South Korea's finance minister said on Thursday China had not taken any retaliatory measures over plans to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system that warranted official action, although South Korea is ready to lodge a formal complaint if needed.

• February 9, 2017

German leader Angela Merkel urged Russia's Vladimir Putin in a telephone call on Tuesday to use his influence on separatists in eastern Ukraine to stop the violence there, and the two agreed on the need for new ceasefire efforts, a German government spokesman said.

• February 7, 2017

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday dismissed the U.S. decision to put Iran "on notice" over its missile tests and called President Donald Trump the "real face" of American corruption.

• February 7, 2017

Yemen is emerging as a test ground for U.S. President Donald Trump's forceful approach to al Qaeda and Iran, but his first actions there risk drawing his administration further into its convoluted two-year-old war.

• February 7, 2017

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged "responsible nations" to join new sanctions against Iran on Monday during a visit to London, but Britain defended a nuclear deal sealed between major powers and Tehran.

• February 6, 2017

China on Monday welcomed U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' suggestion that diplomacy should be the priority in the South China Sea, and that major U.S. military action was not being considered to contend with China's assertive behavior there.

• February 6, 2017

The Kremlin said on Monday it did not agree with U.S. President Donald Trump's assessment of Iran as "the number one terrorist state" and a Russian diplomat said any U.S. attempt to reopen an Iran nuclear deal would inflame tensions in the Middle East.

• February 6, 2017

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen kicked off her presidential campaign on Saturday with a promise to shield voters from globalization and make their country "free", hoping to profit from political turmoil to score a Donald Trump-style upset.

• February 4, 2017