Outgoing U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called on Monday for sanctions on Russia to stay, urging the world to stand up to its "coercion and aggression" after President-elect Donald Trump mooted ending the measures under a possible deal with Moscow.

• January 16, 2017

Likely snap elections in Northern Ireland will not delay the British government's timetable for withdrawal from the European Union, Britain's Northern Ireland minister James Brokenshire said on Sunday.

• January 15, 2017

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday he had no doubt that Italy would stick to European bailout rules as Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan had promised.

• January 11, 2017

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said on Wednesday he favored maintaining current U.S. sanctions against Russia for now and that NATO allies were right to be alarmed by Moscow's growing aggression.

• January 11, 2017

U.S. Republican and Democratic senators said Tuesday they want to slap a wide range of sanctions on Russia over its cyber activities and actions in Syria and Ukraine, and force President Donald Trump to formally waive them if he has objections.

• January 11, 2017

Qatar's purchase of a stake in Russian oil company Rosneft last month crowned a year of mega-acquisitions by sovereign investors in 2016, with total deal value rising 22 percent to $82 billion whilst the number of transactions held steady.

• January 5, 2017

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pass through the United States when she visits Latin America next month, the Taiwan Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, angering China which urged the United States to block any such stopover.

• December 29, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire between Syrian opposition groups and the Syrian government starting at midnight on Thursday.

• December 29, 2016