U.S. President Barack Obama pushed Cuba to improve its record on human rights and sparred with President Raul Castro during a historic visit to the Communist-ruled island on Monday, while Castro hit back by decrying U.S. "double standards".

• March 21, 2016

The United States is still fundamentally hostile to Iran and its policies have undermined the benefits of sanctions relief, the Islamic Republic's hardline leader said on Sunday, warning Iranians not to trust their old enemy.

• March 20, 2016

A prominent figure in the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said on Sunday a deal between the European Union and Turkey to halt illegal immigration to Europe could lead to Kurds heading to Germany en masse.

• March 20, 2016

The East-West standoff over the Ukraine crisis has brought the threat of nuclear war in Europe closer than at any time since the 1980s, a former Russian foreign minister warned on Saturday.

• March 19, 2016

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif joined his Turkish hosts in Istanbul on Saturday in condemning a suicide bombing by suspected Kurdish militants in a main shopping district that killed five people.

• March 19, 2016

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia could scale up its military presence in Syria again within hours and would still bomb terrorist groups there despite a partial draw-down of forces ordered after military successes.

• March 17, 2016

China expressed its opposition on Thursday to unilateral sanctions against North Korea saying they could raise tension, after the United States imposed new curbs on the isolated country in retaliation for its nuclear and rocket tests.

• March 17, 2016

Russia's withdrawal of forces from Syria was no surprise to Damascus, Bashar Ja'afari, head of the Syrian government delegation at peace talks in Geneva, said on Wednesday.

• March 16, 2016