Iranian negotiators halted nuclear talks with major powers to return to Tehran for consultations after Washington blacklisted a dozen companies and individuals for evading US sanctions, state media reported. "The Iranian negotiators interrupted the talks with the P5+1 for consultations in Tehran," a negotiator told Iran's official IRNA news agency. The negotiators had been discussing the implementation of a landmark interim accord agreed last month with the P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany. But it risked angering Tehran after repeated warnings from Iranian officials in recent days that any additional punitive measures would be a violation of last month's agreement.

The list of participants to take part in a Syria peace conference next month in Switzerland is not yet finalized, the UN said Thursday. The so-called Geneva 2 conference, a follow-up to a 2012 meeting, is aimed at mapping out a political transition to end nearly three years of fighting that has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced millions. UN chief Ban Ki-moon spoke on the subject early Thursday with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. The January 22 peace conference will be held in the lakeside Swiss city of Montreux because of a shortage of hotel rooms in Geneva, which will be hosting a luxury watch fair, a Western diplomat told AFP.

BRUSSELS (AP) — A key EU negotiator has told Ukrainian officials the bloc is ready to provide more financial aid to their country, if it agrees to sign a trade and cooperation agreement with the European Union.

Speak Russian or be silent. Nationalist lawmakers want to ban foreign languages at the workplace - a rule that would leave some foreigners speechless, from menial laborers from former Soviet states to Western business executives in suits and ties. Two deputies from flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party introduced a bill on Thursday that would bar Russians and foreigners from speaking foreign languages on the job during working hours, state-run RIA news agency reported. It cited a summary of the proposal as saying that many foreigners do not know Russian and "speak amongst themselves in their own language at the workplace during work hours, which makes the native (Russian) population indignant".

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker insists his side have nothing to fear if they are drawn against one of Europe's superpowers in the Champions League. Arsene Wenger's team will face either Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid or Paris Saint Germain when the last 16 draw is made in Switzerland on Monday. But a 2-0 defeat in Italy, combined with Borussia Dortmund's victory in Marseille, left the Premier League leaders in second place and likely to face one of Europe's leading teams in the next round. However, Germany centre-back Mertesacker sees no reason why Arsenal cannot raise their own performance levels once more, as they did with superb away wins over both Bayern last season and at Dortmund earlier this term.

By Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday not to underestimate Russia's military might but cast his country as a force for moral good and a bastion of traditional values. In his annual state-of-the-nation speech, Putin portrayed Russia as a country of growing importance and as a moral counterweight to the United States, despite the loss of its Cold War status as a superpower. "Nobody should have any illusion about the possibility of gaining military superiority over Russia," Putin told hundreds of members of parliament, businessmen and government and church leaders in a vast and ornate Kremlin hall. Russia will respond to all these challenges, political and military." Putin's assertive tone reflected Russia's stronger international profile since helping to bring about a deal to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons, averting the threat of U.S. military strikes against Damascus.

By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Supreme Court has ordered a review of the case against two women from punk band Pussy Riot, saying lower courts failed to provide full evidence of their guilt and overlooked mitigating factors in sentencing them to two years in prison. The ruling could potentially lead to shorter sentences for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina or even to a reversal of their convictions, although the latter is far less likely. Tolokonnikova, 24, and Alyokhina, 25, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing a crude "punk prayer" in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in protest at President Vladimir Putin and his ties with the church. The Supreme Court, in an order posted on its website on Thursday and dated December 10, said the trial court did not provide evidence of a portion of the verdict that says they were motivated by "hatred of a certain social group".

By Alissa de Carbonnel and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian protesters stood their ground on Wednesday after an overnight sweep by riot police and their leaders dismissed an offer of talks from a president they say must quit for favoring ties with Russia over the European Union. Pressed by Europe and the United States, which condemned the destruction of a protest camp in central Kiev, President Viktor Yanukovich offered to meet opposition leaders to find a way out of a crisis that blew up last month when he yielded to pressure from Moscow and spurned a free trade deal with the EU.