China will beef up its internet security after recent reports that the U.S. government spied on a major telecommunications firm, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

• March 27, 2014

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday denounced as "villainous" the leaking of a recording of top security officials discussing possible military action in Syria to the video-sharing site YouTube.

• March 27, 2014

Ukraine announced the evacuation of its troops and their families from Crimea on Monday, effectively acknowledging defeat in the face of Russian forces, who stormed one of the last remaining Ukrainian bases on the peninsula.

• March 24, 2014

Russia and the West drew a tentative line under the Ukraine crisis on Tuesday after U.S. President Barack Obama and his allies agreed to hold off on more damaging economic sanctions unless Moscow goes beyond the seizure of Crimea.

• March 24, 2014

Turkey said on Saturday that Twitter was "biased" and had been used for "systematic character assassinations" of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, a day after Turkey's ban on the site prompted an international outcry.

• March 22, 2014

The United States warned Moscow it was on a "dark path" to isolation on Wednesday after Russian troops backed by unarmed volunteers stormed Ukraine's naval headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol and raised their flag.

• March 19, 2014

The Gaza Strip's sole power station stopped generating electricity on Saturday, causing blackouts throughout the territory after it ran out of fuel, officials said.

• March 15, 2014

Pro-Russian leaders in Crimea made final preparations on Saturday for a referendum widely expected to transfer control of the Black Sea region from Ukraine to Moscow, despite an outcry and threat of sanctions from the West.

• March 15, 2014