Six more of the 30 Greenpeace activists arrested in a protest over Arctic oil drilling left Russia on Friday after being granted an amnesty, the environmental group said.

• December 27, 2013

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi summoned the Japanese ambassador on Thursday to lodge "strong opposition" to the visit of Japan's prime minister to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine for war dead.

• December 27, 2013

Ukraine expects a $15 billion bailout package from Russia to be fully disbursed in early 2014, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Wednesday after Kiev received the first $3 billion tranche.

• December 26, 2013

Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will review two convictions against former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, including a ruling the Kremlin critic said was preventing him from returning to Russia despite a presidential pardon.

• December 26, 2013

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is sending an envoy to help seek a political solution to ethnic bloodletting in South Sudan and to liaise with neighboring countries, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

• December 26, 2013

Russia will host international talks on Friday on the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

• December 24, 2013

Russia told Ukraine on Tuesday it had transferred the first $3 billion tranche of a $15 billion bailout, part of plans to keep Kiev firmly within Moscow's orbit and out of the European Union's embrace.

• December 24, 2013

China has committed $6.5 billion to finance the construction of a major nuclear power project in Pakistan's port city of Karachi as it seeks to strengthen ties with its strategic partner, Pakistani officials said.

• December 24, 2013