All happy speeches are alike. All unhappy speeches are different in their own particular way. We connoisseurs of the diplomatic public speaking art are fortunate to have one example of a high-profile public speaking occasion where everything that could possibly go wrong did indeed go wrong. If you are working at an Embassy or in a Foreign Minister’s office and are looking for a model for how not do it, seek no further.

Italy’s Emma Bonino was the first EU foreign minister to make an official visit to Tehran after Iran and the six powers signed an interim agreement on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. She landed in Tehran on December 21 after years when Western foreign ministers refused to set foot in the Iranian capital.

Protesters clashed with riot police in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday after tough anti-protest legislation, which the political opposition says paves the way for a police state, was rushed through parliament last week. A group of young masked demonstrators attacked a cordon of police with sticks and tried to overturn a bus blocking their way to the parliament building after opposition politicians called on people to disregard the new legislation.

The Geneva II Middle East peace conference, to be held on January 22, will take place against a backdrop of singularly appalling numbers: Syria’s brutal civil has left an estimated 130,000 dead, 2.3 million refugees registered in neighboring countries, and some four million more internally displaced.

Iran and six world powers reached an agreement Sunday on how to implement a short-term deal that was struck in November and gives the parties a six-month time frame, beginning on Jan. 20, in which to conclude a long-term agreement about Iran’s nuclear program. The Islamic Republic will open its nuclear program to daily inspection by international experts, starting the clock on the six-month deadline for a final nuclear agreement.

The new year will see a changing of the guard in Brussels, with top posts at NATO and the major European institutions changing hands. NATO will get a new secretary-general; new presidents will be sought for the EU Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament; and hopefuls will jostle to succeed Catherine Ashton as the EU's foreign-policy chief.

The European Union has probably never experienced anything like it before: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s government pretended to negotiate an association agreement, only to back out at the last minute. EU leaders felt duped; in Moscow, however, the mood was celebratory.

Anti-government protesters in Ukraine are demanding an immediate and independent investigation into a brutal gang attack on an opposition journalist. Police said on Wednesday that Tanya Chornovil was beaten and left in a ditch hours after publishing an article about politicians' assets. Chornovil, who writes for the opposition website Ukrainska Pravda, was attacked overnight on Tuesday outside the capital Kiev, police said in a written statement, citing the journalist.