycoon, Kazakhstan-based Uzbek-Belgian billionaire Patokh Shodiev.

Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have reached a preliminary agreement on the joint exploration of a once-disputed section of an undersea hydrocarbons field in the Caspian Sea believed to hold lucrative energy reserves.