Vladivostok / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday urged both sides on the Korean peninsula to calm tensions after meeting South Korean leader Park Geun-hye. “Obviously we need to avoid any provocations or enflaming the situation,” Putin said at a statement to the press in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. “It is necessary to lower the level of …

  Samarkand / AFP Uzbekistan laid strongman President Islam Karimov to rest on Saturday amid tight security, after his death triggered the deepest period of uncertainty in the country’s post-Soviet history with no clear successor in view. Karimov, 78, was pronounced dead late Friday after suffering a stroke last weekend and falling into a coma, authorities said, following days of speculation …

  Susan Rice is the latest national security adviser to inherit the framework of Sino-American relations that was created in 1972 by Henry Kissinger: The Chinese ever since have wanted to deal directly and discreetly with the White House as they pursue a relationship that’s somewhere between cooperation and confrontation. Rice will be channeling Kissinger when she travels with President …