Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine's pursuit of NATO membership posed a danger to European security and that the West was using Kiev's bid to join the Atlantic alliance as a way to fuel confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.

• December 25, 2014

Israeli police said on Wednesday they had detained more than 30 serving and former public officials in an investigation into alleged corruption linked to a party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition.

• December 24, 2014

China will simplify currency rules and step up credit support for firms investing overseas, the cabinet said on Wednesday.

• December 24, 2014

Russia said on Wednesday NATO was turning Ukraine into a "frontline of confrontation" and threatened to sever remaining ties with the Atlantic military alliance if Ukraine's hopes of joining it were realized.

• December 24, 2014

A fresh round of peace talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will be held in the Belarussian capital on Dec. 24 and 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement on Monday.

• December 23, 2014

Geopolitics plague Lithuanians at this frozen Russian border post, where a return trip by car can mean 48 hours of queuing. It is a reminder for some of why the former Soviet republic will cement its move to the West by joining the euro zone next month.

• December 23, 2014

Russia's rouble hit its highest levels in two weeks on Tuesday, shored up by informal capital control measures designed to head off a repeat of the inflation and protests that marked Russia's 1998 financial crisis.

• December 23, 2014

Russia has complained that a U.S. move to scrap a 15-year-old deal sheltering Russian flat-rolled steel producers from high import duties is inconsistent with World Trade Organization rules.

• December 22, 2014